Soldierly Honesty (and spies)

sn0wball · 12-12-2009, 10:58 AM

GURPS Honesty is a strange phenomenon and will not work as written in every campaign.

If you argue that one can be a spy by obeying the law of his home country than this is only true because he enjoys hefty Legal Enforcement Powers. Few legal codes allow their citizens to enter other people homes, take their stuff and steal their secrets. For a spy not to be a criminal, even at home, he needs special privileges which constitute Legal Enforment Powers.

At this point the question is wether such Legal Enforcement Powers are compatible with Honesty. Can you be an Honest KGB agent in Stalinist Russia? Technically, this may be possible, but is it worth -10 points for Honesty if you can get away with torture and murder by arguing that it is done for the sake of the state? I would say no. I´d let the player of the spy take Honesty at quirk level for paying his taxes in time. Honesty worth - 10 points needs an effective legal code which sufficiently restricts adventuring activity.

12-12-2009, 10:58 AM	#11
sn0wball Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Schleswig, Germany	Re: Soldierly Honesty (and spies) GURPS Honesty is a strange phenomenon and will not work as written in every campaign. If you argue that one can be a spy by obeying the law of his home country than this is only true because he enjoys hefty Legal Enforcement Powers. Few legal codes allow their citizens to enter other people homes, take their stuff and steal their secrets. For a spy not to be a criminal, even at home, he needs special privileges which constitute Legal Enforment Powers. At this point the question is wether such Legal Enforcement Powers are compatible with Honesty. Can you be an Honest KGB agent in Stalinist Russia? Technically, this may be possible, but is it worth -10 points for Honesty if you can get away with torture and murder by arguing that it is done for the sake of the state? I would say no. I´d let the player of the spy take Honesty at quirk level for paying his taxes in time. Honesty worth - 10 points needs an effective legal code which sufficiently restricts adventuring activity. __________________ No unconsenting english phrases were harmed during the writing of this post.