You enter a portal and gain 25 Character points.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by oneofmanynameless

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.

This is true.

I know quite a few "showpeople." The number of takes needed to shoot a YT video, or a scene in a TV episode or film, is staggering. In effect, all that stuff gets +5 from taking the maximum amount of extra time – and usually +1 or more extra for each of helping hands, cooked props, and a set stage. This is why so many people with Dancing-9 think they have Dancing-14 or better . . . "Oh, but it went so well in class!" Yeah, the one time in 20 you tried it and it worked, under classroom conditions, with a partner who had a vested interest in making it work.

Originally Posted by Polkageist

I mean magic is clearly the way to go since it offers so much versatility

I'd go nowhere near it unless I had a guarantee that magic wasn't mostly associated with evil cults, dark forces, and hated necromancers in my destination world. If there are 150- and 250-point mage-hunters and Conan types running around collecting the heads of such people, I doubt my 50-point self could do much that 500-point dark lords couldn't.

Which is to say: You're right in dungeon fantasy, but not in classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy.

[Varyon]

I'd be hesitant to reach to magic, assuming the world operated using GURPS' default system. While it's possible I have sufficient IQ/Relevant Talents to give me a leg up, the fact it's as hard to do normally as it is when you've got an army of orcs barreling toward you (it doesn't get TDM's) and the nasty Critical Failure results would scare me away. For example, let's think about RedMattis' Test Food-9. Assuming on average you need to test one meal a day (the others you can vouch for as being fine), that's 365 meals in a year. With a 37.5% success rate, that's a bit over 970 castings in a year (assuming you keep casting until you succeed). With a 1.85% Critical Failure Rate, that's around 18 Critical Failures per year - 1.5 per month. Now, I realize summoning a demon and similarly-horrible results are fairly rare, but I'd imagine there are some pretty awful things that are likely to occur at least once out of 18 attempts (anything with a ~3.8% chance of occurring on any given Critical Failure has a 50% chance of occurring at least once with 18 of them in play, so any result from 5 to 16 has a pretty good chance of happening).

Magic-as-Powers would be fine, although something like Sorcery (which has a fairly significant buy-in cost) might be a bit out of reach at first. RPM I'd be similarly hesitant about; I don't know enough about the other systems to comment.

[Polkageist]

I guess part of it is if you want to optimize to become an adventurer or if you want to optimize to become a happy & productive villager.

The latter actually sounds pretty nice, and if the premise allows improvement via study then you might add a few points over time without necessarily risking your neck overmuch. Heck, you could probably split the difference a bit if you're canny about what kind of adventuring crew you join up with.

I'd go with a modified healer like you've got.

Magery 0 [5] Magery 3 (song -40/day -40)[8] I don't think this is overly cheesy at all. Dropping magery by 1 because... well you're a small time wizard. That 15 skill breakpoint is great for the energy savings, but those two extra points can get you some key spell versatility. You're still good at spells, just be more conscientious about your energy use.

14 points for spells

Lend Energy-12 [1]; Lend Vitality-12 [1]; Minor Healing-12 [1]; Major Healing-11 [1]; Relieve Sickness-12 [1]; Cure Disease-12 [1]; Recover Energy-12 [1];
(removed stop bleeding, obfuscated by minor/major healing and I actually do know first aid; halt aging isn't useful for a while, neut poison requires strong supporting skill to work well.)
7 healing spells

7 left
seek water [1], purify water [1], test food [1] - Now we can ensure clean water and food for ourselves and friends.

4 left
ignite fire [1] - So darn useful for living without electricity
Inspired creation [1] - I'm a hobbyist that's good enough to sell the odd piece, so this could cement me as an able craftsman or easily support another local crafter and ensure another avenue of employment. Well supported with the healing spells.
create fire [1] / shape fire [1] - Now we're a firefighter! Also useful while adventuring.

Alternatively, we can start setting ourselves up for an elementalist path.
Water is already set up (seek/purify)
Fire: Ignite fire [1]
Air: purify air [1]
Earth: Seek earth [1]
That last point is a toughie, because shape earth is world-breaking (literally and figuratively) and create/shape fire is really useful for adventuring. Probably go with shape earth to make life easy, because your adventuring bread and butter is going to be healing and not trying to shove a campfire on top of a goblin.

[Anthony]

I'd have my doubts about beating dungeons for those additional 25 points, so I suspect something like Serendipity (though the meaning of 'game session' is undefined) might work out the best.

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I'd be hesitant to reach to magic, assuming the world operated using GURPS' default system. While it's possible I have sufficient IQ/Relevant Talents to give me a leg up, the fact it's as hard to do normally as it is when you've got an army of orcs barreling toward you (it doesn't get TDM's) and the nasty Critical Failure results would scare me away. For example, let's think about RedMattis' Test Food-9. Assuming on average you need to test one meal a day (the others you can vouch for as being fine), that's 365 meals in a year. With a 37.5% success rate, that's a bit over 970 castings in a year (assuming you keep casting until you succeed). With a 1.85% Critical Failure Rate, that's around 18 Critical Failures per year - 1.5 per month. Now, I realize summoning a demon and similarly-horrible results are fairly rare, but I'd imagine there are some pretty awful things that are likely to occur at least once out of 18 attempts (anything with a ~3.8% chance of occurring on any given Critical Failure has a 50% chance of occurring at least once with 18 of them in play, so any result from 5 to 16 has a pretty good chance of happening).

Magic-as-Powers would be fine, although something like Sorcery (which has a fairly significant buy-in cost) might be a bit out of reach at first. RPM I'd be similarly hesitant about; I don't know enough about the other systems to comment.

The likelihood of summoning a demon is actually absurdly rare. You not only need critical failure, but you need to get the worst result on that result. Besides, I wouldn't cast Test Food on every meal, I'd save it for when I'm suspicious of something. I can still cure most poisons and diseases after all. ...and I'm pretty sure the note about "pure good" spells not summoning demons is fair for testing food. At worst it is testing it for myself at no disadvantage to other honest people. At best I'm trying to help people avoid getting poisoned.

Aside of the demon the other results are fairly harmless. Even 1d6 of injury isn't going to do me in unless I was already injured, and I'm a healer anyway, so I can fix that as soon as I get my FP back.

I'd go nowhere near it unless I had a guarantee that magic wasn't mostly associated with evil cults, dark forces, and hated necromancers in my destination world. If there are 150- and 250-point mage-hunters and Conan types running around collecting the heads of such people, I doubt my 50-point self could do much that 500-point dark lords couldn't.

Which is to say: You're right in dungeon fantasy, but not in classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy.

An illusion might be pushing it, but even in Conan-esque setting healers tend to be the one group that gets a pass as at least "grey".

Besides, you might also get detected by the mage-hunters for being a dangerous cross-worlder. In that sort of setting you probably won't get free cultural familiarly and everyone speaks languages you don't understand.

Though it was according to OP "Generic Fantasy", which usually isn't quite that dark, so probably you'll be fine as long as you're useful and harmless enough.

[Polkageist]

Originally Posted by Kromm

This is true.

I'd go nowhere near it unless I had a guarantee that magic wasn't mostly associated with evil cults, dark forces, and hated necromancers in my destination world. If there are 150- and 250-point mage-hunters and Conan types running around collecting the heads of such people, I doubt my 50-point self could do much that 500-point dark lords couldn't.

Which is to say: You're right in dungeon fantasy, but not in classic sword-and-sorcery fantasy.

Well, the prompt is 'generic fantasy world' so that's broad enough that you could probably make a few generalized assumptions as part of your build process. Are they correct? I dunno, depends on the world's rules that aren't defined in the prompt so I'll go ahead and say that it's at least tolerant of wizards if not DF-level friendly. And generally peaceful because I want to chill out and build tables and no one said I can't :P

As for getting greased by some 200-point villain who's got it out for you... that'll happen no matter what, we're only working with what 50-75 points TOTAL depending on the person?

The other interesting part of the prompt that kinda makes the larger assumptions about the world kind of important is that it's not "make yourself as a character, add 25 points and let's play a game of GURPS!" where setting up for adventure would absolutely be what I'd do. It's more of the You-you going through the portal and having the option of picking up some potentially supernatural abilities that we're describing using GURPS-isms, but I would avoid thinking about them being used explicitly as GURPS mechanics.

So to that point, I'd probably want what I want now, which is a fulfilling and peaceful life without worry for health, comfort, and food. That's why I lean towards the utility magic, and that RedMattis' point of healing magic being so important. It removes a lot of the problems of a low-TL life and gives you the opportunity to enjoy things. Yeah, I could be an adventurer, but honestly I think I'd use inspired creation now and then to make a really great cabinet and recover with the healing magic. Travel a bit, meet new people, maybe help clear out a local dungeon that's causing problems but otherwise... enjoy life.

edit: also it assumes that this world's GM uses critical failures, which is not a universal trait of GM's (I don't myself unless it's particularly dramatic)

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Polkageist

I guess part of it is if you want to optimize to become an adventurer or if you want to optimize to become a happy & productive villager.

The latter actually sounds pretty nice, and if the premise allows improvement via study then you might add a few points over time without necessarily risking your neck overmuch. Heck, you could probably split the difference a bit if you're canny about what kind of adventuring crew you join up with.

Even if you plan to become an adventurer I think it is better to use the 25 points to transition to being an adventurer rather than try to give yourself enough of an advantage to beat a dungeon. The best option would be something which is useful for both, IMO.

Lend Energy-12 [1]; Lend Vitality-12 [1]; Minor Healing-12 [1]; Major Healing-11 [1]; Relieve Sickness-12 [1]; Cure Disease-12 [1]; Recover Energy-12 [1];
(removed stop bleeding, obfuscated by minor/major healing and I actually do know first aid; halt aging isn't useful for a while, neut poison requires strong supporting skill to work well.)
7 healing spells

The reason I rushed for Halt Aging is because I have some concern that I won't find a teacher for the spell (if it is even known to mages in the setting). If it is not then I can both help myself and possibly a few powerful patrons who would probably consider me incredibly valuable for that spell alone...

7 left
seek water [1], purify water [1], test food [1] - Now we can ensure clean water and food for ourselves and friends.

4 left
ignite fire [1] - So darn useful for living without electricity
Inspired creation [1] - I'm a hobbyist that's good enough to sell the odd piece, so this could cement me as an able craftsman or easily support another local crafter and ensure another avenue of employment. Well supported with the healing spells.
create fire [1] / shape fire [1] - Now we're a firefighter! Also useful while adventuring.

Oh, Inspired Creation has no perquisites? I definitely would have picked that if I knew about that, so consider my picks modified if we're fine with -80% limited all-college magic.. My programming sure won't help me, but I can do both art and writing probably on at least Skill-10 level, so that would be incredibly valuable. Note the outragously high cost though. Not just 5HP + 10FP (for the craftsman; you), but 5FP per day as well. That means you'll run out of FP and burn HP unless you have a powerstone. It might well end up killing you.

[AlexanderHowl]

Honestly, if I had to choose, I would go with the +25 CP to buy off my Bad Sight and Chronic Pain. A 50 CP character would be a massive reduction in capabilities for me because, quite frankly, I am significantly above average. In general, I believe that is true for most people who are older than 25, as education and experience have graced them with better capabilities (though many of them would be useless in a low tech world).

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Polkageist

I guess part of it is if you want to optimize to become an adventurer or if you want to optimize to become a happy & productive villager.

One reason to optimize adventuring is that you can leverage those sweet, sweet XP to become an immortal. Regeneration (Regular) [25], Unaging [15], Unkillable 3 [150], and a Perk to let yourself suicide at any time (escaping thanks to UK3) is technically achievable by level 8, although that requires you to focus quite a bit on just that (more likely, you'd get there around level 10-12, using most of your early bonus points on being someone who can reliably delve - and survive). Actually, leaving out the regen lets you get there as early as level 7, but I'd rather come back from the dead in under a week (and recover from the majority of non-fatal wounds in less than a day) than in over half a year (without Regeneration and assuming HT 10, you'd recover 10% of full HP roughly every 2 days, so recovering 1100% HP - enough to get from -10xHP to full HP - would take around 220 days). Appropriate Limitations can get you there quicker, although I'd be hesitant to do much more than put Mortal -20% on UK 3 (saving [30], which I'd probably use to get rid of my reliance on oxygen, food, and water).

Once you've accomplished that, then you retire and live as a happy and productive villager.

Originally Posted by Anthony

I'd have my doubts about beating dungeons for those additional 25 points, so I suspect something like Serendipity (though the meaning of 'game session' is undefined) might work out the best.

A lot will depend on the setting, here. In some settings, motivated and moderately-exceptional children can delve beginner dungeons relatively safely, allowing you to build yourself up to handling the harder ones. In other settings, a party of fairly competent warriors and mages can get utterly annihilated by mere goblins.

Of course, the party concept opens some other paths - you needn't be an exceptional solo delver (or even combat-capable at all, given appropriate support abilities) if you can party up with some friendly folk at the local adventurer's guild. Is that something we can expect to be a thing here (that is, would that be part of the knowledge we get about the world before spending our [25])?

Originally Posted by RedMattis

The likelihood of summoning a demon is actually absurdly rare.
...
Aside of the demon the other results are fairly harmless. Even 1d6 of injury isn't going to do me in unless I was already injured, and I'm a healer anyway, so I can fix that as soon as I get my FP back.

I'll readily admit Magic isn't my strong suit, so I'll defer to you here. I had thought there were other nasty results that were more likely than the demon, but if the worst that can happen is a 1d6 wound, I agree having low levels on spells is a workable path.

[Polkageist]

Yeah, inspired creation costs health and energy but is itself without any prereqs. It's costly, but a good spell to grow on especially if you can partner with a craftsman early on. Even one-day projects can be lucrative until you hoover up enough resources to extend your capabilities. A local blacksmith can turn out a knife in a day easily, and you can make his recovery much more tolerable with the healing.

I see your point with halt aging, and it is a nice thing to have handy especially if tracking down a teach is tough. Healing just eliminates so many problems, AND makes you useful to an adventuring party. It's important to remember that you won't be solo'ing dungeons anytime soon, so make good friends! Sure, the Ally advantage is there but you can also go out and make allies. But I digress.

Ok, so if I don't really want to be an adventurer I'd probably go with something like this:
5 - magery
4 - magery 2 (song/day)

9 healing spells
body reading, lend energy, lend vitality, recover energy, minor heal, major heal, relieve sick, cure disease, halt aging

7 other
seek water, purify water
test food
seek earth, shape earth
ignite fire
inspired creation

Long life, easy living