04-29-2018, 03:26 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
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Which might be what makes Debt legit; it isn't that you can't model certain aspects of it with different traits, but that having them all in a single package is handy.
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04-29-2018, 03:39 PM | #22 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
I've been extended a loan by a GM of a single point, deducted from the session's experience award at the end of play. That works fine; it happened when there was a good plot reason for the character to learn a skill, but had no points on hand.
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04-29-2018, 07:25 PM | #23 |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
Something like that might be fine, but it was never that small. Well, perhaps at first, but soon it was double digits and - I think at its worst - at one time even low triple-digit amounts were allowed. In the case of the latter, I think it was to allow an expensive Racial Template on a starting PC without eating up all the available CP. IIRC correctly, a percentage of the player's earned CP (minimum of 1) would go towards paying it off. >.>
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My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :) |
04-29-2018, 07:40 PM | #24 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
It's only an Enemy if you don't pay your debts. Otherwise, it's just someone expecting you to cough up money, and if you can't, it's a plot hook.
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04-30-2018, 01:01 AM | #25 |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
I'd say it's both. Normally the PC is low on take-home money even despite having good starting funds and ongoing wealth (e.g. a lucrative job and good socioeconomic connections). If the PC fails to pay up, then something duty/enemy-like shows up. That seems to be the niche that Debt fills, and you're offering to throw that away without providing an adequate replacement, only replacing the conditional part of it.
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04-30-2018, 10:20 AM | #26 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
The problem is it does a terrible job of filling that niche.
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04-30-2018, 08:02 PM | #27 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
As a side note, Ruth Benedict said that when she was in Japan there was a spike in suicides every New Year when contracts come due. To paraphrase Miyagi, in Japan, honor VERY important.
That could make debt an extremely hazardous duty.
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04-30-2018, 08:05 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
Quote:
Suicide is high in Japan because of their code of honor: salarymen, executives, schoolchildren... ...not because of debt. |
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01-26-2022, 09:13 AM | #29 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
I was looking into kitting out some characters for a modern game and it occurred to me that the obvious way to get the large sea-worthy boat they needed was to take a loan out on it. For whatever reason it took the modern context to get me to realize that.
It would be interesting to offer character creation rules where wealth can be bought with meta-traits and thus don't count debt towards the disadvantage limit: Investments (Major Item): gain an item up to x10 the starting wealth. Pay 20% of campaign's starting wealth each month. Your income is unaffected. In modern games, buying wealth this way is a loosing game. Actually, looking at the implicit interest rate from paying 2% of the item's cost per month (and thus 12% a year), Investments as above isn't a great deal compared to a modern business loan. It would be interesting to drop the interest paid to be closer to modern rates. Either way, my modern group will be acquiring some fairly steep payments on their boat... which just provides some pressure to acquire loot more quickly.
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01-26-2022, 12:12 PM | #30 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pioneer Valley
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Debt
Quote:
They've always worked at my table. And they would work pretty much at any table where: * The GM keeps a tight rein on how much loot is handed out; * The GM allows for enough downtime to make jobs feasible and desirable; * The campaign pays enough attention to logistics to make such details warranted; and * The setting involves stable polities. I agree they make less sense in milieus like dungeon fantasy or post-apoc, at tables where bandits carrying steamer trunks full of silver meet with bored yawns, and in many campaigns in which the PCs are the swaggering masters of the earth to whom all mere mortals (= NPCs) are expected to kowtow, and the King's tax collectors are met with derision.
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