GURPS Skill Organization; Running a Game

If you have read Design, Repair, and Use B190 you’ll begin to notice one of the initial patterns to the skills.

In Medicine The skills are broken up as:
Diagnose (Doctors primarily skill), Physician and Medical Equipment (Nurse).
Then there is the Military
Ground/Naval Strategy,
Ground/Naval Tactics, Miltary (Both) Intelligence Analysis
Politics is just one skill when more accurately it can be broken down to
:
Political Strategy, Political Intelligence Analysis, and Diplomacy

GURPS Mass Combat. Replace Strategy Rolls with Tactics Rolls. If you’ve read the same books I’ve read in Management, Military and Game Theory: Strategy is Knowing or Creating options, while Tactics is the micro level of Strategy where you are making smaller detail oriented decisions part of executing the over all strategy.

More on Explaining Strategy and Tactics place in an RPG. Including the Player in the Decision-making Process the PCs are more more equipt to make (in merit of their stats) the better decisions can be best compromised by the GM being the Strategists voice for the Player. The GM lays out the options (relative to the skill of the strategist- better strategist the better options) and letting the Players decide and modify these options.

Never leave these things to a ROLL, in theory every strategy is viable and workable. Remember that no plan survives first contact with the enemy, and even with the BEST plan, the PCs are the ones who will try to make things WORK.

When executing a Plan, go through Every stupid detail: from the PCs interacting with a contact, to the PCs walking from A to B, and every detail which courts Uncle Murphie. )

What is the Point of a plan when it never survives intact? Answer: The PCs choose the “battle field” they are going into, there are risks to every plan but it is the PCs not the GM who determines these Risks. The PCs will still shine despite murphy because of their heroic individualized virtues like preparation perks, organization, anciliary skills, useful background and familiarity etc. that come into play that saves the day or gets the job done.

What is Politics– For game purposes, Politics is the understanding of Power and Influence and how these forces interact. Generals, Politicians, Monarchs, Corporate Heads etc. all function in a non-violent political environment where they interact and exist for their own reasons. A PC understanding these can understand:

  • The PCs can translate or understand political inteligence, the nuances of jargons, the implied meanings, etc. with Political Intelligence Analysis.
  • The GM can Process for the Players the Information the PCs gathered into Options with Political Strategy skill. Remember to always Give Players Options and never let the PC make these key decisions. It is the GMs job to format every Strategic Medium into their appropriate options (contrary)
  • The PC executes his strategic maneuvers with Diplomacy, with Role-playing adding a circumstance modifier (+4 if the Player Gets It and stresses on the right points; +3 to +0 on the accuracy of the pc in getting the point


Same Goes with Business:
Business Strategy for Options; Economics and Market Analysis for Translation of Data to Player legible data, and Merchant for small deals or Finance for corporate or group deals (Role Playing or Knowing what the real point is gives a bonus up to +4!).

Administration or what I wold Like to Call Organization skill allows PCs to organize and do more with a given amount of time, (because they are organized). I personally want to stress that Administration SHOULD be specialized per body of organization: Civil or Legislative Admin, Military Admin, Business Admin, Religous Admin etc. etc. They default to -2 to -4 each other depending on the system.
Although normaly a Religious Admin has -3 or -4 to default with Business admin or Military Admin, A Militant or Comercial Religious Organization might make it -2 or -1! (basically unfamiliarities).

It was called Bureaucracy before being called Administration, which in my opinion is more accurate but Organization is a simpler broader and even more accurate description of the two.

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