Help on whether a Perk or Advantage...

[Jareth Valar]

OK, we have had a few high point games in the past and the disproportionate number of 7's being rolled have proven that dice love to mock the players (we have one player in particular that seems to have offended dice in SEVERAL past lifetimes...lol).

So we were thinking on adding the ability to extend the critical range of a single skill by 1 (to a maximum of 7). Obviously, one prerequisite would be a skill rating of 17+ and would only be available for the skill it was purchased for. The question becomes, Perk or Advantage. If not a Perk, how much of a cost? Also, should there be another prerequisite? Perhaps 4 or more actual points in a skill (which I have seen a few suggest here a couple of times before for a few things)?

Any thoughts?

[Rupert]

The 'Rule of 17' perk has to be bought for each skill it applies to. I'd do the same for your increased critical range.

[Celjabba]

A perk may be too cheap.
See DF:denizen:swashbuckler for an all skill advantage version. - 15 pts

[Jareth Valar]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

A perk may be too cheap.
See DF:denizen:swashbuckler for an all skill advantage version. - 15 pts

Just found that one "Every One's a Critical". I have to admit, I do forget about DF a lot.

That one also allows re-rolls of Critical Hits (while very nice, is beyond what we are looking for). Also looking for this to be for any single skill, not just combat (thought that does make sense for most).

With those perquisites (luck, etc) for "Every One's a Critical" but it being for all melee skills AND re-rolling critical hits does 5 points for what we are thinking seem to cheap or too expensive? I mean there are @35 ish melee combat skills, luck being 15 at least and assuming "Every One's a Critical" only works with weapons you actually have WM with (WM would be maybe 40 points for all melee) that brings it to about 2 CP per melee skill. Dropping the ability to re-roll critical hits for combat skills seems a good -50% limitation (I believe any way, hence my asking advice...lol) making it only 1 point per weapon. With that 5 seems a bit much but I don't know if allowing it to count for any skill would increase it by that much.

Thanks for the directions to DF, we'll have to mine those more than we do.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

A perk may be too cheap.
See DF:denizen:swashbuckler for an all skill advantage version. - 15 pts

So if we reverse-engineer the "5x cost for universal" not-actually-a-rule, that means a version that works on just one skill would cost 3 pts. Not quite a Perk.

[mr beer]

It should be more expensive than a Perk IMO. A critical automatically nullifies active defences and is often the only way to hit certain boss-type enemies in hand to hand combat. Against that, it only adds 7% to the odds of getting your crit. Eyeballing it as [5] for a given weapon skill seems reasonable.

[Jareth Valar]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

So if we reverse-engineer the "5x cost for universal" not-actually-a-rule, that means a version that works on just one skill would cost 3 pts. Not quite a Perk.

Not familiar with this. Where from?

[Jareth Valar]

Originally Posted by mr beer

It should be more expensive than a Perk IMO. A critical automatically nullifies active defences and is often the only way to hit certain boss-type enemies in hand to hand combat. Against that, it only adds 7% to the odds of getting your crit. Eyeballing it as [5] for a given weapon skill seems reasonable.

Given we are not wanting this exclusively for weapon skills but all skills, should the costs be different?

[mr beer]

Originally Posted by Jareth Valar

Given we are not wanting this exclusively for weapon skills but all skills, should the costs be different?

Probably. I'd personally charge it as a Perk for non-combat skills. I think that's in line with combat Advantages being 'expensive' in GURPS. A 5:1 ratio might be too much though.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Jareth Valar

Not familiar with this. Where from?

There's a pattern that shows up in a number of places where there's a limited-use version of an ability, along with a universal form. The universal form often costs five times what the limited version does. As I said, it's not a rule, but it's at least somewhat accepted on the forums that it's a reasonable place to start pricing out some Advantage.

http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...89&postcount=8
http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...0&postcount=15
(Arriving at the 5x number by different means)
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=2239126


Some Examples:
- Off-Hand Weapon Training (MA) is a Perk (1 CP) buys off the -4 penalty for using the off hand for a single skill. Ambidexterity buys off that penalty for all skills for 5 CP.
- DF universal scrolls cost 5x the single-user sort
- Elixir Resistance (1 CP) adds Magery (usually 3) to resist a single type of elixir. Resistant for +3 to a Common class (and potions are pretty common in DF-style settings) is 5 CP.
- Immunity to (Specific) Poison (Perk) -- math as for Elixir Resistance above
- Classic Features (Perk, +1 Reaction for NPCs that happen to particularly fancy your specific type counts as one level of Attractive (5 CP) in those cases.
- Strongbow (Perk, +1 ST for bow damage), Striking ST (5 CP)
- One Use Only is 1/5 the cost for using an ability an unlimited number of times
- Courtesy Rank/Title (Perk for +1 instead of 5 CP for regular version)

Counterexamples:
- Weapon Master for one weapon, 20 CP. For all muscle-powered weapons, 45 CP. So, not quite 2.5x, not 5x.
- Honest Face (+1 Acting only for appearing innocent, 1 CP); +1 Acting for all purposes is 4 CP, so 4x rather than 5x.

So not a rule, nor even a known design principle, but more of a rule-of-thumb for estimating CP costs. Modify it up or down if it seems wrong and you can think of reasons why.