[dq-rules] Advantages and disadvantages

[Viktor Haag <vhaag@rim.net>]

jcorey30 writes:

 > DragonQuest is my game of choice.  But that is not to say I
 > have not been tempted to stray.  and I would play multiple
 > games if I had the time.  One of the games that intrigues me
 > the most is GURPS.  and I will tell you why...
 >
 > It has a built in "role-playing" system.  When you create your
 > character, you have can give them advantages, disadvantages,
 > quirks, and habits.  This helps to define someone's character.
 > and they force players to behave in a certain fashoin
 > consistantly.  Now, I have never played GURPS (but i did play
 > Fantasy Trip), so I don't know how this works in practice.  So
 > I am asking two questions...
 >
 > 1) what do you think of these kind of reward/penalty systems?

I think that in many cases they're more work than they're
worth. I'm a big HERO fan, and like their "generic" approach to
character advantages/disadvantages more than I like the GURPS
"specific" approach.

(That is, given a character with one arm, in HERO you get a
"Physical Limitation" disadvantage, which you describe as
"inhibiting the character 1/2 the time", and so forth. With the
same character in GURPS, you get a "Has One Arm"
disadvantage. This example may not be precisely correct, but it
serves to show the difference in philosophy between the two
games.)

 > 2) has anyone tried to add one to a DQ campaign.

Nope. It wouldn't be difficult, though, thanks to the existing
modularity of the game's rules. The easiest way to do it would be
to tack on a 'Gifts/Flaws' system rather like Fudge, that had no
direct linkage to the other parts of the character description
system (i.e. "starting characters get one Gift and one Flaw, and
you can get two Gifts, if you take two Flaws").


-- 
Viktor Haag : Software & Information Design : Research In Motion
                              +--+
      "Ooh I've always wanted one of these! I can't wait to
                    kill something with it!"