This thread will include explanations and/or clarifications of rules straight from the GURPS Line Editor. I’ll add them as needed, instead of dumping all the info at the same time. If you have suggestions, please post them in the OOC thread and direct me to somewhere I can verify that Sean “Kromm” Punch actually have said/posted what you want me to include.

If you, in the same vein, have rules questions, please post them in the OOC thread too. If I have Line Editor answers, I'll provide those
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:40, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:34, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:35, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:34, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

Skills
Skill Levels
When telling writers how to norm skills for realistic characters (not fantasy monsters, Buffy-esque slayers, Buckaroo Banzai-level generalists, and so on!), we just point to p. B172 and p. B447. Tactical Shooting adds some other useful guidelines.

       • Average People: 8-13
               o Skills remembered from school days: 8-9
               o Most skills, including hobbies, secondary job skills of volunteers, and primary skills of draftees: 10-11
               o Primary job skills of most normal people (including cops, doctors, pilots, and soldiers): 12-13
       • Experts: 14-19
               o Someone good enough to work under life-or-death conditions (including commandos, field surgeons, and ace pilots): 14-15
               o Someone good enough to stand out in his field, however rarefied (top commando, ace of aces, etc.): 16-17
               o Best of a generation (e.g., the world's best sniper): 18-19
       • Masters: 20-25
               o Top master alive (presumably good enough to teach the best of a couple of generations): 20-21
               o Confirmed top master of all time: 22-23
               o Mythic masters, verging on the cinematic: 24-25

As p. B172 says, you don't achieve great fame by piling on more skill levels. You do it by adding attribute levels and advantages that enhance skills, bypass rolls, remove penalties, etc., and by learning subsidiary skills. A top MMA competitor isn't notable because he has Karate-20. He's notable because he has high ST, DX, and HT; improved HP, FP, and Basic Speed; Judo-16, Karate-16, and Wrestling-16; one trademark technique at 16 for each skill; the maximum number of Style Perks that those skill and technique points allow; and a few advantages like Enhanced Dodge, Flexibility, Hard to Subdue, High Pain Threshold, and (let's face it) Luck. Having points in Ally (Top trainer) and Ally (Top manager) doesn't hurt, either.
- http://forums.sjgames.com/show...=1127894#post1127894 (Post 9)

7 or less Unskilled (default users)
8-9 Feeble (beginners, humorous bumblers)
10-11 Average (most non-job skills for ordinary folks)
12-13 Competent (most job skills for ordinary folks)
14-16 Exceptional (the most seasoned of ordinary folks)
17-19 Heroic (extraordinary world-class experts)
20-21 Larger-than-Life (top experts from all of history)
22-23 Legendary ("typical" mythic figures)
24-26 Superhuman (outstanding mythic figures)
27 or more Godlike (greatest mythic figures, gods, etc.)
- http://forums.sjgames.com/show...8957&postcount=6 (post 6)

Architecture
"In my ongoing campaign, Architecture is the skill of knowing how buildings are put together so that you can blow them up (IQ-based roll), find secret rooms (Per-based roll), or navigate them even if you haven't been there (Per- or IQ-based roll, depending on whether you're looking or guessing). It's essentially part of the "extended suite of Survival skills" for built-up areas, where Urban Survival is the streets/exterior part and Architecture is the rooms/interior part. A Per-based roll against it can spot – or an IQ-based roll can deduce – where to find X, whether X is an elevator, an exit, a staircase, or a supporting member.

Strangely, I've never had designing buildings come up in any campaign ever, in any edition – not since 1986. Even back in my earliest dungeon crawls with GURPS First Edition, it was basically the "find hidden rooms" skill. That might have more to do with my crowd than with the game, though; I've never gamed with anyone who was into long stretches of downtime used to raise armies, buildings, and stock prices, so I've always strived to give the most sedate and academic of skills exciting adventure applications."
- http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=126722 (post 2)

Finding Things
"Rooms are so big that you need separate skills for different things (on top of basic Perception for things sitting out in the open):
* Architecture for hidden features of the room itself.
* Carpentry to notice something odd with the woodwork.
* Criminology to find macroscopic evidence left behind by a criminal.
* Electrician to spot something strange about the lights or wiring.
* Forensics to discover traces of blood, explosives, fibers, etc.
* Masonry to identify unusual stonework.
* Observation to "case the joint."
* Tracking to pick up on footprints on the floor.
* Traps for traps and secret doors."
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:42, Sat 25 June 2016.

[Held for later use]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:35, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:35, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:36, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:36, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:36, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]

[Held for later use]

[Held for later use]

[Held for later use]

Injuries, Illness, and Fatigue
Conditions
The following results in combat are obvious without any dice rolling:
* Knocked back.
* Knocked down.
* Stunned; the heart attack mortal condition; and the agony, choking, daze, and ecstasy incapacitating conditions.
* Crippled.
* Hallucinating incapacitating condition.
* Retching incapacitating condition.
* Seizure incapacitating condition.
* Dead; unconscious; the coma mortal condition; and the paralysis, sleep, and unconsciousness incapacitating conditions.

However, it would require a Concentrate maneuver and a skill roll to distinguish between two conditions on the same line above in a fight (stunned vs. daze, dead vs. merely unconscious, etc.). Ditto to distinguish between two causes of the same condition (knocked down by failed HT roll vs. knocked down by failed DX roll, mental vs. physical stun, etc.). And ditto to identify shock (the penalty due to injury), irritating conditions (coughing/sneezing, drowsy, drunk, euphoria, nauseated, pain, or tipsy), or wounds (missing 1 HP vs. missing 4 HP, etc.).

I would allow several skills to work here. Diagnosis is obvious, but other possibilities might be Body Language (to notice shock, tell types of stun apart, etc.), Physiology, Streetwise (to spot drunk, euphoria, etc., and to distinguish ecstasy/daze due to drugs from combat stun), and anything else the player convinced me made sense. For instance, I'd let a boxer make a Per-based Boxing roll to assess the results of his beating. The important part is the turn spent scrutinizing the target, not the skill. I'd probably give a bonus equal in size to the largest relevant penalty to notice irritating conditions and shock, too; drunk, with -4 to self-control rolls, would be +4 to spot, compared to +2 for tipsy. Likewise, -4 in shock would give +4.
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:38, Thu 05 Jan 2012.

[Held for later use]

[Held for later use]

[Held for later use]

[Held for later use]

[Held for later use]

[Held for later use]