Skills and skill levels for building an army, intelligence service, bureaucracy

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I disagree that it's a mostly non-adventuring purpose. IMO it's actually quite useful under adventuring conditions, since that is when you're often forced to take haste penalties.

I don't object that it can be useful. I just think that by the RAW, it's very rarely worth it to accept massive penalties for a modest improvement in haste. And when you actually start to see real improvements in speed, i.e. after -5 and particularly after -8, well, that's just outside the skill range seen in most realistic characters. When performing a challenging feat under adventuring conditions, very few characters can afford a further -5 or -8 penalty.

Accepting a skill penalty for haste is both dramatic and interesting and I wish to encourage it in my campaigns. But a flat -10% per -1 is not a good way to do so. Nor does it appear to reflect reality, at least not my experience of it.

In my experience, having higher skill than someone allows you to do the same thing much faster, not merely +11% or +25% faster. The difference between skill 12 and skill 14 is meant to be journeyman and master. That's not reflected by the master being able to work 25% faster. That's just the difference between two journemen with a modicum of variation in intelligence or diligence, in GURPS terms, maybe a single point of skill.

Remember, in everything else, +1 or +2 to skill are a huge deal. With skill 14, you can hit a target at twice the distance as someone with skill 12. Why would it matter so little for this?

As for Efficient, I agree that it would be very valuable to people intending to perform long tasks under fire. But how is that a negative?

Anyone who intends to be a grappler ought to take Power Grappling. Anyone who wants to be a combat archer ought to take Strongarm. Anyone who intends to use two weapons would be stupid not to take Off-Hand Training.

Yes, some Perks are vital to any character whose role calls for a certain use of the skill the Perk augments. No, that doesn't make the Perks unbalanced.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Hmm. Do you think [1] is a fair cost for +5 to Job Rolls in a given career? Because +5 to Job Rolls is either a boost of a promotion chance (assuming below-16 non-freelancer) or a +50% earning potential (any freelancer).

For any game not focusing on Job Rolls and/or that particular career, I mostly do, yes.

In particular, if that +5 is to such a narrow niche that it also serves to limit your employment prospects sharply. You can be among the best in the world in something, but that won't help you get a job anywhere outside that narrow niche, which might entail living somewhere that's inconvenient or working within academia rather than higher paying areas which are covered by the base skill.