Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

Perks also add color and genre conventions to a game.

Masked and other Schticks are good for superheroes who just put on the mask (glasses, hat) and aren't the same person to others despite only changing one clothing item. Sartorial integrity is also great.

Cross-Trained is a good way to say, look, my PC is good at Driving any car (or other specialty) without spending 24 points on Driving. For folks like action heroes, it works nicely.

Basically, perks do for GURPS 4e what the 'up to the challenge' advantage S. John Ross suggested using in Black Ops would have done: give PCs some quick, small cheat to replace a gargantuan unwieldy list of skills and techniques. This gives one more time to game and more space for characterization.

The RAW for perks, particularly combat perks, ensures that few PCs will have them who don't invest a little effort in the field. Thus, if used wisely, they are a nice addition to the system.

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

While I briefly mentioned it before, Perks are also the perfect choice to give Racial templates "life". Transform flat "mechanical" driven race write-ups into something that has it's "flavor text" written in the stat write-up and on the character sheet.

Perks (as well as quirks... especially the personality quirks... I have the tables in uplift memorized) add that final little garnish that complete a race, and add depth to their evolution... be it social, physical, psychological or otherwise.

So... I love Perks... and anyone who hasn't purchased "Power Ups 2: Perks" should definately check it out... (then click purchase).

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

Assuming from your other post that you're talking about Thaumatology: Magical Styles... it might be too late for you, but you'll need Thaumatology (the big one) to make sense of several of those Perks. Not the majority, mostly the Extra Option variants, but having Thaumatology definitely helps. Hope you weren't disappointed!

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

I don't think you can argue with the math of any of the "problem" perks. All of them are highly specific. Consider the Charm perks that let you get a spell without prerequisites. Several people argue that spells are "partially" balanced around prerequisites, and I think that "partially" is key. It's true that it took 17 spells for my Mage to get Great Gaes, but along the way I got totally sweet spells like Terror, Mental Stun, Sleep and Command. I could have spent a Perk point to take it as a Charm... which would have meant I spent 2 points to get what I could have gotten for 1 and some prerequisites. I find it hard to argue with that, especially given that any Cleric can just buy the spell he wants.

I think some people equate perk with "Useless ability that I'll certainly let you waste a point on." (Much like they equate Quirk with "Non-disadvantage that is flavorful that I'll give you a point for) They look at things like High Heeled Heroine and Extreme Sexual Dimorphism, Accessory or Honest Face and shrug: these don't have any more impact on the game than the GM really allows, and they seem more about allowing flavor than really making a difference.

They look at the actual abilities that do something, like Weapon Bond, Charm, Striking Surface or Power Grapple, and blanch. They've likely experienced a clever player making great use of that ability. No, Charm, Weapon Bond and Sure-Footed on their own aren't that great... until someone buys a Charm for Ice Slick, takes Sure Footed Ice, and forces his opponents to fight him on ice wherever he goes, thus ensuring he has +2 to +3 on his opponents for a mere 3 points. But that's not unbalanced, it's clever.

I certainly don't mind. Perks really are equivelant to 1 point advantages (1 point of night vision, for example) or heavily limited 5 point advantages (For example, Sensitive, Only Against Women, Once per Day)

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

Trying to cut in on U's commission, eh? *tsk*

heh

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

S'just that my commission deal is for copies of Thaumatology itself... ;)

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

Drunken Fighting always struck me as a bit abusable. It's basically +2 to all your combat skills with the preparation required and temporary disadvantage (-2 IQ) limitations. Those are serious limitations, but I still think it's more like a 5 point advantage than a perk. Cancelling the penalties for drunkeness to combat skills seems more reasonable for 1 point.

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

Except it works out to being a lot more than 3 points, because a non-mage needs to spend a zillion points to get magic spells up to a decent level. IQ13 and Magery 0 actually doesn't give you reliable spell casting for 1 point: try 8 points at least, preferably 12.

The Leprechaun thief in my DF game had to spend 31 points to Charm (Flying Carpet), Charm (Winged Knife), Magery 0, Flying Carpet-15, and Winged Knife-15, and that barely made him an effective combatant. It didn't feel overpowered to me.

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

A +1 to a skill with any sort of limitations that will actually come up doesn't worry me much. A limitation that is at least as restrictive as a technique, already priced at 1 point per +1, should be fine. And worse case, well a point of skill costs 4 in the limit, and just about any limitation would work as a quirk, so maximum savings is 2 points, unless you are allowing lots of possibly stackable perks for the same skill. I do see proposals with higher bonuses as more iffy.

Re: Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?
 

Limiting to 5 per player character is a bad idea, because it doesn't scale with campaign power level.

A limited derived from starting PC power level, which could be 1 Perk per 25 CPs or something like that, is a vastly superior solution.


For a DF or Action campaign, each character class could get a list of exclusive Perks that no other character class may choose. Or there could be a little overlap, e.g. between the Holy Warrior class and the Priest class.