[gurps] Rule of 16: GURPS 3e versus 4e

[Eric B. Smith]

On Sunday, March 23, 2008 11:08 PM, Brandon Cope ordered an army of 
electrons to communicate to the world:

>>> -75 is also an excessively high number for
>> disadvantgaes. I know it's
>>> in the rules, but more than -50 or so starts getting
>> silly.
>>
>> -75 points in straight disadvantages is probably a bit
>> excessive (at least
>> in a realistic game), but -75 points in negative point
>> traits isn't really
>> that bad.
>
> In 18 years, I've only seen *one* player buy an attibute under 10
> (not counting alternate forms).

In 3e it was rare; in 4e I've seen it more than a few times, especially with 
sub-attributes allowing for more fine-tuning, allowing players to buy up (or 
down) an attribute and then take the sub-attribute in the other direction. 
If your players aren't buying down some sub-attributes (or even 
occassionally buying down an attribute and buying up the sub-attributes 
under it) they aren't really taking full advantage of the 4e system. I've 
seen "Barbarians" with lowered IQ but increased Will & Per, "Mages" or 
"Techies" with Lowered ST and increased HP, or just about any character with 
Increased HT & DX but lowered FP and Basic Speed (and maybe Move). You can 
easily eek out a few extra points without seriously handicapping the 
character by tweaking the attribute/sub-attribute levels.


-- 
Eric B. Smith                   http://www.geocities.com/ericbsmith
GURPS Data File Coordinator     http://ericbsmith.no-ip.org/

"There is always inequality in life. Some men are killed in a war and some 
men are wounded and some men never leave the country. Life is unfair." - 
John F. Kennedy