[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Miserliness

[johndallman]

Miserliness [-10*] is a mundane mental disadvantage with a self-control roll. You are very mean with money, and try hard to avoid spending it, to the point of causing problems for yourself. This disadvantage first appeared at GURPS 1e, and hasn’t changed in its essentials.

You need to succeed in a self-control roll to spend money, at increasing penalties for larger outlays. If you fail the self-control roll, but have no choice about spending money, you will haggle even more than usual and complain incessantly. You always look for the best possible price, and waste time, by most people’s standards, doing this. You may not have Compulsive Spending or Compulsive Generosity, but Greed is thoroughly compatible with this disadvantage.

Miserliness isn’t very common on published character templates. It’s common, although not usually compulsory, for dwarfs and dragons in fantasy settings, and a cliché for merchants, allied trades and trading magicians, although that’s sometimes a front for bargaining purposes. Aliens: Sparials are prone to it, and Boardroom & Curia makes it a valid disadvantage for organisations (I worked for one once . . . briefly). DF15: Henchmen points out the advantage of an assistant who’s a miser with the boss’ money, and Horror makes it an option for Explorers, who are always short of money, and uses it as an example disadvantage from a failed Fright Check. Madness Dossier needs implanted microchips to inflict something as specific as Miserliness. It’s fairly common among the scavengers of Reign of Steel: Will to Live, and Social Engineering points out that it makes paying bribes difficult. Miserliness is weirdly common among the templates in Space, though Tales of the Solar Patrol limits it to pirates and merchants.

I’ve had one character with this disadvantage, early in my GURPS-playing career. It was GURPS Mage: the Ascension, where money is most unlikely to be important in play, but can matter a lot in characters' lives in the mundane world. That seemed OK; fussing over small sums in a game is not my idea of fun. Has it entertained for you?

[SionEwig]

I've never used the full disadvantage, but have had characters with a Quirk level of it (penny-pincher/thrifty/bargain hunter, call it what you will). That seems to work out fairly decently.

I have known several people IRL who have had Miserliness, worked for one (no fun) and another was the treasurer of a non-profit I was in (and he had it seriously).

One thing that I've sometimes considered doing with Miserliness is to have a corresponding decrease in the cost of living based on the self-control roll. Something like reversing the CoL increase under Compulsive Spending. While it's would mean that the character would have more money, because of the Miserliness, they won't want to spend it.

I've even though of doing something like that with the characters starting money. Again, they'd have more money, but fewer goodies. If I did that, I'd probably need to apply it to Compulsive Spending (more goodies, less cash).

[Boge]

It's kind of a miserable one to have, no pun intended. When you want to buy something, you need to haggle the price. When the GM doesn't budge, and you don't have any merchant skills, more often than not, you just don't buy what you needed. So you end up going without.

[newton]

Originally Posted by Boge

It's kind of a miserable one to have, no pun intended. When you want to buy something, you need to haggle the price. When the GM doesn't budge, and you don't have any merchant skills, more often than not, you just don't buy what you needed. So you end up going without.

Having merchant skill definitely seems like something a miserly person would have though

[edk926]

I'm a miser. I don't haggle though. Haggling isn't common in the modern world now, at least in the US. My miserliness manifests in an inability to buy stuff that's full price. If it's not on a good sale, I'm not buying it.

[ericthered]

One result of miserliness not talked about in the disadvantage is often a willingness to "tough it out" and an expectation that others will do so as well. For instance, staying in less reputable inns, eating cold food from home rather than paying for prepared food, or riding a finicky bicycle that only kind of works. I've seen a lot more miserliness manifested that way rather than via haggling.

In the modern world, haggling could be read as "Shopping around for the lowest price": A miser forced to buy something won't be happy until they've spent half an hour looking up prices online, and found the correct place to buy from.

[Black Leviathan]

Originally Posted by edk926

I'm a miser. I don't haggle though. Haggling isn't common in the modern world now, at least in the US.

I think that a modern Miser would haggle less-often but if you have the disadvantage you're that guy, at the head of twelve-people in line, trying to wheel-and-deal with a cashier over an item with a price tag on it.

Another attribute of the modern miser is returns. If you don't get full use out of what you buy you'll try to return it for your money back. When you're buying you'll try to get someone to promise you that you can return it if you don't need it because even if you need it your mind-state is that it's money you're throwing away. Again it's not a matter of cost but principal. I have customers that nickle-and-dime me over literal nickel-and-dime parts.

The other Modern Miser attribute is the Complimentary/Gratis/courtesy grab. Misers will always ask if a service or feature can be offered for free or if they're in a situation where something is offered as a courtesy they will maximize their use of it. They sneak food out of buffets, they take hotel shuttles to whatever location is closest and catch a taxi to where they want to go, they'll hit the same samples table multiple times at the grocery store.

If you have the Miserly Disadvantage for your character, every time the GM mentions the price of something you should evaluate how you could get it for less or get something free with it before you even roll self-control, even if it's not your money, even if it's not something you should put a price on.

"500 Gold ransom.. that's a lot of money... I don't think I'll probably earn that in my life"

"Yes she's a princess but.. is she 500 Gold coin of princess.. because.. man that's a lot"

"I mean we don't even have proof they have the Princess.. we should definitely have proof before we bring them the money.. a piece of her dress or something.."

"I realize I'm partially responsible the dress is ruined but we both know the dress is a package deal with the princess and there's no un-ringing that bell. How about we drop the ransom down to 475 Gold. You still do great and it smooths over the dress issue."

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Black Leviathan

I think that a modern Miser would haggle less-often but if you have the disadvantage you're that guy, at the head of twelve-people in line, trying to wheel-and-deal with a cashier over an item with a price tag on it.

Or arguing about discount coupons, flyers, etc. if the TL is low enough for them still to happen.

Or you're the one person in dozens who actually jumps through all the hoops needed to get a mail-in rebate.

I think the determinant here is that you optimise for low expenditure even when it's clearly to your disadvantage. You'll save money on the expedition rations, but you'll do it by buying the cheap ones that taste vile and go off quickly ("those use-by dates are just to make you throw away perfectly good food"). While it might show up on a merchant's template, as John said, it'll still be a disadvantage even to them.

(I grew up with something akin to this, and took a while to realise that sometimes a more expensive version of something can actually be better.)

I don't think I've seen this on a PC in games I played or ran in, in part because we tend to use semi-abstract money anyway.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by edk926

I'm a miser. I don't haggle though. Haggling isn't common in the modern world now, at least in the US. My miserliness manifests in an inability to buy stuff that's full price. If it's not on a good sale, I'm not buying it.

As pointed out to me when I made a similar observation: don't bargain, price-hunt instead. Out of the 50 online shops in a city, always search for and pick the one which offers the best price for this thingy you want.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by newton

Having merchant skill definitely seems like something a miserly person would have though

Oh, you mean like Scrooge not shaking down debtors BEFORE their books are fat from the Christmas rush?