Are proliferating perks a danger to GURPS?

[Lord Carnifex]

Originally Posted by Tommi_Kovala

Depends on your gaming group's "perk culture". I like to use perks like Photogenic (+3 bonus to Photography skill if you want him to look good in a photo, -3 if you want him to look bad) and Impressive Scar (+1 reaction bonus with war veterans). These are, IMO, marginal enough to justify the minimal cost. They set the overall power level and it rubs off to new players who are shopping for Perks.

I agree. A dusting of "not-quite-worth-the-one-point" quirks fills out a setting and gives a sense of uniqueness to characters. Where I try to draw the line is when Perks are being used to shortcut the system, in place of full-fledged advantages, skills, talents, or techniques. The choice to buy a quirk should never feel forced, but should be a choice of "how do I make this character unique among all the other fighters/mages/martial artists who are similar?" Perks I've offered in the past include things like Looks good in uniform, Captain of a starship, True believer, Liked by cats, and so on.

My problem is not with the abundance of Perks, but making sure their power level is capped.