From: laird@think.com (Laird Popkin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: What price a soul?
Date: 15 Aug 1992 00:03:08 GMT
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge MA, USA
NNTP-Posting-Host: django.think.com

In article <1992Aug14.204336.18152@intelhf.hf.intel.com> hutch@hutch (Stephen Hutchison) writes:
>In article <1992Aug14.172054.24394@colorado.edu> juola@bruno.cs.colorado.edu (Patrick Juola) writes:
>+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.

[stuff deleted]

I proposed something a while back on the Illuminatti BBS to handle the case
of advantages which are linked to disadvantages such that if you violate
the disadvantage (Vow, etc.) you lose the advantage(s).  My proposal was
that you give people a discount of a percentage of the cost of the
advantage(s) equal to the point value of the disadvantage.  This is an
extension of the Supers limitations on advantages.

For example, if someone has 30 points of advantages linked to a -10 point
Vow, they get a 10% "linked" limitation on the advantages, for -3 points,
so they pay 27 points for the advantages.  This has the advantages that (1)
it gives you more of cost reduction on the advantage(s) the more limiting
the disadvantage(s), and (2) it gives you more of a cost reduction the more
advantages you have tied to the disadvantage(s).  The precent reduction is
small, so it's not too much of a point hack -- I could see doubling the
reduction, though that leads the way for some min/maxer to take 30 points
in Vows (no breathing, perhaps?) in return for an 60% reduction in the cost
of some advantages, which strikes me as abusive, but on the flip side a -1
point cost reduction for linking a 10 point advantage to a 10 point
disadvantage is a bit wimpy.

The major limits that I place on this are that (1) you can't get more than
a 75% reduction in the cost of an advantage (just like Supers), and (2)
only the GM can create packages of linked advantages and disadvantages.
This is intended to model packages of things which are absolutely linked by
some absolute force, such as abilities granted by a God in return for
faithfulness and obedience, *not* for things which "make sense" together
but which a player could wiggle out of, such as a promise to a King.  Thus,
a Vow to serve a King could not be linked to the King's Patronage, since
it's not *absolutely* *impossible* for the King to remain a Patron if the
Vow is broken, just rather unlikely.  It also relies on the GM to apply the
canonical "if it's not a disadvantage it isn't a disadvantage" motto to the
situation; some disadvantages simply don't make sense in this context --
only disad's which for which the PC has voluntarily accepted some
limitation that he has control over are allowed.  For example, if someone
is born Mute, the PC can't talk so he couldn't break the silence if he
wanted to.  If he takes a Vow to never speak, on the other hand, that would
be a valid (and quite difficult) thing to link advantages to.

The thing to keep in mind is that the linked packages of advantages and
disadvantages should come only from the GM, as s/he creates religious
orders (or whatever) that are appropriate to the campaign, because the
packages are benefits granted by *Gods* in return for sacrifices made,
where the God defines the deal, not the PC (or player).  Sure, you can try
to bargain with a God, but...

As for selling your soul to the Devil, I'd call that a -20 (pulling number
from hat) disadvantage, Damned.  Holy people will recognize the damnation.
Small children and animals will avoid you.  But you'll get a 20% discount
on whatever you get out of the deal, in addition to the -20 points.  But
you *cannot* break the deal, except *possibly* by giving up the
advantage(s) and losing those character points, and *then* buying off the
disadvantage(s), as well as maneuvering a game-world explanation for why
you are being let off the hook.  So if you had 20 points in advantages
granted by the Demon, then you would lose them and pay another 20 character
points, gaining a *really* vicious Enemy in the process.

Taking a Demon as Patron in return for being Damned seems like a reasonable
thing to link, since (to a person) a Demon is an absolute force.

-- 
- 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.