Essential Skills

Lord Carnifex · 07-03-2007, 11:04 PM

One way I GM lesser used skills is as a brake to player information. For instance, one PC may be trying to lay an ambush. I may ask for a Tactics skill roll to justify to see if the *character* can come up with the plan. Alternately (and much less heavy-handed) is to have players who refrain from using their player knowledge unless they've got a reasonable (10-12) level in the appropriate skill.

Personally, as a GM I'm a little fascinated with "useless" skills. I like finding situations where they become useful in-game. Usually it's not pivitol, but a good roll on a "useless" skill sometimes is good for a useful tidbit of information, an improved reaction from an NPC, or an additional bonus on some later roll. Among such rolls was in a GURPS cyberpunk game session: a roll against Fasion allowed PCs to notice that one innocuous seeming NPC had a West Point class ring, a very expensive custom suit, and a special forces earring (translation: probably more dangerous than he's pretending to be).

My longer time players know that it's not always a waste of time to take non-combat, non-survival skills. You never know when a perverse GM will actually ask if anyone actually has Nuclear Physics :->

07-03-2007, 11:04 PM	#26
Lord Carnifex Join Date: Oct 2005	Re: Essential Skills One way I GM lesser used skills is as a brake to player information. For instance, one PC may be trying to lay an ambush. I may ask for a Tactics skill roll to justify to see if the character can come up with the plan. Alternately (and much less heavy-handed) is to have players who refrain from using their player knowledge unless they've got a reasonable (10-12) level in the appropriate skill. Personally, as a GM I'm a little fascinated with "useless" skills. I like finding situations where they become useful in-game. Usually it's not pivitol, but a good roll on a "useless" skill sometimes is good for a useful tidbit of information, an improved reaction from an NPC, or an additional bonus on some later roll. Among such rolls was in a GURPS cyberpunk game session: a roll against Fasion allowed PCs to notice that one innocuous seeming NPC had a West Point class ring, a very expensive custom suit, and a special forces earring (translation: probably more dangerous than he's pretending to be). My longer time players know that it's not always a waste of time to take non-combat, non-survival skills. You never know when a perverse GM will actually ask if anyone actually has Nuclear Physics :->