The Great Dungeon Crawl, Session 4a: Professional Adventurers

May 30th, 1084 Korlai Reckoning.
Recap written by Torgo

Characters:
Terragen as "Bea" [101]
Torgo as "The Archwizard Blileninane" [106]
Krusher as "Fleck" [91]
Arthur as "Lyons" [91]
Void as "Ofydd" [92]
Ethan as "Baker" [91]

    At long last, after several ventures into that most foul dungeon marked by death, curses, and poverty, the party decided that safety and security is more important than scrounging over pennies. Therefor, even in the face of tyrannical taxation at the hands of King Winston II (may the gods forever curse his name), they paid the steep tax to become registered as the formal adventuring party Bob’s Berzerkers. Though Bea preferred the moniker of Bea’s Bitches, it was decided to instead honor Bob, the first of the party to give their life in pursuit of gold and glory. Considering the excruciating price of registering an adventuring band, Bea had to provide loans to several of the party members.

The Great Dungeon Crawl, Session 3: Goblin Mode

May 23rd, 1084 Korlai Reckoning.
Recap written by Torgo
 

Characters:
Terragen as "Bea" [96]
Torgo as "The Archwizard Blileninane" [99]
Krusher as "Fleck" [85]
Arthur as "Lyons" [85]
Brian as “Anathenna” [85] 
Void as "Ofydd" [86] 
Ethan as "Baker" [85]

    There comes a time in every proper dungeon expedition when good sense, reasoned calculations, the survival of your fellow adventurers, and a grotesque hunger for treasure must be weighed against the simple truth that more bodies makes for better odds. 

Unluckiness be a Lady

     As it stands, in GURPS 4th Edition, Unluckiness is poorly priced. At least, this is the consensus that I have reached, which people that I play with on the regular agree with. The hard part is striking a balance between "I should always take this" and "I should never take this". Some disadvantages, which I usually ban from my "Level 0" templates, do have their uses, but I have almost never taken Unluckiness without it being an absolute pain in the butt.

    There was ONE character where it wasn't an issue, but it was his core concept. He was a gambler, who had both Extraordinary Luck and Unluckiness, which went hand-in-hand with his compulsive gambling and impulsive personality. Since then, however, I have not even thought about taking it as a player... mostly because I don't play enough games to be able to make enough characters.

    The reason why this is important is because of curses; who doesn't like a good curse that screws with the party? I also tacked on a repriced and mildly reworked Jinxed as well. There are other options out there, but I tend to not like Traits that are a word-salad of traits and enhancements/limitations that I need to go look in a Pyramid for explanations on. For repricing Unluckiness and adding Jinxed back into the mix, I suggest the following:

Unluckiness, -15 or -30 points

    As on B160. If you choose the -30pt option, instead record "Total Unluckiness", which lets the failed roll be lethal. (This is distinct from Cursed, as you are just unlucky, and it only happens once per session. Cursed is a different can of worms entirely.)

Jinxed, -25/-50/-75 points

    This is like the disadvantage in GURPS 3rd Edition, Revised, pg. 240. Everybody in your immediate vicinity takes -1 to all rolls per level of this disadvantage. On the other hand, you get off scot-free. Anyone who knows of your Jinxed nature reacts to you at -1 per level of this disadvantage. Attempts to get hired for jobs are at -2 per level of this disadvantage (meaning a totally Jinxed character will have trouble finding any work without the help of his ill-fated party.)