From: thornley@milli.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley)
Subject: Re: Advantages
Organization: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, CSci dept.
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 18:54:11 GMT

In article <40851@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce Koike) writes:
>In article <1992Nov9.195951.12743@news.tufts.edu> gharris@jade.tufts.edu (George W. Harris) writes:
>>	But the problem with this is that Stupid Joe with the Strong Will
>>advantage has a lower will than Brilliant Josephine with the Weak Will
>>disadvantage.  So you have a not uncommon case where the words are at odds
>>with reality.
>
>	Not really.  Stupid Joe's will is higher than what it would
>normally have been, thus the reason for the Strong Will.

How many people really find this intuitive?  A Weak-Willed character can
easily have a stronger will than a Strong-Willed character.  The description
of the advantage puts it in absolute terms, when it's all relative.
The GURPS description says that Joe is firm-willed, and Josephine is
gullible, when perhaps Joe has a will of 10 and Josephine has one of 14.

>Alternately you can rule that IQ <> Will and make a new Will stat
>that starts at 10.

Set Will at 10 and use the Strong and Weak Will rules to modify it.

>	Alternately you can make 5 perception stats (6 when you
>count the overall Alertness advantage).  Add in Charisma,
>Attractiveness, Double-Jointed (+3 to climbing rolls and stuff!),
>High Pain Threshold, Language Talent, Longetivity (how you age),
>Absolute Direction, Animal Empathy, A ton of reaction statistics,
>Musical Ability, Various reputation adjustments, Voice...
>
>	...Uh-huh...

Isn't Guy Fawkes day coming up?  You could put fireworks into the straw man
you just constructed.

Anyway, IQ is certainly overloaded in GURPS.  It performs four functions that
seem largely independent to me:  controlling intellectual skills, controlling
social skills, controlling perception, and controlling willpower.  Do you
think that these functions all go together strongly in real life?

There are certain advantages and disadvantages that can modify some of these.
By using Strong and Weak Will, you can tailor the Will to any desired value.
You can raise, but not lower, Perception.  Therefore, if you want a brilliant
scientist, he or she will be very perceptive, whether you like it or not.
You can have a magician with average IQ and some magical talent, but if you
want the magician to have great magical talent you need a high IQ.

Given that most people don't have many ads and disads, most perceptive GURPS
characters will be highly intelligent, socially skilled, and strong-willed,
and most socially inept characters will be unperceptive, non-intellectual,
and weak-willed.  Again, I don't think these features are so strongly
correlated.

Also, it is difficult to impossible to set up some characters:  a brilliant
scientist who is not very perceptive, a smooth-talking multi-talented con man
with no talent for math or science, or said con man with low perception.

In Hero, for example, there are separate stats for intellectual ability,
social ability, and willpower, and perception can be largely divorced from
intellectual ability.  It isn't perfect, but it works with a reasonable
number of stats.

DHT