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Old 10-11-2019, 09:18 AM   #1
WaterAndWindSpirit
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Default "Could be worse" advantage

Hello!

So, basically, I would like to know how much a "could be worse" advantage to mitigate bad situations by half-lucky breaks would cost, subject to GM approval and that always have a GM decided/approved backlash.

Example:

John Doe is a soldier deployed in a hot zone, and is caught in the blast zone of an IED. The player says "Okay, I use "Could be worse", John Doe is alright but his gear is not so lucky." John Doe gets away with minor injury but his radio is out, his rifle snapped in half, a fair number of his MREs are ruined, and his canteens pierced, meaning he's low on clean water and food. If John Doe gets into a fight now, he'll have to rely on his sidearm, he can't call for backup anymore, and hopefully he's got enough points in the Survival skill to find food or water, but he's not crippled for weeks or dying in a ditch somewhere.

John Doe, now low on gear and unable to call backup, has made very unlucky rolls on Survival and is close to get serious health problems from dehydration. "I have another use of "could be worse", I don't suppose I could find tainted water? John Doe will be sick, but at least he won't die from dehydration..." The GM agrees, and John Doe will contract a GM chosen sickness, or will drink irradiated water and will need to find anti-rad drugs to recover, but at least he didn't fall into a dehydration induced coma...

A few weeks later, John Doe has managed to find his way back to base, having gone through several Death Checks from a combination of close fights he would have performed better if he wasn't stuck with a less accurate, less powerful sidearm that didn't kill his enemies quite as fast as his rifle, and Toxic Damage from the sickness he contracted, and after receiving medical attention and having his gear replaced, John Doe is deployed again. John Doe receives a mission: bad guys have captured a VIP and are holding said VIP for ransom. John Doe's superiors "do not negotiate with terrorists", though they will stall as much as possible to delay the VIP's execution so that John Doe and his squad can extract the VIP. On the way, they are ambushed, and the vehicle's fuel tank is hit. The damage is easily patched up, but the fuel is lost, the bad guy intentionally targeting the vehicle to hinder the rescue attempt. "Time is of the essence, and my "Could be worse" uses are refreshed. We could find fuel right?" John Doe and his squad end up trading medical supplies and other useful gear to a shifty trader in exchange for bootleg fuel sold at a massive markup. They'll get there on time, but the engine dies from poor quality fuel, making extraction much more difficult, and the rescue operation will be much more dangerous without the supplies they traded away, but at least John Doe didn't arrive three days after the VIP got executed.

During extraction, the VIP is killed by shrapnel. "I have one use of "Could be worse" left. John Doe just happened to be in the way and took the shrapnel. He's got better health and is wearing a fragmentation vest, so he's more likely to survive, right?" John Doe takes the damage instead of the VIP, and, true to the prediction, his superior ST (and thus HP), HT (and thus better Death Checks), and his fragmentation vest (Providing him better DR than the 0 DR the VIP's rags gave him) keep both him and the VIP alive. But now extraction is complicated by one member of the rescue squad being seriously banged up.

How would you price such an ability?

Last edited by WaterAndWindSpirit; 10-11-2019 at 09:47 AM. Reason: typo
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