From: doug@abby.chem.ucla.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: Re: Burn, GURPS, BURN!
Date: 27 Jan 93 23:54:25 GMT
Reply-To: doug@abby.chem.ucla.edu
Organization: Department of Chemistry, UCLA

In article <C1F92o.8A4@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (RedSwordTarga) writes:
>Well, he does have a major point on the default skills. I think that the
>whole idea of default skills is one of GURPS biggest holes. High stat
>characters can do everything well, which isn't reality at all. (Ever
>ask a physics or chemistry grad student something not in her major?)
>If they want to pay points for the skills, I can deal with a high INT
>person being great at lots o' stuff, but getting it for free makes
>GURPS seem kind of bogus.

Ahem.  As I *AM* a chemistry grad student (theoretical physical chemistry to be
precise), let me comment on this.  I have no experience with lasers (well,
other than the screwing around with the little bitty black-box type that they
give you in undergrad physics labs), and a friend was having trouble with a
laser because a bracket that holds the tube in place was broken.  This bracket
was supposed to move up and down or left and right when you turned certain
screws, but it didn't.  I took it apart, figured out how it worked and that one
part hadn't been quite in the right place, put it back together, and voila! 
Default skill!  I'm not entirely sure what skill it should have been, but it's
certainly a default as I have no experience with anything of the sort.  Hell, I
work with computers all day!  Probably some odd specialization of Mechanic or
the like.  That's irrelevant, though.  The point is, I am a firm believer in
default skills because of personal experiences like this.

You don't get these things for free in GURPS.  You pay for them as part of the
cost for IQ.

>Also, a lot of the skill modifiers don't seem to make any sense at all.
>Bonuses on your gun combat due to INT?

I can see bonuses to the default with no problem... I'm not really sure what
the rationale for bonuses to the learned skill are.  Has anyone done a study to
determine a correlation between marksmanship and intelligence?

>As far as the stats cost, they are just plain bogus. If DEX determines
>whether you hit or miss, then DEX is hands down the most important
>stat no matter what time period you are playing in and should cost more
>than the others. HT is important to how much damage you can take and should
>cost more than STR or INT. If DEX cost more than STR, then someone wouldn't
>feel bad buying some extra STR to be in character. For example, if you use
>SpaceHero to do your game, the player buying his STR up to 20 vice 10 only
>loses 10 points. That is going to cost him 3 points of DEX, but it doesn't
>cripple him in gun combat. He's a little less likely to hit and more likely
>to get hit, but most people can live with that 1 OCV/DCV difference. Doing
>a similar thing in GURPS cripples that character.

DX is only the most important stat if you're trying to hit things a lot. 
Believe it or not, there's more to roleplaying than combat!

In low tech settings, ST is just as important, because without it you can't
penetrate armor.  If you set up your available equipment in a high-tech setting
such that bigger weapons require more ST, then it's still important.


-Doug Gibson
 doug@abby.chem.ucla.edu

Neither UCLA nor the National Science Foundation has a clue what I am doing.
They just pay me to do it.

"We have to tear you to shreds because we care." - EAC
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.advocacy