Cost of Living Breakdown

[Langy]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

I wasn't suggesting the the other players wouldn't be part of the crew. So how do they pay for it?

Rank, Patron, Wealth, Signature Gear, Ally. Any one of those ways could handle it - but there needs to be a cost, because a character who controls a big powerful military warship can definitely do things that a character with exactly the same other statistics can not do.

Exactly which advantage I'd require the person take depends upon the situation; if the character completely controls a military warship while everyone else is playing bankers, but it's a campaign where military warships are going to be extremely useful (say, zombie apocalypse campaign), I'd require him to pay out his ears for it. If command of the warship won't actually matter whatsoever, then he doesn't pay much at all.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Langy

Rank, Patron, Wealth, Signature Gear, Ally.

But one can have the exact same rank but no warship.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

But one can have the exact same rank but no warship.

The way it works is: if the GM wants to have a campaign about the crew of a warship, and wants a PC to be a captain of the ship, one PC will be the captain. He may or may not be required to spend any points on it. If the GM doesn't want to have that sort of campaign, buy it with Wealth or you don't have it -- and the GM might not even let you buy it.

[Langy]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

But one can have the exact same rank but no warship.

Yes, and that's why the situation matters. If the fact of the warship matters a lot in the situation, they pay extra points for it, maybe as a Patron or something. This shows that the person who actually commands a warship is worth more points than the person who commands a desk in the recruitment department.

EDIT: Pretty much, Anthony, but I'd allow the use of other advantages besides just Wealth to do it. Those advantages would still cost a good chunk of change, though.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The way it works is: if the GM wants to have a campaign about the crew of a warship, and wants a PC to be a captain of the ship, one PC will be the captain. He may or may not be required to spend any points on it. If the GM doesn't want to have that sort of campaign, buy it with Wealth or you don't have it -- and the GM might not even let you buy it.

That's kind of the point. The characters can have a ship from their service if the service wants them to have one. The slave can have tools if it master figures those are needed for the slave to do its work. But the naval crew are only allowed to use their ship in the way their service wants. The slave can only use its tools the way the master wants. Or in both cases the ship and tools can be taken away and the malfeasant punished.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Anthony

No, the reason those things don't play a role is because the GM isn't charging points for advantages acquired during play.

But for what Advantage, in this case?

[Langy]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

That's kind of the point. The characters can have a ship from their service if the service wants them to have one. The slave can have tools if it master figures those are needed for the slave to do its work. But the naval crew are only allowed to use their ship in the way their service wants. The slave can only use its tools the way the master wants. Or in both cases the ship and tools can be taken away and the malfeasant punished.

True - but what about a character who would want to use his ship the way the service would desire it (either because the service is very free-for-all like a stereotypical scout service or because the character is interested in doing stuff the service likes), but the GM doesn't want to just grant someone the power of a large military vessel without some kind of significant point investment? This would probably be because the campaign isn't actually supposed to be set around the ship, but the GM is still open to the idea.

In that case, it makes sense to have the person who would control all that military might to pay some kind of upfront cost, rather than just get it all for free.

Same exact deal if the campaign is supposed to be about mercenary fighter aces and one player wants to portray a character in an actual military service with a service-provided fighter; the player doesn't get the fighter for free, he has to pay for it in some way. Otherwise, his character is unbalanced compared to the players who did have to pay for their fighter the hard way.

[Figleaf23]

Rank plus a selection of other traits could 'force' a GM to give a PC a warship. He needs the appropriate rank, then add an appropriate reputation and the highest skill levels allowed in Sav. Faire (Mil), Ship Handling, Leadership, Admin, and Tactics. If he's got all those, then the GM would have to impute some kind of wacky disads to prevent him from getting a command.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

That's kind of the point. The characters can have a ship from their service if the service wants them to have one.

Incorrect. The characters can have a ship from their service if the GM wants them to have one. This is a function of 'points are for players'; the GM is not constrained by the rules that govern PCs.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Nah. Cops and soldiers are given guns and ammo but there's nom guarantee those items are the ones they want and/or even very reasonably believe they seriously need.

But the kinds of cops and soldiers that the player characters are likely to be, in a typical RPG campaign, are rather more likely to get to choose their own equipment, than typical cops and soldiers are.

And even more so for PCs with more adventurer-like jobs, like spies or mafia hitmen.

It might be neat if GURPS had some formal rules for on-the-job equipment budgets, for exactly those kinds of situations.