[johndallman]

Greed [-15*] is a mundane mental disadvantage, with a self-control roll. You want wealth: it calls to you, and you’ll answer that call, even when you should not. This disadvantage appeared at GURPS 1e, and hasn’t changed in its essence.

You need to make a self-control roll any time you have a prospect of gaining wealth by any means. Small pay-offs, by comparison with your current wealth (GM decision) are less tempting, but you have -5 to self-control rolls if you are Poor or Dead Broke. If you have Honesty, you get +5 to resist a dubious transaction, and +10 for definitely criminal acts. This disadvantage can be combined with Compulsive Spending, a classic combination for pirates, or with Kleptomania, when your self-control rolls to avoid stealing valuable things are penalised.

Greed is a pretty common disadvantage on published character templates, especially for criminals, mercenaries and people in profitable professions. Discworld has a Dwarfish variant, which is about gold; Banestorm dwarves have basic Greed on their template, although many buy it down or off, and Fantasy dwarves usually have it at 15-. Dragons commonly have it, and it often motivates fraudulent Martial Arts teachers. Power-Ups 6 has a quirk version, and Social Engineering points out that it’s fairly easy to bribe the greedy.

I have some history with this disadvantage. I took it (at 12-) on a character with a criminal background who’d been recruited into MI5. I expected that there would be opportunities for gain in being a magical counter-intelligence agent. In fact, there were remarkably few, and most of those presented major risks of being caught. Getting regular pay, and working in a team with honest and principled people slowly eroded the character’s Greed, until now it’s been replaced by Charitable (15-) and Honesty (15-).

How has Greed entertained in your games?