Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 07-23-2021, 01:19 PM   #41
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Bang Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
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."
I'm thinking of Sergeant Fury and His Howling Commandos, which had Nick Fury himself, the leader; Dum Dum Dugan, the Irish brawler, a former circus strongman; Izzy Cohen, the Jewish smartass from the Bronx; Gabe Jones, the black jazzman; Junior Juniper, the kid (apparently from an upper class background); Dino Manelli, the Italian Hollywood movie star; and Rebel Ralston, the southern country boy. Of course they were World War II stereotypes, not modern ones. You could have done a ! skill for each one's background.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-23-2021, 03:06 PM   #42
Pursuivant
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Default Re: Bang Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Of course they were World War II stereotypes, not modern ones. You could have done a ! skill for each one's background.
Stereotypical background bang skills could replace the Name! bang skill for appropriate genres. E.g., Da' Bronx!, Tennesee!, or Wyoming! for the stereotypical WW2 U.S. Infantry squad.

National or racial bang skills might also be appropriate in other genres. For example, in ST: TOS Chekov would have Russian!, Scotty would have Scottish!, and Spock would have Vulcan!
Pursuivant is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-23-2021, 05:22 PM   #43
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Bang Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
. . . my recollection is that ! skills in 3/e had penumbras of skills that weren't named explicitly. On one hand, if you were a Medic!, you could roll against it for skills that weren't normally part of being a doctor, but that would help you be a doctor in a particular case . . .
3e did have The Sword! and Science! which were like that, but IIRC, they were the only ! skills in 3e. They were designed individually, and there were no general rules for creating wildcard skills. Those were added at 4e, and some flavour was lost in creating the generic versions.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 07-23-2021, 05:29 PM   #44
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Bang Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
3e did have The Sword! and Science! which were like that, but IIRC, they were the only ! skills in 3e. They were designed individually, and there were no general rules for creating wildcard skills. Those were added at 4e, and some flavour was lost in creating the generic versions.
I think they would better serve their intended purpose if that aspect were brought back and strengthened.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-25-2021, 10:14 AM   #45
Phil Masters
 
Phil Masters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
Default Re: Bang Skills

On consideration, I suspect that a mechanism akin to Identities in Unknown Armies 3e might work better than simply allowing each character to have a personal wildcard. In that game, each character has a ratings in ten standard Abilities (basically akin to moderately generous defaults in GURPS skills); things like Dodge, Struggle, (general) Knowledge, and Notice. But they then have (usually) two or three Identities, and you can roll against an Identity's rating if you can plausibly say "I'm a _______, of course I can ______". Identities can be things Blues Musician ("of course I can get backstage") or Trucker ("of course I can stay awake"), but also Irritable ("of course I can get the manager out here") or Hot ("of course I can create a distraction"); they also get three specific effects each, which can be standing in for an Ability in specific ways, providing non-universal competencies (shooting firearms, providing medical treatment), appraise other people's degree of psychological damage, or whatever. (Hot lets you intimidate people in specific ways, Trucker can stand in for the Pursuit Ability.)

So in GURPS terms, that would be "I have Sword!, of course I can look cool swinging from the chandelier" as well as using it as a combat skill (and don't worry what skill normally covers looking cool swinging from the chandelier) -- or "I have Blues Musician!, of course I can use that to get backstage" or "I have Trucker!, of course I can roll that instead of HT to stay awake".
__________________
--
Phil Masters
My Home Page.
My Self-Publications: On Warehouse 23 and On DriveThruRPG.
Phil Masters is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-25-2021, 09:35 PM   #46
Infornific
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Default Re: Bang Skills

I'd second picking up GURPS Power Ups 7. You might also look at Pointless Slaying & Looting and Pointless Monster Hunting for examples of games using only Bang skills.

I think you need to consider the genre and what skill sets will be important. It makes sense for Dungeon Fantasy to have multiple Bang skills for personal combat, less so for something Star Trek inspired. It also depends on whether you want to include Wild Card points and other factors.

So for Action, you might want skills for each template - Hacker!, Shooter!, etc - plus skills for each background - Security!, Intelligence!, etc and probably something like that BAT! skill (or maybe call it Everyman!) covering the various skills all action heroes seem competent at even if it isn't their focus.

For Dungeon Fantasy, multiple combat skills representing a style of fighting - Swashbuckler!, Knight!, Martial Artist!, etc plus skills for professional niches - Outdoorsman!, Thief!, etc.
Infornific is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2021, 03:09 AM   #47
maximara
On Notice
 
maximara's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Sumter, SC
Default Re: Bang Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
3e did have The Sword! and Science! which were like that, but IIRC, they were the only ! skills in 3e. They were designed individually, and there were no general rules for creating wildcard skills. Those were added at 4e, and some flavour was lost in creating the generic versions.
First I heard of a 3e The Sword! (must have come in after the Compendiums). Classic Science! was a totally different animal from the 4e wildcard skill. It required:

* Research skill at 13+
* A minimum of two skills (2 points in each, or 4 total) in a hard or soft science (but not from liberal arts)
* To be no higher then -2 of the lowest prerequisite science skill.

More over the Compendium is totally mum on how TL penalties factor into this though logically it should effect the relative prerequisite science skill reducing this version of Science! substantially which does not happen with the 4e version.
__________________
Help make a digital reference for GURPS by coming to the GURPS wiki and provide some information and links (such as to various Fanmade 4e Bestiaries) . Please, provide more then just a title and a page number.
maximara is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2021, 08:45 AM   #48
Fred Brackin
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Default Re: Bang Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by maximara View Post
First I heard of a 3e The Sword! (must have come in after the Compendiums). .
A late edition of Swashbucklers I think.
__________________
Fred Brackin
Fred Brackin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2021, 09:24 AM   #49
Not another shrubbery
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Default Re: Bang Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
A late edition of Swashbucklers I think.
Confirmed it in my Third Edition of Swashbucklers, where it is referred to as The Sword!
Not another shrubbery is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-26-2021, 12:19 PM   #50
Inky
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: UK
Default Re: Bang Skills

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kromm View Post
These are all excellent points – especially the second. While I can see a GM saying, "Let's not focus on emulating fiction or other games," because I tend to say that myself, I'm a strong supporter of dramatic niches that merit equal spotlight time. And the fact is, I've yet to play in the game where all of science, or the humanities, or the fine arts, or any other broad epistemological domain wasn't actually less important to the story than practical technology, or fighting, or skullduggery, or magic.

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.
I'd say I could reasonably be represented as having a few points in Science! myself. I did a chemistry degree, and besides chemistry that included basic courses going over some of the basic principles of everything from physics to geology at a high-school or slightly above level. I think 3 or 6 points of Science! is probably as points-efficient a way of spelling that as having tiny bits of every single Science skill, and certainly a whole lot quicker and taking up a whole lot less room on the character sheet!
__________________
Looking for online text-based game at a UK-feasible time, anything considered, Roll20 preferred. http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=168443
Inky is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
bang skills, kromm explanation, power-ups 7, wildcard skills

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:40 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.