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Old 02-02-2014, 01:39 AM   #11
cosmicfish
 
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

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Originally Posted by Fwibos View Post
Those may not be universal, I only know like 4 Eagle Scouts.
First, that describes only a small number of the Eagle Scouts I know. I think that there are some Disadvantages that are probably more common to Scouts than to the general population, but I would still not think them really all that typical.

Second, the OP was looking for a "background in Scouting", not the specifics of being an Eagle Scout or lifelong Scout or being the kind of person for whom Scouting is the end-all-be-all of existence.

If people can get through Catholic School and still lack the traits you describe, then they can certainly get through Scouts without them. Seriously, most Scouts are pretty ordinary kids.

Also, individual units tend to develop a coherent personality AND tend to be regional in nature - I knew troops that were run like the Marine Corps and had a lot of guys like you described, I knew other troops that were only slightly better than thugs. If you see a bunch of Scouts all acting like douchebags, they probably all came from the same Troop, which managed to run out everyone who didn't fit the profile the Scoutmaster wanted.
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Old 02-02-2014, 09:35 AM   #12
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

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I kind of like the idea of a variant of Soldier skill. Soldier skill has to be specialized by era, like Soldier (Cold-War Red Army) or Soldier (Viet-Cong) or whatever. Why not Soldier (Boy Scout)? This would clearly not cover use of an NBC suit, etc.
That's actually quite a reasonable idea for the more historic forms of scouting, which did after all start out as a kind of pre-paramilitary training. I might leave it in as an optional skill even for the modern forms.

I think the biggest piece of mid to high level scouting might be a basically Cultural or Style Familiarity perk - it gives you a small edge interacting socially with current and former scouts, even from other cultures.
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Old 02-02-2014, 09:50 AM   #13
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

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If you see a bunch of Scouts all acting like douchebags, they probably all came from the same Troop, which managed to run out everyone who didn't fit the profile the Scoutmaster wanted.
Heh.

Or if you see a bunch of Scouts who all play RPGs, don't like going outside and only go camping so that they can game all weekend without parents imposing bed times, you might have met my old Troop, of which I was the reluctant Scoutmaster.
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Old 02-02-2014, 10:42 AM   #14
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

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I kind of like the idea of a variant of Soldier skill. Soldier skill has to be specialized by era, like Soldier (Cold-War Red Army) or Soldier (Viet-Cong) or whatever. Why not Soldier (Boy Scout)? This would clearly not cover use of an NBC suit, etc.
Seems unnecessary, IMHO. None of the SOP in my troop fell outside of the purview of Survival (Woodland) and general don't-be-an-idiot stuff except specific jobs held by specific guys.

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Either that or a Dabbler perk. Dabbler seems to be tailor-made for this.

Some sort of Dabbler (Boy Scout) could easily be made from the skills people have already listed- perhaps classically including Navigation (Land), Naturalist, Survival (Woodland), First Aid, Knot-Tying, Hiking, Boating, and... something else. Swimming?
Yeah, this is more-or-less what I do. Kids who really excel at something get a full point in that thing, but it's not typical.

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Perhaps there would be another level called Dabbler (Eagle Scout) that adds Rifle Sport, Archery Sport, Climbing (Mountaineering), Navigation (Sea), etc.
Those things are hardly universal among Eagle Scouts. None of those things relate to eagle-required Merit badges, which tend to revolve around the core skills. If anything, I'd say that Eagle Scouts are more likely to have a full point in at least one core skill, more likely to have some sort of CoH, and more likely to have a variety of random secondary skills like you mention, but I would not also require any of the above specifically. The only thing all Eagle Scouts absolutely must have in common statwise is that they are Boy Scouts (if there is a template for that) and that they progressed all the way through the program, with whatever social benefits that bestows locally.

[/eagle scout]
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Old 02-02-2014, 11:56 AM   #15
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

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Old 02-02-2014, 12:04 PM   #16
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

I like the idea of using the Dabbler perk to model a scout. If I were going to select eight skills to use for the Dabbler perk that seem kind of standard, I’d go with: Area Knowledge (State/Region), Cooking, First Aid, Hiking, Knot-tying, Naturalist, Survival (whatever is appropriate for the region of origin, but probably just woodland would do), and Swimming. You could make a case for Navigation (Land) instead of one of those. An eagle scout might have a full point in one to three of those skills and have the dabbler points spread to just about anything you can find on this list of merit badges. I would say the skill an eagle scout most likely has a point in is first aid, followed by swimming or hiking.
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Old 02-02-2014, 12:52 PM   #17
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

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Area Knowledge (State/Region), Cooking, First Aid, Hiking, Knot-tying, Naturalist, Survival (whatever is appropriate for the region of origin, but probably just woodland would do), and Swimming. You could make a case for Navigation (Land) instead of one of those.
You have to remember the difference between "might have" and "should have", because some of those skills did not exist in the majority of Scouts I knew. The additional limited Area Knowledge a Scout would have (a few hiking trails and campsites, perhaps?) is too narrow and limited to be worth including in Dabbler. Cooking is often limited to "boil water, add contents of bag, stir", so again not really worth anything. Swimming used to be required, then became required unless you were physically unable, and now is completely optional.

I would also argue that even Eagle Scouts are not consistently going to have points in the actual skills. Being a Scout could certainly be used for justification, but gaining a full point would require effort and training above and beyond what Scouting offers.

I think I would do Dabbler (First Aid +2, Knot-Tying +2, Hiking +1, Naturalist +1, Survival (pick 1) +1, (Any of Running, Climbing, Swimming) +1) to represent an Eagle Scout's skills.
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Old 02-02-2014, 12:57 PM   #18
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

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I would also argue that even Eagle Scouts are not consistently going to have points in the actual skills. Being a Scout could certainly be used for justification, but gaining a full point would require effort and training above and beyond what Scouting offers.
Why is a full point in a skill so elusive and difficult to attain?

Isn't scouting something people do at least once a week and oftentimes more than that for many years?

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I think I would do Dabbler (First Aid +2, Knot-Tying +2, Hiking +1, Naturalist +1, Survival (pick 1) +1, (Any of Running, Climbing, Swimming) +1) to represent an Eagle Scout's skills.
So the average Eagle Scout has skill 8 in First Aid and skill 6 in most other scouting skills? Including Hiking? And no higher Navigation than someone who once saw a TV show where a compass was used?
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Old 02-02-2014, 01:19 PM   #19
johndallman
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

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Cooking is often limited to "boil water, add contents of bag, stir", so again not really worth anything.
That's Housekeeping, rather than Cooking. Which makes perfectly good sense for Scouts.
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Old 02-02-2014, 02:48 PM   #20
Gedrin
 
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Default Re: How to Build a Boy Scout

My scouting experience tells me, like with any group, some buy in, some don't. The below is for those, like myself, who bought in.

If you bought in enough such that at the age of forty you can complete the sequence: trustworthy, loyal, helpful...you probably picked up the code of honor.

If you earned camping, wilderness survival, and the like, multiple merit badges that fall under Survival, you probably have points there. Toss in forestry, fishing, and other conservation badges, it might be Naturalist.

First aid, life saving and safety probably net a point in First Aid.

There are many badges relating to swimming and water sports.

It would be difficult to leave Scouting after a few years without having absorbed some civics. Eagles have three badges minimum (at the time I was in).

The point I'm getting at is that a Scout who has participated for several years has multiple badges in domains that count as GURPS skills. Not just one badge for a skill, but several. This is particularly true in the primary domains of Scouting; nature, first aid, swimming, and civics. Not just instruction, but also practice. I had well over 400 hours of camping practice, on top of instruction.

It's excellent justification for dabbler, true, but I don't think you could be an Eagle without a point in Naturalist or Survival and First Aid. Swimming is almost certain, and some form of civics showing on the sheet is very appropriate.
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