What skill(s) would best capture Logistics?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Christopher R. Rice

Can I buy Anvil! ?

If you don't mind being hit by a Hammer!

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Kromm

If you don't mind being hit by a Hammer!

I can take it... HAMMER! AND ANVIL!, BABY.

[pawsplay]

Well, Wikipedia mentions market research in connection to commercial logistics, and strategy in connection to military logistics, so I think that's solid. Looking over the article, it looks like each type of logistics seems to have an Expert skill associated with it (eg. disposal logistics, digital logistics).

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by pawsplay

Looking over the article, it looks like each type of logistics seems to have an Expert skill associated with it (eg. disposal logistics, digital logistics).

Alternately, treat them as different required specialties of Logistics skill or as Techniques based on an overarching Logistics skill. I'd go with the latter option unless the different specialties of Logistics are likely to really matter in a game.

Edit: Kromm's idea of Business and Military Logistics seems even better. May it become RAW sooner rather than later.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

"any or all of those no doubt consciously referenced in the activities of Jake and Nog in the DS9 episode "Progress".

Or the DS9 episode "Treachery, Faith and the Great River" (S7, E6) where Ensign Nog uses his wheeling and dealing skills for the purposes of Truth and Righteousness and reveals to Starfleet the terrifying powers of a Ferengi supply officer. The Nog & O'Brien subplot is a nice little lesson in how to work a military supply chain and how to arrange a multi-step barter finagle.

Nog's master stroke is using Psychology and Merchant skills to figure out what various Starfleet supply officers want and then using impressive levels of Scrounging skill to creatively "acquire" seemingly useless goods and services, which he uses to get the item he really wants. Those poor human Starfleet schlubs, who were only familiar with post-scarcity economics, never knew what hit them.

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

MacGyver is a more ambiguous case.

In addition to Foresight, Quick Gadgeteer, Gizmos, Serendipity and Versatile, he probably also has a unique "MacGyver Talent" which covers Chemistry, Mechanic, Electronics Repair, Observation, Physics and Scrounging, but only for the purposes of negating penalties for making or using improvised equipment or canceling penalties for Haste when he does so. Sort of the love child of Artificer and Jack of All Trades.

[Polydamas]

GURPS Characters p. 219 is vague about Scrounging: "This is the ability to find, salvage, or improvise useful items that others can’t locate. Each attempt takes an hour. You do not necessarily steal your booty; you just locate it – somehow – and then acquire it by any means necessary. Note that if you find something that is “nailed down,” you must decide how to try to get it (which might require a roll on another skill)"

I read that as if it happens in the background, maybe you trade for it, but its not really about wheeling and dealing and trading favours so if it comes into the foreground that should not be the skill for it.

[SRoach]

Originally Posted by Polydamas

GURPS Characters p. 219 is vague about Scrounging: "This is the ability to find, salvage, or improvise useful items that others can’t locate. Each attempt takes an hour. You do not necessarily steal your booty; you just locate it – somehow – and then acquire it by any means necessary. Note that if you find something that is “nailed down,” you must decide how to try to get it (which might require a roll on another skill)"

I read that as if it happens in the background, maybe you trade for it, but its not really about wheeling and dealing and trading favours so if it comes into the foreground that should not be the skill for it.

Nah. Anyone from a poor background, or at least not rich enough to buy new every time the old one breaks, will have at least a little scrounging.
Go out to a rural farm, some time, and take a look at some of the equipment. You have bass boat seats on tractors, cotton trailers cut down into flatbeds, (that, I am told, was more trouble than it was worth, cutting all the expanded metal free), farm implements running on automobile tires, anvils mounted to truck wheel hubs, old bath tubs as watering troughs, the list goes on.

My favorite, at the moment, is probably my dad's prize pair of jumper cables. Made out of a surplus aircraft service cart power cable. That thing can take a LOT of juice. (When I BOUGHT the cart, I THOUGHT I was buying a GENERATOR. Turned into a nice little utility trailer, though. In my defense, the auctioneer didn't know what the heck it was, either.)

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Kromm

In military logistics, you'd better be good with Geography in the regions of possible operation, know Savoir-Faire (Military) to work the system, and probably have modest Tactics and/or Strategy, depending on your scale of operations; Expert Skill (Military Science) is extremely likely, Leadership will often replace Administration on the ground (see p. B346), and at the highest levels Diplomacy and Politics are vital.

Yeah, Savoir-Faire (Military) seems like a good fit for the kind of wheeling and dealing between different units that can occur. I would think you still use Merchant for making the trade or bargain but Savoir-Faire as a complementary skill to smooth things out and avoid ruffling feathers. Especially when dealing with different commands (MAC, TAC, SAC, or theatres) or even organizations (Army, Air Force, etc.). You likely also get a CF penalty when dealing with say different nationalities in a "unified" command such as NATO.
So I think Administration for most things, especially "on the books" where its a matter of filling out the right forms and justifications.
Merchant for "off the books" or swapping and bartering with another unit. Administration is still useful even then as it can help you get or transfer your items without backlash and maybe help know who might have what you need.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Kromm

If you don't mind being hit by a Hammer!

[pedant]If you're actually hitting the anvil with the hammer you're doing it wrong. Put the red hot job on the anvil, hit the job.[/pedant]

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by SRoach

...old bath tubs as watering troughs, the list goes on.

While they've largely been replaced by cheap concrete troughs, I think when I was growing up there were probably more old iron baths out in the paddocks than in houses. The modern plastic and grp baths just don't have the staying power.