The GURPS rules are the best published rules ever. It is only because they are so well written and so modular that so many people attempt to modify and enhance them. Even though they're the best rules published, they're not the best rules that they can be. Many, this writer included, believe that the rules pertaining to the balance and relationship between attributes and skills is fundamentally broken. While the rest of the rules provide balance, the rules governing the relationship between attributes and skills is too easily used to create an imbalance. As the generic and universal qualities of the system are what drew many to GURPS, it seems that a fix to this problem is required. In that spirit, these rules are offered.
If you playtest any of these rules or have any comments or criticism, send e-mail to atomicat@geocities.com
These rules represent a substantial change to the GURPS rules. Unlike the suggested rules regarding a Will attribute, as published in GURPS Compendium I, they are not a drastic change and they leave the fundamental concepts of GURPS intact. However, similar the rules pertaining to the frequency of submission to disadvantages, these rules base skills, their use and defaults, on a racial average.
Several aspects of how attributes relate to skills are discussed in this section. These rules are intended as a unified whole, but true to the spirit of GURPS, may each be used seperately to create the type of system that you would like to play.
All skills are based on the racial average of the governing attribute and no longer on the character's actual governing attribute. Therefore most mental skills will be based on an IQ of 10 for adult humans.
Example: A player wants to apply 1/2 point to a mental average skill. The chart on B44 indicates that a 1/2 point spent on a mental average skill results in a skill level of IQ-2. The chracter in question is an adult human, racial average IQ10, so the resulting skill level would be 8.
Juvenile skills are based on the racial juvenile average of the governing attribute.
Example: If the character in the example above were a human child, 5 years old, the 1/2 point spent on a mental average skill would still result in a skill level of IQ-2. However, the racial average for a human 5-year old is IQ7, so the resulting skill level would be 5.
Defaults of mental skills defaulting to IQ and physical skill defaulting to DX are based on the racial average of the governing attribute. Other defaults are based on the actual attribute that the character possesses. However default levels can be raised by the aptitudes Physically Experienced and Mentally Experienced.
Example: Axe Throwing, a physical skill, defaults to DX-4. Since it is a physical skill that defaults to DX, the default is based on the racial average of 10 for an adult human. The character would possess the default skill level of 6 (10-4). However, Leadership, a mental skill, defaults to ST-5. Since it is a mental skill and it does not default to IQ, the default would be the character's ST minus 5.
It is strongly recommended that the rules listed here under Improving Skills Through Study and Aptitudes be used with these new rules.
The player rolls three dice after the specified amount of study time. If the roll is less than or equal to the governing attribute, the skill is increased by the amount indicated. As usual, a 17 or 18 is always a failure and a 3 or 4 is always a success. There can be no critical failures or critical successes.
| Hours Spent | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Type of Study | 100 | 50 | 25 | 12 1/2 |
| With Teacher | 1 | 1/2 | 1/4 | 1/8 |
| Self Study | 1/2 | 1/4 | 1/8 | N/A |
| On-the-Job* | 1/4 | 1/8 | N/A | N/A |
Characters may improve their skills as in the standard rules. However, two optional rules are provided here to take advantage of the rule seperating attributes from skill levels.
Learning as You Go If a character successfully uses a skill during an adventure, the player (or GM) may roll three dice. If the roll is less than or equal to the character's governing attribute, the character was good enough to learn something new from the experience. Another roll should be made immediately. If this second roll is greater than the character's skill level (A 17 or 18 are always a success.), the character may add 1/8 point to the skill. If the roll is less than or equal to the skill, the character gains no points in the skill, they already knew what that experience could have taught them. A character may only earn a maximum of 1/8 point per skill and a maximum of 1 character point over all skills (i.e. only eight different skills may be improved by this method) per day. This represents learning overload.
After Session Point BonusesIf a player wishes to spend character points awarded at the end of a session or adventure on skill improvement, the player should follow a procedure similar to Optional Rule #1. However, since the points have already been earned and cannot be lost, the procedure is modified as follows.
The players decides which skill he would like to improve and by how much, up to a maximum of 1 skill level if he has the available points. He then rolls three dice. If the roll is less than or equal to the character's governing attribute, the player may roll again. If the second roll is greater than the character's skill level (A 17 or 18 are always a success.), the character may place the required number of points in the skill. If the roll is less than or equal to the skill level, the player may not make another attempt until he is awarded additional points at the end of the next session or adventure. The player may attempt to improve the skill through study at any time.
The following table can be used to determine skill level with fractions of character points. It works with the system outlined above or with the standard GURPS rules. This table doesn't change any of the values, it just extends them down to the 1/8 point range.
While this system uses skills based on fractional points as small as 1/8, it is recommended that skills based on the default of another skills only be allowed if 1/2 point has been spent learning the skill upon which the other is based. This makes bookkeeping much easier and also represents the skill level needed to begin applying it in other related areas.
| Difficulty of Skill | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your Final Skill Level | Easy | Average | Hard | Very Hard |
| Att-6 | -- | -- | df | 1/8 point |
| Att-5 | -- | df | 1/8 point | 1/4 point |
| Att-4 | df | 1/8 point | 1/4 point | 1/2 point |
| Att-3 | 1/8 point | 1/4 point | 1/2 point | 1 point |
| Att-2 | 1/4 point | 1/2 point | 1 point | 2 points |
GURPS Compendium I gives some excellent guide lines for creating advantages that raise skill levels for groups of skills. Those rules allow for the creation of of an advatage that gives a bonus, up to +3, for groups of similar skills. With the addition of the rules above for basing all skills on the racial average, those skill group bonuses are necessary to create the kinds of characters that populate typical RPGs. Therefore, the following advantages are provided. Unless otherwise stated, the advantage may only be taken for a maximum of three levels, each level provides a bonus of +1 to the skills in question, and the character must spend at least 1/2 point in the skill.
Bonues for aptitudes are computed after the character points have been allocated. So a player would calculate the skill normally, based on how many character points were spent to raise the skill, then the bonus would be applied.
Example: A character has 1 point allocated to a mental hard skill. Checking the chart on B44, the character would possess the skill at IQ-2, or level 8. However, the character also has the advantage of Scientific Aptitude (Hard) +2, so the final skill level would be 10.
If the standard GURPS rules (attribute based skills) are used, the value for each level is the same. If the rules mentioned above (under the heading "A Different Standard") are used, then each level costs one CP less than the previous level. The additional values are listed in parenthesis.
| Business Sense | 3(/2/1) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any business skill: accounting, merchant, etc. | |
| Craftsman | 6(/5/4) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any crafts skill. | |
| Deadeye | 6(/5/4) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any projectile weapon skill. | |
| Driving Aptitude | 3(/2/1) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any self-propelled land or water vehicle skill except shiphandling. | |
| Great Communicator | 3(/2/1) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to involving inter-personal communications: teaching, leadership, acting, etc. | |
| Mentally Experienced | 6 points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus for the default use of any mental skill that defaults to IQ. A character may have one level of this advantage for every level of IQ they possess above the racial average. | |
| Military Genius | 3(/2/1) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any military science skill. | |
| Physically Experienced | 6 points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any physical skill that defaults to DX. A character may have one level of this advantage for every level of DX they possess above the racial average. | |
| Salty Dog | 4(/3/2) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any skill relating to seafaring: shiphandling, sailing, sailor, boating, etc. | |
| Scientific Aptitude (Hard) | 6(/5/4) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any hard science: | |
| Scientific Aptitude (Soft) | 6(/5/4) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any soft science: | |
| Seat of the Pants | 3(/2/1) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any self-propelled air or space vehicle skill. | |
| Soldier's Spirit | 5(/4/3) points/level |
This advantage gives a bonus to any military skill, except military science skills. | |
