Same group, different point characters?

Mgellis · 09-02-2009, 08:29 AM

I'm not sure there is a "right" answer to this. It depends on the players and the GM for each group.

If it's simply a matter of five or ten extra points, "loan" the player the points--he can start with, say, 160 points for his character, but the first ten experience points he gets are "already spent," and have to be used to pay back the loan before he can spend them on anything else.

In the case of player characters whose points diverge somewhat because some of them have earned more experience points than others...big deal. I'd perhaps give the people with fewer points some opportunities to earn some extra points and even things up, but they have to take advantage of those opportunities.

And I've long been a believer in a "no limits" approach for certain campaigns. This applies mostly to supers but could apply to any genre. Instead of having a standard point budget (150, etc.), build the character according to the character concept, however many points is required. So you might end up with four characters who have point values of 140, 200, -10, and 375. However, all characters must have at least one significant weakness that can be exploited for plot purposes.

In GURPS, this is really less of a problem than in other game systems because point value does not translate into absolute power levels. Big differences in point values don't really affect gameplay all that much. A 50-point character can easily be better than a 500-point character in certain things. A 25-point thug can kill a 1,000-point super with a single shot if he gets lucky. And a 25-point thug doesn't even need to get all that lucky to take down a 200-point genius scientist if the guy has limited combat skills.

Mark

09-02-2009, 08:29 AM	#11
Mgellis Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Flushing, Michigan	Re: Same group, different point characters? I'm not sure there is a "right" answer to this. It depends on the players and the GM for each group. If it's simply a matter of five or ten extra points, "loan" the player the points--he can start with, say, 160 points for his character, but the first ten experience points he gets are "already spent," and have to be used to pay back the loan before he can spend them on anything else. In the case of player characters whose points diverge somewhat because some of them have earned more experience points than others...big deal. I'd perhaps give the people with fewer points some opportunities to earn some extra points and even things up, but they have to take advantage of those opportunities. And I've long been a believer in a "no limits" approach for certain campaigns. This applies mostly to supers but could apply to any genre. Instead of having a standard point budget (150, etc.), build the character according to the character concept, however many points is required. So you might end up with four characters who have point values of 140, 200, -10, and 375. However, all characters must have at least one significant weakness that can be exploited for plot purposes. In GURPS, this is really less of a problem than in other game systems because point value does not translate into absolute power levels. Big differences in point values don't really affect gameplay all that much. A 50-point character can easily be better than a 500-point character in certain things. A 25-point thug can kill a 1,000-point super with a single shot if he gets lucky. And a 25-point thug doesn't even need to get all that lucky to take down a 200-point genius scientist if the guy has limited combat skills. Mark