"It's a Unix system! I know this--!" -- Lex, Jurassic Park (1993)
Skills are traits representing a character's overall knowledge, experience and competence with a class of tasks.[1]
while Taking Extra Time can improve effective skill[2].
Skill Level Meanings[]
In general skill levels translate[3][4] to:
| Level | Term | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 7 or less | Unskilled | Users at default, usually. |
| 8-9 | Feeble/Novice | Beginners, humorous bumblers, old school-days skills |
| 10-13 | Low-Risk Professional | Most job skills for ordinary folks, usually when they can use extra time and gain equipment bonuses. |
| 14-16 | High-Risk Professional | Job skills for people under stressed. Field surgeons, fighter pilots, etc. Adventurers will always want their ranged/melee skills around this level or higher. |
| 17-19 | Expert | World-class experts -- sometimes the best of a generation. Remember to buy up useful Techniques or related skills. |
| 20+ | Master / Larger than Life[note 1] | Cinematic masters. Skill 20 is a good breakpoint for physics-defying Gadgeteer-type advantages. You can cook a cake faster without burning it, or fix a car with bubblegum.
Sub-levels of this are:
|
Important Note[]
"Your unmodified skill level is called your base skill. It measures your odds of success at an “average” task under adventuring conditions – in other words, in a stressful situation where the consequences of failure are significant."[5] This means that a skill level does not relate to the depth of knowledge in the skill.
- Expert: Once your skill level reaches 14, additional levels of skill don’t improve your odds of success much.[6] Techniques for special cases generally provide a better option.
- Beyond Master: "An extreme level (anything over 25) in one skill tends to be excessive and unbelievable – and is frequently less useful than a lesser level combined with one or more subsidiary skills."[7]
Extremely High Skill Not Needed[]
At first glance a mythological hero able to skewer foes while fighting from his back, with the wrong hand, while dealing with poor lighting, and injuries would seem to require a 40+ skill but there is a saner (and cheaper) way to do this.
The warrior should be a master (level 20) in their base weapon skill, have the Blind Fighting skill (which negates darkness penalties), High Pain Threshold, and the techniques Ground Fighting, Hit Location and Off-Hand Training (removing penalties for position, hit location and off-handedness respectively).
"The essential point here is that highly-skilled character concepts can be realized in GURPS through the artful use of reasonable skill levels that do not break the system."[8]
Skill Cost and Defaults Table[]
You can't have a default from a default. For example if you only know Shortsword at default you do not get the -3 cross default for Saber or Smallsword but rather have to use the DX default.
The green row is a quick way to remember the cost section of the table. The default section is a quick rule of thumb if a skill has an attribute default.
| Point | Easy | Average | Hard | Very Hard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 (Default) | Attribute-4 | Attribute-5 | Attribute-6 | Attribute-6 or None |
| 1 | Attribute | Attribute-1 | Attribute-2 | Attribute-3 |
| 2 | Attribute+1 | Attribute | Attribute-1 | Attribute-2 |
| 4 | Attribute+2 | Attribute+1 | Attribute | Attribute-1 |
| Each +4 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 |
Note: always check a specific skill as there are exceptions to the rule of thumb. For example, Thaumatology (IQ/Very Hard) has a default of IQ-7 but only in settings where magic is known or has been seen by the character; otherwise it has no attribute default.
Modifiers[]
"Your unmodified skill level [...] measures your odds of success at an 'average' task under adventuring conditions."[9]
- Task Difficulty Modifier: Ranges from +10 (certain success) to -10 (near certain failure) For example, you don't need a high Driving skill to start a car but you would need one to drive at high speeds while shooting out the window.[10]
- Time Spent: Taking less time then "normal" incurs a penalty while taking more gives a bonus.[11]. A student can be considered as a job with implicit time-compression of 2, 4, or even 8 possible.[12]
- Assistance: Working with others generally gives +1[13] Supervision under a competent boss may give a +1.[14] Equipment quality also effects skill with makeshift or poor quality insuring a penalty (-2 or -1) and professional-grade ("good" or "fine") can give a +1 or +2.[15]
- Ordinary Working Professionals: "At the end of every month in which a character works, he must roll against one of the prerequisite skills for his job. This is called a job roll.[16] "The standard rules are designed for adventurers, not for ordinary working professionals. Professionals make one job roll a month. On a critical failure, something bad happens, with harmful consequences – but not usually as bad as a critical failure during an adventure. (...) With one roll a month, a mage with effective skill 15 or less goes 54 months between mishaps, on the average; one with effective skill 16 or better could go 216 months (or 18 years)."[17]
The Rule of...[]
- The Rule of 16: "If a supernatural attack (magic spell, psi ability, etc.) offers a resistance roll and the subject is living or sapient, the attacker’s effective skill cannot exceed the higher of 16 and the defender’s actual resistance. If it does, reduce it to that level."[18]
- The Rule of 20: "If a skill defaults to a basic attribute that is higher than 20, treat that attribute as 20 when figuring default skill."[19]
Racially Learned Skills[]
Racially Learned Skills are bought from a race's normal attributes. So if the Race has DX 11 (DX+1) then racial Stealth (A) 15 (DX+4) would cost 4 points.
Note that individuals with different attributes will have their racial learned skill adjusted accordingly. So a character of the example above has DX 12 their Stealth will be 16. Also racial learned skills improve as if the skill was bought normally so for the example race Stealth-16 would cost 4 points not 1.
When Rolls Fail[]
The real world example of the Franklin expedition can serve as an example of what happens when several skill rolls fails many of which were long before Franklin set out on his voyage (and as with the engines likely critical fails).
Optional Rule: Skill Degradation[]
- Skills can degrade if not used[20]
See Also[]
- Complementary Skills
- List of Skills
- Skills From Classic That Don't Exist in 4e
- Wildcard Skills and GURPS Power-Ups 7: Wildcard Skills
- Attribute
- Advantage and List of Advantages
- Disadvantage and List of Disadvantages
- Techniques
Notes[]
References[]
- ↑ Basic Set, p.7
- ↑ Basic Set pg 346
- ↑ Basic Set (Third Edition) Revised pg 45
- ↑ Compendium II p116
- ↑ Basic Set pg 171
- ↑ Basic Set pg 172
- ↑ Basic Set pg 172
- ↑ Compendium I p. 114-115
- ↑ Basic Set p 171
- ↑ Basic Set p 345
- ↑ Basic Set p 346
- ↑ Basic Set p 293
- ↑ Complementary Skills, p. B206
- ↑ Long Tasks, Basic Set p. 346
- ↑ Equipment Modifiers, Basic Set p 345
- ↑ Basic Set p. 516
- ↑ Thaumatology: Urban Magics pg 30
- ↑ Basic Set pg 175, 344
- ↑ Basic Set pg 349
- ↑ Basic Set pg 294