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Since anyone with the right skills (and connections) can be hired to do the work, I'd say it's an occupational template.
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Rob Kelk
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While talking about exceptional support staff, do note that page 66 of the 4E Supers supplement has the sidebar "Wildcard skills for supporting staff". It offers the Security! and Servant! skills. Alfred the butler probably has both.
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"Anyone can be a winner if their definition of victory is flexible enough." - The DM of the Rings XXXV
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Oooh, good catch! Thanks!
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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He and Edmund Jarvis are on that bus together, sure. Does this mean you'd be generally reconsidering the use of wildcard skills in IST Update, or just making them available to embassy staff as a narrative convenience?
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My opinion on Bang skills is that one can add flavour to a character, while many is a sign of munchkinism...
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Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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I have been explicitly told to leave the choice of whether to use wildcard skills or not up to the GM.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
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*nods* On consideration, that sounds fair. Sure, they're cinematic, but so's Trained by a Master, and there are already canonical characters with that.
I have GURPS IST and IST Kingston and loved both! Just checked this forum for the first time in years, and I have two questions:
The various ISTs are a peacekeeping AND military force, why IST Basic Training (here and in the printed book) lacks a WEAPON skill? I think multiple points in blasters, guns, battlesuits and/or even a tonfa would be a more logical/useful choice than multiple points in History (International, UN) and Mind Block (see also IST Kingston, p. 41, where a IST member gets assigned a IST battlesuit "because of her relative defenselessness to physical threats").
In addition, why the IST Package in this thread adds the "Extremely Hazardous" modifier to Duty? World War III has ended 10 years ago, after all...
I REALLY hope to see a new edition of GURPS IST, thank you for your great work so far!
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Baldo Wrote:[W]hy the IST Package in this thread adds the "Extremely Hazardous" modifier to Duty? World War III has ended 10 years ago, after all...
I REALLY hope to see a new edition of GURPS IST, thank you for your great work so far! I'm pretty sure it was X-Hazardous in the original GURPS IST, which reflects a time when WW3 had not yet started. Being the world's policeman is probably always going to be X-Hazard.
Good point about the lack of weapon skill. I think it's missing because this is truly basic training, the training literally all IST personnel get. Maybe specialties (admin, security, etc) should be handled as occupational lenses.
Mamorien Wrote:I'm pretty sure it was X-Hazardous in the original GURPS IST... No, GURPS IST (p.29) has the 'basic', -15 points version of Duty only. And it makes sense, policemen and peacekeepers have (slightly?) different missions and priorities, in my opinion.
I think the (official?) IST package in this thread needs these changes:
IST Membership: 80 points + Rank
Duty (IST, UN; Almost all the time) [-15]
History (International, UN) [1]
Mind Block [1]
3 points in Combat/Weapon, Military and/or Police skills (Player's choice)
I hope the math is right.
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