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Old 12-08-2017, 12:12 AM   #1
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bloodlust

Bloodlust [-10] is a mundane mental disadvantage, with a self-control roll (SCR). It appeared at GURPS 3e. Once you're started using deadly violence, you want to finish the job, making sure your opponents are dead.

For dungeon crawls, or battles against the Horde of Evil, this isn't too bad. You lose time making sure you've scored a kill, which reduces tactical flexibility, but it reduces the incidence of surprises. Bloodlust becomes far more problematic in more "civilised" combat. You need to make an SCR to take a prisoner, avoid a sentry, accept a surrender, or otherwise avoid killing. If you fail that SCR ... you'll kill, even if that's against the law or your orders, gives your presence away, or wastes ammunition. You aren't always a killer: you can use your fists in a tavern brawl, but anyone who pulls a knife in that brawl is likely to die. This is a bad trait for a duellist or gladiator, or a modern policeman or soldier.

There seem to be two ways to play Bloodlust: as someone who truly likes killing, and rarely tries to resist it, and as someone who has good reason for hating a common type of opponent ("The orcs killed my wife and children") and tries to resist it when fighting others. The latter type of character may well try to buy it down, or limit it to specific enemies. Flashbacks might also fit as a related disadvantage.

Bloodlust is a reasonably common option on published templates for combatants, although it tends to be reserved for the less refined personality types, demons, and so on. AtE 2 has a section on gangs' attitudes that's good for calibrating degrees of depravity, and Banestorm has several species with Bloodlust and very alien psychology. Bio-Tech has some engineered soldiers with built-in Bloodlust -- someone clearly made an error in the specifications. DF Dark Ones always have Bloodlust, as do assassins, and Denizens: Barbarians offers the Wrath power modifier, which requires Bad Temper, Berserk or Bloodlust. Horror points out that this disadvantage can fulfil the behavioural requirements of a Divine power modifier, for evil gods, and Madness Dossier has several ways to induce it.

Infinite Worlds' Gotha virus causes Bloodlust, among other disadvantages, and the book also has a low-tech super-soldier variant with this disadvantage. Technical Grappling points out that a character with Bloodlust will need an SCR roll to avoid doing damage with chokes, and Power-Ups 6: Quirks has a quirk-level version. Social Engineering points out that some militaries weed out recruits with this disadvantage, or Berserk, and Space's alien-design system bestows it on low-empathy carnivores. Tactical Shooting has Bloodlust help with Cool Under Fire fright checks, and Tales of the Solar Patrol has Focussed Bloodlust [-5]. Zombies has Bloodlust, in spades: zombie-slayers, weird assistants, and many, though not all, zombies.

What trouble has Bloodlust caused for characters in your games?
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