Loot in GURPS??

[Peter V. Dell'Orto]

Originally Posted by Sniperkitty

In D&D the explicitness of the rules are INCREDIBLY helpful because it gives a very good idea of the value of the loot, and you can know the in game value of an item that gives a bonus to a skill, increases magic, gives an ability, etc to anything and any effect. the rules are like a valuable crutch to the GM. Am I missing the rules for a ring/amulet that grants a +x bonus to y skill? for granting +x bonus to y stat?

5. I don't know whether i should give my 135 point starting players one of those backpacks to start with, or wait till 200 points, or 250, or ... you get my point. at what level is a certain item appropriate? THAT'S the biggest thing i need help with.

As someone else noted upthread, GURPS doesn't care about this kind of stuff as a system. GURPS hearkens back to earlier editions of D&D and gaming in general, where ultimately the amount of treasure handed out and what magic items were handed out were up to the GM.* D&D 3.x took the idea of certain characters having "appropriate" items and a certain amount of magic or treasure and ran with it. GURPS is more like those early days where you didn't really know if a 9th level fighter with a +1 sword was under or overequipped, or if a 4th level fighter with a vorpal blade was similarly under or overequipped. It's fuzzy but it's obvious if you've played a while which one one is which (answer: under and over, respectively).

In GURPS, even in GURPS DF, you just need to decide what's appropriate. My experience is to err on the high side with money** and the low side with magical power items. It's easier to soak excess money away without rancor than to convince someone it's totally fair that a disenchanting monster surprised them and whacked their vorpal blade away (although IIRC Gary Gygax did that to someone's character).

So it's really up to the GM. A weakness of GURPS is that you don't have an out of the box solution that answers all balance and appropriateness concerns. A strength is it's flexibility - you aren't a priori informed of the "right" answer and you can make one that fits your own game best.

* Yes, guys, I'm aware of random treasure rolling, treasure types, the chance of finding unguarded treasure in a room, etc. I mean they didn't tell you a level X guys should be fighting level Y monsters and have level Z treasure. You *could* roll up a single troll who had the Hand of Vecna in his stash in 1st edition AD&D, not that I ever did . . .

** I've been learning that the hard way in own DF game.

[trans]

Originally Posted by Kage2020

Do you go well with onions? ;)

and some fava beans and a nice Chianti