Skill: Games (Gurps)

[Engurrand]

The GCA program default when you add the "Games" skill to a character is the specialty "GURPS." Chuckle-worthy? Yes. But it also got me thinking. At least a few people on this forum have this skill, so, besides playing GURPS, how do you use it?

I'm looking for real life stories of how being a GURPS player has benefited you. Specific instances please! I don't want aphorisms about the value of escapism etc.

There are two kinds of answers:

1) Where knowledge of the GURPS system specifically (system mastery) has been of benefit.
2) Where in-game experiences (role-play) have informed and/or inspired real life decisions in beneficial ways.

Conversely, has your Games (GURPS) skill ever led you astray?

I think having this skill could be an interesting game mechanic, for particular kinds of games. We're just spitballing. But I also think it will be really fun to read these stories!

[Gold & Appel Inc]

The only place that GURPS is useful IRL, IMHO, is in the realm of introspection. Defining yourself in GURPS terms can let you go face-to-face with traits that will make you go, "Wait, does that really Disadvantage me?" and come out on the side of certainty with something resembling math.

[Kromm]

It has specifically kept me employed for 17 years.

[aesir23]

I was helping my girlfriend study for the GRE the other day, quizzing her on vocabulary words.

A few of the Kaplan flash cards were familiar to me only because of my RPG experience:

The two I can recall off the top of my head are "Augury" because of GURPS and "Abjure" because of AD&D. I think that I knew "Alacrity" because of an RPG too, but I can't remember which one.

(As you can see, she's still working through the A's, there are probably a great deal more.)

[Rocket Man]

It's helped me keep up my speed on long-distance walks sometimes. I know from the game roughly how far a human should be able to go in 25-30 minutes and if I catch myself lollygagging, I can pick up the pace a little.

(The average walking speeds, by the way, definitely pass the reality check based on my experience.)

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It has specifically kept me employed for 17 years.

Writing (and maybe Contacts) has kept you employed for 17 years; Hobby (GURPS) is just a prerequisite. ;]

[Engurrand]

I'll start with one.

This is more of a type 2 story, but I'll let it speak for itself.

I have the benefit of a great GM, who has traveled rather far and wide, and has a good eye for detail. At one point, a favorite character of mine, the reincarnated spirit of Bedwyr Bedrydant (one of the welsh knights of the round table) got lost, alone, in a bad part of Dublin in 1938. He was mugged.
You'd think a Knight of the Round table could handle a simple mugging, but it turns out that when somebody is behind you with a club, and you don't know they're there, no amount of broadsword badassery will save you. My GM described the behavior of the culprits, leading up to the mugging, in some detail, sufficient to give me some forewarning, if I had known what to look for. Suffice to say, I missed the cues (though the character did survive).

A year later, in real life, I was working on a documentary film about the street children of Medellin Colombia. If you're not familiar with that situation, suffice to say that the combination of guerrilla warfare and drug trade has displaced a lot of people from the Colombian countryside, who have migrated to live in slums in Medellin.
I found myself, late one night, quite suddenly alone on a dark street. It is shocking how quickly a well lit shopping center can become a dark and dangerous alley when you don't pay close attention to where you're going.
No sooner had I started making my way back toward safer territory, then I noticed I had attracted some attention. It is worth mentioning that I am Caucasian, and had with me a camera. I must have stuck out like a sore thumb. I had been on the streets several nights already, but normal operating procedure was to go out with the members of the aid group I was working with, who were both local and well known. In their company I was safe (mostly), but none were with me that night.

This is where the gurps comes in. The fellows who noticed me, four young men in old clothes, engaged in the exact same target acquisition, assessment, and then tactical maneuvering my GM had described to me when my character was lost on the streets of Dublin.

In Dublin (in game) three men had noticed Bedwyr, one crossed the street and circled around behind him while the other two approached from the front, and one asked for help lighting a cigarette.

In Medellin, four men noticed me, one crossed the street and circled around behind me while two approached from the front, one drawing out an unlit cigarette. (The fourth stayed behind on the steps of the building where they had noticed me from).

In Dublin, Bedwyr stopped and fumbled for a lighter, then the man behind him hit him in the head with a sap. Things got worse from there.

In Medellin, I checked the reflection in a parked car, and confirming that the guy who'd circled around behind me was now approaching, and had something in his hand. I crossed the street away from them, hopped a low fence and made a dash back to the shopping center and it's well-lit public areas.
(Since reading GURPS Martial Arts, and following the "Build Yourself" threads on these forums I was no longer confidant in my 11 Karate-Art skill as a self defense mechanism, and so was unwilling to risk the possibility they were actually just interested in a light.)

Who knows? Maybe they just wanted a match. I still thanked my GM when I got home, and I think this a good opportunity to thank Steve Jackson Games et al. as well. Thanks guys. I don't have a knife in my ribs just now. That's cool.

[Engurrand]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It has specifically kept me employed for 17 years.

And many more to come!

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Engurrand

Who knows? Maybe they just wanted a match. I still thanked my GM when I got home, and I think this a good opportunity to thank Steve Jackson Games et al. as well. Thanks guys. I don't have a knife in my ribs just now. That's cool.

That's very cool, compared to getting stabbed in the chest. Getting stabbed in the chest sucks a lot. Fighting can be very exciting, but is rarely wise.

[ULFGARD]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

That's very cool, compared to getting stabbed in the chest. Getting stabbed in the chest sucks a lot. Fighting can be very exciting, but is rarely wise.

You learned the first lesson: the best way not to get your @55 kicked in a street fight is NOT to be the baddest fighter, but to be able to avoid the fight in the first place.