From: jaymin@maths.tcd.ie (Jo Jaquinta)
Subject: Re: What price a soul?
Summary: The Department of Mortal Affairs
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 19:04:23 GMT

[here little line eater, ... <bif>]

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.
	What ho? More ammunition for advocates of 'role-playing leads to
Satanism'. But how can I resist adding fuel to the fire.

	I've put quite a bit of thought into soul contracts and all
that sort of stuff. [This is all strictly from an AD&D setting but is
doubtless relevant in other systems, especially generic ones]
Status in the 9 hells is dependant on the number of soul-thralls one
has under one. The power of a god comes from the number of worshipers
s/he has, the power of a devil comes from the number of souls it has.
Thus the various diabolical princes vie with one another over who has most.
	In my campaign such activity, where it occurs, centres around the
6th plane of Hell and its "Department of Mortal Affairs". They maintain
agents to recruit prospective contractees. There is quite a catalog of 
things you can get for your initial contract but for convienence they
generally divide people into three categories: those on the Hero's Path, 
the Wizards, and Other. Heros will generally be offer a nifty magical sword.
+3 plus two special abilities is normal although you can argue for more.
The more you get, the harder it is to recover it. (e.g. for an initial
contract one character got "Marrowdrain", usually +3 to hit/damage, and
+1 STR and +1 CON depending on how "hungry" it is and how recently it has
been "fed". But the sword was in the bottom of a moderate dungeon)
	A wizard generally opts for a familiar. Bang: you get +1 level,
regeneration, infravision, and a fanatic fiend who is fun to be with.
	Generous? Yes! They generally come with no strings attached.
They don't care what you do with it, how long you live (as long as it
isn't 3 times your normal lifetime :-) or if you ever speak to them again.
You can even die and be raise deaded or resurected. When you die  for the
final time your soul will go to hell (do not pass go, do not collect $200).
Irecoverably.
	So what is the catch? The catch is that there are a lot more
nifty items in the catalog than just what you can get for the initial
contract. Occasioally an agent will be given a mission briefing and
asked to assemble a group of adventurers to accomplish it. Depending on
the nature of the success they will be given "credit". The traditioal
terms is "one gold star". A "gold star" is roughly worth the price of
a soul. I.e. equivalent to an initial contract (actually the initial
contracts are slightly generous, sort of a "let me sweeten the deal
for you"). These break down into silver, bronze, tin, and iron stars
each worth half of the previous (i.e. there are 8 iron stars in a gold).
To put things in perspective a iron star is worth about one wish.
	You are right in thinking that a gold star is worth an awful
lot. You are right. "Gold star trips" are *very* tough. E.g. get passage
to the Twin Paradises, break into a stronghold and steal the soul-gem
of a solar. *Very* tough.
	"Gold star trips" usually serve the purposes of their Lawful-Evil
masters. Not always though. The do contract out to other deities who
want something done but want to retain their anonymity.

	Now in GURPS you were asking about disadvantages. Obviously there
is quite a bit you can get as an advantage from it. I would argue that
selling your soul, in and of itself, is its own disadvantage. You are
damned to hell. Full stop. It may not worry some characters but it does
tend to get to them after a while. No point in religion or holy quests.
Gods gain nothing from your worship. You've already sold out. Not a single
character in my campaign who has sold their soul (even the evil ones)
has not had a moment of regret. And *that* is the essence of the 
disadvantage.
	
				Jo Grant

[For the those who care I'm a Christian (Scots Presbyterian no less :-)
and two of my hobbies are Feminist Interpretation of the Bible and role-
playing. I feel soul-contracts in a role-playing setting tend to show one
how giving into the temptation of short term benefits naturally lead to
long term regrets.]

_______________________________________________________________________________
Jo Jaquinta			| "The Good Christian should beware of mathe-
44 Bancroft Ave., 		| maticians. The danger already exists that the
Tallaght,			| mathematicians have made a covenant with the
Dublin 24, IRELAND		| devil to darken the spirit and to confine man
jaymin@lanczos.maths.tcd.ie	| in the bonds of hell." -- St. Augustine