Sunday, June 21, 2009

GURPS and Intelligences

In GURPS Raw intelligence is 20cp per level
This includes awareness, attention and will power (Perception and Willpower).

Other Intelligences are:

Perception 5cp/ level
Since there are physical limits human range of perception This mental attribute may be refering to Attention, My interpretation of this is in its Mental Competence. Specifically Attention and Awareness. If you look over the skills carefully it is balance of Awareness (reactive attention) and Attention (Concentrated Attention) that makes up this mental attribute.

Willpower 5cp/ level
Comment: Personally, i'm beginning to steer away from the concept of will power as being defined as Control, Instead ,IMO, Will is the Shock-absorbing or Buffering ability of a mind to take large amount of stress (like fear, panic, anxiety, frustration, etc. etc). I don't in its Control aspect now that I'm learning Game theory and a bit of Psychology. People will act acording to their Beliefs, values, and Motives. Control over their impulses come from their values and these impulses stem from their cathartic/compulsive needs. A person who is extremely given to their belief structure will not budge an inch from it.


Mathematical Ability 2cp/ 5cp.
Comment: Interestingly its only 5cp to have an advantage that make up what Einstien and Stephen hawking's abilities (on top of the IQ15-16). Given the description of the advantage: some mathematicians may consider the point value of this too cheap. Especially the 2cp version which is mental calculator- my calculator (in my smartphone) is a scientific calculator with finance and all the various conversions of different measuring standards. If I had that as an internal ability that would possibly equate to a Mathematics (applied) skill level 15! (which would cost 24cp!).


Empathy: Sensitivity and Empathy 5cp/15cp
comment: Rare but Empathy can be trained if you ask me. It falls around the same mental attribute of Awareness, but focuses more on people. The ability to empathise is a skill IMO and can be learned and trained. IT also has varying levels of competence. The difference between the Physcology Skill description and Empathy is very little in actual practice and use.

Charisma +1 to +5, 5cp/ level.
Comment:
My experience with charisma has more to do with confidence. After learning more and more about Diplomacy, Studying examples of Diplomats and again- how game theory factors into all of this- Charisma is a skill, but a skill that requires it to Conditioned into someone and in built into their lifestyle. If you look at overconfidence and how it actually affects the naive real charisma does roughly the same thing- Charisma is portraying one's Credibility in every aspect of their own actions, persona, presence and bearing. It is the proper balance of Humility/Modesty, Confidence and Reasoning that lends great Credibility without physical Proof! A charismatic person has to have some measure of credibility- or else be called simply a liar or cannot give weight to any threat or promise. From how I'm describing Charisma- its is more and more how Diplomacy should be used- as the tactical execution of social maneuvering.

Eidetic Memory: Eidetic and Photographic Memory 5cp/10cp. By description this is MORE powerful than Empathy. Heck, unlike Empathy which encourages Manipulation and Diplomacy, Eidetic memory is Quite Cheap. If one would power down Eidetic memory to what is commonly understood as Short-term memory and not the more permanent and useful long-term memory look closely


1 comment:

Dan Eastwood said...

The point cost for mathematical ability may be low for what it represent in real life, but it's practical value in the game probably is not all that great. This allows a player to have a character that can do quantum mechanics calculations in their head, but except in special situations this won't help the player all that much, and the player themselves won't actually be able to use QM (well, most likely).

Players tend to play to their own intelligence, not the smarts of their characters. These GURPS abilities represent different aspects of intelligence that affect the game. A player might have a "Forrest Gump" type character: Not obviously smart, but perceptive, willful, empathetic, and charismatic. On the other end a player might play a "nutty professor" type who is technically very intelligent, but makes all kinds of stupid mistakes.