How mandatory is putting a few points in a grappling skill?

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

I would in no case allow a character to learn a Hard grappling skill without partners who have the skill.

The Physical/Hard skill I have learned the most (1 or 2 times) over the 36 years and about that many PC's of my GURPS career is actually Acrobatics. Always with a teacher. If the DX can reasonably support it I have been building it in (at least 1 pt to start) for the last 25ish years.

On a related note one of my favorite 'go to' skills is in fact Teaching.

A party of 3-6 adventurers with Teaching can cross-pollinate skills in an amazing fashion.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

I would in no case allow a character to learn a Hard grappling skill without partners who have the skill.
That would be like letting someone without access to tools learn Artist (Painting) by self-study.
And yes, animals teach each other by playfighting and watching older animals. You can see stags practicing wrestling with their antlers before rutting season.

yeah just in terms of causality you have to have a "first teacher" who wasn't taught, that's where Wild Talent comes in

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Plane

yeah just in terms of causality you have to have a "first teacher" who wasn't taught, that's where Wild Talent comes in

Eh, Wild Talent isn't necessary - a new skill is a type of invention.

[kenclary]

Originally Posted by Plane

yeah just in terms of causality you have to have a "first teacher" who wasn't taught, that's where Wild Talent comes in

The first teacher tried something on a battlefield somewhere, and it worked (default roll). Or they saw how a predator kills prey and got inspired.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Plane

yeah just in terms of causality you have to have a "first teacher" who wasn't taught, that's where Wild Talent comes in

GURPS Martial Arts is surprisingly vague about creating your own style ("if a player wants to and can define something with a clear philosophy why not?"). I agree that the Invention rules would be a good place to start. But if a player just wants their character to learn some grappling, Wrestling will generally require less of a plot arc than Judo, whatever mechanics I make up to resolve challenges in the plot.

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

Wrestling will generally require less of a plot arc than Judo, whatever mechanics I make up to resolve challenges in the plot.

Being the person to 'invent' Judo for your Game World would certainly be a long and painful road.

However I would never tut-tut at a PC's 'career' goals, I have used some...odd ones myself.

Certainly it would be one way to go down in the history books.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by kenclary

The first teacher tried something on a battlefield somewhere, and it worked (default roll). Or they saw how a predator kills prey and got inspired.

The "first predator" with Brawling who you observed is that "first teacher" then, we still need to explain how they got it.

You can't try brawling at default under basic rules, you need house rules which allow unarmed defaults.

I always thought maybe we could do something making to "Wizardly Dabbler" since that allows skills w/o defaults (spells) to function as if they had them.

Since there's no FP cost to double you should probably further penalize them though.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Plane

The "first predator" with Brawling who you observed is that "first teacher" then, we still need to explain how they got it.

On the job training maybe. That would work for humans too, spend 800 hours grappling with things, however ineffectively, and assuming you are still alive you can put your shiny new point into Judo or Wrestling.

And of course surviving a life or death grappling struggle seems like it might earn you a point, and what else could you even spend it on that you might have learned from that experience? To the extent the game mechanics matter, I suspect that'd be the normal route for those predators. Yeah it's possible to read the rules in way that forbids that, but I consider that a nonsensical reading.

[kenclary]

Originally Posted by Plane

You can't try brawling at default under basic rules, you need house rules which allow unarmed defaults.

The basics of brawling is just a DX roll, generally.

[Plane]

This would imply that you could train a skill without rolling the actual skill so long as you were using techniques that the skill covers.