10-20-2018, 03:34 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Questions
Quote:
If you don't, or don't at least track of how many points you earned, then you don't know how many points everything on your character sheet "should" add up to and hence can never do that calculation to detect that discrepancy. If you are tracking the total for some reason, you must think it matters for something, and for some of those it might matter how you compute it. I personally don't think it's a very meaningful number, so I don't see any strong reason to prefer one scheme over another, but there are people who believe that comparing point totals is good for something, and if you think that you really do want those totals to be path independent.
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-- MA Lloyd |
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10-20-2018, 03:50 PM | #12 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Central Texas, north of Austin
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Re: Questions
I think this is wise because I believe that the Point Total at the top of the character sheet is just supposed to represent the current value of the character in terms of his aggregate traits both positive and negative.
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10-20-2018, 04:02 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: Central Texas, north of Austin
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Re: Questions
I haven't fully developed this scenario in my mind yet, but I believe the confusion here in general is in trying to account for character points in a similar formal way as professional accounting.
Professional accounting is based on double-entry bookkeeping using a variety of accounts in order to keep an entity's assets and equities in balance. Even though you are juggling this bookkeeping in your head when you are assigned an starting allotment of character points and then spending them, GURPS probably doesn't require such formality for a simple character. Although there is nothing to stop you from implementing it. However, if you want to do this balancing with character points when converting them to cash, I believe you would need a similar technique for balance when during play your character spontaneously acquires disadvantages or advantages and also when earning character points. |
10-21-2018, 12:24 AM | #14 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Questions
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10-21-2018, 05:51 AM | #15 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: Questions
Quote:
I guess if your players keep the only copy of their character sheets and can't be trusted not to add some points you didn't award you might not think that's a distinction, but in that case nothing prevents them from adjusting both numbers however they like even if they write down two sets, right?
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-- MA Lloyd |
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10-21-2018, 12:47 PM | #16 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Questions
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10-22-2018, 07:23 AM | #17 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Questions
The logic is pretty simple:
If you spent points and they change your character's abilities forever, you adjust your point total. If you spent points and get something temporary – like money or gear you could spend, lose, or have stolen or confiscated not through the actions of gods or magical wishes, but by those of ordinary NPC merchants, thieves, or guardsmen – you don't adjust your point total. It's like when you spend character points on Praying (Exploits, p. 90): Points are permanently sacrificed for temporary gain. They don't increase your point total.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
10-22-2018, 07:51 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Questions
To clarify Kromm’s point, by the actual rules of DFRPG (and GURPS), earned character points do not increase your point total. A [250] character who earns [6] points becomes a [250] character with [6] unspent points. If they spend [5] on gaining Ambidexterity, they become a [255] character with [1] unspent point. If they use that last point for Divine Intervention, they become a [255] character with [0] unspent points.
Hence, points spent on something temporary do not add to your total. In order to be consistent with this sort of accounting at the introduction of points for cash, starting point totals have to be “reduced” compared to the campaign baseline. The character’s points aren’t actually reduced — they were never really a [250] points character, as they never spent all those points.
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Per-based Stealth isn’t remotely as awkward as DX-based Observation. |
10-22-2018, 09:54 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: Questions
But there's nothing in the game that cares about how many points you've spent on your character or have available right? So this is just an academic inquiry?
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10-22-2018, 02:56 PM | #20 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Questions
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