Highly Intelligent Character

[TheQuestionMan]

GURPS 3E Advantage; "Harmony With The Tao"

- Grants 11- for any skill attempt.

[steriaca]

Am i just reading it wrong or is cramming lackluster? In 5e it says 8 hours to get a 8- roll. Why would you even spend time and points just to get 25% success chance on a base roll?

Don't like the basic Cramming rules? Try the Advance Player's Guide page 36, wich increses options and rolls (up to a 13- roll for 20 points). Don't like these options? Buy a VVP "Cramming Pool".

[akrippler]

Thanks those are good options

[womble]

The perceived ownership of the setting is problematic for me, and, I believe, tends to result in such instances as I previously mentioned where GM's say "Nah, you can't do that." I realize that's probably the standard, for the GM to create the world, but my games always begin with a conversation between all people around the table, coming to some kind of understanding about how the world is supposed to function. You make lots of other great points in your post.

 

Regarding the example you gave, I have a question. Suppose the GM had not necessarily anticipated the solution struck by the Science-super. How would you perceive the GM's hesitancy to allow such a plan to be executed? Of course, this is a line of questioning heading towards "Whats to stop me from making up those kinds of "solutions" all the time?" where, it may not be as obvious for each problem presented by the GM. 

Someone's got to lay the seeds and set up the mystery. To my mind, around most tables, that's the GM. Certainly, if I'm the GM, I know far more about what's really going on in the wider world, and why, and how, than my players do, and someone rolling a 3 on their 18- Alchemy skill isn't going to get them a Philosopher's Stone just because the player comes up with a poetic-sounding combination of elements. They might get two clues from the experimental series rather than one about how the Stone might actually be made, and maybe I'll've delegated responsibility for providing the colour and flavour of those processes, but a roll, or a high skill alone isn't going to give a solution to a world-changing mystery.

 

I don't know for sure that our GM had anticipated the Science-super's solution. But the conceit behind the super-science "explanamacation" of how the plasma bombs "work" made our conclusion logical for anyone who knows that ceramics are refractory and steel is strong, combined with the high temperatures and pressures of hydrogen plasma. Maybe our team's idea is horribly flawed, in that the Nazi-super's plasma powers don't actually need the exact physical properties of the casings (though if they didn't, why spend all the effort and treasure to make the things exactly so?). Maybe our plan is flawed in that the super is proof against his own plasma (but hopefully not against the shrapnel and flame of conflagrating hydrogen). If he'd just said "you can't sneak into the hangar and change the ceramic into plain steel", that would have been a showstopper. Because it was obvious that we could, having scouted the place using our two super-stealthy characters. Now, we left the session having only conceived the plan, so he's got a while to come up with "eventualities" that make the execution of the plan trickier than we anticipate.

 

Part of the point of having a GM is so that we can come up with solutions like this, once the mystery has been laid out and we've done the "legwork". Sometimes the solution is just to hammer a few Nazi craniums, which is what another character is good at. Which is a reason for the supers to be in a team with a mix of talents: they can act on a wide range of potential solutions. But  just saying "My Occult roll means his magic curse bombs are negated by holy water" isn't the way forward. It negates the need for the legwork that others can and have to do, for one.

[zslane]

... the GM has the final say over what will, and won't, work, because they are the only ones who (should) have a complete picture of what is actually going on. 

 

This statement needs to be on the first page of every RPG published. I don't think its basic truth can be overstated.

[whitekeys]

Certainly, if I'm the GM, I know far more about what's really going on in the wider world, and why, and how, than my players do

With respect to your games and style (not a criticism), if it's make-believe, who says you know? 

 

I realize that's a stupid question because, obviously, that's the way your games are set up. That's just a problematic statement for me, personally. As soon as someone says they "know" something, or are convinced, about an imagined world, then there are control issues for me. That's why I don't set my games up like that, and mostly the reason why I haven't get along well in other games set up like that. 

[whitekeys]

Part of the point of having a GM is so that we can come up with solutions like this, once the mystery has been laid out and we've done the "legwork". Sometimes the solution is just to hammer a few Nazi craniums, which is what another character is good at. Which is a reason for the supers to be in a team with a mix of talents: they can act on a wide range of potential solutions. But  just saying "My Occult roll means his magic curse bombs are negated by holy water" isn't the way forward. It negates the need for the legwork that others can and have to do, for one.

This I agree with, though problems can arise in many different ways.

[Surrealone]

Don't like the basic Cramming rules? Try the Advance Player's Guide page 36, wich increses options and rolls (up to a 13- roll for 20 points). Don't like these options? Buy a VVP "Cramming Pool".

Cramming's generally not worth 3pts for 8- ... and it sure as heck isn't worth 20pts for 13-.  Compare that to what 20pts of STR will get you; sheesh!

 

​My point:

APG p36 options are STILL lackluster for the points paid ... when compared with use of those points on other things.  Sadly, a VPP 'cramming' pool is often overkill...