Bang Skills

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Kromm

That's explicitly what BAT! was meant to represent in my example. You could have different branches of service with different wildcards of this kind, of course: Intelligence!, Law Enforcement!, Military!, Security!, etc. Heck, in a genre-spanning campaign with heroes from many timelines, you could have BAT!, Delver!, Monster Hunter!, etc., and even a meta World Hopper! skill for people who identify as voyagers rather than natives. I kept my example simple on purpose, to quickly illustrate a point.

So, for example, in a war campaign, you could have, not Soldier, but Soldier!.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Largely agreed, but the minimax in games allowing style wildcards is to pick a style with a lot of component skills and listed techniques…

True. That gets back to 'It's up to the GMs to decide how broad is too broad for Bang! skills in their games,' I think.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by whswhs

So, for example, in a war campaign, you could have, not Soldier, but Soldier!.

Sure. You might have Airman!, Sailor!, and Soldier! for the three main domains of conflict, possibly treating Commando! and Spy! as separate things, and perhaps allowing for Industrialist!, Politician!, and suchlike if the GM thinks such characters will make sense as PCs on adventures.

You could even have "trees" of permitted template wildcards based on which training wildcard you chose. Of course, some might overlap. I doubt it would make the game easier or more fun if Medic! were different for people with each of these backgrounds; a medic is a medic, the differences are all in the other skill, and where, say, "being not just a medic but an army medic" comes up, the two could work together.

In that context, personal wildcards would probably be "What did you do before the war?" The GM might firm that up a little by requiring people to write a backstory that specifies place of origin, upbringing, civilian education, politics, religion, one to three jobs, and one to three hobbies.

So, a GI Joe! might cover: "A Chicago boy, brought up by a poor Irish-Catholic family on the South Side. Quit school, learned on the streets, eventually went to work as a teamster, and became a conservative union man. Likes to spend his spare time drinking beer and watching baseball. Not afraid of a scrap."

LT Easystreet! might cover: "Long Island scion of a rich WASP family. Went to Yale and did summer work for his father's law firm. When war broke out, went directly into the ASTP, where he was one of the few civilians admitted alongside active enlisted. Studied advanced engineering, and graduated to his first real job: military officer. Hobbies include punting and a cappella singing."

The latter might seem more useful in that it will often aid Easystreet's Soldier! and Engineer! skills, and probably be useful for gaining favors, but Joe's background could believable help with fisticuffs, scrounging, and a wide range of criminal activities, many of which matter to Soldier!

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Kromm

So, a GI Joe! might cover: "A Chicago boy, brought up by a poor Irish-Catholic family on the South Side. Quit school, learned on the streets, eventually went to work as a teamster, and became a conservative union man. Likes to spend his spare time drinking beer and watching baseball. Not afraid of a scrap."

LT Easystreet! might cover: "Long Island scion of a rich WASP family. Went to Yale and did summer work for his father's law firm. When war broke out, went directly into the ASTP, where he was one of the few civilians admitted alongside active enlisted. Studied advanced engineering, and graduated to his first real job: military officer. Hobbies include punting and a cappella singing."

I'm thinking of Sergeant Fury and His Howling Commandos, which had Nick Fury himself, the leader; Dum Dum Dugan, the Irish brawler, a former circus strongman; Izzy Cohen, the Jewish smartass from the Bronx; Gabe Jones, the black jazzman; Junior Juniper, the kid (apparently from an upper class background); Dino Manelli, the Italian Hollywood movie star; and Rebel Ralston, the southern country boy. Of course they were World War II stereotypes, not modern ones. You could have done a ! skill for each one's background.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Of course they were World War II stereotypes, not modern ones. You could have done a ! skill for each one's background.

Stereotypical background bang skills could replace the Name! bang skill for appropriate genres. E.g., Da' Bronx!, Tennesee!, or Wyoming! for the stereotypical WW2 U.S. Infantry squad.

National or racial bang skills might also be appropriate in other genres. For example, in ST: TOS Chekov would have Russian!, Scotty would have Scottish!, and Spock would have Vulcan!

[weby]

In my 400+ session fantasy campaign, I deliberately started without bang skills and first introduced a personal bang skill to each character and then allowed them to start learning other bang skills. Basically the ability to have bang skills was part of the progression from beginner to something powerful.

In next such campaign I would likely allow bang skills from start, but allow the extra options like free points for buying success as advancement. That is because for quite many campaigns the Gurps skill list is just to fine graded.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by weby

In my 400+ session fantasy campaign, I deliberately started without bang skills and first introduced a personal bang skill to each character and then allowed them to start learning other bang skills. Basically the ability to have bang skills was part of the progression from beginner to something powerful.

In next such campaign I would likely allow bang skills from start, but allow the extra options like free points for buying success as advancement. That is because for quite many campaigns the Gurps skill list is just to fine graded.

I like this as it is similar to how Classic handled Science!

[Inky]

Originally Posted by whswhs

So, for example, in a war campaign, you could have, not Soldier, but Soldier!.

How would Soldier! differ from Soldier in play? Soldier is already rather like a wildcard skill.

[Anders]

Soldier is more a Professional Skill. Soldier allows you to do tasks related to soldiering provided you have a +4 bonus. Soldier! would let you do anything regardless of what modifiers you have.

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by Inky

How would Soldier! differ from Soldier in play? Soldier is already rather like a wildcard skill.

If you look up the description of Soldier, it's primarily a battlefield survival skill. It also covers odds and ends like how to strip a rifle but the focus is mostly on knowing what to do in a battle and how not to get killed. All Quiet on the Western Front has some good fictional examples of Soldier skill. There's already an official wildcard skill called Ten-Hut! which is basically Soldier!. It covers pretty much all military skills other than actual weapon skills.

Professional skills are kind of like wildcard skills except that instead of covering multiple skills they cover bits and piece of knowledge you'd expect someone in a given job to know but without any one piece being a full skill. The true wildcard skill covers all relevant skills.