Training partial skill levels & fractional CPs?

[DataPacRat]

Imagine a band of PCs who've found a wizard's tower, and want to uncover its secrets before one or another hostile armies tries to destroy the place. Maybe the first sign of an enemy will show up in a day, maybe a week, or a month, or a year - but time is finite. A PC may be in the middle of learning how to use a particular gizmo when the first ballista-bolt is fired, and will have to use their incomplete knowledge during that fight.

In standard GURPS, after accumulating 200 study-hours, a PC picks up a single CP to spend on a skill. Would it be feasible to tack Limitations onto that skill-level, so that instead of costing 200 study-hours / 1 CP, it might be -60% and only cost 80 study-hours / 0.4 CP? (Or 320 hours / 1.6 CP for a 4-CP skill-level.) Eg, Preparation Required or Takes Extra Time, a Temporary Disadvantage (OPH, a Discipline of Faith, Absent-Minded, etc), Requires Concentrate, and Visible all seem reasonably plausible, as does throwing some level of Unreliable or Fickle on it.

(And, if they've got time, then as they collect more study-hours, they could reduce the Limitations, until they've spent the full time and have themselves a standard skill-level.)


How many of GURPS' more useful assumptions would break with the above approach, and what tweaks would be necessary to make the approach more playable?


Edit: Another approach, at least for initial skill acquisition, might be to rely on the Dabbler perk: 1/8 CP (25 study-hours) for Default+1, 1/4 CP (50 study-hours) for Default+2, and 1/2 CP (100 study-hours) for Default +3 (all capped at below what 1 CP would buy).

[Pragmatic]

I'd say do something with the Dilettante perk, maybe?

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

I'd say do something with the Dilettante perk, maybe?

Our timelines crossed - I just added an edit to my initial post about Dabbler. :)

[Anthony]

Aside from the point about dabbler, secrets don't have to be skills. There's lots of research you can usefully do which doesn't get represented on a character sheet.

[Paydalanw]

Dabbler Perk allows you accumulate knowledge in related areas of knowledge to decrease default penalty for +1 for 8 skills.
Talents allow you develop talent skills at faster rate at 10% per talent level i.e. you need 180 hours of learning per charater point instead of 200 hours of learning.
Somewhere also was Fast Learning Advantage, which allows you to learn 50% more at same time i.e. each hour of learning counts as 1.5 hours of learning

[DataPacRat]

Originally Posted by Paydalanw

Somewhere also was Fast Learning Advantage, which allows you to learn 50% more at same time i.e. each hour of learning counts as 1.5 hours of learning

"Social Engineering: Back to School" has Accelerated Learning 1 and 2 (for 20 or 40 points), which multiply study-hours by 1.5 or 2. Near the back, it also has a table with just about all the other study-time modifiers, such as Attentive and Single-Minded.

Right now, I'm interested in what might happen if a PC has some, but not all, of the study-hours required for a skill-level. (However many study-hours happen to be required for said full skill-level.)

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by DataPacRat

Right now, I'm interested in what might happen if a PC has some, but not all, of the study-hours required for a skill-level. (However many study-hours happen to be required for said full skill-level.)

I'd just use the Dabbler numbers, and allow characters to use extra time to improve their odds. Remember that familiarity probably applies, and is the quickest thing to get rid of, at 8 hours of practice.

Applying Limitations to skills is generally not a good idea, per Kromm; it can be horribly abused. If course, if the device you want to use is sapient, and co-operates better if you say prayers, or do other things, that can look very similar.

[DataPacRat]

For gaining a partial skill-level from scratch, I think I'll stick with Dabbler, since it's both simple and reasonably official. I'm now eyeing partial skill levels for skills that PCs already have some CPs in. Eg, say a PC already has 2 CP in Engineer/TL0 (Combat), at IQ-1; and after they've studied half the time needed to get the next 2 CP to get to IQ, they're called on to design some new trenches/palisades/etc. Are they stuck with rolling at IQ-1, or could it be feasible to let them roll at IQ with -50% worth of Limitations on that last skill-level?

Eg, if that -50% was mainly in the form of Requires Concentration, then the PC would be faced with the choice of rolling at IQ-1, or frantically consulting their reference texts and ignoring any potential distractions to get that roll at IQ-0, trading off a better chance of doing the job right against something unexpected popping up while they were over-focused on their planning.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Applying Limitations to skills is generally not a good idea, per Kromm; it can be horribly abused.

My google-fu is weak today; I can't seem to find a post or other reference to this. Can anyone provide more details?

For example, depending on the abuses in question, then if "limited skill levels" were limited to one per skill, that might mitigate the problems. Or might not; I'm fumbling around a bit in the dark here.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Applying Limitations to skills is generally not a good idea, per Kromm; it can be horribly abused.

Originally Posted by DataPacRat

My google-fu is weak today; I can't seem to find a post or other reference to this. Can anyone provide more details?

I can't find it either: it's possible my memory is at fault.