Tuesday, March 22, 2016

How do you spend your earned XP?

In general, do you prefer to:

- Spend your points as they come, making lots of small purchases;

or

- save up and spend them all in a big whack, making either one big purchase or a bundle of small ones?


I personally do the latter almost always. I think that's a combination of things.


- I just assume I'm going to survive. I don't really mind dying with saved points. I haven't had a lot of GURPS PCs die, so that might be part of it.

- I'm always more interested in the big stuff than the small stuff. A +1 to a skill might be nice, or an extra HP. But +2 to ST, acquiring a nifty high-cost Power-Up or getting Luck might change my character's capability in a broad or deep way.

- I can't really make up my mind so easily.

I think that combination is why my Gamma Terra guy spent 10 points on +5 HP and hasn't spent anything since. It's why when I briefly played in a friend's modern GURPS game I never actually spent any points from the sessions I played. I just held on to them.

I get the temptation to spend now - there is always something you can use right now - but I don't feel it.

How about you guys? I really mean how you spend - not until you have a lot saved or as you go - not what you spend it on. That's what I'm curious about.

18 comments:

  1. I can never decide! I always have big things on my wishlist that I want to save for. BUT then so far I've always felt like I needed to spend my points as I get them just to have basic functionality and do the job I got hired (ish) for.

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    1. Makes sense. Of course, both of your characters in my DF game were certifiable experts in their chosen field. Not the absolute best at what they could do by all measures, and able to improve, but they started out with all the necessary skills and abilities at level sufficient to pull them off in adventuring conditions.

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  2. In one of our games, the GM will sometimes earmark some our XP for us, while leaving the rest for us to choose. So I get the best of both worlds. A character full of odd but useful skills and a savings account to save up for +1 DEX.

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    1. But do you save up yours, or spend them as soon as they come in?

      I mean, I could give out a single 20-point GM-chosen improvement to my PCs every 5-6 sessions and give out per-session points for the players to spend themselves. Some people will save up those discretionary points into a big pile, some will spend them as they come.

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    2. it's been a mix, for me. Sometimes I'll pick up a new spell that might be handy (I'm the party cleric) or an additional HP or FP, but more often than not I'm saving up for something a little larger - a point of HT or a boost to Basic Speed or the like.

      Right now, for example, I have 10 points saved up. Had thought I'd spend them on another level of Power Investiture, but now I'm not so sure. Bumping Basic Speed from 5.5 to 6.0 is tempting, as is a ST of 11, or even a point of IQ that doesn't increase Per and Will...

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  3. It depends on whether there is a big vacuum in either my character's concept, or the group as a whole, and whether plugging that hole is congruent with my character.

    * No one has tactics, and my character is a brainy scroll-jockey? I spend at least one point on it.
    * No one knows tactics, and my character is Smashy Bin Smasherschmidt? I don't learn tactics.
    * My character purportedly loves cats, and doesn't have Animal Handling (Felines)? I spend a point on it.
    * I was on death's door every single round of combat because my active defenses sucked? Speed, Basic Lift, or Enhanced Defense.

    Otherwise, I save for a big honking ridiculous thing... Assuming this is Dungeon Fantasy and within genre.

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    1. I find I save even when it's not a big single thing. One of my players is much the same - he'll save 15-20 points and spend it all at once. Last time he did that, it was just learning a few new skills and boosting them up all at once. Going from "default" to "two new skills at stat+2 or 3" at once rather than "+1 DX" or a pricey advantage.

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  4. For my 75 point noble - spend them as soon as I can get anything useful. The extra point in poisons, hunting or with the crossbow might make the difference.

    For my 200 point mutant - save it for those cool abilities that a normal human would never get. It might not be that useful to regenerate HP in seconds instead of minutes, but it is exactly what I had in mind (and lacked the points for during creation). It had enough power as it is.

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    1. Makes a lot of sense - spending or saving it by potential impact.

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  5. Half and half. Otherwise it's too easy to overbalance to one side or the other.

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    1. So you save up for a while, spend it down, and then spend it as it comes for a while?

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    2. If I get awarded four points, two go on immediate stuff and two go on "saved". (In campaigns where I don't play often enough to keep that in memory, I'll set up a generic "saved points" advantage in GCA so that they don't show up as immediately available.)

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    3. Ah, okay. Now I follow you.

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  6. I usually have a point plan mapped out to 50 points or so. Ill spend as I accrue points into that plan. So Im saving if the next thing on the list is +1 DX or Weapon Master, but Im spending xp 2 points at a time if Im trying to max my Barbarians HPs. Looking over upgrade lists... it looks like I prefer 10 and 15 point buys, with skill increases sandwiched in between. So, Barbarian list might be +1 ST, +2 HP, a perk, +1 ST, +1 weapon skill, +1 other skill, Combat Reflexes, etc... I do have a hard time finding room for BIG purchases (30 or 50 point packages or powers, like the Rage powers). Saving 100 points to get the Secret Teleportation Spell would probably never happen :)

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    1. I find a lot of big power packages too many points for people to save up for. They just can't hold off until later. I bet they'd get purchased more often in higher starting point campaigns, though. Saving 100 points is one thing, dedicating 100 of your 250 extras for a 500-point starting game is something else entirely, and probably makes it all simpler.

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    2. That's the reason why a couple of GMs I know use incremental point spending: one guy running GURPS Werewolf liked players to generate characters as normal humans, then layer the werewolf powers on top, and another likes a "weird stuff" point pool separate from the mundane skills and abilities.

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  7. I spend 'em as fast as I earn 'em. Can't die with unspent points.

    The exception is if there's a use for unspent points in play. If some kind of Impulse Buys rule is in effect, then I'll hold onto a couple of points for dire emergencies.

    I recently played in a game where our first delve lasted many sessions, and the GM didn't let us spend points until we got back to town. I think it was the first time I ever had dozens of points to spend at once after character creation.

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  8. I only earned CP once (five of them) so I spent all five of them on new spells right away. Campaign died out before I made it to a second pay day, so those five spells were a good choice.

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