Explain to me about Professional Skills

[Dalillama]

Originally Posted by maximara

For example Expert Skill (Egyptology) vs Archeology (Ancient Egypt). It is hard to really imagine have one without the other.

That's because youve never met anyone withthe Egyptology skill. Indeed, it's quite possible that nobody now living has it. It's a specialty largely peculiar to the Victorian era, which was awash in aristocratic dilettantes who could recite at the drop of a hat any information known at that time about ancient Egypt, but had never personally been within a hundred miles of any active archaeology of any sort, let alone in Egypt.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by maximara

Hobby Skill on the other hand states it "cannot learn skills defined elsewhere" (sic). So you cannot have Hobby Skill (Artist, Painting) even though in the real world people have painting as a Hobby.

That's why people are calling it a "catchall" group.

You are taking the names of these skills too literally. Whatever the word hobby means to you, Hobby Skills have a specific game definition: skills that have little to do with adventuring or making a living. If it's not already a skill elsewhere, and it doesn't seem particularly useful, but people study it anyway, it's a Hobby Skill. You can't have Artist as a Hobby Skill because Artist is already a regular skill — because it's useful enough to be used on adventures or to make a living with, so they decided to put it in the skill list. You can have Comic Books as a Hobby Skill because it's fairly useless on adventures or on the job, but you just might want to create a character who knows everything about comic books, so here's how you do that.

You will notice that Expert Skill is the only one of the three (Hobby, Professional, Expert) that goes out of its way to forbid practical tasks. Heck, the Bartender example for Professional Skill is far more then simply 'answering questions' so why is a skill that is hard (Expert) have that limitation? It gives the whole Expert Skill a non sequitur tone.

Because specialized knowledge is generally harder to acquire than manual professional skills? You can learn to be a bartender in 40 hours (according to a website I just found). It takes years to become an Egyptologist. Skill difficulty levels aren't about how useful the skills are; they're about how difficult they are to acquire.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Inky

Anaraxes: Well, all I can say is I've tried to do it like that and I've proved utterly incapable of it. It's just impossible to guess every tiny thing that will be relevant ahead of time. I did take seven or eight skills along the lines you mention, but something's always popping up. Often things that are a question of having a better chance (but not guaranteed) at some wider task, rather than simply knowing a fact. Maybe I'm just not clever enough for GURPS.

You are probably reading your Skills too narrowly. 7 or 8 Influence Skills should cover virtually any interactions you could face. Just Diplomacy by itself can almost always be tried.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Dalillama

That's because youve never met anyone withthe Egyptology skill. Indeed, it's quite possible that nobody now living has it. It's a specialty largely peculiar to the Victorian era, which was awash in aristocratic dilettantes who could recite at the drop of a hat any information known at that time about ancient Egypt, but had never personally been within a hundred miles of any active archaeology of any sort, let alone in Egypt.

Based on what Bruce Trigger says in his 2006 A History of Archaeological Thought that was not Egyptology but Antiquarianism (Ancient Egypt) which at a practical level was little more then glorified treasure hunting as demonstrated by the antics of Heinrich Schliemann at Troy. Heck, Egyptology didn't really come into being until Flinders Petrie in the 1880's and there were still Antiquarianism remnants clear into the 1920s (very minor thankfully) as shown by some of the antics performed regarding the handling of King Tut's tomb even though by that time archeology was firmly integrated into the field.

[Inky]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

You are probably reading your Skills too narrowly. 7 or 8 Influence Skills should cover virtually any interactions you could face. Just Diplomacy by itself can almost always be tried.

It's not all Influence, she's getting lumbered with all the admin and financial stuff as well, and any number of other odd jobs too.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Inky

It's not all Influence, she's getting lumbered with all the admin and financial stuff as well, and any number of other odd jobs too.

Kromm gives a sample of what what skill could be in play to get information show that one action can be the result of more then one hat.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by maximara

Based on what Bruce Trigger says in his 2006 A History of Archaeological Thought that was not Egyptology but Antiquarianism (Ancient Egypt)ld.

That is an argument which boils down to "GURPS used the wrong word!" Well it's hardly the first time.

[Culture20]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

A Computer Security expert with no actual programming is, first of all, silly and secondly incapable of actually rewriting the programs.

Most of professional computer security (even for experts) these days is policy creation and human research, which involves more theory and psychology than computer science or programming. There are still expert white-hat crackers to be sure, but they're on the rare edge. Unfortunately, this is an example of GURPS using poor terminology again (or the terminology shifting under the game's feet).

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Inky

It's not all Influence, she's getting lumbered with all the admin and financial stuff as well, and any number of other odd jobs too.

"Admin stuff" is handled with the Adminstration Skill. That can also be used as an Influence Skill when dealing with bureaucrats.

"Finance stuff" is probably Administration if it means "taking care of the party's money" when that money comes out of some Government budget. Accounting at worst. Not the Finance Skill though. :).

Odd jobs are also probably Adminstration if those odd jobs involve official government proceedures.

[Tinman]

In the campaign I'm currently in we are playing a Buffyesq/High School Monster Hunters game. The GM had all of us take Professional skill (Student).

It covers knowledge of subjects one would learn in high school (math, English, chemistry, ect...) as well as everything else in the high school. It's a stand in for: Area Knowledge (HS) as well as writing a book report and anything else needed to get you through high school.

It's a way to have a skill to do all that but not have to deal with skill bloat & have 10 extra skills that would take away from the monster hunting prowess.