Quote:
Originally Posted by Pursuivant
Since Obsession is more of a roleplaying disad rather than one which imposes penalties or limits combat options, it's potentially free points in campaigns where there isn't much chance for an Obsessive character to achieve their stated goal or where the Obsession clearly works to the character's advantage (e.g., "Master Kung Fu" for a martial artist who already spends hours in training each day and who is always attempting to boost his unarmed combat performance). In such cases, Obsessions should just be treated as Quirks.
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I disagree,
especially with the given example.
In this case, the Obsession essentially says "This character will not spend effort on doing anything that isn't related to getting better at martial arts", and points represent effort in improving oneself. A martial artist who has Obsession (Master Kung Fu) should always need to do a lot of explaining as to why they want to spend points on anything that isn't a skill or advantage directly related to improving their style. If the other disadvantages the character has don't degrade their performance as a martial artist, the character lacks motivation to do anything about them (even if the player might want them gone). Most social advantages should be passed by, except when they can help the character gain access to more training. Skills that aren't part of their martial art will not be picked up.
This is obviously not much of a disadvantage in a Dungeon Fantasy style campaign, especially if the party has another caharacter as their Face. But DF is all about maximizing your gains while minimizing your losses, so picking a disadvantage that doesn't do much is well within the spirit of DF. Even so, a DF character with that obsession is still limited, at least if the GM allows players to multi-class, as they shouldn't be allowed to pick a second class.
The martial artist is also very likely to not want to take part in a non-action investigative session, same with a social gathering if it's unlikely there will be other dedicated martial artists present to talk to. If the player just goes along with those things anyway, that could certainly carry a "bad roleplaying" penality (or at the very least counteract any "good roleplaying" bonuses).
As a non-mechanical disadvantage the GM has to be actively aware of it, both when planning each session (to make sure the obsessed character can find justification to participate) and during each session if the rest of the party decides to do something that would conflict with the disadvantage.