Reducing the number of weapon skills

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

No, I mean changes like "charge and break your lance, draw an estoc, drop the estoc, pull out a hammer, beat their helmet in, put it away and draw a cutting sword ..." Historically, high-status warriors, the kind who would have several skills around 12-14 in GURPS Tactical Shooting terms, carried as many sidearms as they could and swapped as needed.

To make that happen in GURPS, the price of being competent in a variety of weapons has to be competitive with the advantage of having just the right weapon. If its easier to just make your best weapon work, characters will do that. That means less harsh defaults between skills and probably fewer skills.

One issue that a condensed skill list (particularly one with generous defaults, as you note) resolves is that it allows one to make, say, a master swordsman who used to be a highly-skilled soldier without either making an unrealistic character (by focusing almost entirely on skill with a sidearm) or having to pay a good amount (or change the character concept to being a DX-monkey) for what in the campaign would largely be background skills (by having a respectable skill level in the various weapons he'd be expected to be familiar with).