From: CX6L@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CX6L)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: GURPS Disads in Play (was Re: Random Rolls)
Date: 26 Jan 93 19:30:36 GMT
Organization: McGill University

In article <1993Jan26.171711.16347@nastar.uucp> phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie) writes:

>In article <2507@blue.cis.pitt.edu> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:

>>In article <1993Jan25.171317.8199@nastar.uucp> phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie) writes:

>>>How long (and how much effort) would it take a cripple to perform a great
>>>service for a godlike being?  Sounds to me like a long and difficult task,
>>>that would earn (amazingly enough) enough points to cover the healing.

Why couldn't the healing just happen, and the GM raise the value of
the character as the disad is removed? *Shrug*. If, through good role-
play, a PC earns something, then the PC deserves it. Bonus character
points are *one* reward for good play. Generous material handouts are
another . . the alleviation of a disad, or aquisition of an advantage,
are both similarly valid. Nowhere in GURPS does it say that a GM cannot
do this, or that the only reward for good roleplaying should be bonus
character points.

>> Why? I could think of a dozen ways it could be done very, very
>>easily. All depends on circumstances. The classic one in stories would
>>be
>> *pop*
>> ssssssSSSSSSWWWWOOOSH! "AHH! Thank you! Released at last, after
>>ten thousand years! My thanks to you, traveller! For releasing me, I
>>will grant you anything within my power!"

Why a godlike power? Any half-competant Healing mage with Restoration/
Instant Restoration/Regeneration/Instant Regeneration and either a
circle of good friends or a decent Powerstone, could heal the cripple
magically in a very short time. There would be a nominal $$$ cost, if
the healing were purchased. If a *player* (not GM) has the character
healed just like that, *then* I could see the merits of charging for
the removal of the disad. Between adventures, when his pals were all
off studying sorcery and racking up bucks and job skill points at
jobs, the cripple was cruising the land at a mile per day looking
for healers, gathering funds to pay healers, negotiating prices with
healers, and lying in a bed being healed. Some of his character points
were spent on doing this, instead. Exactly as many as the disad costs,
in fact!
     In a common magic setting, no character with Comfortable or
higher wealth should even be allowed to begin with a physically
crippling injury, unless he/she has some mental problem "Likes to
be crippled and refuses to go see a healer." I mean, at 40 energy
for a person, Alter Visage can get rid of poor appearance, at a
cost of no more than $1000 in even the most expensive magical
cost scheme. The same price could buy a new leg or eye via magic.
You cannot apply Medieval standards of health, longevity or
injury to a common magic campaign . . . such campaigns resemble
*cyberpunk* far more closely than history, in fact!

>Seems to me, that any 'godlike being' that is trapped as such has limits on
>its powers, and those might prevent this miracle healing.

Like I said: never mind gods -- what about wizards? If your "gods"
are less competant than wizards, then how come they're still "gods"?
-Kromm

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