From: jdale@cats.ucsc.edu (Jonathan Dale)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: GURPS: Alien races -- Too powerful?
Date: 31 Jul 1992 08:53:53 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: si.ucsc.edu
Keywords: GURPS Aliens Space


In article <1992Jul30.223415.13928@oz.plymouth.edu> sos@oz.plymouth.edu (Steffan O'Sullivan) writes:
>
>4) For those games where *all* the PCs will be far from the human norm,
>I adjust them closer to average stats.  This is exactly the way GURPS
>Bunnies & Burrows works:  the average rabbit has ST 10, DX 10, IQ 10
>and HT 10, and humans have vastly different stats.  It isn't possible
>to play a human in B&B, and it's the first GURPS book that out and out
>says it's not compatible with any other GURPS genre.  I have also done
>this in games where the PCs had their minds transferred into the bodies
>of laboratory animals, BTW.

How is this superior to making all the characters play "bunnies" worth -60
points (guessing wildly) and then giving players only 40 points to make
characters?  Ie, using racial rules but changing the number of points so
they have the equivalent of 100 points instead of really 100 points.  This
maintains compatibility.
>
>5) IQ and DX in non-human races are the abusive problem areas.  I
>simply don't allow more than a +1 in these, even though the race might
>logically have higher, such as a sentient cat.  The system simply
>cannot take the strain, and abusive things happen whether the player is
>trying to be abusive or not.
Well, yeah.

>6) I never use the Increased ST (a multiplier), either.  I will allow
>up to about +4, but after that, things get out of control.  The Fantasy
>Folk Half-ogres are right out.  I'll go to +2 for HT.
Increased ST only exists (as I see it) because the costs for ST are scaled
wrong.  ST is too expensive for its value.  Increased ST is much, much too
cheap, so giants and such become possible.  But they have a ridiculous
price-break for ST.  Why not make ST cheaper for everyone?  This also solves 
the ridiculous costs in Supers, where costs increase to 17, then magically
drop a huge amount and continue dropping.  
(In Supers, no one would ever have a ST of, say, 18).

>7) Disads is the other area where a race can be abusive.  I don't allow
>more than 60 points *total* disads between racial and personal for
>non-humans.  I do stretch it to 60-points simply as a sop to those who
>really want to play a non-human.  Logically, I shouldn't allow this -
>there is no reason one character should get more disad points than
>another.  I do it anyway.  (BTW, since I require a mandatory Sense of
>Duty: Companions in all my games, human characters get -45 in disads.
>Since I use Bill Seurer's system of not really requiring any disads but
>getting the points for them anyway, this is slightly weird.  I *do*
>require the non-human to take the racial disads, and the rest he can
>write down as he pleases.)
I think any character should be limited to 2-3 MENTAL disads, because beyond
that it is almost impossible to play them all well.  Other personality traits
should just be quirks.  PHYSICAL disads are self-controlling and require no
role-playing, thus are not a problem. 

>8) For a long time I believed that a Dwarf should simply pay whatever
>ST points he would pay if he were human.  In a point-based system,
>where every player starts out the game with the same number of points,
>it makes sense.  But this really does limit a Dwarf severely, so I give
>them the +2 ST that Fantasy Folk gives them - it's no big deal, really,
>though it would be if it were DX +2.
Changing costs for ST uniformly, as suggested above, fixes this.

As an end-note, I should say that while I don't think the GURPS (or any other
systems) rules are perfect, I find they work well enough.  I do most of my
GMing by the seat-of-the-pants anyway.  I don't think I've ever looked anything
up during a combat.  I make it all up and do it fast.  My priority is keeping
the game going.  Rules nitpicks waste more time than fixes are worth, IMHO.

Jonathan Dale