Steve Jackson Games Forums - View Single Post - The reason for specific point costs in GURPS

DrTemp · 01-24-2006, 07:09 AM

So, what is the reason why trait A costs X CP's, while trait B costs Y CP's in GURPS?

Many people say that it is the "relative usefullness" of a trait that determines its price. But to me, that does not make sense.

In my opinion, it is the desired rarity of traits. One looks at any given trait and finds that, for example, Telekinesis 10 is about as expensive as ST 15. But certainly no one will claim that Telekinesis 10 is about as useful as ST15? This may be the case in one specific campaign world, but in most, it is not. It is a futile enterprise to determine "relative usefulness" over all possible settings for a "generic" system, since the usefulness depends on setting and plot, things which no game system, at least not a generic one, will know before. Additionally, there are traits like "Unusual Background", which specifically exist to make things that are rarer more expensive to reflect exactly that.

So I find it quite obvious that GURPS prices traits for desired rarity, not for "usefulness".

01-24-2006, 07:09 AM	#1
DrTemp Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Germany	The reason for specific point costs in GURPS So, what is the reason why trait A costs X CP's, while trait B costs Y CP's in GURPS? Many people say that it is the "relative usefullness" of a trait that determines its price. But to me, that does not make sense. In my opinion, it is the desired rarity of traits. One looks at any given trait and finds that, for example, Telekinesis 10 is about as expensive as ST 15. But certainly no one will claim that Telekinesis 10 is about as useful as ST15? This may be the case in one specific campaign world, but in most, it is not. It is a futile enterprise to determine "relative usefulness" over all possible settings for a "generic" system, since the usefulness depends on setting and plot, things which no game system, at least not a generic one, will know before. Additionally, there are traits like "Unusual Background", which specifically exist to make things that are rarer more expensive to reflect exactly that. So I find it quite obvious that GURPS prices traits for desired rarity, not for "usefulness".