Estimating 'Best equipment possible at your TL' costs? (For Signature Gear etc.)

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

On one hand, B345 says that 'Best equipment possible at your TL' is usually not for sale. On the other, it seems logical that someone's Signature Gear could be the best of the best the world can offer. Which raises the question: how does one normally estimate the price of e.g. the pickiest lockpicks in the world, or the hackiest intrusion software, or whatever?

Thanks in advance!

[GodBeastX]

Priceless.

And I'm not being funny saying that. To give you an example, car shows may show off the craziest creations in automobiles and top of the line parts, and each one is worth several million, but may not be when they hit the streets.

Prototypes can be insane. Military can be unavailable at all. And some things are so obscure nowhere to buy it to even get a price.

So basically "Up to GM" is probably the safest bet.

Power up Perks has a blurb under "Better Gear" perk that might help you.

[aesir23]

Well, if you want to buy gear from 1 TL up, you need Higher TL (5) and then pay 2X the cost of the gear.

So for cutting edge gear, I'd say, Better Gear (1) and 1.5X cost.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

On one hand, B345 says that 'Best equipment possible at your TL' is usually not for sale. On the other, it seems logical that someone's Signature Gear could be the best of the best the world can offer. Which raises the question: how does one normally estimate the price of e.g. the pickiest lockpicks in the world, or the hackiest intrusion software, or whatever?

Thanks in advance!

It's x100 cost per GURPS Supers p. 75 and I wouldn't have a issue with it. I'd increase the complexity though per Fine software.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

On one hand, B345 says that 'Best equipment possible at your TL' is usually not for sale. On the other, it seems logical that someone's Signature Gear could be the best of the best the world can offer. Which raises the question: how does one normally estimate the price of e.g. the pickiest lockpicks in the world, or the hackiest intrusion software, or whatever?

Thanks in advance!

In GURPS Supers, I used 100x. You could go with that, or you could have a climbing scale that gets steeper with TL: 100x for +3, 500x for +4, 2000x for +5, and 10,000x for +6 (the highest possible).

Bill Stoddard

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

It's x100 cost per GURPS Supers p. 75 and I wouldn't have a issue with it. I'd increase the complexity though per Fine software.

Thanks. I was hoping there's a RAW answer to that. And since a Fine (+2) set of software canonically costs $1,000 at TL10, and is equivalent to a Fine (+2, ×20) kit of tools, I'm guessing that would indicate $5,000 (at TL9 - $50,000). Not bad for a glorified spreadsheet. (I kid, I kid. I understand such software is no laughing matter.)

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Thanks. I was hoping there's a RAW answer to that. And since a Fine (+2) set of software canonically costs $1,000 at TL10, and is equivalent to a Fine (+2, ×20) kit of tools, I'm guessing that would indicate $5,000 (at TL9 - $50,000). Not bad for a glorified spreadsheet. (I kid, I kid. I understand such software is no laughing matter.)

Well, it's kind of limited in a way despite the price - you have to have a computer to use it. And the time. And power. And so on. And $5,000 is a LOT for a program, not even taking into account the Complexity bump which means you have to have a better computer (which is very costly).

[Anaraxes]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

5,000 is a LOT for a program

Trivial for custom software, though, or a prototype analogous to the things GodBeastX was mentioning. That's a couple of programmer-weeks. Software only gets cheap when you can sell the same program to a lot of people. But then, that's presumably the average software for the TL, not the best possible (especially in cinematic gaming terms).

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

Trivial for custom software, though, or a prototype analogous to the things GodBeastX was mentioning. That's a couple of programmer-weeks. Software only gets cheap when you can sell the same program to a lot of people. But then, that's presumably the average software for the TL, not the best possible (especially in cinematic gaming terms).

Interesting. Could you elaborate please (with examples or anecdotes if you have them). I'm not saying you aren't right, I'd just like more information. :-)

[Crakkerjakk]

I'd look at the bonus the program provided to the skill and build it with points, properly limited. So if it's +5 to Computer Hacking, 20 points or so. You're essentially buying unrestricted access to something that's not generally available for cash. Sounds like a textbook case of "just model it with points".