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Old 12-01-2017, 02:51 PM   #1
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

Bestial, normally [-10], is an exotic mental disadvantage, at least with respect to people brought up in a civilisation. It first appeared in Fantasy Folk for 3e, as a racial disadvantage, but would apply to humans brought up by wolves or chimpanzees. It is a component of the Wild Animal meta-trait.

The essence of the disadvantage is animalistic behaviour. You don't understand the rules of civilisation at all, having no concept of property, no idea of morality and no insight into why people behave in such strange ways. You have no skills that depend on the ideas or tools of civilisation, and no defaults in them either. Intimidation and Area Knowledge are about your limit in IQ-based skills.

You run from or attack anyone who threatens or frightens you. If people leave you alone, you'll do likewise, unless they seem like food. You're quite capable of recognising people and remembering how they treat you, within the limits of your IQ, and even having friends and enemies. You may understand concepts like territory and dominance, and act on them, but this depends on the details of your background.

While this behaviour may be quite annoying to civilised folk, you aren't eligible for an Odious Personal Habit disadvantage for it; that is rolled into the price of Bestial. However, you can take OPH for other habits or behaviours that aren't specifically beast-like, and if your Bestial behaviour is as annoying as a [-15] OPH, the GM can price Bestial at [-15]. It's likely going to be easier to play a Bestial character who isn't hugely intelligent. The GM may limit it to characters with IQ less than 10, or even less.

Bestial is not a common disadvantage in published GURPS material. Discworld has a quirk-level version for mostly-civilised predators, and gives feral dogs and domestic cats the full version. Banestorm has some good advice on role-playing Bestial creatures, and Bio-Tech has uplifted dolphins that suffer from it, and a nanodrug that can induce it ... temporarily ... honestly! DF has Allies and things to summon with this disadvantage; Horror has ways to acquire it yourself, and Madness Dossier makes that simple. Locations: Hellgate doesn't make it quite so easy, and the Madness spell in Magic does it at random. Several Monster Hunters creatures have it, and Space has suggestions about uplifting. And then there's Zombies... Bestial zombies can't use equipment, which reduces their usefulness as troops. They aren't civilised, but nor do they have experience of being an animal, so they may well behave like small children. They can't co-operate in fights either. Really, we need some better zombies than these!

Personally, I've never used this disadvantage. I could see an interesting game based on lycanthropes gradually buying it off, or a shaman or Discworld witch with animal companions. What have you done with it?
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