Same group, different point characters?

[Kromm]

I don't think it's terribly important to have everybody at the same points. That assertion is anecdotal. Over 23 years of GURPS, I've had:

• Players whose PCs have ended up far, far behind those of other players, usually through a combination of joining the campaign late and then missing a lot of game sessions. In the most extreme case, we're talking 500 points vs. everybody else at 800-1,000 points. But I've also seen the 100 vs. 150 points version, 150 vs. 200 points version, etc.
  
  
• Players who voluntarily played weaker PCs, both at start and during play. One actually saved all his points and didn't spend them. Eventually, his PC was 100 points back. Since this was long before I thought of letting people spend their points to influence in-play events, those 100 points were simply sitting there, inert.
  
  
• Players whose PCs simply lucked out: In a series of fair plot situations where every PC had about equal odds of scoring bad, points-lowering outcomes and good, points-raising ones, some people have rolled better, in front of everybody else and on the up-and-up. This is in a way equivalent to gaming out random character generation!

During all of that, I've had one player, ever, bitch about relative point levels. The dozens of others simply didn't care; they were too busy roleplaying (and thus earning more points . . .) for it to matter. My general advice is that a group that obsesses on such details as points is the worst kind of group for a points-based RPG like GURPS. There are too many opportunities for spats. You need gamers who understand that points are merely bookkeeping tokens that let the GM set initial conditions (e.g., on 100 points with no more than -50 in disads, nobody will have more than IQ 17) and limits on growth (e.g., at 1 point/game session, it takes at least 20 sessions before anybody will ask about raising IQ). Players who are competitive about points aren't people you want in a game of GURPS (or Hero, or any other point-buy RPG).

It can all be summed up as "You can't win an RPG." People who don't get that RPGs are collaborative storytelling, and that a powerful ally is a useful asset while a weaker one is a dramatic foil, really shouldn't be playing RPGs. If they insist, keep them well away from points.