Advantages Are Not Utility Priced

[LemmingLord]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Although since he has no absolute limit to his theoretical ST he'd be impossible to make as GURPS character.

Only if you care about points.

Putting an infinity sign.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

Only if you care about points.

Putting an infinity sign.

Except he doesn't have ST ∞; he has ST: Lots to ∞ (Varible based on how mad he is). Which is really hard to do in GURPS even with infinite points.

On the other hand the Ultrapower solution does seem to match the actual result. It's not like he's ever actually gotten mad enough to rip Spacetime in half or whatever.

Besides if "you don't care about points", why does it matter how Advantages are priced?

[dataweaver]

Eh. While the Hulk's strength is theoretically unlimited, in practice his rage takes time to build and the fight is usually over before his strength gets too absurd.

Rather: in practice, his strength tends to build to the point where he has enough to clobber whoever the target of his ire is; and then it effectively stops building.

You can model the Hulk's strength in GURPS if you're willing to do away with points: just buy "infinite" ST, with all but a finite amount of it having an Accessibility limitation or some variation. And he's a perfect illustration of what I was saying earlier about diminishing returns: once you get beyond a certain point power-wise, getting more of it is pointless.* As well, he's an illustration of how point imbalance doesn't mean play imbalance: it doesn't matter how strong he can get; he's notoriously vulnerable to being manipulated, and his strength comes with a loss of self-control that largely negates the benefits he might get from said strength.

* Surprisingly, pun not intended.

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Besides if "you don't care about points", why does it matter how Advantages are priced?

Note: the above could be read as "if you're not using points, why are you participating in this thread?" The following was written with that interpretation in mind; if that's not what was intended, please disregard this post.

Bear in mind that I didn't opt out of the point accounting system on a whim. Until a few years ago, I was an avid supporter of point accounting: for all its flaws, I figured that it was better than any alternative. What finally got me to abandon point accounting was a first-hand demonstration of a better alternative.

It isn't that I don't care about points; its that I've come to realize that point accounting systems have inherent flaws that tend to be overlooked by their advocates. Since the purpose of this thread is to examine the foundations of GURPS' point accounting system, I think it's an appropriate place to point out these flaws.

[LemmingLord]

Yes; that's a good point. I am really responding to the thread and the hulk post in particular by agreeing that points do not translate to utility, and further, the more complex or powerful(utility wise) a character, the more an accounting nightmare can be avoided by throwing points out the window.

[kirbwarrior]

The more I build characters the more I realize I enjoy the character building experience, not so much that I care what outcome it will have on my playing said character or if I will even like playing said character. I feel like I would either far more enjoy pointless for actual play or absolutely detest it.

[Ze'Manel Cunha]

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

Yes; that's a good point. I am really responding to the thread and the hulk post in particular by agreeing that points do not translate to utility, and further, the more complex or powerful(utility wise) a character, the more an accounting nightmare can be avoided by throwing points out the window.

Not to mention it makes for much quicker character generation.

The only thing I could think to write for Supers would be something like one of my random power generation tables, but considering that I've recently generated a couple of characters for players off the cuff just by having them roll d100 and looking at advantages by page # to run with, I'm not even sure that'd be useful...