You go to the Power Ups library and pull the Weapon Bond advantage onto your sheet. But the Weapon Bond advantage doesn't have any features included that will make it add +1 to your appropriate skill, even after typing in what weapon it's for.
On this sheet I've added Weapon Bond, as well as two BSA Welrods. One is named Nancy, because that's going to be the gun that Reita finds especially well suited to her. With no further changes, GCS doesn't account for Weapon Bond, and both are at skill ten.
In the past, I would have dug around the Weapon Bond Advantage trying to add a feature that would bump Pistol Skill only while using Nancy, but this leads to problems:
- The Feature "Gives a Skill Level Bonus" affects Character Skill- not effective skill using a weapon, meaning it will bump defaults, affect non-weapon bond weapons, and force you to remember to take -1 if you're using a weapon you're not bonded to.
- Separating out a specific skill via skill specializations gets messy quickly.
The Right Way:
When you open up the dialog box to edit a weapon and click on the line that allows you to edit a weapon's attack, you want to edit the line that dictates which skill is used.
And looking back at the sheet, we can see that one Welrod is showing an increased skill level, while Guns Skill is still 10, and the other Welrod isn't bumped.
Added Bonus:
This is also the correct way of modeling Reflex Sights, Bonuses from Fine/Very Fine/Balanced equipment, and can also smooth over RoF calculations when using shotguns. If it affects the weapon and not the base skill, you likely want to add the bonus to the weapon, not via a feature which increases skill.
Equipment Bond:
This method breaks down when using equipment bond, things that affect Fast-Draw, etc. I'm still noodling on the best method of handling some of them.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a great tip for using Weapon Bond effectively in GCS. By editing the skill associated with the weapon, you can directly link the +1 bonus to the specific weapon and avoid the complications of using features or specializations.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this helpful information!
Reference: Rare breed trigger
This is a really helpful breakdown for anyone struggling to get Weapon Bond to work properly in GCS. I’ve run into the same issue before, and your method of editing the weapon attack line directly makes so much sense — keeps the bonus tied to the weapon itself rather than the base skill. The 80 arms
ReplyDeletemindset really applies here: small tweaks, applied correctly, can make a big difference without breaking the system.
I also love that you pointed out this same trick works for Reflex Sights, Fine/Very Fine/Balanced equipment, and even smoothing out RoF calculations on shotguns. Little things like this make character sheets way easier to manage in play. Definitely saving this method for my next build.
Great breakdown! A lot of people overcomplicate Weapon Bond in GCS and end up fighting the system instead of letting it work the way it’s meant to. Editing the attack line directly is absolutely the cleanest way—keeps the core skill untouched, avoids messing with defaults, and makes sure the bonus only applies when using the specific bonded weapon. Exactly how GURPS intends it to function.
ReplyDeleteAlso love the reminder that this same approach is perfect for gear-based bonuses like Reflex Sights, weapon quality modifiers, and other equipment-driven boosts. Way too many players try to bake all of that into their character sheet instead of the item itself, and then wonder why their numbers snowball out of control.
Still curious what solution you end up with for Equipment Bond and Fast-Draw modifiers—that part always feels clunky in GCS. But your method here definitely streamlines the most common case.
Solid write-up. Super helpful for anyone trying to keep their sheets clean, efficient, and rules-accurate—especially the folks building custom gear or tinkering with things like an ar9 80 lower setup on the weapon side.