Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 9137692" data-attributes="member: 6787650">Fun fact: according to Steve Jackson (via Sean Punch, the GURPS Line Editor), point costs were originally designed to control trait rarity, not model utility.To be fair, I know as a fact that in GURPS, First Edition, advantages were indeed priced for desired rarity in the game, not for their utility. I know this because the designer told me! Combat Reflexes is far more useful than most 15-point traits and many traits worth quite a bit more, but it's priced cheaply because it's common in adventure fiction and not meant to be rare. Warp costs more mostly because it's an outré superpower, and just about always rare when it's innate rather than technological. [Source: <a href="http://Source: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=1566965#post1566965" target="_blank">http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=1566965#post1566965</a>]Implication: GMs who want a different trait frequency in their games should feel free to adjust point costs accordingly. You want big muscular gunmen like Jayne from Firefly in your space game and your players are all leaving their ST at 10? Reduce the cost of ST to 4 points per level. You want mages to be rare but powerful in your fantasy campaign? Quintuple the cost of Magery to 50 points per level, and also triple the radius and range of every spell. Go right ahead! It's what Steve Jackson apparently did.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="FormerlyHemlock, post: 9137692, member: 6787650"] [B]Fun fact:[/B] according to Steve Jackson (via Sean Punch, the GURPS Line Editor), point costs were originally designed to control trait rarity, not model utility. [I]To be fair, I know as a fact that in [B]GURPS,[/B] First Edition, advantages were indeed priced for desired rarity in the game, not for their utility. I know this because the designer told me! Combat Reflexes is far more useful than most 15-point traits and many traits worth quite a bit more, but it's priced cheaply because it's common in adventure fiction and not meant to be rare. Warp costs more mostly because it's an outré superpower, and just about always rare when it's innate rather than technological. [/I][Source: [URL='http://Source: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=1566965#post1566965']http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=1566965#post1566965[/URL]] [B]Implication:[/B] GMs who want a different trait frequency in their games should feel free to adjust point costs accordingly. You want big muscular gunmen like Jayne from Firefly in your space game and your players are all leaving their ST at 10? Reduce the cost of ST to 4 points per level. You want mages to be rare but powerful in your fantasy campaign? Quintuple the cost of Magery to 50 points per level, and also triple the radius and range of every spell. Go right ahead! It's what Steve Jackson apparently did. [/QUOTE]

Verification