IT and All the Jobs Which Involve Expertise With Computers in GURPS Terms and Skills

Role-playing games
1

Many people here seem to be in IT. Now, I don’t pretend to know all the job titles, but one of my players is a programmer. He programs various business solutions for clients, e.g. an online ordering system for a chain of supermarkets. I’m guessing his job mostly uses the GURPS skill Computer Programming.

Another of my players has engineering degrees in two different fields, both software engineering and also electric engineering, which he decided to enroll in when he had worked for a while as a software engineer and decided he really didn’t like it. So, another five years of engineering education, and as far as I can tell, he still writes code and programs, but now he does it to make models for power companies of their distribution networks, usage patterns, etc. Aside from Computer Programming and Engineer (Electrical), I’m not sure what other skills he uses. Well, Administration and Writing, occasionally, but then he can call a friend who does squishy human stuff for advice.

Aside from them, I’m not really sure, for example, what a sysadmin does, precisely, either in reality or in terms of GURPS skills. Same goes for a lot of IT/tech career fields and specific jobs.

In a realistic campaign, GURPS has numerous skills related to IT and general ‘computer expert’ careers:

  • Computer Operation

  • Computer Programming

  • Electronics Operation (Communications)

  • Electronics Operation (Media)

  • Electronics Repair (Communications)

  • Electronics Repair (Computers)

  • Electronics Repair (Media)

  • Expert Skill (Computer Security)

  • Mathematics (Computer Science)

And probably a few I missed, especially more Expert Skills and potentially some Professional Skills, though I’m leery of them when GURPS already includes skills which should cover that job, maybe by using an Optional Specialization and/or Techniques.

Can those of you who are IT and computer people tell me what your job is generally called and what GURPS skills it entails, including Optional Specialization if appropriate?

If you could suggest some Techniques which fall under your primary skill(s) and what kind of jobs those who raise the Technique are especially good at, I would esteem it a kindness.

If you previously had a different tech job and/or know other IT/tech fields well enough to explain them in GURPS terms, I should be most grateful.

1 Like
2

Job titles in computing are not well-standardised. Mine is Principal Software Engineer, which means I have license to identify and solve problems across divisions of the company.

My basic job skill is Computer Programming, with an optional specialisation in Software Porting (making the same software run on different kinds of hardware and operating systems). I have points in a technique for reporting bugs in compilers, which is fairly unusual, but I work on a very large and complex product which can be extensively tested.

I also have Computer Operations skill with familiarities for a broad range of programs and operating systems, and fairly rusty Electronics Repair (Computers). The latter used to be higher, but I’ve spent a long while in a large company that has specialists for that job. However, it is still useful for talking to said specialists. I use Writing for some highly technical documentation that tells customers how to integrate the product into their own software.

I make basic use of Expert Skill (Computer Security) for understanding security problems and Mathematics (Computer Science) for understanding the limitations of the possible.

I also use Administration, for making plans, Diplomacy for getting other teams to agree to them, and Writing for explaining them convincingly. I use Research for finding solutions to new problems, because I’m often doing things that nobody in the company has done before. Because I’m only a couple of years from retirement, I am informally learning Teaching and using more Writing to try to pass on my experience.

1 Like
3

An excellent summary and exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

Writing (Optional Specialization: Technical) or even One-Task Wonder (Technical Writing) is important for a lot of tech people, and as they get more senior, they might have to pick up the full Writing skill, in order to supplement Administration and even Influence skills through carefully crafted emails and reports shaded in just the right way to steer sorely needed resources toward their department.

Teaching is a skill all good supervisors and senior people in a department should have, whether that department is a naval shop aboard a nuclear aircraft carrier or the IT department of a corporation. Or, indeed, a barbershop, which, at least here, still operate on the apprentice system. Well, mine does, I’m not sure whether there are many other real barbershops left, as opposed to the hipster ones which fake the aesthetics and atmosphere, but haven’t actually been run by the same family for seventy years.

What about the elusive and mysterious sysadmin? What GURPS skills are they using?

4

I regard Writing, Teaching and Research as the modern intellectual toolbox for applying knowledge.

I’m waiting for Roger to chip in on that.

1 Like
5

I think complementary skills are vital here.

I am better at finding things on web searches than most people I know. That is a combination of Research (at this tech level, that’s innately got a large computer operation component), a little bit of Computer Operation, and perhaps Area Knowledge (Internet) (for this sort of query, these are good sites, those are clearly traps). I’d probably resolve it as Computer Operation complementing Research.

When I edit a podcast I’m using Electronics Operation (media) complemented by Computer Operation.

When I rewrite a board game rulebook that’s Writing complemented by rules knowledge; I’ve done some computer operation and programming things to make the result more usable but that’s a relatively minor element.

The things I do with computers that feel like distinct classes of activity could be called Operation, Programming, and System Administration, though often Programming assists the other two. I honestly don’t think there’s anything in GURPS which feels like a match for System Administration, possibly because none of the people who’ve written skill lists for it has had that skill set.

6

And this gets into tool choices too.

If Bob the Layout Guy takes a chunk of text and illustrations and lays them out in Adobe whatever it’s called these days, that’s pretty clearly not any sort of computer programming. Operation complementing Artist (whatever).

If I do it in Typst there may well be a programming component, as I define things in terms of other things so that if I later have to reflow for a different page size everything will remain in proportion. If Bob has to do that, he does it by hand.

Are these different things at GURPS resolution? Honestly I don’t think so.

1 Like
7

You seem to be describing a textbook case of a situation where characters may use their highest skill level of a case-specific list of skills. In this case, maybe Artist at skill-3, Computer Operation or Computer Programming, all of them with a +4 to +5 TDM for a very routine task which a professional should easily be able to handle.

Any situation where a character can choose which tool they use to solve a problem, they usually, in GURPS terms, have a choice of using their highest applicable skill. Though, I admit, there might be other considerations in play which make characters opt for the skill they have at a lower level; e.g. Lockpicking over Forced Entry if they are trying to avoid making noise.

2 Likes
8

Yeeees… but if Bob used Artist and I used Computer Operation, probably Bob’s version is more æsthetically appealing (and mine is easier to change later). Again, I think this is probably below the resolution of any playable system.

2 Likes
9

Well, we’ve established a distinction which might matter in play. Someone who has the skill Connoisseur (Visual Arts), a default in it from an Artist skill, or at least some Dabbler, will probably prefer Bob’s work, at least if he succeed on his roll. This might matter in the context of Bob using Influence skills with that character or Reaction rolled.

By contrast, your method could probably be detected fairly quickly by someone with skills in Computer Operation, Electronics Operation (Media) or Photography, at least if they have the right Familiarities, by looking at metadata. This could affect a Reaction roll or the use of an Influence skill with that tech person.

In case either you or Bob has a Talent, if either of you chose to use a skill covered by the Talent to do the layout and graphic design, your Reaction bonus for that Talent is likely to come into play among characters interested in whatever you guys made.

There’s no real mechanical complexity here, just common sense and the GM applying situational modifiers as appropriate.

2 Likes
10

I know that a skill exists in the Real World ™ called Project Management. I know there are at least two schools of thought that teach the skill.

(I only know this because I had a lowly clerical job for two months with one of the warring organisations that teach it in this country.)

Would this be a skill in GURPS? Would it be a specialisation of another skill. Because it sounds to me as though some of the people here do something that counts as Project Management.

1 Like
11

From my experience there’s task management that would seem to be bureaucracy and administration skill related (what is needed in terms of time and materials and tools) and there is people management which is whatever interpersonal skill to which an individual habitually defaults.

12

In GURPS terms i think that’s mostly Administration.

13

Whatever it takes to do the job. That’s not a glib answer, it’s just a poorly defined role. I have worked at very small shops, and places that control a measurable percentage of the world’s compute capacity. Small shops, you have one person who does everything, from keeping printers working to making sure the company mail servers work. Big places, you find hyperspecialized people and teams. In gurps terms, though, it’s all Computer Operations and Computer Programming, and then a bunch of not strictly computer skills — Fast Talk, Scrounging, Research, Politics, and Typing.

2 Likes
14

Leadership (“Do it my way: I’m the boss”), Diplomacy (“I think you’ll find things will go better if….”) and Fast Talk. (“Do it my way and we can all clock off early.”)

I seem to recall a bit of mathematical modelling being needed for actual qualificaitons in Project Management.

1 Like
15

Modulo that leadership can specialize on other sources of interpersonal power than positional authority

In my experience that tack is most often intimidation

16

I just noticed that a year ago, I gave an NPC, whose day job is designing extremely technical mathematical models, but through a series of unfortunate events finding himself press-ganged into duty as omni-capable tech support person for PCs doing dangerous things, skills which are directly relevant here. That is, in addition to awesome computer skills, the man we shall refer to as ‘Not-Bob’, has some minor skill or Dabbler in Artist (Layout), Electronics Operation (Media), Professional Skill (Editor) and Writing, for the fanzine he self-publishes. He also has Hobby Skill (SF Fandom), Connoisseur (Literature; OS: Science Fiction), Current Affairs (Science & Technology) and Expert Skill (Conspiracy Theory).

Can you account for your whereabouts in March 1991? Did you visit Africa or the USSR at all during that month?

2 Likes
17

I genuinely believe, admittedly from a biased insider’s perspective. that there is a distinct technical skill of Sysadmin — without the social aspects, which I won’t argue with — that GURPS doesn’t really cover. It’s knowing your systems, spotting unusual behaviour before any warnings go off, balancing roles across the available hardware, optimising the configuration of other people’s software so that it all works together smoothly.

Programming and Operation can certainly help, but it isn’t either of those things.

That’s one style. But Leadership is also “come on, lads. let’s get 'em”, it’s “I want you to work late on this and I’m right next to you working late on it too”; it doesn’t need an external authority. The squaddie who takes over when the official leaders are out of action is absolutely using Leadership.

1 Like
18

That sounds plausible. In which case it is either a Professional Skill or an Expert Skill and I can see the arguments for them both. Which would you use, Average or Hard skill?

And perhaps just as importantly, which skills does Sysadmin default from and what skills default to it, and at which penalties?

2 Likes
19

The problem with an Expert Skill is that it canonically “represents cross-disciplinary knowledge of a single, narrow theme” and “never provide[s] the ability to do practical tasks”. (The problem with Hobby/Professional/Expert in general is that they serve a dual purpose, the one as described and the back-door way of sneaking new stuff into the skill list. A triple purpose in fact: you’re supposed to be able to give someone Professional Skill (Job Title) and that’s the skill they need to do that job, but once things get into adventurous activity the resolution goes up.)

I think Professional Skill is a decent match. It would be nice to think that what I do is Hard (and it would be a good match for Computer Programming), but I suspect a pub landlord (something in which I probably have Dabbler-level Professional Skill, I know a bit more than a random pubgoer but I’d be lost if I suddenly had to do the whole job) would feel the same way about what they do.

It is possible to be an admin without being a programmer, or vice versa. I’ve always straddled the line but particularly in the 1990s I definitely met people who would write stuff without ever setting up servers to run it, or would only run servers and never write even tiny little automation scripts (which in turn is known pejoratively as “sysadmin coding”). So I think it’s fair to say that they don’t default to each other, or if they do it’s a fairly harsh one.

If I were trying to build out an adventuring sysadmin

image

I would also put in Area Knowledge (Internet), Electronics Repair (Computer), Research, and as @dscheidt suggested at least options on some human interaction stuff; you can do the job without it, but you won’t do it as well. (Like the old joke about “it would be much easier to run this railway if we didn’t have to think about the blasted passengers”.)

4 Likes
20

I don’t know GURPS at all. But in typical RPG skills my job description these days would probably go:

  • Knowledge: Programming Java
  • Knowledge: Software Development
  • Knowledge: Technology
  • Operating: Computers
  • Writing
  • Research
  • Teaching
  • Negotiation ← this, so much of this and the next one:
  • Influencing / Convincing
  • Planning / Strategy / Organizing ← “Big Picturing”
  • Leadership
  • Speaking (in front of others; or however you want to map “Giving Presentations”, it is pointedly not Power Point in my case)

My job title with my employer is something like Senior Technical Consultant
My unofficial title on the project is probably Software Architect

1 Like