Should I add martial arts for a combat oriented Tactical Shooting game ?
Hi, I'm going to run my first GURPS game and my players and I decided to adapt a couple of missions of the classic SWAT4 game.
Since the game will be very combat focused I haven't spent any points on anything that wouldn't have an influence during combat. That might change at a later date.
I'm trying to stay near the 150 points limit though it might be a bit arbitrary for the context.
After building a base character, I realised apart from the knife skill, the characters might have a bit of trouble if they get disarmed.
Should I get gurps martial arts to add some unarmed skills or should I just roll with what I've got ?
This is the GCS export :
Name: John "Bulldog" Smith (150)
Primary Attributes: ST 12 [20]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 12 [20];
Secondary Attributes: Will 11 [0]; Fright Check 13 [0]; Per 12 [5]; Vision 12 [0]; Hearing 12 [0]; Taste & Smell 12 [0]; Touch 12 [0]; Basic Speed 6 [-5]; Basic Move 6 [0];
Point Pools: FP 12 / 12 [0]; HP 12 / 12 [0];
Reactions: -2 from experienced NPCs; +2 from young or naive individuals who believe you are as good as you say you are;
Conditional Modifiers: +6 on all IQ rolls to wake up or to recover from surprise or mental stun; +1 to all HT rolls to stay conscious, avoid death, resist disease, or resist poison; +1 to initiative rolls for your side (+2 if you are the leader);
Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15]; Fit [5];
Perks: Back to the Wall [1];
Disadvantages: Duty (SWAT) [-10]; Sense of Duty [-5]; Overconfidence [-10];
Quirks:
Skills: Guns/TL8 (Pistol) DX+1 [2]-14; Guns/TL3 (Rifle) DX+1 [2]-14; Knife DX-1 [1]-12; Stealth DX+0 [2]-13; Observation Per+2 [10]-14; Tactics IQ+1 [8]-12; First Aid/TL8 IQ+0 [1]-11;
Posted Oct 30, 2023, 3:35 PM UTC
111
To add to the skill list A lot of RPG's assume that since all characters are adventurers even if you have no points in a skill you are baseline competent. Gurps doesn't. A default means you absolutely have no clue while a 1-point skill more or less means you read the manual, got some weeks of training and in general know the fundamental ideas. Because of that it is not unusual for a character to have a lot of 1-point skills. even normal humans probably have about 10 of them. An adventurer may have up to 30.
Now to suggest some additional skills I have yet to see. Climbing allows your team to pass obstacles and swimming to cross water. Running possibly if giving chase. Knot tying, unless you want to fall down when scaling a wall. Stealth because you do not want your surprise entry to be signalled by a bunch mall cops barging through the garden and snagging on the foliage.
Also, there are a bunch of skills which even if not directly combat-related really matter. Like driving because you need to get to the scene and will probably end up in a car chase somewhere down the line. Area knowledge so you don't staand out like a sore thumb. Armoury if you don't want your kit to break down. Computer operation because that is not actually trivial. Electronics operation(communication) because using an earpiece is also non-trivial. Observation if you want to see if the scene is as expected. Savoir-faire(cops) to work well in the corps. Shield if you are riot cops.
And it it's an elite swat team you would just have a bunch of academic disciplines in their own right.
Cartography or Architecture to understand a building's layout and find points of entry. Current affairs to adapt to changing situations. Heraldry to discern between gangs, organized crime and the several dozen of rivalling police organisations supposedly on your team. Hiking if you are dumped in the wilderness. Intelligence analysis to be able to use the info you are given to plan an operation. Law because you are police. Lockpicking if you don't want to enter with a bang. Mimicry if you want to be fancy. Scrounging because you are going to need that one piece of equipment at some point. Tactics because operators ought to have a plan and finally writing because those reports won't write themselves.
So yeah, getting a long skill list and ordering them in an understandable way is a good skill to have.
It's definitely a skill I'll have to spend points on myself !
I'm more or less getting the gist of it and trying to figure out how to make characters more than just game pieces but that will also come from my players and how they play them.