Disads: the Second Best CP Deal in GURPS

[Maz]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

[...]
This avoid the quest for the last n points of disads to get exactly to the limit, and allow the player to have the character they want to play, while keeping a limit in place to avoid unbalanced abuse.

that might works. I experience the same. The players start our with maybe -30 pts in disads the thing actually fit the character and then starts flipping through the book trying to find "more points".

Originally Posted by ericthered

I've started saying to players that my disadvantage limit is "They must be functional". I have a soft limit where I the GM will push back at around [-35], but that varies by character design, and the -35 is just a guess, and certain disadvantages get more slack than others.

This is a really good guideline, but very, very subjective and so can lead to a lot of discussions.

I've started distinguishing between disads. My problem with many disads is when they have a lot that are all defining for the characters personality. If you have many disads that are more mechanical I don't mind it.

For instance, I don't mind a character with -1 ST, Skinny, Pacifisme (Reluctant killer), Impulsive, Overconfidence and Wealth (struggling) = total -45

Where someone with Impulsive, Overconfidence, Greed, Compulsive Carausing, Curious and Sense of duty Friends = total -45.
Such a character is going to be really, really hard to play if you want to live up to all those disads.


So the next game I'm going to run I will probably have a cap of maybe -25 pts. But then have a long list of disads that do not add to the cap.
(Alternatively I would not use a cap but let people choose 3 diads that are character-defining).

Originally Posted by martinl

I have had moderate success with "You get a bonus CP at the end of the session if your disads came up an a way that is interesting and inconvenient for your PC." I wish I could say it was a great success, but while it made play more interesting, and took the burden of remembering everyone's disads off the GM's shoulders, it also lead to a certain amount of resentment from players who thought it was the GM's duty to make sure they got a chance to display a disad each session, and a certain amount of disad grandstanding, where a player would try to shoehorn a disad into a scene when it was not really appropriate.

I have considered this for the longest time but been afraid to do it for all the reasons you list :(