Tech! - A New Take on Wildcard Techniques

Varyon · 02-14-2014, 02:24 PM

In anime - and plenty of other media - there are always characters who have a variety of nifty-but-difficult Techniques, and of course the guy who seems like he has bought up all the Targeted Attack options to full is ubiquitous. In GURPS, it's far, far more efficient to simply boost skill up a step. This can lead to a problem - namely, your character who is skilled enough to hit any hit location is often best off just aiming at the Torso (particularly in low-armor settings, like most anime), sinking all his skill into Deceptive Attack, and maybe buying a Technique or two (which will easily result in creating a specialist, when the character concept was for a generalist).

My solution to this would be simple - a "Wildcard" Technique (specialized by skill) that will buy off the penalties for any Technique. You are essentially buying skill with a "Only to negate penalties for Techniques" Limitation - although under this system Hard Techniques are effectively at an additional -1. For balance, I would by default disallow Combinations and Improvised Techniques from this, although a Perk would allow a specific Combination or unique Technique to benefit. Alternatively (or even in addition), it might work out to let Combinations and Improvised Techniques get some benefit, but they'd suffer from a poor exchange rate - say, every +2 Tech! negates only -1 from their penalties. Specialists would still be able to buy Techniques under the normal system as well (although naturally they'll only want a few, as it is now).
This also avoids the potential problem that high-skill characters are virtually impossible to hit. If we cap a character's actual skill at, say, 20, and then have any other "boost" be in the form of Tech!, the character's Parry isn't going to get any higher than 13 (before CR, Enhanced Parry, Staff bonuses, etc). This will let skill 16 veterans actually stand a chance at hitting combat masters. This is, of course, highly optional.

The primary issue here comes down to pricing. Obviously [1]/level is too cheap, while [4]/level is too expensive. Personally, I feel this actually works out to have about the same level of utility as Enhanced Parry. As that is [5]/level, but each level is equivalent to +2 to skill, [2.5]/level for Tech! seems appropriate. This will typically work out as [5] for the first +1 (most combat Techniques are Hard), then [5] per +2, with the option to get an odd bonus (another +1) for [3].

As a note, our main other options are [2]/level and [3]/level. [2]/level works out to [9] per +2 skill and +1 defense (from Tech! and Enhanced Parry), as opposed to the [8] of just buying up skill; I personally feel this is too close for comfort, but as Tech! + EP isn't actually quite as good as just buying up skill, such pricing probably wouldn't be too terribly far off. [3]/level works out to [11] per +2 skill and +1 defense, where I feel we're getting too close to the [12] of +3/+1.5. For me, [10] for +2 skill and +1 defense seems to be "Just Right" - you're better off buying skill, but if you want just defense or just Techniques, your options aren't too bad. Additionally, it seems to me that [2]/level actively discourages players from building specialists (that is, those with a Technique or two they prefer), which I don't like.

Thoughts?

02-14-2014, 02:24 PM	#1
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Tech! - A New Take on Wildcard Techniques In anime - and plenty of other media - there are always characters who have a variety of nifty-but-difficult Techniques, and of course the guy who seems like he has bought up all the Targeted Attack options to full is ubiquitous. In GURPS, it's far, far more efficient to simply boost skill up a step. This can lead to a problem - namely, your character who is skilled enough to hit any hit location is often best off just aiming at the Torso (particularly in low-armor settings, like most anime), sinking all his skill into Deceptive Attack, and maybe buying a Technique or two (which will easily result in creating a specialist, when the character concept was for a generalist). My solution to this would be simple - a "Wildcard" Technique (specialized by skill) that will buy off the penalties for any Technique. You are essentially buying skill with a "Only to negate penalties for Techniques" Limitation - although under this system Hard Techniques are effectively at an additional -1. For balance, I would by default disallow Combinations and Improvised Techniques from this, although a Perk would allow a specific Combination or unique Technique to benefit. Alternatively (or even in addition), it might work out to let Combinations and Improvised Techniques get some benefit, but they'd suffer from a poor exchange rate - say, every +2 Tech! negates only -1 from their penalties. Specialists would still be able to buy Techniques under the normal system as well (although naturally they'll only want a few, as it is now). This also avoids the potential problem that high-skill characters are virtually impossible to hit. If we cap a character's actual skill at, say, 20, and then have any other "boost" be in the form of Tech!, the character's Parry isn't going to get any higher than 13 (before CR, Enhanced Parry, Staff bonuses, etc). This will let skill 16 veterans actually stand a chance at hitting combat masters. This is, of course, highly optional. The primary issue here comes down to pricing. Obviously [1]/level is too cheap, while [4]/level is too expensive. Personally, I feel this actually works out to have about the same level of utility as Enhanced Parry. As that is [5]/level, but each level is equivalent to +2 to skill, [2.5]/level for Tech! seems appropriate. This will typically work out as [5] for the first +1 (most combat Techniques are Hard), then [5] per +2, with the option to get an odd bonus (another +1) for [3]. As a note, our main other options are [2]/level and [3]/level. [2]/level works out to [9] per +2 skill and +1 defense (from Tech! and Enhanced Parry), as opposed to the [8] of just buying up skill; I personally feel this is too close for comfort, but as Tech! + EP isn't actually quite as good as just buying up skill, such pricing probably wouldn't be too terribly far off. [3]/level works out to [11] per +2 skill and +1 defense, where I feel we're getting too close to the [12] of +3/+1.5. For me, [10] for +2 skill and +1 defense seems to be "Just Right" - you're better off buying skill, but if you want just defense or just Techniques, your options aren't too bad. Additionally, it seems to me that [2]/level actively discourages players from building specialists (that is, those with a Technique or two they prefer), which I don't like. Thoughts? Last edited by Varyon; 02-14-2014 at 02:28 PM.