08-09-2014, 11:42 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
Driving has probably seen the most purchasing in the campaigns I've played in, but even then it was mostly about getting to a destination, and was usually Automobile or Motorcycle (long before it was known to play card games on the latter). Piloting for spacecraft would be next, usually with the "crew" set-up so that worst case scenario, someone was looking after something at default while the skilled character(s) were busy.
A lot of this was the settings, plus as I often stress, 3e. Running Skill gave a movement bonus back then and any of the settings advanced enough to have a collapsible (or similarly portable) bike tended to have other elements that made it a low priority for whatever utility it offered, especially in light of those times you just knew you'd be better served putting those points into Acrobatics, Climbing, Hiking, Jumping, Running and/or Swimming. In real life vehicle access is pretty important; skill too (I realize that most people worldwide use the default). I've lived in the Midwest my whole life, so I can't tell you about the driving hazards in other parts of the U.S. but here you've usually got towns that are spread out and there aren't convenient ways to get from one to the other except by driving. If you live in one of the major cities, its not too inconvenient, but anything less and either you're assumed to have a vehicle (that you can drive) or are "that person" always getting rides (sadly right now I am one of them). From daily inconveniences to getting along with local regulations to simply enjoying life, access to a good automobile is pretty important. Bicycles aren't too bad in some areas, but only when the towns are relatively close and with easily traversed territory between: I grew up not too far from a really small town but as I lived on a farm with at least two miles of gravel road before hitting pavement, neither I nor any of the people I knew farther out bothered trying. On the other hand youth living in said really small town sometimes would bicycle to a reasonably large college town that was 5-10 minutes away by car (and thus 20-40 minutes of bicycling, I think). This does bring up a somewhat important drawback of using bikes versus automobiles: it is often a workout. Depleting fuel can often be easier than running down your own FP, and if you have gotten at least a bit of a work out you'll need to wash up if your character (or in real life, you) are going any place where that would be an issue, and may make you more detectable in "adventure" scenarios. Still better than walking, of course.
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08-09-2014, 11:53 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
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(I run into a similar problem with Hacking, especially in games like Shadowrun). An aside: If I want to run a totally radical '80s character, where would I find Skateboarding? Or Surfing? Are there skills for those?
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08-09-2014, 12:05 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
I want to say those are specialties of Sports, although taking Skiing and renaming/reimaging it for those skills isn't entirely out of the question. Comes to about the same, DX/A IIRC.
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08-09-2014, 12:53 PM | #14 | ||
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
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08-09-2014, 01:10 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
I don't think I've ever seen a Bicycling roll either. It tends to be a skill you drop one point into so you can use a bicycle as a transportation utility, not something you are ever likely to need to roll against. Still, while it's not a genre I've ever cared for myself, there do seem to have been a fair number of anime based around the characters being professional racers. Bicycling works as well as any other vehicle skill for that. Maybe better, since bicycle races usually move through the countryside rather than around and around in a circle, and last long enough and move slowly enough your support team can do something interesting in the vicinity before the race is over.
Piloting I think has problems with either too many or not enough things jammed into the same skill. If it's going to be separate from Driving and the several different watercraft skills, at minimum the air and space versions ought to be separated too. Actually I think breaking skills by operating environment might be the wrong way to go. There are about three kinds of vehicle skills distinguished more by the kinds of tasks covered than the operating environment. Those where when a crisis comes up fast reaction of the guy at the controls is critical (automobiles, speedboats, fighter planes, aerospace launches and landings), the ones where the crisis management skill tends to be good planning and giving orders, and carrying them out a second faster isn't often going to make a bit of difference (railroads, ships, airships, low thrust spaceships) and then there are crew skills, which mostly applies to that second category and may well include the physical steering of the vehicle.
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08-09-2014, 01:20 PM | #16 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
I actually have never seen the bicycle skill as anywhere near Driving or Piloting. Those two are about controlling a self-powered machine: while bicycling is about providing steady power. I use it in the same way I use hiking, swimming, or running.
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08-09-2014, 03:39 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Norway
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
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Also, one can get pretty much anywhere if one has a bicycle that is capable of going over rough terrain. Sure, it might not get you there very fast, or very comfortably, but a bicycle is also fully capable of going through places that a car is not able to go, such as a forest trail or tight alleys. And in a post-apocalyptic setting, as mentioned, all the cars should be off the road, so there's nothing stopping one from using the highways to get anywhere one wants (unlike in reality, with all those damn motorists on the roads *grumble, grumble*). |
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08-09-2014, 07:26 PM | #18 | |||
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
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You also lose the benefits of using even a low quality vehicle; I've lived in central Iowa and southeast South Dakota; we don't have the coldest winters or the warmest summers or the wettest springs or the windiest autumns, but the weather can really pound you, making you wish you had an automobile of some sort. The option of not needing a hot shower after a drive someplace versus biking is also not to be ignored; depending on local water/energy prices, it really eats into fuel savings... and if that seems to superficial, there is always the "time" factor. So bikes are worthless? Of course not. I merely wish to present a balanced view; there are likely many characters in the "sweet spot" where bicycling is the obvious budget conscious choice. I'll know I'll be rethinking it for my characters. Quote:
Of course, I find myself more and more disliking Skills that provide Advantage like benefits, and would prefer they merely justified purchasing such things. On the other than about 20 years ago I was trying to convince our GM that 3e psis should get an FP break a la mages using Spells. XD Quote:
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My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :) |
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08-09-2014, 08:51 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
You do realize that Piloting is split into 16 different mandatory specializations, right?
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08-09-2014, 11:54 PM | #20 |
Doctor of GURPS Ballistics
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Lakeville, MN
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Re: [Basic] Skills of the week: Bicycling, Driving and Piloting
As noted later, this is a good case for justifying Fit . . . but you can also take a page from The Last Gasp and Technical Grappling, and have high relative skill in Bicycling give extra FP for cycling ONLY based on the fast progression of Trained ST (or in this case, likely trained HT).
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