You enter a portal and gain 25 Character points.

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Mideanon

I am pretty sure gurps decently works at any level of play

GURPS works fine at 50 (or 25) points. Players, often less so. You can scale all the mechanical target numbers down to the PCs abilities, but it's harder to make them feel challenged or heroic when they're doing ordinary things. Just depends on the group, and how much they buy in to the regular-Joes-are-heroes-too, strangers-in-a-strange-land vibe.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Mideanon

I am pretty sure gurps decently works at any level of play assuming the GM isn't making the players do unreasonable things.

Agreed. A [25] relatively-average fellow wouldn't be much of an adventurer to start with, but provided there are "starter" quests and the like available (such as fighting a small group of goblins alongside a party, in a setting less harsh than Goblin Slayer), could probably make do - particularly if he has an additional [25] worth of special abilities.

Originally Posted by Mideanon

Basically stuff that requires you to have prior presence in the world is supposed to be off limits, so things like status, reputation, independent income, patrons, allies that aren't summonable beings that exist to serve etc are not supposed to be allowed.

I could see Independent Income and Patron still being options with those restrictions. For the former, it could be in the form of being able to conjure a small amount of gold every day (or maybe even a weekly loot box with a random amount of potentially-useful stuff in it, with an average result giving items worth as much as a week's worth of Independent Income). An Enhancement for the money being more easily-accessible than default might be appropriate (you don't need to go to the bank or whatever), possibly to the tune of +20%. For the latter, a patron god of some sort isn't uncommon in isekai stories (and is usually the one responsible for bringing the character to the other world, although not necessarily). The Patron could instead essentially be a summonable Ally who refuses to outright serve the character, but instead gives lesser assistance in exchange for a degree of servitude (basically a less-helpful version of the main character of How Not to Summon a Demon Lord).

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

GURPS works fine at 50 (or 25) points. Players, often less so.

This.

I've no problem with the idea of a 50-point or even 25-point game. I suspect that's "real life." I'm highly skeptical of people asserting they're 150+ point characters in real life . . . most of those self-assessments are based on a bunch of errors, notably "hours of study/work experience translate directly into skills," "huge skill levels are needed to succeed at anything," and "as a gamer who likes nerdy stuff, I have a huge IQ." I suspect that most of us here have all our attributes in the 9-11 range, a few skills at 12, and get by largely on bonuses from our lives being utterly mundane and riskless.

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.

Strangely, I was famous in my early GURPS groups for being the guy who always wanted to drive the power level up. Yet when I played, I rarely spent my points optimally and often just didn't spend them all. Meanwhile, the GM in love with real-life gaming never started a game below the 100-point level. None of which proves anything except that expectations and realities rarely line up in games.

I think you get tighter, better character concepts when you have to stick to a strict budget, make difficult calls, and focus sharply on one thing to be any good at all. As you add points, there's a subtle transition toward Jacks of all trades with "mushy" niches.

[Anthony]

High point level GURPS has a bit of an issue of skill differences being binary. If you have two 20 point characters and one puts 10% of their points into a skill while the other puts 20%, the result is a skill difference of 1, and the odds of the higher skill winning in a contest (rerolling ties) is about 1.5:1 (60%). In a 200 point game, that same 10% vs 20% is a skill difference of 5 and the odds of the higher skill winning is about 8.8:1. In a 400 point game it's 220:1.

There is a part of me that wants to rework skills/stats on a lottery principle (if you have 2x as many points invested, you have 2:1 odds of winning a contest), but it's fairly tricky to make work without a completely different skill resolution system.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Mideanon

I guess i didn't really explain the restriction on social stuff well.
Basically stuff that requires you to have prior presence in the world is supposed to be off limits, so things like status, reputation, independent income, patrons, allies that aren't summonable beings that exist to serve etc are not supposed to be allowed.

Okay, then I'll replace Status, Income, my baseline Ally and Melee Weapon with:

Modular Abilities (Cosmic) Level 5 (Max Duration 30 minutes -25%, Weakened Without Preparation 1hr -25%, Takes extra time 1 second -10%, Requires IQ roll -10%, Temp Disad: Short Attention Span -10%) [10]

That's a better plan anyway.

Making the full list:

Advantages:
Fit [5]
Mind Reading (Psionic -10%, Maximum Duration 10 Minutes -50%, Trigger (very common) -10%, Temp Disad (Laziness) -10%) [6]
Modular Abilities (Cosmic) Level 5 (Max Duration 30 minutes -25%, Weakened Without Preparation 1hr -25%, Takes extra time 1 second -10%, Requires IQ roll -10%, Temp Disad: Short Attention Span -10%) [10]

Skills:
Survival (local) (Attribute -1) [1]
Savoir Faire (Attribute +0) [1]
Shield (Attribute +0) [1]
Engineering (Mechanical? Clockwork?) TL4 (Attribute -2) [1]

[AlexanderHowl]

I do not believe that Maximum Duration or Temporary Disadvantage is legal for Modular Abilities, as Modular Abilities are an instance of change rather than a sustained effect, though you could apply both to any legal abilities taken by Modular Abilities.

If I was going to do 25 CP, I would take Modular Abilities 6/6 (Slotted Cosmic Powers; Requires IQ roll, -10%; Takes Extra Time 2, -20%; Trait-Limited, Languages Only, -50%) [15] and Modular Abilities 8 (Slotted Cosmic Powers; Preparation Required, 1 hour, -50%; Takes Extra Time 2, -20%; Trait-Limited, Skills Only, -10%) [10]. That would allow me to acquire any two languages and a 8 CP of any skill, allowing me to face a number of challenges without fear.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I do not believe that Maximum Duration or Temporary Disadvantage is legal for Modular Abilities, as Modular Abilities are an instance of change rather than a sustained effect, though you could apply both to any legal abilities taken by Modular Abilities.

I've never heard such a thing, and the text for each of those limitations says nothing to that effect.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I do not believe that Maximum Duration or Temporary Disadvantage is legal for Modular Abilities, as Modular Abilities are an instance of change rather than a sustained effect, though you could apply both to any legal abilities taken by Modular Abilities.

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

I've never heard such a thing, and the text for each of those limitations says nothing to that effect.

I would say that it depends on how your modular abilities work. If the power is Always On and just switches what you have, then Temporary Disadvantage wouldn't make sense as a limitation on MA, only on some of the abilities that you can get from it. However, if MA has an off mode, or if the temp-disad only applies during the process of changing abilities, then as long as it lasts for an amount of time that the GM considers long enough to be meaningful, I'd say it should be allowed.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Kromm

I think you get tighter, better character concepts when you have to stick to a strict budget, make difficult calls, and focus sharply on one thing to be any good at all. As you add points, there's a subtle transition toward Jacks of all trades with "mushy" niches.

It's not even remotely subtle at multi-hundred point levels if you're playing non-cinematic 'normal' humans (i.e. no or limited cinematic advantages and other options available, and no or limited powers, etc.). Attributes go up, and even single-point skill are in the high-teens, making everyone fairly good at being a jack-of-all-trades. On the other hand, this does mean that without a cap on skill levels specialists can be truly amazing 9but even serious specialists will probably also be jacks-of-all-trades - they'll just be masters of one or more as well), even without cinematic options.

[kirbwarrior]

Hedgewitchery seems perfect and without Social (based on OP) it fits;

Modular Abilities: Cosmic Power 1 (Physical +100%, Reflexive +40%) [24]

I guess maybe add Area Knowledge: New World [1] to fill it out.

Other good options would be Serendipity 1 (Either Game or Real Time +20%) [18], Independent Income 10 (Based on 12 +20%, Cosmic +50%) [17] or II 14 [24], No Sleep [20] or Less Sleep 8 with Doesn't Eat or Drink (okay, that's a point over), or even something silly like Brotherhood: All with Unusual Background.