GM Toolkit 1 Characters

Niches

Die Niches ab Seite 35 des Buches GURPS GM Toolkit 1: Characters habe ich hier aufgeschrieben - gedacht um diese Copy/Paste und zusammen zu fassen.

Animals

Beasts come up in most adventure genres, whether this means a cowboy or knight’s horse, the fantasy druid’s pets, guard dogs, or wild animals encountered as monsters or the subjects of study. In some campaigns, dealing with them is a niche in itself.

Advantages: Allies, in the form of highly capable pets; Animal Empathy; and Animal Friend.

Disadvantages: Any self-imposed mental disadvantage (p. B121) tied to animal welfare.

Skills: Animal Handling; Disguise (Animals); Falconry; Mimicry (Animal Sounds or Bird Calls); Mount, when the PC is a beast; Naturalist; Packing; Riding; Teamster; and Veterinary. At higher TLs, add Biology (Zoology), an IQ/H optional specialty, and Paleontology (Paleozoology).

Combat

Almost every adventurer needs abilities useful in a fight, because battles take a while to game out and an incompetent PC means a bored player. However, combat challenges also define niches. The difference is that characters who fill pure combat niches require higher skill levels and more supporting attributes and advantages than their associates.

Attributes and Secondary Characteristics: ST; DX; HT; HP; Basic Speed; and Basic Move.

Advantages: Ambidexterity; Combat Reflexes; Enhanced Defenses*; Extra Attack*; Fit; Gunslinger*; Hard to Kill; Hard to Subdue; High Pain Threshold; Peripheral Vision; Rapid Healing; Trained by a Master*; and Weapon Master*. Traits with an asterisk (*) may be too cinematic for some campaigns.

Disadvantages: Berserk, which brings both benefits and risks; Bloodlust, especially for assassins; Callous, ditto; and Sense of Duty, to one’s own side or some great cause worth fighting for.

Skills: All combat/weapon skills! Countless niches encompass combat tasks, so pick matching skills. For example, an assassin might prefer Fast-Draw, Garrote, Guns (Pistol), Knife, and other skills for concealable weapons; a sniper needs Guns (Rifle); and a space marine is likely to know Battlesuit. Common supporting skills are Armoury, Connoisseur (Weapons), and Tactics; Animal Handling and Riding, for cavalrymen; and Savoir-Faire (Dojo), and possibly cinematic martial-arts skills, for martial artists.

Communications

Handling an adventuring group’s communications calls for a clear-voiced language expert. Intercepting enemy messages demands a good ear, too. At TL6+, add technical proficiency to all this. If the PCs aren’t prepared for such challenges, the adventure may grind to a halt the first time they encounter a code or a foreign tongue.

Attributes and Secondary Characteristics: IQ and Per.

Advantages and Perks: Acute Hearing; Cultural Familiarity; Language Talent; Languages; Penetrating Voice; and Voice.

Disadvantages: Xenophilia.

Skills: Computer Operation; Cryptography; Electronics Operation (Comm, EW, Media, or Surveillance); Electronics Repair (ditto); Gesture; Heraldry, because visual codes are communications, too; Linguistics; Lip Reading; Mimicry (Speech); Public Speaking; Savoir-Faire, in settings with strict social protocols surrounding messages; Typing; and Writing.

Performing

Many plots call for the PCs to entertain NPCs, whether that means placating the king to avoid beheading, impressing someone who can provide an introduction or a lucrative contract, or using a performance as a diversion. Or perhaps the play is the thing, and the campaign is about putting on successful shows!

Advantages and Perks: Appearance is universally handy. Then there’s Flexibility for contortionists; Musical Ability and Voice for musicians; Penetrating Voice and Rapier Wit (unless deemed too cinematic) for spoken-word types; Perfect Balance for acrobats; and so on. Be sure to suggest these in customization notes.

Disadvantages: Compulsive Carousing and Overconfidence. Performers sometimes actively exploit Dwarfism, Hunchback, Skinny, etc.

Skills: Acrobatics; Carousing; Dancing; Fire Eating; Fortune-Telling; Games; Mimicry (Speech); Musical Instrument; Performance; Public Speaking; Singing; Sleight of Hand; Sports (anything fun to watch); Stage Combat; and Ventriloquism. Behind the scenes, add Artist (Scene Design); Electronics Operation (Media); Group Performance; Makeup; Musical Composition; Poetry; Sewing, for costumes; and Writing, for plays. Some artists are also experts at Connoisseur (Dance or Music) and/or Current Affairs (High Culture or Popular Culture).

Crafting

Adventurers often face difficulties posed by broken or missing gear, or otherwise find themselves making hasty material preparations. Entire stories have been written about such things: raising the barn before winter, building a plane from the crash wreckage, etc. If adventures will involve such elements, then at least one niche should be up to the challenge. In low-key “slice of life” campaigns, each niche might have a trademark craft.

Advantages: Artificer; Gifted Artist; and High Manual Dexterity.

Disadvantages: Workaholic.

Skills: Armoury; Artist, especially Interior Decorating, Pottery, and Woodworking; Carpentry; Electrician; Electronics Repair; Jeweler; Leatherworking; Machinist; Masonry; Mechanic; Scrounging; Sewing; and Smith. If the campaign features relevant Professional Skills such as Clothmaker, Distiller, Glassblower, and Tanner, add those. Engineer should be an option for very talented individuals.

Deceit

Many campaigns feature criminal or espionage activities. In those that do, some niche should handle the art of bypassing security not through force, stealth, or technology, but by pretending to be somebody else.

Attributes: IQ is crucial to impersonators (see p. B174).

Advantages and Perks: Cultural Adaptability*; Honest Face; Social Chameleon*; Voice; and Zeroed. Traits with an asterisk (*) may be too cinematic for some campaigns. People with established alter egos might have Alternate Identity.

Disadvantages: Compulsive Lying; Enemies; Secret; and Trickster.

Skills: Acting; Disguise; Fast-Talk; Forgery, if the deceiver prepares his own fake ID; Makeup; Mimicry (Speech); and Psychology. Savoir-Faire and Streetwise are useful for passing oneself off as a “generic” member of a particular social class.

Social Engineering

People can be the most puzzling challenge. Manipulating others and settling conflicts peacefully is a huge niche in almost every genre. In fact, it’s such a major role that unless the GM foresees the campaign being wall-to-wall Combat (p. 36) and Sneaking (p. 40), it’s best to scatter these abilities across several – perhaps all – templates.

Attributes: IQ defines “social intelligence,” doing what the “Charisma” or “Charm” attribute does in other RPGs.

Advantages and Perks: Appearance; Charisma; Cultural Adaptability*; Cultural Familiarity; Empathy; Fashion Sense; Honest Face; Pitiable; Rapier Wit*; Smooth Operator; Social Chameleon*; and Voice. Traits with an asterisk (*) may be too cinematic for some campaigns.

Disadvantages: Chummy; Compulsive Carousing; Overconfidence, for the reaction bonus from the impressionable; and Xenophilia, to avoid accidental bad reactions from foreigners.

Skills: Acting; Carousing; Connoisseur (Wine), or any other specialty that would impress; Current Affairs (High Culture, People, Popular Culture, or Travel); Dancing; Detect Lies; Diplomacy; Erotic Art; Fast-Talk; Interrogation; Intimidation; Leadership; Makeup; Merchant; Panhandling; Politics; Psychology; Public Speaking; Savoir-Faire; Sex Appeal; and Streetwise.

Exploration

“How do we get there?” is a classic RPG challenge! While not all adventuring groups have a dedicated navigator, map-maker, and route-finder, it’s an essential sideline for at least one niche in any genre where the heroes leave home occasionally. If the campaign’s explorers focus on the wilderness rather than on manmade places, it would be reasonable to merge this category with Outdoors (p. 39).

Advantages: Absolute Direction; Eidetic Memory; and Intuition.

Disadvantages: Curious.

Skills: Navigation above all else. Add Architecture, for indoor exploration; Area Knowledge, if only of the entire world in broad strokes; Cartography, for making maps; Current Affairs (Regional); Geography; Mathematics (Surveying); Meteorology/Weather Sense; Naturalist; Prospecting; and Urban Survival, for urban exploration.

Establishment

Dealing with the setting’s apparatus of power can be a major challenge – possibly the principal one, in a relatively cerebral campaign. This can be the primary job of a niche, or of several if there are many different authorities to wrangle.

Advantages: Charisma, for leaders; Claim to Hospitality; Contacts; Legal Immunity; Patrons; Rank; Reputation; Security Clearance; Social Regard; Status; and Wealth.

Disadvantages: Any Code of Honor, Duty, or Sense of Duty expected of the position. In some settings, Jealousy or Selfish might be necessary to seem convincing.

Skills: Administration; Current Affairs (People or Politics); Diplomacy; Economics; Expert Skill (Political Science); Geography (Political); Heraldry; Law; Leadership; Politics; Propaganda; Public Speaking; and Savoir-Faire, usually but not always the High Society specialty.

Money

Money makes most game worlds go round and presents PCs with endless challenges, starting with “How do we pay for our gear?” Solving these problems is essential in all genres, and a niche in itself in more thoughtful campaigns.

Advantages: Business Acumen; Independent Income; Lightning Calculator; Mathematical Ability; Rank (Merchant or Administrative); and Wealth.

Disadvantages: Greed; Miserliness, to keep the money; and Workaholic.

Skills: Accounting; Administration; Current Affairs (Business), and conceivably other specialties, to exploit trends; Diplomacy, for high-powered negotiations; Economics; Finance; Gambling; Heraldry (Corporate Logos); Law (Contract or Business); Market Analysis; Mathematics (Statistics); Merchant; Panhandling, down at street level; Propaganda; and Savoir-Faire (High Society). These skills assume existing money; add Counterfeiting to make money (literally!) or Prospecting to find gold, silver, etc. at the source.

Transportation

Travel is a classic motivation for adventure, and thus a large part of many campaigns. An expert with vehicles, cargos, and related subjects can tackle numerous challenges. In a big group, “driver” and “pilot,” “operator” and “mechanic,” and so on may be separate niches.

Attributes: DX.

Advantages: Absolute Direction; Acute Vision; Combat Reflexes; and Signature Gear (Vehicle).

Disadvantages: Workaholic, for those long hauls.

Skills: Area Knowledge, possibly of specific transportation networks; Bicycling; Boating; Connoisseur (Vehicles); Crewman skills of all kinds; Current Affairs (Travel); Driving; Engineer (Vehicle Type); Freight Handling; Mechanic; Navigation; Packing; Parachuting; Piloting; Riding; Shiphandling; Submarine; and Teamster. At TL6+, any Electronics Operation specialty needed for essential vehicle systems may qualify, most often Sensors and – unless there’s room for a Communications (p. 36) expert – Comm.