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.
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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.)
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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."
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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.