GURPS Dark Sun Conversion

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

If your point wasn't related to "surviving in the harsh environment" then why did you bring it up?

Most post-apoc games tend to play up the "surviving the environment" angle. They take away any safety net of civilization to fall back on. Now, you can do high point games in which not only are you capable of surviving the environment, but can also beat up the aforementioned psychic mutant dinosaurs. But ideally you also want enough flexibility to allow people to play games in which they JUST worry about the environment and getting a caravan from one city-state to the next.

You are talking about how high point games can also be gritty. Yes. Sure. That has nothing to do with keeping point totals low enough for non-humans that you can play a campaign with a thri-kreen and a caravan guard and not have the caravan guard be able to beat up psychic mutant dinosaurs in addition to surviving the environment when the game was only supposed to be about surviving the environment.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Why? Do you get upset with the number points elephants have in ST? Why is any racial point total more believable than any other?

Because elephants aren't fellow sentients directly competing with us for resources in a world where said resources are scarce.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

If city accountants are worth more points than ghetto thugs, how the heck are are the thugs able to win fight against them? It's not just the point totals, it's how those point are spent. Half giants aren't going to dominate the world no matter how strong they are, because they are stupid. Thri-Kreen are the best at their niche (survival), but that doesn't translate to being the best able to rule the world.

The thri-kreen are freakin super-velociraptors that eat other sentients, as you've written them.

The point is, the way you've written the racial templates allows you to play the types of games you like, but doesn't allow people to play lower-power games with all the races if they want lower power levels. That works fine if we're playing the game you like. It's less useful as a generic conversion for whoever may wander along.

I mean, really. What point totals do you play at? Look at the DF templates. They're 250 points, and scarily competent though most of them neglect survival aspects. Even tacking on another 50 points of survival abilities, any game of yours that includes thri-kreen will also allow regular humans as competent as DF folks. Is that really the most useful generic racial template? It allows you to play the types of games you're interested in, sure. Does it allow others maximum choices in the types of games they want to play?