GURPSよろず

　If a standard skill makes sense only when used in a manner befitting the wildcard’s high concept, and that skill doesn’t have required specialties that align with the concept, the wildcard can and probably should include a rider restricting the skill’s applicability. Common examples include:

● Only rolls in suitable game-world circumstances. Many a wildcard is limited by the environment in which it works. One for starship captains will qualify several of its skills with “in space” or “in space combat,” while one for sneaky ninja (or vampires!) may well restrict some activities to “after dark.” Two common qualifiers for wildcards intended for heroic PCs are “only in combat” and “only when fighting with (weapon type).”

● Only rolls in suitable dramatic circumstances. Wildcards are inherently cinematic, so it’s fitting for them to discriminate on dramatic grounds; e.g., “can stand in for any medical skill to save the life of a dying friend” or “counts as Leadership when Destiny is on the line.” The operative concept is that a story concern ―― not something objective, like target audience, time of day, or weapon type ―― determines applicability.

● Only rolls for certain standard tasks. The rules for many skills describe several distinct applications. A wildcard might cover only a subset of these: “Acting only for impersonation,” “Fast-Talk and Intimidation when attempting specious intimidation,” “any Melee Weapon skill for the express purpose of making a parry,” etc.

● Only rolls involving particular attributes. An important refinement of the previous case is the wildcard that works only for DX-, IQ-, HT-, Will-, or Per-based rolls against some skill. This needn’t coincide with the wildcard’s nominal controlling attribute; e.g., a wildcard for commandos might be mostly DXbased and about fighting, yet add “Per-based Traps rolls” for spotting mines and tripwires.

● Only rolls to interact with specific types of people. A skill for dealing with people might discriminate on the grounds of age, nationality, profession, race, sex, or almost anything else: “functions as Fast-Talk when interacting with politicians,” “can replace Diagnosis and Physiology when examining the undead,” and so on.

● Only rolls to work with specific kinds ofequipment. Use this to narrow a skill to a specific subset of applicable gear: “Escape to get out of handcuffs” for a wildcard for cops, “Fast-Draw (Long Arm) to ready rifles” for one befitting snipers, “Broadsword to wield a club” for one covering blunt weapons, and so on. Specialties for technical skills that require them, and weapon tables for combat skills, can be inspirational.

　This list isn’t exhaustive. The GM can get as weird as he likes! What matters is that all such limits are clear to the players and ultimately reducible to “Only when using the skill in a manner consistent with the high concept.”
　When such conditions aren’t met, the wildcard doesn’t apply. See Scope (pp. 4-5) and Defaults (pp. 5-6) for important ramifications. The GM who dislikes sharp discontinuities can either include only fully general skills or permit Conditional-to General Defaults (p. 6).
　Finally, a warning: A wildcard that consists exclusively of conditional skills merits reexamination. It’s often better to represent such a high concept using not a skill but a Higher Purpose (p. B59) that aids all tasks consistent with a goal.