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~~Peter Knutsen~~ · 08-23-2013, 06:34 AM

GURPS 3rd Edition had a rule that limited characters to twice their age in CPs in Skills, thereby encouraging players to choose a higher age.

The effect wasn't very strong, though, since 3E had huge problems with players gravitating towards putting as many CPs into Attributes as possible while putting as few into Skills as they could get away with.

One thing you can try, is to add a disadvantage representig being close to the Aging Roll threshold. Like 5 CP for being age 45-49, 4 for being age 40-44, 3 for being age 35-39, and so forth.

Another thing you can do, is to give a free Technique CP for each 4 years the character is older than some threshold, say 30 or 35. That CP must be spent on a Technique, it cannot be spent on anything else. That's in order to limit it a bit. The problem with that is that some character concepts won't benefit much from CPs earmarked for Techniques only. What reasonable use could a primarily spellcasting character have for 3 or 4 Technique CP, e.g.?

I don't think either of my proposed solutions are going to accomplish much, though. If I were to create a character to play in such a campaign, then my inclination would be to make the character as young as possible. I'd much rather have a decade or two more of lifespan, than a couple of extra CP.

I don't think GURPS can resolve your issue well, due to some of its inherent design "features".

08-23-2013, 06:34 AM	#2
~~Peter Knutsen~~ Banned Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Europe	Re: Characters starting at advanced age GURPS 3rd Edition had a rule that limited characters to twice their age in CPs in Skills, thereby encouraging players to choose a higher age. The effect wasn't very strong, though, since 3E had huge problems with players gravitating towards putting as many CPs into Attributes as possible while putting as few into Skills as they could get away with. One thing you can try, is to add a disadvantage representig being close to the Aging Roll threshold. Like 5 CP for being age 45-49, 4 for being age 40-44, 3 for being age 35-39, and so forth. Another thing you can do, is to give a free Technique CP for each 4 years the character is older than some threshold, say 30 or 35. That CP must be spent on a Technique, it cannot be spent on anything else. That's in order to limit it a bit. The problem with that is that some character concepts won't benefit much from CPs earmarked for Techniques only. What reasonable use could a primarily spellcasting character have for 3 or 4 Technique CP, e.g.? I don't think either of my proposed solutions are going to accomplish much, though. If I were to create a character to play in such a campaign, then my inclination would be to make the character as young as possible. I'd much rather have a decade or two more of lifespan, than a couple of extra CP. I don't think GURPS can resolve your issue well, due to some of its inherent design "features".