ext_160470 ([identity profile] dr-kromm.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] dr_kromm 2012-04-24 09:33 pm (UTC)

It was a numerical process, though I wouldn't call it scientific. The goal was to reduce hundreds of skills (literally, when you consider specialties), many dozens of advantages and perks, and tens of techniques to a small number of broad scores, so that even a non-GURPS player could get a feel for 10 high-points characters without having to read 20 pages of character sheets. Naturally, it loses something in the simplification. The method:

  1. Start with each character sheet and tag every point cost with the character's name (a simple matter of replacing ] with ]ANABEL or whatever).

  2. Copy all the tagged character sheets and paste them into a single word-processor file.

  3. Sort traits alphabetically, without regard for type.

  4. Decide on 30 arbitrary skill sets that cover most of what the PCs in the campaign actually spend time doing.

  5. Group everything in the huge file under these 30 skill sets. (I did so very broadly; e.g., Firearms got not only Guns skills, but also Fast-Draw skills for guns and ammo, and shooting-related perks and techniques.) Anything that clearly crosses N skill sets goes under all applicable skill sets with 1/N of the points apiece. (For instance I considered Fast-Talk half Deception and half Social Engineering.) "What went where" would defeat the purpose . . . I don't want to have to list hundreds of mappings! Anyone doing this would have to make those judgment calls for her campaign.

  6. Sum all the points each character has in each skill set (remember, these are tagged).

  7. Enter these sums in the appropriate cells of a spreadsheet.

  8. Add various sums (for major categories, overall totals, group totals, etc.) using the spreadsheet functions.

  9. Turn these into "each +1 is a doubling" ratings by taking the base-2 log of (1 + points) in each cell. The 1 is there to prevent log-of-zero issues, and justified somewhat by tasks having defaults.

  10. Color cells for fun (made easy through spreadsheet MIN and MAX functions).


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