Fit and The Last Gasp

Recently, +Peter V. Dell’Orto went on a fun tear about Fit and Very Fit. 

I commented on his post that I’d run into some issues myself with Fit/Very Fit when writing The Last Gasp.

Now, partly, anything I have to say about Health (HT), Fit, Very Fit, and related issues will be biased, very much so, by my being convinced that while HT is, as they say, “priced to move.”

HT is worth less than the sum of its parts, and that’s somewhat deliberate to keep PCs alive. However, it also means that you get crap like “HT!” as a recurring concept, because when you break out the bits of it you find that Fatigue is worth 3/level, Basic Speed is worth 5/level, which means all HT-based skills and rolls to not-die, not-KO, and not other things are worth a collective 2/level.

As they say, “Vat a bahgain!”

Anyway, back to The Last Gasp.

I still think it holds up as a concept. But what struck my memory is how I had to more or less shrug at the pricing of Fit.

Let’s go to the article:

Fit and Very FitThese two advantages give bonuses to HT rolls for mostpurposes (but don’t increase the underlying attribute or skills).They also alter the rate at which FP are recovered and lost.Logically, being more fit should apply to Action Points as well. . . but Fit only costs 5 points, and AP are purchased for 2points each. Fit and Very Fit thus add their HT bonuses (+1 forFit, and +2 for Very Fit) to recovery rolls, but that’s the onlybenefit they give to AP recovery.

So I basically have to shrug and say “Fit is just too cheap to give it any more utility.”

I still think that my “Defend vs Death!” concept has some utility, too. 

The problem, such as it is, that I have with high values of HT is that they’re a bit immersion-breaking. That being said, people can and do take ridiculous punishment before expiring (or sometimes not expiring) from massive injuries. It’s just with GURPS high HT makes it a mathematically certainty, and a certainty available with a fairly modest point budget.