[DF] Shelly Cuthbert, Professional Adventurer

[Tymathee]

Originally Posted by johndallman

and those come along when they feel like it.

RNG is a balancing factor here, or so I'd like to think. The dice fall as they may, and the point is that it's a resource to be managed. If you blow all your Luck Points at once, you might not have any at a later time to prevent undesirable outcomes. I don't think this is any less presumptuous than assuming you can blow all your LP at once and somehow expect there to not be possible dangers in the future.

So, LP spent all at once BUT risking future problems OR LP spent all at once and NO risking future problems comes out to a net +0% here.

I think it could be argued that circumstances could potentially be manipulated by the player to favor the latter over the former which I see is where you're coming from (like the later mentioned of possible manipulative behavior, a perceptive GM would nip this issue sooner than later). This reminds me of some Kromm logic about Features potentially being valued as Perks. At best I think this might warrant a 1 point increase in cost, but I'm personally in favor of keeping it at 15 as there's a little too much subjectivity with the probability and it could be argued to be a non-issue with a savvy GM.

Originally Posted by johndallman

as a renewable resource

The bolded isn't a true statement as I'm certain I provided adequate clarification in my notes on this, although I will elaborate/restate this more clearly if I can. You never have any more uses of Luck with your Luck Points anymore than the amount of uses you would naturally have with unmodified Luck. It's only a "renewable resource" if you're purposely dragging the session on longer than it is scheduled for. I doubt this is a meaningful isssue, as I would hope the GM to be perceptive enough to sus out this kind of manipulative behavior.

Originally Posted by johndallman

With GURPS Luck, I mostly play without considering the time, and have been caught out several time with ten minutes to go before my Luck refreshed.

For the sake of objectivity I think we should value Luck for it's full point cost with the assumption that you're maximizing your time management in regards to Luck usage rather than under utilizing your usage of time, as it just makes sense to value it for its max potential. Anything less than that and I think we might be flirting with the idea that Luck should be priced lower, which common sense would dictate to be a silly idea I'd think.

I think a common issue that unmodified Luck has with the contentious Game Time modifier is time. For reasons it could be argued as a positive aspect of Luck's game mechanics, and for reasons it could be argued as a negative aspect of the game mechanics of the trait, as evident by my stances and past history of it being brought up by others in past threads.

Originally Posted by johndallman

Yes . . . is she always able to pull her weight in a party? She's reasonable with a sword, but without her armour specified, we don't know how durable she is in a fight. She's decent with crossbow, and very useful at Survival and Cartography.

Oh, I'll get to the equipment loadout eventually. It's the part I dread the most about char gen as it's the most time consuming aspect of it for me. That and I'd be more comfortable finalizing it knowing what game she's going in, and who the rest of the party is, their loadouts, etc. I might post a tentative loadout later. With said loadout we can probably be a bit more confident in her capabilities certainly, as a lot of skills are only as useful as the tools you have at your disposal.

One of my complaints about the standard DF templates is they have an almost one-track mind towards combat effectiveness without nearly as much focus on broader utility for adventuring. Sure, at least someone needs to be the combat monster but not everyone needs to be.

Originally Posted by johndallman

OK, she'd be quite handy in the adventure we're on, mapping Wolfstack Wood in the Cold Shard Mountains.

Thanks! It always has irked me in the past with my old parties I've played in that mapping is always neglected. I have the suspicion that today's smartphones with their convenient mapping apps has made people take physical maps for granted. If I'm ever at a American shopping mall and everyone else I'm accompanying is bewildered about where to go, I'm the first to go straight to the nearest directory map (how does anyone just miss these?). You could wander around aimlessly (as some adventuring parties seem to do, poor GMs might as well be trying to herd house cats), or you could inform yourself of your environment and keep track of things. With maps, good ones!