Pricing an unusual advantage

[Canology]

I'm down to the last of the 50+ racial templates for my fantasy world and have run into a bit of a roadblock.

The race (called the Tinch) was created by a god who has a sort of "that which does not kill you makes you stronger" mentality. So the race, while basically human, are able to develop abilities related to life-threatening situations that they have survived. A badly burned Tinch might develop DR versus fire damage, for instance. Now, they cannot gain anything from non-dangerous damage (like having some emo Tinch repeatedly cut his arm to gain extra DR would not be allowed, likewise any damage that was magically healed would not count).

What kinds of advantages the character would get would be sort of bargained between the GM and player. But I pictured older, adventurous Tinch being somewhat like minor superheroes, but the high mortality rate (from trying to get into "dangerous" situations) keeping the race from overwhelming the rest of the planet.

So, my question is, for purposes of the racial template, how should I stat this? My first instinct is to just charge an Unusual Background cost of 15 or so. Does that sound reasonable?

[PK]

The two questions that come to mind are:

1. Do other fantasy races exist in your world that have modest amounts of DR versus special things? For example, maybe a cold race has DR 3 vs. Ice/Cold and dwarves have DR 2 vs. Stone?

2. Will the Tinch be explicitly limited to only buying a few levels of DR -- enough to be useful, but not enough to be more "powerful" than any other race that has DR?

If the answer to both questions is "yes", I'd charge a perk -- a 1-point UB that gives access to this useful, but not overly powerful, ability. If the answer to either is no, the price must go up proportionately -- perhaps to a max of 15 points, if no other races have DR and the Tinch can buy as much of it as he wants.

[The Benj]

Yeah, I'd say it's narrow enough that it should be pretty cheap, especially if you can only increase a given resistance one level at a time, with each increase requiring you to actually be hurt by whatever the thing is.
So if you can get a point of DR (Fire) after getting burnt, that access is probably roughly Perk-worthy.
If you could buy 5 if you felt like it, that would probably be more like a 5-10 point UB, just because it gives you more control and makes things harder to run.

[nick012000]

*shrug*

I'd just say a racial Talent for their racial Powers.

[PK]

Originally Posted by nick012000

*shrug*

I'd just say a racial Talent for their racial Powers.

No . . . for one thing, defensive traits are so passive that a Talent rarely makes sense. But more importantly, it's rarely a good idea to come up with "racial powers." GURPS Powers explicitly forbids racial powers with abilities that are drawn from the racial template (so you couldn't have an "elf power" with Telescopic Vision, Unaging, etc.), and that'd be skirting pretty close to doing just so.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

No . . . for one thing, defensive traits are so passive that a Talent rarely makes sense. But more importantly, it's rarely a good idea to come up with "racial powers." GURPS Powers explicitly forbids racial powers with abilities that are drawn from the racial template (so you couldn't have an "elf power" with Telescopic Vision, Unaging, etc.), and that'd be skirting pretty close to doing just so.

Both of these points are good (especially the first), but I don't see much harm in giving a race a level of Talent in a single Power they all share. And it really should just be one Power, as it's thematically quite linked; it's resistance to stuff. If it's under a GM where they don't allow ability development without first having a Talent, then this is a must and not really any different from elves having Magery.

[nick012000]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

No . . . for one thing, defensive traits are so passive that a Talent rarely makes sense. But more importantly, it's rarely a good idea to come up with "racial powers." GURPS Powers explicitly forbids racial powers with abilities that are drawn from the racial template (so you couldn't have an "elf power" with Telescopic Vision, Unaging, etc.), and that'd be skirting pretty close to doing just so.

The way I'm reading it, I don't think they'd neccessarilly be purely defensive. If one got trapped in an ice cave, he might gain fire breath to melt through the ice, as an example. The Power set would probably be "Reactive Evolution" or something similar.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by nick012000

The way I'm reading it, I don't think they'd neccessarilly be purely defensive. If one got trapped in an ice cave, he might gain fire breath to melt through the ice, as an example. The Power set would probably be "Reactive Evolution" or something similar.

That would come under the "cannot gain anything from non-dangerous damage" section, I think. You'd be able to develop Temperature Tolerance if you suffered Fatigue from the cold, but being trapped isn't actually doing anything to you, it's just annoying. This is reactive evolution, but what you're describing sounds more like proactive. :D

[Canology]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

The two questions that come to mind are:

1. Do other fantasy races exist in your world that have modest amounts of DR versus special things? For example, maybe a cold race has DR 3 vs. Ice/Cold and dwarves have DR 2 vs. Stone?

2. Will the Tinch be explicitly limited to only buying a few levels of DR -- enough to be useful, but not enough to be more "powerful" than any other race that has DR?

There is a lizardman race with a point of DR on their chest, but that's it. So the Tinch's ability will be beyond most other races.

Originally Posted by nick012000

The way I'm reading it, I don't think they'd neccessarilly be purely defensive. If one got trapped in an ice cave, he might gain fire breath to melt through the ice, as an example. The Power set would probably be "Reactive Evolution" or something similar.

That seems a little too "aggressive" for lack of a better term. They can't really develop new powers out of thin air when they confront a dangerous situation. They have to survive the danger and then slowly develop an ability to deal with that event when they encounter it again.

I've thought that maybe they *should* be able to gain offensive abilities, but I'm not clear on exactly how (other than GM fiat) to adjudicate *what* they would be able to gain from a given "dangerous" encounter. I was thinking of possibly allowing a 1/5 ratio of offense to defense, so if a Tinch was lucky and gained 20 points of cold-related defense he could buy a 4 point offensive ability (maybe a once a day jet of cold, etc). Also by defeating dangerous foes, they could possibly gain some sort of combat advantage against other, similar threats. Like +1 Dodge, but only against dinosaurs, or that sort of thing...

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Canology

I've thought that maybe they *should* be able to gain offensive abilities, but I'm not clear on exactly how (other than GM fiat) to adjudicate *what* they would be able to gain from a given "dangerous" encounter. I was thinking of possibly allowing a 1/5 ratio of offense to defense, so if a Tinch was lucky and gained 20 points of cold-related defense he could buy a 4 point offensive ability (maybe a once a day jet of cold, etc).

In that case it sounds more like they get infused with the element which they got into dangerous contact with.

A bit like Radioactivity + Person + Thunder-strike = Lightning Guy, or Radioactivity + Spider + Person = Spider guy ...er, man.

That will probably feel a bit super-hero-y, but perhaps that is what is intended.