Bang Skills

[Inky]

Originally Posted by whswhs

So, for example, in a war campaign, you could have, not Soldier, but Soldier!.

How would Soldier! differ from Soldier in play? Soldier is already rather like a wildcard skill.

[Anders]

Soldier is more a Professional Skill. Soldier allows you to do tasks related to soldiering provided you have a +4 bonus. Soldier! would let you do anything regardless of what modifiers you have.

[weby]

In my 400+ session fantasy campaign, I deliberately started without bang skills and first introduced a personal bang skill to each character and then allowed them to start learning other bang skills. Basically the ability to have bang skills was part of the progression from beginner to something powerful.

In next such campaign I would likely allow bang skills from start, but allow the extra options like free points for buying success as advancement. That is because for quite many campaigns the Gurps skill list is just to fine graded.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by weby

In my 400+ session fantasy campaign, I deliberately started without bang skills and first introduced a personal bang skill to each character and then allowed them to start learning other bang skills. Basically the ability to have bang skills was part of the progression from beginner to something powerful.

In next such campaign I would likely allow bang skills from start, but allow the extra options like free points for buying success as advancement. That is because for quite many campaigns the Gurps skill list is just to fine graded.

I like this as it is similar to how Classic handled Science!

[Infornific]

Originally Posted by Inky

How would Soldier! differ from Soldier in play? Soldier is already rather like a wildcard skill.

If you look up the description of Soldier, it's primarily a battlefield survival skill. It also covers odds and ends like how to strip a rifle but the focus is mostly on knowing what to do in a battle and how not to get killed. All Quiet on the Western Front has some good fictional examples of Soldier skill. There's already an official wildcard skill called Ten-Hut! which is basically Soldier!. It covers pretty much all military skills other than actual weapon skills.

Professional skills are kind of like wildcard skills except that instead of covering multiple skills they cover bits and piece of knowledge you'd expect someone in a given job to know but without any one piece being a full skill. The true wildcard skill covers all relevant skills.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Confirmed it in my Third Edition of Swashbucklers, where it is referred to as The Sword!

Ah. I looked at it. Blade!, Swashbuckler!, or Sword! are far better even if you don't throw in all the wildcard options.