GURPSよろず

　A Talent’s reaction bonus stems from the assumption that observers who understand what the affected skills entail (usually because they’ve studied those skills or witnessed others using them often enough to appreciate the challenges) find it aesthetically pleasing to see those capabilities used in an instinctive way.
This is unrelated to skill level. A master can show off more than a beginner, regardless of Talent – but at any level, a talented person has a higher proportion of aptitude (Talent) to practice (points in skills).
Thus, the feats of someone who’s a “natural” look inspired rather than studied; they exhibit more flair.

　Some gamers may argue that for many skills (e.g., Acrobatics), showing off is more impressive than showing aptitude, and that someone with a remarkable score in the controlling attribute (DX, for Acrobatics) should appear to be no less of a “natural” than a person with high Talent.
Thus, they might question giving a reaction bonus to talented individuals but not to masters and the broadly gifted.
And maybe they have a point!
But Talent is priced assuming a reaction bonus, so simply removing this would be unfair.

　Replacing that bonus is another matter, though.
The goal here is to give an edge to people whose grasp of the affected skills is intuitive – for instance, so that the difference between IQ 11 with Animal Friend 3 and straight IQ 14 is “animals like you” vs. “smart, which helps you figure out animals (and people, plants, machines, taxes, Sudoku, etc.).”

Suggested alternatives include:

A
• A bonus to use suitable Influence skills (p. B359) in situations where these would benefit from a show of Talent.
Thus, under specific circumstances – normally, “after successfully using one of the Talent’s skills” – the Talent aids a few skills that aren’t on its list, producing effects similar to but less extreme than a reaction bonus.

B
• A bonus to follow-up rolls triggered by applying the Talent’s skills.
For example, a Talent that covers Runningmight add to basic HT rolls to avoid crippling due to critical failure at extra effort with that skill, while one that covers Speed-Reading could help IQ rolls to recall what was read.

C
• A bonus to default rolls – much as for Jack of All Trades (p. 11) – when using one of the Talent’s skills regularly pulls in another skill that the Talent doesn’t encompass.

D
• A bonus to rolls related to the Talent’s theme but for which there are no skills.
For instance, if a Talent’s premise is “good with gadgets,” it may help rolls on the Enigmatic Device Table (pp. B478-479), while if the Talent’s concept is “finding clues,” it’s fair and realistic to add it to Per rolls to notice things for which none of its skills are optimized.
If the roll in question isn’t made by the character but against him, the Talent should give it a penalty instead.

E
• A bonus in Contests against skills the Talent covers, when these are pitted against the talented individual.
This is only valid if some of those skills occasionally precipitate Contests; e.g.,
Influence skills fit, as they’re resisted by Will, but Forced Entry doesn’t, because it only works on inanimate objects.
Boosted resistance to diametrically opposed skills is also fitting.

F
• A bonus to rolls to use conceptually related advantages.
Here, the skill Talent acts somewhat like a power Talent, but enhances a mundane advantage instead of one that’s part of a power.

G
• A bonus similar to one of the above for somebody else, if the Talent is a “selfless” one such as Healer.

H
• An offset against penalties, especially those under Equipment Modifiers (p. B345), Familiarity (p. B169), Geographical and Temporal Scope (p. B176), and Tech-Level Modifiers (p. B168).
This is fairest when it benefits skills other than the ones the Talent aids, after the Talent’s skills have been used to set up those tasks, because improving the Talent’s skills and removing penalties to them amounts to double-counting.
This isn’t a prohibition – just a caution.

I
• Access to a feat that the untalented can’t attempt – in the spirit of the Per roll for Danger Sense (p. B47), or the IQ roll for Empathy (p. B51) or Intuition (p. B63).
The target number should start at attribute-4 and receive a bonus equal to Talent, so that someone with the standard maximum of four levels is trying a straight attribute roll.

　Alternative benefits shouldn’t be needlessly general; impose whatever restrictions seem necessary to preserve the Talent’s theme and flavor.
The resulting effects ought to be roughly in line with situational attribute bonuses such as Acute Senses (p. B35), Fearlessness (p. B55), and Hard to Subdue (p. B59).
But this is art, not science.
The more expensive the Talent, the more substantial its benefits can be without becoming unbalanced.
A Talent that encompasses skills that are only rarely usefulmay need a meaty bonus to be attractive, while one benefiting skills that come up constantly will be popular even without extras.

　On that last point, “no extra benefit” is fair in some cases.
If a Talent already aids somany valuable skills that you were contemplating raising its cost, then removing further bonuses might offer an alternative means of balancing it.
And if a Talent is a gift for subtlety that doesn’t grant reaction bonuses in the first place (in theory, others aren’t even supposed to notice it), then there’s nothing to replace!

　Occasionally, a reaction bonus is the best way to represent what a Talent does, other than improve skills.
A Talent may represent a gift that a particular group can sense even in the unskilled – an intuitive sense of respect or propriety, pheromones, a mark on the soul, whatever.
It’s entirely reasonable for a few Talents to give reaction bonuses, even if most don’t.

　The possibilities discussed above aren’t exhaustive.
See Chapter 1 for many worked examples, and to appreciate one further upside to alternative benefits: Sometimes, they help distinguish between Talents that are nigh on identical in all but name.