From: jglarson@watmsg.uwaterloo.ca (Johan Larson)
Subject: Re: What price a soul?
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 16:16:07 GMT

In article <Bsz8Jv.E46@math.uwaterloo.ca> jglarson@watmsg.uwaterloo.ca (Johan Larson) writes:
>I'm designing a Gurps character who has the interesting feature
>of having traded his soul to the Devil 
>for some specific advantages.  As part his part of the bargain, 
>the character has to kill one person every week, or he will lose the
>abilities and suffer other grievous consequences.
>
>I'm trying to fit this into Gurps by having a disadvantage
>Demonic Agreement added to the game.  My problem is cost.
>I'm not sure how much this disadvantage should be worth;
>none of the disadvantages in the Basic set seem comparable.

I think there are two principles worth following:
1. The cost of a disadvantage shoould reflect the degree to which it 
   hinders the character which possesses it.  The cost may well
   vary depending upon the setting, since the same problem may have 
   drastically different effects in different adventures.
2. Advantages should compensate for disadvantages incurred.

It may be easiest to discuss this problem with a concrete example, 
ratehr than attempting to do so in the general case.
Let's suppose that the character is playing in an adventure set in
the present day.  The PC's exist on the fringes of the law, but they
do not generally flagrantly flout it.  The setting is a large city, 
but one which is sufficiently well policed that the PC's must
operate by stealth.

In such a setting, what are the risks incurred by a character with a
kill-one-per-week duty?  Fifty murders per year would until recently
have doubled Toronto's murder rate.  Unless the character is exceptionally
careful, the city will soon realize that a serial killer is prowling
its streets.  In my opinion, the greatest burden placed on the character
by his affliction is the potential involvement of the police, 
and the precautions the character will have to take because of it.

Under the following assumptions, -20 seems like a reasonable cost:
1. the player has to go out of his way to perform the duty,
2. the player does not have to keep the duty secret from his friends, 
3. the authorities have not yet realized that there is a pettern to
   the killings,
4. the unholy entity is sufficiently lenient that the punishment
   for non-performance is no necessarily instant death.

What else might a character have do do for a -20 disadvantage?
-15   "almost all the time" Duty
-20   Enemy: city police department, base cost
-30   Enemy: FBI, base cost
-15   Great Vow
-15   Sadism

What advantages could the unholy entity bestow for 20 points?
a) raise an ability score from 15 to 16
b) ( Combat Reflexes or Danger Sense or Intuition ) and 5 points
c) DX+4 in Guns, and 4 points
d) Telereceive at power 4( 2 yards range ) at skill IQ+2
e) Pyrokinesis at power 4 at skill IO+2

This seems reasonable.  The PC gains one significant ability, 
and as a result has to take considerable care in his actions.
If a player wanted more points for advantages, he could add
law enforcement agencies as Enemies at various costs, 
or add a Reputation.  If the killings had to be performed in some
special way, I might augment the cost to -25.
-- 
Johan Larson
                    The net is packed with objectivists, anarchists, 
                    libertarians and self-appointed threats to the current 
                    order, writing on company time with company equipment.