[Basic] Racial Templates

[(E)]

Is there any standard way of including traits that are common but not universal in a racial template? (outside of including them in the description that is).
For example 80% of Whitedark Goblins have Cowardice or 90% of Whitedark Goblins have Sadism.

On a related note has anyone successfully came up with a mechanic to discount advantages/disadvantages for a specific racial template. (mark-ups can be covered by unusual backgrounds in the write up) If so how do they get priced?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by (E)

Is there any standard way of including traits that are common but not universal in a racial template? (outside of including them in the description that is). For example 80% of Whitedark Goblins have Cowardice or 90% of Whitedark Goblins have Sadism.

You could decide that this race always has X points of mental disadvantages and offer a list of choices, with a note of what's most common. It's not all that flexible, but anything else tends to break the principle that a template has a fixed total cost.

On a related note has anyone successfully came up with a mechanic to discount advantages/disadvantages for a specific racial template. (mark-ups can be covered by unusual backgrounds in the write up) If so how do they get priced?

What do you mean by "discount" in this context? It's a general principle with GURPS that you pay for what you get: the "package deal" discounts of, e.g., Hero System are deliberately avoided. You can incorporate trait enhancements and limitations in a template: calculate the cost normally.

[simply Nathan]

Make separate lenses and then a note on each lens for how common it is to that race.

[PK]

If the vast majority of a race has Cowardice and Sadism, I build Cowardice and Sadism into the racial template, then include a note making it clear that both can be bought off.

Actually, in general I've come to believe that racial templates are most useful when they take a moment to specify which disadvantages can be bought off and which cannot. It's the difference between "cultural conditioning" and "unwavering genetics." I did so in MH5 and would like to see that become the standard.

[(E)]

Originally Posted by johndallman

What do you mean by "discount" in this context? It's a general principle with GURPS that you pay for what you get: the "package deal" discounts of, e.g., Hero System are deliberately avoided. You can incorporate trait enhancements and limitations in a template: calculate the cost normally.

One way of looking at is advantages can be made more expensive with the addition of unusual background. What about the opposite can you make an advantage cheaper to encourage it's use? A usual background.

A more specific example would be "all steelhill dwarves have their of age gift" a bespoke item (dwarftech/clockpunkish) worth a non specific number of points. The racial template includes 3 points towards it but that number is just the minimum.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by (E)

One way of looking at it is advantages can be made more expensive with the addition of unusual background. What about the opposite, can you make an advantage cheaper to encourage its use?

Well, you can make it compulsory on the template. Making a desirable advantage cheaper for one race verges on unfairness to players who want to play something else.

[(E)]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Making a desirable advantage cheaper for one race verges on unfairness to players who want to play something else.

That would be the crux of the issue. . .