Benefits for drawbacks a la GURPS

[takyris]

So, you fire up d20 Modern, you whip out the ol' Point Buy, and you decide that you want to make Adrian Monk of the USA Network hit show... the funny, sad, bumbling detective who's got obsessive-compulsive disorder and a number of other issues.

Str: 8
Dex: 11
Con: 10
Int 18
Wis:10
Cha:10

That's the simple version, anyway -- the Wisdom is extremely debatable, since Monk has a GREAT Spot check but often forgets to tie his shoes or go home to the right house. I'd probably put it even lower and compensate by having him take Alertness, but I didn't know where else to put those points .

So, you're a GM, and one of your players says, "Hey, in GURPS, I could take all these fears and phobias and, in return, I'd get points to spend on other stuff. What do I get for being obsessive-compulsive?"

What do you say?

 

[Vigilance]

Consider this an official "none of the above" vote.

In my Modern campaigns what I do for Disads is assign a value from 1 to 5 for a Disadvantage, one being very mild (mild claustrophobia that will render the character shaken as long as he is forced to stay in an enclosed area) and five being very serious (blindess).

These equate to Challenge Ratings.

Each time the character's Disadvantage affects him during play, it's an additional encounter with a CR equal to the disadvantage number at XP time.

This not only seems the most realistic application of the d20 rules for disads, if a character manages to come up with a disadvantage that never really affects him, or one the GM hates so it never shows up, or just one that never works its way into the game despite the best intentions of both sides, no harm no foul. The character hasnt been inconvenienced, but he hasnt gained any additional XP either.

This also solves the problem of a character with Boba Fett or a Predator chasing him getting a massive benefit while his teammates get nothing but have to share the burden.

If they help him, they get a share of the Disad CR.

Chuck

 

[ThoughtBubble]

I would say "Can I hold you to that?" And smile evilly. The short answer is no. The long answer is: It depends on how much I expect this to impact the player and if it will actually be a drawback instead of something to be ignored at key moments. In most cases, that's no.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

There's a GURPS unofficial house rule that says give starting players the darn 45 points that they'd get for choosing disadvantages and quirks, and let them pile on as many disadvantages they'd like for roleplaying reasons alone.

Thus, instead of a character that got balanced to 100 points solely by taking hideous deformities and mind-wrecking mental illnesses, they have a 145-point character, and can take disadvantages if they want.

However, I like the CR method in reply #1...

 

[takyris]

Hey: Gone for almost a week. Nice to see people's thoughts. I love the CR idea, although CR would seem to go away after a certain level, and some eccentricities will always give you SOME trouble.

Actually, I'll start an example of that in another thread.