Need help fighting the dreaded MinMaxer.

[trooper6]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

This is a problem with the way GURPS gives equipment away. You can buy a vehicle, as an example, with Signature Gear, or you can take it as an Ally, or you can have a Patron that has given it to you. The point price of these traits aren't balanced against one another. They can vary by many orders of magnitude.

It's a part of the system that isn't balanced well and leads to these sorts of problems where one player ends up with essentially the same thing as another, but at a wildly different point cost.

But those three things are not essentially the same. A car bought with cash, a car bought as Signature Gear, a car as an Ally, a car as equipment from a Patron...those are all different things, with different implications.

Car bought with cash has no protection and isn't special.
Car bought with Sig Gear still has to be something buyable...in other words not Kitt from Knight Rider. So it isn't going to be crazy special, but doesn't have any drawbacks.
Car bought as an Ally is going to have to sentient in some way because allies are NPCs played by the GM. Allies are also going to want things from the PC and will leave them if they are treated badly. That is going to result in a really different dynamic than just some Sig Gear car.
And car as gear from a Patron? Well, if you upset your Patron, your Patron is going to take the car back from you. You have strings on that gear.

As a GM, I would make sure that each version felt different in play.