From: laird@think.com (Laird Popkin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS: Alien races -- Too powerful?
Keywords: GURPS Aliens Space
Date: 31 Jul 92 19:01:37 GMT
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: django.think.com

In article <1992Jul31.144057.20603@msuinfo.cl.msu.edu> cassidy@cps.msu.edu.cps.msu.edu (John J Cassidy) writes:
>In article <1992Jul28.063307.25962@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu> gil@smtc21.engr.scarolina.edu (Gil Young) writes:
>>
>>   It has occured to me that perhaps GURPS Aliens (and Fantasy Races,
>>for that matter) have an edge over normal humans:  
>>	Gil Young
>>	gil@smtc21.engr.scarolina.edu
>
>Absotively!  It's because GURPS little modular system does not have
>things thought out before hand.  Two different effects for psi and
>magic.  Two different systems for humans and non-humans.  When, as
>others have mentioned before on the net, GURPS has a incremental cost on
>attributes, How do you represent 2X an attribute correctly?  It's
>ludicrous.  In Hero, all you do is add 5, if it is STRength then the
>lifting capacity doubles, and thus represents double strength.
>	
>	John J Cassidy		Cassidy@indian.cps.msu.edu
>	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two different systems for Magic and Psi?  Yes, because Magic and Psi work
somewhat differently.  For superpowers (including Psi) you buy an advantage
which gives you the power, and then a skill (or set of skills) that let you
use the power.  For magic spells, you buy an advantage (Magery) that gives
you access to spells, and then buy spell skills, with many skills having
others as prerequisites.  Note that while the specific effects differ,
since magic and superpowers *are* different, they are both based on buying
advantages and skills.

Two different systems for humans and non-humans?  I'm not sure what you
mean by that -- I've played humans and non-humans, and never needed to
learn any new "system."  Some races do have special abilities, I guess.
What are you referring to?

How do you represent 2x an attribute correctly?  That's pretty easy, since
GURPS stats are linear; a strength 20 person can lift twice as much as a
strength 10 person.  In Hero, how do you represent someone who can lift
1.5x as much?  There are advantages and disadvantages to both linear and
geometric progressions; Hero can represent very large stats with small
numbers, while GURPS can represent stats more precisely.

The reason that races with disadvantages have an "edge" over humans is that
the racial disadvantages don't count against the 40 point disadvantage
limit.  Personally, as a player who things that too many disad's aren't
worth the points, I don't find extra disads to be much of a benefit.  The
other "edge" that non-humans have is that they can have modifiers to stats
which can be a bit of a point break if you buy the appropriate stats up.
But since GURPS uses point bribery throughout in order to encourage
min/maxers to play appropriate/interesting characters, I don't mind a minor
point break for people generating strong Dwarves... it's not like the
points matter...

-- 
- Laird Popkin, Thinking Machines

Connection Machine: Massively parallel supercomputer.  Also a cool black
cube with more blinking lights than you can shake a stick at.