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There is any downside to a "perk system"?

DavidBVal

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To be fair, there are gold-based trainers in many classic games. Heck, even XP fountains in M&M
 

Prime Junta

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I liked trainers in the Gothics. They can be fun. Wouldn't want them everywhere though; they're better suited to a simpler action-RPG style systems than complex spreadsheety ones where they'd just get in the way.
 

Eyestabber

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GURPS had it right, but manboons can't be bothered to learn. So other systems brought easier alternatives at the cost of depth for the greater :decline:.

/thread.
 

J1M

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A big downside to a perk system is players missing your most interesting features because they didn't make a specific choice at the start of the game.
 

Alex

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GURPS had it right, but manboons can't be bothered to learn. So other systems brought easier alternatives at the cost of depth for the greater :decline:.

/thread.
what is gurps system like ?

GURPS has a point based system. You may choose to use your points on three kinds of character traits: basic attributes, advantages and skills . All attributes (strength, dexterity, intelligence and health) start at 10, and you can buy them up by spending character points (20 points per attribute in the 4th edition, but 3rd edition wasn't so straight forward). You can also lower them in order to use the extra points elsewhere. Skills are all things you can learn. You learn each skill as a modifier to an attribute (or another skill). For instance, it might cost 1 point to have your sword skill at DX-2 (DX stands for dexterity), 2 to have it at DX-1, 4 at DX, and 4 points for each point above that.

Advantages (and disadvantages) are the closest thing to perks. But they aren't limited in granularity like most perk systems are because GURPS allows you to spend character points however you want. You could spend 100 points becoming a billionaire or the luckiest man alive. You could spend 40 points in order to posses strong but not overly powerful telekinetic abilities. You could spend 60 points in order to have several allies on which you can rely on your adventures, you could spend 10 points to have an important but not particularly powerful rank on some kind of organization, etc.

In particular, advantages don't usually allow you to do something previously impossible. There are plenty of exceptions here, especially when the advantages are actually super powers. But there isn't (at least most of the time) a confusion about what is an advantage and what is part of a skill. If you want to do something particularly hard with your skill, you usually can, though you will have to take a penalty to the roll.
 

Ash

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I designed a perk system from scratch in my mod that was bound to the skill system nicely, and offered the player more build options than if they were integrated directly into the skill system. It's implementation is good and there's not really any downsides at all beyond the addition of more "gamey-ness" to a pseudo-simulation game (Deus Ex). It ultimately depends on the implementation, but you are free to do whatever with a perk system so there doesn't have to be any notable downsides. I still love traditional D&D rules though and feel for an RPG to be a "true" RPG it needs more than just perks, hence why many shitty modern "RPGs" do not qualify as such for most of us...although that's mostly just because of the all-round poor design present in them.
 
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adrix89

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Perks can work well on their own as part of a skill tree(no not all skill trees are bad) or as mutually exclusive choices like in the new XCOM.

The main benefit to them is they have much more impact gameplay wise then individual points in skills and they have wider range of effects.

My favorite implementation of them is when they can be collected and equip it on a character on a limited amount of slots but can be freely changed.
 

Doctor Sbaitso

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The best perk effects are discovered only after they are gained. I am not a big fan of perk systems with concrete, defined effects described in dry language. 'Gain X additional movement points when you kill someone'. No joy in that.
 

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