Stating Jessica Fletcher

[Astromancer]

Jessica has the Literature Skill, but she makes mistakes. She automatically recognized the plot of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. But thought Moliere lived in the 18th century and failed to recognize a suicide using the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story to frame a man for murder. She's good, but limited.

What Skill level should she get.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Jessica has the Literature Skill, but she makes mistakes. She automatically recognized the plot of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. But thought Moliere lived in the 18th century and failed to recognize a suicide using the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story to frame a man for murder. She's good, but limited.

What Skill level should she get.

For "knowledgeable but short of professional" I would usually go for around 11.

[johndallman]

Somewhere between 9 and 11: she both makes and fails rolls, both quite often. She may Dabble in it, rather than having studied Literature.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Jessica has the Literature Skill, but she makes mistakes. She automatically recognized the plot of THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. But thought Moliere lived in the 18th century and failed to recognize a suicide using the plot of a Sherlock Holmes story to frame a man for murder. She's good, but limited.

What Skill level should she get.

Literature (Russian) at 32

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Literature (Russian) at 32

THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV is one of the most famous Russian novels and even had a Hollywood film made of it. Yul Brener stared in it.

[Astromancer]

I'm going to have to set all this up as a character now. Could anyone whose better at rules do it?

Please?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I'm going to have to set all this up as a character now. Could anyone whose better at rules do it?

I personally have heard jokes about the character for years, but have never watched a single episode, so I'm obviously not the right person.

But you know, if you don't try to build characters, you aren't going to get better at building characters. Conversely, "build character X" could be a good form of practice, especially if you have a clear concept of the character in your mind. And it seems as if JF would be a relatively straightforward build; you could skip over all the exotic and supernatural traits and just give her mundane human traits that fit your narrative sense. And then you could get comments from other people who've watched the show and have more knowledge of the mechanics.

And it isn't as if you were under time pressure to complete the design.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by whswhs

But you know, if you don't try to build characters, you aren't going to get better at building characters. Conversely, "build character X" could be a good form of practice, especially if you have a clear concept of the character in your mind.

It is. In my early days of learning GURPS, I built all kinds of characters: myself, people I knew, and characters from other game systems. A little practice teaches you a lot.