09-27-2012, 03:55 PM | #31 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
Well, TbaM/WM are essentially huge packages of Rules Exemptions, Extra Options and the like.
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09-27-2012, 04:00 PM | #32 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
WM generally pays for itself with the bonus to damage, extra attacks, and extra parries. TBaM is, IMO, overpriced, though some of the abilities it grants access to are in fact exceptionally powerful.
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09-27-2012, 04:04 PM | #33 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
Agree on both points, neither of which is incompatible with my point. Which is that either trait is a bunch of UBs glued together, such as the one you mentioned, or the access to various cinematic rules/skills/techniques, or rule exemptions for various forms of harsh realism.
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09-27-2012, 04:12 PM | #34 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
An ability that grants access to exceptionally potent abilities is not an unusual background, because its value has nothing to do with how 'unusual' those abilities are -- it has to do with how potent those abilities are.
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09-27-2012, 07:40 PM | #35 |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
One idea:
Gawl Durn it People Like Me Take any combination of 1-4 reaction mods you want totalling 10 points or less as a perk. Reaction bonuses beyond this core package cost double normal, penalties beyond this compensate at half. (Rxn issues that are secondary effects of traits like talents may be ignored.) Blatant, blatant, game engineering here. Goals: 1. Social rxn complexes given a ceiling on complexity for ease of GMing. 2. On average, PCs will be likeable, not outcasts. 3. Rewards social specialization - so each PC can have a group that *they* talk to. |
09-28-2012, 08:42 AM | #36 | |
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
Quote:
Shouldn't something be done to help designs that are hampered by using a limited list of traits? A 500 point super that invests 100 points in a UB is still competitive with a 500 point "normal" that doesn't have access to any innate super abilities despite having 100 points less to play with. Real game experience has shown me that being having to limit yourself to only gadgets, certain racial abilities (that others also have), and "normal" traits is definitely worth altering the number of points a character has to play with. UB is just the obvious mechanism to levy that tax. |
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09-28-2012, 09:55 AM | #37 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
No, most are disproportionately weak. In general the power of an ability should be coded into its cost, but a separate balance is needed for skills because of how the skill mechanics work. Simply getting rid of the cinematic skill and turning them into advantages would eliminate the need for separate advantages that grant access.
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09-28-2012, 10:59 AM | #38 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
Quote:
No, seriously. Suppose I decide to charge a UB for people who want Enthrallment abilities. That's charging for access to exceptionally potent abilities, but the act of charging a UB for them does mean that most of the public at large will be taken by surprise. They may or may not know that bard skills exist in theory, but they don't expect to actually encounter them and will not be on their guard if someone starts telling stories or singing a song. If I charge a UB for Innate Attacks in excess of 7 dice then that may mean I want to discourage powerful zaps but it should also mean that nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition....to be able to shoot through armour plating. Mental stuns are called for when it happens. |
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09-28-2012, 11:05 AM | #39 | |
Banned
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Europe
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
Quote:
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09-28-2012, 12:04 PM | #40 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Brooklyn, NY
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Re: Challenge: Deliberately Miscost a Trait
Kromm's article From Skills to Advantages (Pyramid #3/44: Alternate GURPS II, p. 14) would be useful if that was the goal.
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-JC |
Tags |
house rules, overthinking, point cost, shameless manipulation, splitter |
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