Wednesday, September 18, 2013

[GURPS] Character Sheet Organization: Concept Clustering/Grouping

I don't know if anyone noticed this but In my character folder, that's publicly viewable, I have a very different way of organizing my characters. I follow the Writer's Guidelines for Character Format.

with one exception - I do not organize character skills and advantages in Alphabetic order. Instead I group them in concepts.

Example would be Drolf, my Dwarf in +Christian Blouin
in a 250 point game I had a lot of skills, and in GURPS you have a lot of skills to be both realistic, well rounded, and optimised. See Kromm's post about well rounded basic skills and thats only for "Basic Stuff" that doesnt include Professional Specialization (Mage's Magic Skills, Face man's key influence skills, etc...)

in Drolf i had to make his Soldier Career Skills and his Sociopathic Skills.

The reason behind this is simple: I want to be COMPLETE and thorough. Immediately I can see what are all my complimentary skills and what skills I may be lacking. You will notice that Fast Talk, despite having no points, is in his Sociopath Skill grouping. This allows me to see where he would be growing or expanding to, as he developes OR lacks in the field he is supposed to specialize.

Why am I going to keep going line by line in an alphabetic listing if I have or don't have a skill? If it is in my Liar Abilities then it should be there, if its a combat ability it should be with my combat skills, if its a Soldier ability it should be in my soldiering skills.

Its easier what you are looking for in a cluster of 10 skills than a cluster of 30 skills.

Also you will notice Perks will also be there, especially when they relate to a Theme/Concept. Weapon bond, a Influence Shtick, Skill Adaption.

You can't do this in many character sheets, and I cannot put notes Near the skill groupings. If you also check Drolf you will notice he has Tactical Best Operating proceedure for me to just cut and paste. I would extend this to Social Situations if I could.


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