Lens-Men
More Mini-Character Lenses for GURPS Fourth Edition
by Stephen Dedman
As a sequel to Eric B. Smith's article "Mini-Character Lenses for GURPS," here are some more 10-point mini-character lenses to help flesh out a character, giving the character knowledge in an area of expertise that might not be expected in his current career. Some are based on college courses, some on hobbies, some on casual jobs, and they can also be used for quickly generating NPCs for a particular role.
These lenses work particularly well when combined with character templates from the various GURPS books, allowing characters to fill niches outside of the primary one the template is designed for. You could also create a smaller version of most of these templates for just 5 points simply by cutting the points in the listed skills in half.
Acolyte
You are well-versed in the teachings of a particular religion, whether or not you still believe or practice. You may be able to quote scripture and perform rituals (or at least fake them convincingly), and claim some "benefits of clergy," such as the option of being tried by an ecclesiastical court instead of a secular one. You may not be able to legally marry people, but those for whom you give the last rites usually remain dead.
This is an appropriate set of skills for a seminary student, altar boy, lay preacher, chaplain's assistant, cultist, etc., and possibly useful for a monster hunter or confidence trickster . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: June 9, 2006
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