You enter a portal and gain 25 Character points.

[Joe]

I see Kromm's case for taking metagame advantages - that makes sense.

Another route would be to try to take advantages that would be super-useful in real life, but are priced low in GURPS because they don't see much use in heroic adventures.

Example The First: Unaging [15] is obviously very, very cheap for what it is, though I'm not 100% sure I'd want it.

Example The Second: Maybe this is just because it's 2021, but I'd strongly consider taking Immunity to Sickness [15]. That seems a low price for an advantage that would be amazing in real life (and not just since 2020!). Especially amazing as one gets older.

To strengthen the case for Immunity to Sickness, have we considered the risk of new diseases? Of course this depends on the level of realism we're thinking at, but 'realistically' I think that if you were suddenly transported to a brand-new world, then new bugs would be a HUGE risk, and thus well worth spending points to avoid. In real life, I'd also worry that I was carrying novel diseases which might wreak havoc in this new world... But maybe that's not part of our thought experiment.

As for the next 10 pts, I'm not at all sure, but at first glance I'm tempted just to take Charisma 2 [10]. It's never bad to have everyone love you...

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Joe

Example The Second: Maybe this is just because it's 2021, but I'd strongly consider taking Immunity to Sickness [15]. That seems a low price for an advantage that would be amazing in real life (and not just since 2020!). Especially amazing as one gets older.

That's why I said I wanted to buy off my current issues and Unfit. These alone will considerably improve my quality of life (Yes, I could work off the Unfit once there, but current evidence suggests I'm really bad at that). Immunity to Sickness is nice, but for 5 points buying +8 vs disease is probably going to be almost as useful for 10 points less.

Buying a couple of points in speaking whatever the local language is might be wise (and maybe a couple more in reading/writing) especially if, like me, you're bad at learning languages.

[Aldric]

So we're working with a 50 point character after all. All the more reason to grab a 150% point ally with summonable, with some leftover points in skills to survive while your pet is not available, including the local language (which is almost universally granted in Isekai cases).
There is time for QoL improvements once your pet is more readily available, considering the fact that, because of how Ally is made, any improvement to yourself also greatly improves your ally.

[RedMattis]

Well, I'd probably go with the "add 25 points" version. While I'm hardly a high-point character I think I get above that. Let's see...

I'm lightly built but fit and I work out a fair bit, so I probably have ST 10.

I'm not overly dexterous, and I am in my 30s so I might only have DX 9 [-20].

I think my real life IQ was 136 or something like that, and while I have some mental issues (bad at remembering faces, numbers, names, what groceries to buy...) I am notably good at problem solving. Probably I have IQ 11 [20] and some level in a talent for Art/creative and another for problem-solving, such as programming. ...which ends up point-wise sub-optimal, but real people are rarely terribly optimized.

My senses are all fine, but I'm not terribly perceptive. Probably Perception 9 [-10]

I'm no photo-model, but I look pretty good with minimal effort, so I probably qualify for attractive [4].

I'm pretty good at making friends and making a decent impression, which sounds like one level of Charisma [5].

My endurance is really good, so I might have Fit [5].

I have a bunch of quirks (thin build, attentive, ...), and maybe a perk or two.

RedMattis
Attributes: ST 10 [0]; DX 9 [-20]; IQ 11 [20]; HT 10 [0]; Perception: 9 [-10]; Will 11 [0]
Traits: Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Charisma 1 [5]; Fit [5]; Talent ('Creative Skills') 1 [10]; Talent ('Problem-solving-skills') 1 [10]

Uh, Okay. I'm a sub-optimally build 24-point character thus far. Assuming I have no skills, but also assuming I have no quirks. Dang.

-----------------------------

Okay whatever, I'll work with what I've got. Probably one of my talents apply to magic in one way or another, so that seems like a sensible approach.

The cheese-approach would be taking Magery with Day-Aspected, -40% and Song, -40%, but I doubt a GM would let me buy Magery levels at 2/point level...

Magery 0 [5]; Magery 4 (Song, -40%, One-College Only (Healing), -40%) [8]

Okay, so I'm not a great singer so some ears might bleed, but with this I have an effective base of IQ(11)+Talent(1)+Magery(4) = 16 for healing spells, 11 for other spells. This came at a cost of 13. That's pretty nice, and leaves me with 12 points for starting spells.

Lend Energy-14 [1]; Lend Vitality-14 [1]; Stop Bleeding-14 [1]; Minor Healing-14 [1]; Major Healing-13 [1]; Relieve Sickness-14 [1]; Cure Disease-14 [1]; Neutralize Poison-14 [1]; Recover Energy-14 [1]; Halt Aging-13 [1]
Total 10 healing spells

Simple Illusion-9 [1]; Test Food-9 [1]
Total 2 other spells.

-----------------------------

Okay, this basically makes me suitable for waltzing into the first settlement I find and declare myself a wandering healer. Hopefully I can find someone to protect my wimpy self until I can either start impersonating an NPC by starting a little business (or getting sponsored/hired by someone with money). Eventually I should be able to expand on my magical powers whether it is by leveling up from healing soldiers or more realistic learning from stuff.

Halt Aging (once I can get a powerstone) should keep me alive in the long term, so age shouldn't be a problem.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Rupert

Buying a couple of points in speaking whatever the local language is might be wise (and maybe a couple more in reading/writing) especially if, like me, you're bad at learning languages.

I was working under the assumption everyone conveniently spoke English, but if not, I'd probably want Accented (Speaking) in whatever language is most common for the area I wind up in. If blending in is an option (may not be - many isekai stories have the character readily recognizable for having asian features and black hair; something similar could apply here, although I might have a better chance, as I have a lesser version of Passing Complexion - most people aren't certain if I'm Caucasian or Hispanic), boosting this to Native would be worthwhile. Whether I'd want to spend points on reading/writing comprehension would depend on a) how common that is (if extremely common, I'd probably want to at least start with Accented, as that would mean it's tough to function in society without being literate) and b) what sort of script the language uses (an alphabetic or phonetic script I'd probably just learn on my own, as those are generally pretty easy; something using ideograms or similar I'd buy Native in a heartbeat to avoid trying to slog through it).

As for diseases, I agree that Resistance/Immunity would be incredibly useful. If there aren't new diseases, I might put that off so I can start out with a more powerful (or more-frequently-available) servitor, but it would be tempting to grab once I'd gained a level or two. Granted, it's not quite as useful once I've got Unkillable 2 (maybe even 3) and Regeneration, but I can get it a lot earlier (plus, not getting sick at all means I don't have to go through the hassle - and emotional stress - of killing myself to get better).

EDIT: I should note here that a lot of my decisions so far are under the assumption I'm given some basic knowledge of the world I'm going to. If it's a case where I step (or fall) into a portal and just get the info from the OP, I'm probably going to risk "wasting" points learning the common language (and its script) and grabbing Immunity to Disease from the beginning, maybe grab myself some DR, and make do with a lower frequency of appearance for my servitor.

[oneofmanynameless]

Originally Posted by Kromm

But . . . If gamers are prone to such self-assessments, you can appreciate that they won't want to play characters they see as less capable than they are. It's very hard to get buy-in.

Even aside from self-assessment, they probably don't want to play characters that are notably less competent then characters with similar niches on TV. Even if they take their ideas for the character from youtubers and the like they'll still be thinking of the cool things a character like that could do: rattling of knowledge that it actually took the youtuber a month of research and practice to prepare, performing acrobatic stunts in the heat of combat that the youtuber actually practiced for a month before shooting (and did a dozen takes of before they got one that looked good), etc.

[Polkageist]

I mean magic is clearly the way to go since it offers so much versatility, so consider saving a point or two for signature gear (wizard staff) and bling that sucker out as a power item. That'll save you some FP, give you a useful weapon for adventuring, and makes living with Magery 0 much more tolerable.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Mideanon

And now that i think about it more, Jumper doesn't really need to be restricted(maybe time jumper since im not a fan of time travel), considering it's hefty cost of 4 levels and the fact that most good tales end with returning home(or making a new one in the portal realm).

An extremely limited version of jumper can be bought for 20 points. My first thought is to make a fortune selling mass produced clothing, butane lighters, and cheap stainless steal knives.


with that extra five points an summonable body gaurd is not a bad idea.

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Polkageist

I mean magic is clearly the way to go since it offers so much versatility, so consider saving a point or two for signature gear (wizard staff) and bling that sucker out as a power item. That'll save you some FP, give you a useful weapon for adventuring, and makes living with Magery 0 much more tolerable.

I'm not sure what I'd really want to take out to get it though. Test Food is great for survival.

Simple Illusion has an awful lot of real-life applications: how did the thief look? Well, he looked exactly like this! (I'm a technical artist by trade so even if you do judge that artist is required I'd probably handle it no problem).

The healing spells would not only be my fantasy-world-profession and ways of putting food on my table (without going into the food-college), but they are all pretty good for avoiding a lot of truly awful fantasy AND medieval horrors. When the plague-that-turns-people-into-zombies comes around you don't really want to find that you're stuck in some small backwater port town where the only "healer" around is some crazy quack who attaches leeches to people.

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by ericthered

An extremely limited version of jumper can be bought for 20 points. My first thought is to make a fortune selling mass produced clothing, butane lighters, and cheap stainless steal knives.

As long as the limitations are within what a "very reasonable and lenient GM" would agree with then that sounds like a good-if-disruptive pick. Though I doubt stacking a bunch of Recharge, Takes Extra Time, Costs FP, etc. with each other would pass, or really strange stuff like: 'Temporary Disadvantage: Decreased Time Rate, No Legs' would pass the "lenient GM", so presumably the limitations would need to be actually limiting. Getting it down in cost without it turning into Munchkin-'ing might be non-trivial.

Remember that without Extra Carrying Capacity you're not going to be moving large amounts of anything either.