07-28-2021, 09:36 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Limiting skill points
As a minor note, I would hesitate to allow both Single-Minded and Attentive. Attentive seems to be a quirk-level version of Single-Minded, modified so that it's mildly disadvantageous and not mildly advantageous; it's like taking both Broad-Minded and Xenophilia.
As for characters with insanely high levels of skills, I lately read Walter Jon Williams's Aristoi, which has precisely that assumption. It can be done in a narrative, and the GURPS rules can represent it. Whether you want to run that kind of narrative is up to you.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
07-28-2021, 10:43 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Limiting skill points
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As an example why not consider Vanna White of the Wheel of Fortune TV show. Her job would be covered by Performance Skill with an Optional Specialization in "TV Model" which lowers the effective difficulty from Average to Easy. She's filmed more than 7000 episodes at 22 minutes each. You multiply 22 by 7000 and divide by 800 for the On the Job training rules and you get an answer that tells you that she should have 192 cp in her primary Job Skill. You do not do this! For most Jobs which are low pressure and low incentive like Profesional Skill: Convenience Store Clerk no amount of OJT will raise your skill level over 12. High pressure to succeed and highly incentivized Jobs might raise this limit to 16. So you give Vanna Performance (TV Model) at 16 with the Walk in High Heels Technique fully bought up and don't worry about where the rest of the cp went to (in highly Cinematic timelines you might allow her to have bought Unaging).
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Fred Brackin |
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07-28-2021, 10:47 AM | #13 | |
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2020
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Re: Limiting skill points
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The problem is still there as long as at some point you want to advance the time in the campaign. That is why I ask for a solution. The learning mechanics is sufficiently coherent to be used, the non-existence of a mechanics that allows to understand the limitations of the characters as a finite representation of the human mind is not. In this case, the lack of limits imposes a representation of the brain as an infinite set of knowledge in a bottomless well, in which you can throw skills as time allows... There is an expression that reasons it quite well: "Time erases everything". There are also scientific studies that indicate that the brain can store up to 100 terabytes of memory. My need translates into representing those 100 terabytes in some quantifiable measure by the GURPS system, and perhaps also establishing a rate at which skills deteriorate for lack of use. |
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07-28-2021, 10:51 AM | #14 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Limiting skill points
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See Points-Based Learning in the box on page 6 of Back to School. It provides that you can't gain skills without earned points, and you can't earn points without stress—and a routine job, one that's covered by monthly job rolls, ordinarily doesn't impose sufficient stress. Seven thousand episodes would be about 350 months, which would be about half a dozen critical failures, which might provide 6-12 points, enough to get up to skill 14, maybe. Optimistically! Oh, and is Walk in High Heels a separate technique of TV Model, or is it a core application of the skill, like Punch for Boxing or Karate?
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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07-28-2021, 11:19 AM | #15 | |
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2020
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Re: Limiting skill points
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07-28-2021, 11:21 AM | #16 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: Limiting skill points
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"Gesture gracefully" and "Banter with the host" might be core uses of the Skill.
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Fred Brackin |
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07-28-2021, 11:56 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Limiting skill points
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I was being generous and saying Vanna might gain as much as 2 points from each critical failure. Using your figure of 150 hours, six critical failures gives an expected 900 hours, which is 4.5 skill points. Note that this is an alternate rule specifically designed to avoid you problem you point to of job experience giving you insanely high skills.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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07-28-2021, 12:02 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Limiting skill points
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As for needing an upper limit, are you planning to run a campaign that will represent characters' experiences over decades of time, or millennia? Most campaigns seem to progress through their lifelines fairly slowly, often with a year of play representing less than a year of lived experience. So the question doesn't arise; the published rules are a gamable approximation for a campaign that represents weeks or months or maybe a handful of years. That's all they're meant to be. If you want more span than that, you'll need to adopt variant rules. Page 6 of Back to School has some suggestions, but that's all they are.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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07-28-2021, 12:04 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Limiting skill points
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Or it might be a perk, given that High-Heeled Heroine, which lets you make combat rolls in high heels, is no more than a perk!
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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07-28-2021, 12:16 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: Limiting skill points
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