07-22-2021, 08:08 PM | #31 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Bang Skills
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In the first place, it's intended to simulate characters in cinematic works and genres. Such characters often ARE skilled at doing research in all of the sciences. See for example Reed Richards, or Brainiac 5, or Mr. Spock, or Data. If you want to simulate cinematic sources I think you need to divide things up the way they do. In the second place, in terms of how much characters have to do dramatically, "the science guy" (or gal) really does have only about as much to do as the engineer, or the medic, or the witch, or the heroic warrior—or less. You aren't ordinarily going to write a script where the astronomer, and the geologist, and the meteorologist, and the biologist each have an independent and essential contribution to make to the story. And in the third place, some other games have just one science skill. World of Darkness has Science, for example, and so does Buffy; Savage Worlds has the broad category of Knowledge skills, but has Science as a single focus within Knowledge. So it's far from unheard of for a rules system to collapse all the sciences together.
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07-22-2021, 08:19 PM | #32 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Bang Skills
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I can see listing the core skills, not as an exclusive or exhaustive list, but as a way of conveying the concept that "this is what a Physician! can do in a cinematic campaign." But I wouldn't want to put that list on a character sheet, or have the player looking it up. And for the conditional skills, I think it would be better just to give the GM license to allow rolls against Physician! to do things that are needed to enable them to cure people, or to do things where their role as a physician can be drawn on to accomplish a task, and not try to limit it to a set list, however comprehensive; indeed, the more comprehensive, the greater the cost of such an approach. If you're going to handwave, then handwave. Or as the Basic Set says, "When in doubt, roll and shout!"
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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07-23-2021, 02:02 AM | #33 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
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Re: Bang Skills
Largely agreed, but the minimax in games allowing style wildcards is to pick a style with a lot of component skills and listed techniques…
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07-23-2021, 05:04 AM | #34 | |
Join Date: May 2021
Location: Eastern Kentucky
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Re: Bang Skills
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The GM should be generous in his or her allowances. |
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07-23-2021, 05:23 AM | #35 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Re: Bang Skills
Depending on genre there might be room for a fourth category of Bang! skill: Training. That allows hypercompetence with all routine skills expected for the genre, like Special Forces!, Star Fleet!, (Wo)Man in Black!, or International Superspy!
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07-23-2021, 05:54 AM | #36 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Bang Skills
I think actually that would take the place of BAT! In effect, it's a specialized form of BAT! customized for a particular campaign where all the PCs work for a particular agency that makes sure that its agents have the mandatory action hero skills.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
07-23-2021, 09:20 AM | #37 | ||||||
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Bang Skills
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Going beyond the cinematic, there's also a strong case to be made that in the real world, our obsessive subdivision of science is a fairly recent thing. At one point (some say "prior to Margaret Cavendish," others "prior to Isaac Newton," and still others "prior to Ben Franklin"), it was all just "natural philosophy," studied in all its facets by many individuals. Even today, there's a movement toward holistic science and anti-reductionism. Science! might be a halfway realistic skill: The problem isn't that you can't pursue it, but that it's hard to get any good at it. Which is in fact true in GURPS by dint of the steep point cost of wildcard skills. And of course we have IQ, which for slightly more points per level makes you better at every facet of human endeavor covered by the mind . . . Quote:
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If the goal of using wildcards is to simplify character design and accelerate game play, a good start is to avoid bean-counting!That's explicitly what BAT! was meant to represent in my example. You could have different branches of service with different wildcards of this kind, of course: Intelligence!, Law Enforcement!, Military!, Security!, etc. Heck, in a genre-spanning campaign with heroes from many timelines, you could have BAT!, Delver!, Monster Hunter!, etc., and even a meta World Hopper! skill for people who identify as voyagers rather than natives. I kept my example simple on purpose, to quickly illustrate a point.
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07-23-2021, 09:28 AM | #38 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Bang Skills
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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07-23-2021, 10:00 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Dec 2012
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Re: Bang Skills
True. That gets back to 'It's up to the GMs to decide how broad is too broad for Bang! skills in their games,' I think.
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07-23-2021, 11:29 AM | #40 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Bang Skills
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You could even have "trees" of permitted template wildcards based on which training wildcard you chose. Of course, some might overlap. I doubt it would make the game easier or more fun if Medic! were different for people with each of these backgrounds; a medic is a medic, the differences are all in the other skill, and where, say, "being not just a medic but an army medic" comes up, the two could work together. In that context, personal wildcards would probably be "What did you do before the war?" The GM might firm that up a little by requiring people to write a backstory that specifies place of origin, upbringing, civilian education, politics, religion, one to three jobs, and one to three hobbies. So, a GI Joe! might cover: "A Chicago boy, brought up by a poor Irish-Catholic family on the South Side. Quit school, learned on the streets, eventually went to work as a teamster, and became a conservative union man. Likes to spend his spare time drinking beer and watching baseball. Not afraid of a scrap." LT Easystreet! might cover: "Long Island scion of a rich WASP family. Went to Yale and did summer work for his father's law firm. When war broke out, went directly into the ASTP, where he was one of the few civilians admitted alongside active enlisted. Studied advanced engineering, and graduated to his first real job: military officer. Hobbies include punting and a cappella singing." The latter might seem more useful in that it will often aid Easystreet's Soldier! and Engineer! skills, and probably be useful for gaining favors, but Joe's background could believable help with fisticuffs, scrounging, and a wide range of criminal activities, many of which matter to Soldier!
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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bang skills, kromm explanation, power-ups 7, wildcard skills |
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