From: CX6L@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CX6L000)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.frp.advocacy
Subject: GURPS Rewards for Play (was RE: Random Rolls)
Date: 26 Jan 93 20:00:55 GMT
Organization: McGill University

In article <1993Jan26.171256.16241@nastar.uucp> phardie@nastar.uucp (Pete Hardie) writes:
>In article <1k2i9pINNk4g@beethoven.cs.unc.edu> bell@cs.unc.edu (Andrew Bell) writes:
>>You seem to be suggesting that the cash and points payoff from an
>>adventure should be fairly proportional.  I say "seem to" merely because
>>I find the concept so bizarre that I have trouble believing anyone would
>>say it directly.

Likewise.

>Basically, I feel that if the adventure generates a large cash reward, it
>can't have been an easy task.

Not necessarily true. In my own game, the characters have been
played through 100+ sessions now, and at around 2.5 to 3 points
a session (long sessions, I might add...), and considering they
were 150 points to start with, the *average* character is a 400
to 450 pointer! Now since they are soooo competant, and because
they are outlaws, and cannot enter a city safely, they have no
real need or desire for physical wealth and material goods. As
well, *because* they are so competant, acquiring such goods, if
needed, is relatively simple. The whole universe doesn't go out
and get a better security system just because a few freebooters
are pretty good at their job. Soooo what's the point? Well, I
let them have a lot of cash. Why? They can't spend it, don't
really need it, and it gets them in trouble! They really do not
have to work to hard to get it, but this does not create any
problem with balance. So they get $30,000 each (six of them)...
and drop $25,000 here and $30,000 there to bribe **very** high-
ranking officials, who would consider less an insult. They pay
off a crimelord to "keep their name out of the papers" and to
buy info, at about $1,000/month. Etc.
     Wealth, in this context, is completely disassociated from
power and character points. You cannot relate the two easily.
This is purely a function of campaign. I shudder at the old
AD&D dollars = x.p.s rules . . . brrrrrr!
     When I reward the PCs, it is sometimes with points, other
times with a skill or a social advantage, and once even with a
Great Wish. I try to keep wealth out of it.

>>The problem is that people treat the poor disad as being merely a matter
>>of not having cash.  Treat it as a psychological disad ("easily taken",
>>"wastrel", "blackmailed"), and make mere instantaneous poverty a low
>>point disad, and there should be no problem with the changing financial
>>status.

In general, all social ads and disads should be treated as being
"complete", meaning they cover *all* aspects of that real-life
trait. A poor character is bad with money, for example. What is
even more important is to realize that such ads/disads must be
treated as transitory and mutable, and the GM should feel free
to change them as (s)he sees fit. In the game I described above,
the characters began their careers heroically, and earned Wealth,
Reputations and eventually Status. Then, they began getting a
bit nasty, and lost their Status. Some Reps changed. Finally,
they became out-and-out criminals, and gained a Social Stigma.
During their careers, they gained and lost Patrons, Allies,
Enemies, etc...routinely. In all of these changes, I used my
power as GM to just *change* these things: no cost or benefit
to the PCs own personal earned character point accounts. So
character point values fluctuated. *Shrug*. No problem.
     If I move my campaign to a TL7 otherworldly setting, they
will lose all of their social ads *and* disads (Social Stigma,
Enemies, Wealth, etc), and gain  Primitive (-4 Tech Levels),
at -20 points, and have Illiteracy become a -10 point disad
and Literacy become worth 0 points. *Shrug*. They also gain
"Unusual Background: Can Use Magic". *Shrug*. So values of the
PCs change: big deal.
-Kromm

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