02-22-2008, 03:20 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Help me pick a point total
I don't often ask for help on these forums, but I thought I'd give it a shot.
This sunday, I'm sitting down with a group of friends to hammer out some characters for a homebrew setting, Blackout Saga, which is inspired by Rifts in the sense of a post-post manaclyptic kitchen-sink setting. In my head, I have something of a gritty comic-book, anime feel to it. On the one hand, in the words of my friend, a "world where it rains all the time," but on the other hand, the players should stand out as heroes battling against impossible odds and displaying crazy, fun abilities. Rifts (and the kind of anime Blackout Saga tries to emulat) sits right at the cusp between cyberpunk and super-heroes. On the one hand, both have lurking street rats, miserable former mercenaries, outcast mutants, and on the other, tend to see powerful psychics who can tear apart a power-armored soldier, elite commandoes and inhuman monsters (vampires, dragons and demons). The former suggests 300 points, the latter suggests 500 points, or more. Originally, I had intended 300 points, but a friend asked to play a combat android who had lost its memory and thought it was human (certainly an interesting concept!), but found he didn't have enough points. At my request, he simply ignored point totals and made it from the templates in UT, and came to more than 600 points. In response, I tossed together a street-rat psychic type, and found I could make a pretty powerful psychic for less than 400 points, and a decently interesting one for 300. So I'm torn between the lower and the higher point totals. 300 points: Gives the players room to grow and emphasizes the grittiness of the setting. While the players can do cool stuff, they still run headlong into their own limitations. It's easier to add points than to take stuff away. 500 points: Gives room to make cool powers, and given the TL of the setting (TL 9-10), possibly necessary to allow the poorer, gadgetless characters to keep up with their power-armored kin. Alot of people are probably going to try to split the difference and set it at 400 points. I know it's a possibility, but unless you have a compelling argument for it, I'd rather you didn't. The real question is: should I hedge low (and tell my robot friend to tone it down), or should I hedge high (and tell my street-rat psychic to turn it up a notch) |
02-22-2008, 04:01 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
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Re: Help me pick a point total
What about a disadvantage limit?
I would suggest to got for 300 points and be more lenient with adding fitting disadvantages.
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garfield |
02-22-2008, 04:03 AM | #3 |
Banned
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Help me pick a point total
Are you willing to use all the gritty rules? If you use all the bleeding/crippling/infection/fear etc rules from basic/bio-tech/high-tech/martial arts, you should get quite a gritty feel even at 500 points.
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02-22-2008, 05:39 AM | #4 | |
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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Re: Help me pick a point total
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02-22-2008, 09:47 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ft Collins, CO
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Re: Help me pick a point total
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For example: ACA thinks he has a ST of 10. He acts like it, deals damage like it, etc. Player of ACA wants him to manifest his true ST of 20. He saves his cp and when he has 100 pts (or cheaper if he wants to throw on some limitations), ACA can either have a Flashback during combat, or a nightmare where he sees himself lifting trucks, and voila! Besides, I think characters that get big in play are much more interesting than characters that start that way. My $.02, Arne |
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02-22-2008, 09:54 AM | #6 | |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Help me pick a point total
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To the OP: Don't equate "high-powered" with "cinematic." You can have a gritty, dirty, nasty game at 1,000 points or a game where all the grit gets swept under the carpet at 50 points. Either "feel" is 95% due to campaign ground rules and perhaps only 5% due to character abilities. Choose point level solely on the strength of what abilities you want to see in the setting.
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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02-23-2008, 12:07 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Dec 2005
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Re: Help me pick a point total
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One thing you could do is just let the Combat Android guy start with a higher point total. Early on, he'd be more punchy in the physical department than the other characters. For him though, have him earn no character points for quite a while and instead simply start regaining his memory. This gives you a plot device to play with and lets him play what he wants. Make it clear to the player from the beginning that advancement will be slow with mostly regained memories as a reward. |
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02-23-2008, 12:32 AM | #8 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Help me pick a point total
There really isn't any reason (other than tradition I suppose) that PCs have to have the same point totals. The last THS campaign I ran I didn't charge for racial templates and I didn't have any problems*, the PCs point totals ranged from 200 points (a Alpha Upgrade) to 600+ points (a SAI/Bushbot).
*Well with that anyway. Don't ever let a "loony" type player play the captain of a multibillion dollar spacecraft in a supposedly realistic hard-sf game. |
02-23-2008, 04:56 AM | #9 | |||
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Eindhoven, the Netherlands
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Re: Help me pick a point total
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Thus, in my experience, higher point total games tend to diminish the importance of gadgetry Quote:
Wow, you guys really helped ^_^ I think I'll go with 500 points. That still leaves room to grow, lets our commando play more like a Black Ops character (which is one of his favorite games), grants the Android more access to his innate abilities, and will allow our psychic character to explore more options. |
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02-23-2008, 08:52 AM | #10 | |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Help me pick a point total
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