What would I need to run Fallout with GURPS?

[The Benj]

The main thing you need is awesome old music. :D

Originally Posted by StreetBushido

I've also got a bit of a bonus question. I've heard that if you're going to GM GURPS you may want to create a list of skills specific to your game. For instance removing "Drive/Pilot" for a fantasy game or "Knowledge (Magic)" for a "realistic" modern game. When creating a skill list, what is a good number of skills? I can imagine that if there are too few skills, everybody will be good at everything. While if there are too many skills, everybody has to be very specialised, or everybody is sort of iffy at everything.

I personally only take a pretty vague look and think about what things wouldn't be suitable or important. I don't actually make a revised, cut-down list, per se; I'm just prepared to say "that skill doesn't exist in this setting", much like I'm ready to say "No, you can't have Magery, this is a no-magic setting".
Were I to make an actual list, I'd probably cut it down to about ... a hundred?

[mlangsdorf]

The DF, Action, and MH series have roughly 150-200 skills on their genre appropriate skill lists.

I'd expect the Fallout skill lists to be fairly large. I'd start with the Action or Monster Hunter skill list, create a couple of sample characters and see if there's anything missing or that you don't want (I tend to drop Hazardous Materials from my DF games, even though it's on the official skill list).

[StreetBushido]

A hundred skills?!

That's quite a lot!

Anyway, I want to say thanks for all the input! It's great to see such an active community. :)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by StreetBushido

A hundred skills?!

That's quite a lot!

There's lots of things that PCs or NPCs might want to do in a tabletop game that aren't sensible or possible for the protagonist in a videogame. Also the Fallout skills are very broad compared to GURPS skills. If you want something like the skills in the games, you might consider using Wildcard skills instead.

[StreetBushido]

I wasn't only comparing to the videogames.

RuneQuest 6 has about 60 skills, and that includes all the skills for the five different types of magic as well. Sure, it's a list of skills for a fantasy game, and it does away with different weapon skills with "Combat Styles", but still.

To me, if a culling results in 100 remaining skills, that's still a lot! :p

Let's investigate an example:

In the Fallout games (just for this thought experiment, now), we have the Outdoorsman skill.

In RuneQuest 6, I'd say that Outdoorsman would be a combination of the skills Navigation, Survival and Track.

How would Outdoorsman be broken down in GURPS compared to RuneQuest 6?

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by StreetBushido

How would Outdoorsman be broken down in GURPS compared to RuneQuest 6?

Navigation (Land), Survival (several specialties), Naturalist (Earth), Tracking

However Fallout's "Speech" is Acting, Fast-Talk, Diplomacy, Intimidation, Sex-Appeal, Public-Speaking, Leadership, Savoir-Faire, Carousing...

[StreetBushido]

Fair enough.

As you say, videogames tend to need broader skills than tabletop games.

Where Fallout has Speech, RQ6 has Acting, Courtesy, Deceit, Influence, Oratory and Seduction. There are probably some other skills that could get in there as well.

However, I'm still curious as to where the 40 other skills (roughly here) come in. I can imagine a few being weapon skills, and then a few tech-related skills, and a couple of vehichle skills (unless we count Vehicle(Something) as one skill). But a difference of 40?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by StreetBushido

... However, I'm still curious as to where the 40 other skills (roughly here) come in.

The easiest way is to look at the list. Download GURPS Lite, which is free, and have a look at its skill list and descriptions.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by StreetBushido

However, I'm still curious as to where the 40 other skills (roughly here) come in. I can imagine a few being weapon skills, and then a few tech-related skills, and a couple of vehichle skills (unless we count Vehicle(Something) as one skill). But a difference of 40?

"Science" is Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Nuclear Physics, Engineering (many mandatory specialties), Electronics, Anthropology, Archeology, Mathematics (Applied), Computer Operation, Computer Programming, Weird Science...

[Nosforontu]

Originally Posted by StreetBushido

However, I'm still curious as to where the 40 other skills (roughly here) come in. I can imagine a few being weapon skills, and then a few tech-related skills, and a couple of vehichle skills (unless we count Vehicle(Something) as one skill). But a difference of 40?

Keep in mind Gurps has six different unarmed skills alone that I could see in a Fallout game though Sumo would be a bit of a stretch (Brawling, Boxing, Judo, Karate, Sumo, and Wrestling).

It comes down to game philosophy other games tend to use one skill to represnt multiple somewhat related things, Gurps uses Defaults from skills/attributes to represent that knowing how to use a pistol should help you use a rifle, however it also says that at the end of the day a skill in pistol is not the same as skill in rifle.

Now that said Gurps also realizes that sometimes you really dont care about that level of fine detail and offers what is called Wildcard skills! that represent a very broad category skills instead with a single skill. Instead of bothering with 6 different types of unarmed combat you simply use the Fist! skill instead.

Depending on your tolerance for large groups of skills you could probably just treat the Fallout 3 games skill list as each being a Wildcard! skill and go from their.