Flexibility as a Perk?

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Wazowski

Oh I see, so it won't work unless I allow it. If he asked, should I make Voice a leveled Talent at 5/level?

Yeah, GURPS only works if the GM is willing to say "no". You never have to allow something just because it's in the rules or, God forbid, some blog post somewhere.

[mburr0003]

Originally Posted by Wazowski

It is being quite difficult, because he is discussing that he might take the advantage, and then take an anti-talent, which would make the advantage free...

1 - Taking a Disadvantage doesn't "make an Advantage free". They both are accounted for, and when you have a limit on Disadvantages he will find himself running out fast (which remember reducing Attributes and Derived Stats counts towards Disad points).

2 - Just say no to Anti-Talents. Worst thing ever put into a GURPS book. Not only are they Optional, but no one ever takes one for skills that are important. So he'll have a bunch of skills he doesn't plan to take and plans to suck at? You already get that for free, there is no need to reward that.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

2 - Just say no to Anti-Talents. Worst thing ever put into a GURPS book. Not only are they Optional, but no one ever takes one for skills that are important. So he'll have a bunch of skills he doesn't plan to take and plans to suck at? You already get that for free, there is no need to reward that.

I've actually used an Anti-Talent for an NPC: He's a very bad businessman who won't admit to it (and is from a wealthy family, so he can afford to repeatedly set up businesses, fail, and blame someone else for it), so he actually spent points on very low skills that he uses, badly. Anti-Talents are quite useful for characters who are overconfident, delusional, and/or obsessed, so they actually try to use the skills that they're bad at. Also thought about adding it to some templates.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

I've actually used an Anti-Talent for an NPC: He's a very bad businessman who won't admit to it (and is from a wealthy family, so he can afford to repeatedly set up businesses, fail, and blame someone else for it), so he actually spent points on very low skills that he uses, badly. Anti-Talents are quite useful for characters who are overconfident, delusional, and/or obsessed, so they actually try to use the skills that they're bad at. Also thought about adding it to some templates.

My guess is that that might be unpopular with players, if those are templates for PCs.

I once ran a GURPS character—back in 3/e, it was—who had IQ 9 and Musical Instrument (Hunting Horn)-7, for 1 point. His low skill was much remarked on, especially after the session where he blew his horn at the start of a mission (I quoted Boromir's line about never setting out on a journey without doing that!) and got a critical failure . . . I think that taking a skill at low level, or rolling against one, is an unusual thing for players to do.

[Balor Patch]

Then there was Sid the very fat Sumogre, weighing in at 1500 lbs, with Flying Leap 7, and "Obsession: Become somewhat competent at my skills" going TUMP all night.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I think that taking a skill at low level, or rolling against one, is an unusual thing for players to do.

Yes, it's usually confined to deliberate comedy. A friend has an elf PC who plays the harp, very badly. He also plays the trombone rather well, but most other PCs don't notice.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Yes, it's usually confined to deliberate comedy. A friend has an elf PC who plays the harp, very badly. He also plays the trombone rather well, but most other PCs don't notice.

Huh. An elf playing the trombone seems comedic to me no matter how brilliantly it's done. Though horns seem perfectly fitting . . .

Now I think of it, though, Bertran was a Dragaeran and therefore technically an "elf."

[corwyn]

Originally Posted by whswhs

My guess is that that might be unpopular with players, if those are templates for PCs.

I once ran a GURPS character—back in 3/e, it was—who had IQ 9 and Musical Instrument (Hunting Horn)-7, for 1 point. His low skill was much remarked on, especially after the session where he blew his horn at the start of a mission (I quoted Boromir's line about never setting out on a journey without doing that!) and got a critical failure . . . I think that taking a skill at low level, or rolling against one, is an unusual thing for players to do.

Of course, in that case, he would have crit failed even with a 15 skill.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by corwyn

Of course, in that case, he would have crit failed even with a 15 skill.

Indeed he would have. But he did have quite a good chance of failing in any case . . .

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by whswhs

My guess is that that might be unpopular with players, if those are templates for PCs.

I once ran a GURPS character—back in 3/e, it was—who had IQ 9 and Musical Instrument (Hunting Horn)-7, for 1 point. His low skill was much remarked on, especially after the session where he blew his horn at the start of a mission (I quoted Boromir's line about never setting out on a journey without doing that!) and got a critical failure . . . I think that taking a skill at low level, or rolling against one, is an unusual thing for players to do.

Back in 1/e (2nd PC I ever wrote for GURPS) I put together a ST 16 IQ 8 Dwarven fighter. I put 1 pt in First Aid thus skill 8. After a couple of years of running said character (and having never used said skill), I used the skill post battle ON A FORMER OPPONENT. This was done to justify spending a second point to scale to the lofty heights of skill 9. It was a simple failure.

Cue my 'teammates' making torture jokes, speculation of torniquets applied to the neck to stop mildly bleeding head wound, etc, etc, etc.

Needless to say 30+ years later and he remains the one and only time I ever sold IQ back.

Edit: but I am only half dumb as I have never started a PC lower than DX 11 (and that low only 1 time).