[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Higher Purpose

[johndallman]

Higher Purpose [5] is a mental advantage, which Basic considers supernatural, although it has been broadened by supplements. You are very strongly motivated by a cause, described in the same way as a Code of Honour, and it enables you to exceed your normal limits in actions that directly aid this cause, getting +1 to all die rolls. This advantage appeared during the GURPS 3e period, but I’m not sure just where.

Your High Purpose has to be specific, and not overly pragmatic, requiring you to act beyond normal limits. “Slay all demons” is OK, but “Slay all evil” is so broad that you could stick to minor evils, never confronting major ones, and “Serve my superior” delegates the difficult choices to someone else. Intense feelings and considering one’s own safety lightly, if at all, seem to be key elements of this advantage.
The GM must approve each Higher Purpose. Obviously, this advantage can mesh well with some disadvantages, such as Obsession, Fanaticism or even Megalomania, which can help a character maintain their devotion to their cause. That devotion is important, and has to be maintained to retain the bonus.

Quite a few GURPS supplements come with pre-defined Higher Purposes for a setting or game style. Interesting new forms of this advantage include multiple levels of the advantage for the same target, Buddy Bond (+1 to assist one specific person), Higher Purpose as a trait of an entire organisation, “Sacrifice myself for Master,” “Acquire Knowledge” (which is implicitly “about the monsters we hunt”), “Blood Will Tell” (based on self-assurance of your own superiority), a higher level of Weapon Bond, perk-level Higher Purpose for inconsequential goals, and Higher Purpose for a specific magical tradition within RPM.

DF2 makes it clear that Higher Purpose applies to attack, defence, damage and resistance rolls against its target, and DF3 has rules for having several versions of this advantage for different targets. DF20 has rules for demon-hunters’ Higher Purpose turning against them if they don’t follow it, while Fantasy has Higher Purposes for Roman legions, and some of their opponents. Portal Realms relates Higher Purposes to the story, as well as the character, and Totems and Nature Spirits often have specific goals that fit this advantage. Sorcery: Protection and Warning spells adds multi-level Higher Purpose via Cosmic (+50%), and Steampunk 3 has lots of examples. Tales of the Solar Patrol has an interesting example for cadet officers, “Get a commission”, which presumably turns into a level of Rank when you fulfil it. Template Toolkit 1: Characters makes it clear that this advantage doesn’t have to be supernatural, although it quite often is.

I don’t think I’ve ever used this advantage on a PC. I’ve considered it, plenty of times, but never taken it. I seem to prefer characters who aren’t extremely focussed on one thing. How has this played in your games?

[Ulzgoroth]

It's significant that +1 to all die rolls is a highly unusual form of bonus and applies in potentially weird places. Damage rolls are the obvious first step beyond ordinary success rolls. But it could go further. High roll to decide who pulls the short straw? Sure, you're allowed +1 to that too...

(As such, I really don't buy any non-supernatural version that doesn't also constrain the effects...)

[Michael Cule]

I've never seen it chosen by players: it tends to be too demanding for the more munchkin rules-abusers and even those who are not actually pulling the GM's plonker will find it binds them to a cause they won't necessarily like.

I have used it for major NPCs. There was the female knight (essentially a Joan-of-Arc rippoff) who came to Harn to reform the Church of Larani there and restore some chivalry to the cult of the Goddess of Chivalry.

She was followed about by a PC who was her hopeless fan and admirer.

[whswhs]

I tend to think of Higher Purpose and Daredevil as kindred advantages.

[Phil Masters]

I don’t think of it as supernatural so much as “narrative”, like Luck. This character is really focussed on this plot element, and somehow does a little bit better when pursuing their plot function with vigour, because characterisation and the plot are served. But it could be a minor supernatural blessing, of course (as could Luck). Or it could even be borderline realistic; much of the time, the character is a tiny bit apathetic, but The Cause inspires them to make best efforts.

I think I’ve taken it once or twice, but probably then forgotten to claim it most of the time. Trying to claim a +1 to everything would be too obviously taking the &#@=, and would inspire pushback from the GM, so I’d only claim it occasionally, but me being a disorganised person, “occasionally” soon becomes “not at all because I forgot”. Must check my character sheets...

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I don’t think of it as supernatural so much as “narrative”, like Luck. This character is really focussed on this plot element, and somehow does a little bit better when pursuing their plot function with vigour, because characterisation and the plot are served. But it could be a minor supernatural blessing, of course (as could Luck). Or it could even be borderline realistic; much of the time, the character is a tiny bit apathetic, but The Cause inspires them to make best efforts.

I'm inclined to say that one level of HP (all that the Basic Set provides for) seems to me to be perfectly realistic. I don't think you need either supernatural benefits or narrative causality to justify people doing better at a task they feel committed to.

[ericthered]

Pyramid 66 suggests using higher purpose for "magical traditions". This is probably the place I've used it the most. I had one RPM witch who had the tradition "curse-breaker", giving her a bonus to taking down other's spells.


I've had players with this advantage before, mostly in Action and Monster Hunters games, and I think we frequently forgot to add the bonus.

[Anders]

I use it for a wilderness survival power to give a bonus to "rolls to acquire food", with the requirement to take only what you need (you can feed yourself and a few more people, but not for selling meat or feeding an army).

[martinl]

My favorite use of Higher Purpose is still "Lower Purpose."

I still find the damage modifier a little off-putting though. +1 to a 1d-2 knife is much better than +1 to 10d sniper rifle.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I don’t think of it as supernatural so much as “narrative”, like Luck.

I think this may be why it feels so awkward to me. I mean, if you have a divinely ordained purpose of monster slaying, in diegetic terms you put points into Great Big Sword and Blessed by the Gods and Enhanced Dodge and whatnot; the mechanism that says "only when doing this particular thing" is unclear, and mechanically I dislike advantages that come bundled with disadvantages – I can always stack separate things together, but unpacking them is hard. (See also Combat Reflexes of course, which is explicitly a discount on "stuff you should have if you're a fighter".)

I think the only time I've seen it on a PC is in the current Monster Hunters game (one PC, played by John in fact, has HP "hunt cryptids", but cryptids aren't by any means the only sort of monster they're dealing with)