01-24-2019, 09:01 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Aug 2017
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Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
Hey all:
Reading the description of Affliction suggests it is not possible to add Social Advantages, but the description for Negated Advantages (in Powers) or Disadvantages (in Characters) doesn't specify what Advantage types can be negated or what Disadvantages can be afflicted. Should I interpret the latter two references in the context of the Characters Advantage modifier description - i.e. strictly Physical and Mental, possibly Social can be added as a Cosmic/Adding Utility +50% modifier). |
01-24-2019, 09:17 AM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
Affliction is a physical thing, generally, even if it often has its origins from a supernatural source. It affects the target. That's why adding social advantages is usually disallowed for it, and why I'd definitely extend that to disallowing negating social advantages, or adding social disadvantages - those traits aren't "internal" to the target the way physical and mental ones are, they're about the relationship of the target to the rest of society. You can spray a neurotoxin at someone that paralyzes and blinds them. It's more difficult to picture doing the same and draining their bank balance (Wealth) or how important people think they are (Status).
All that said, I can picture characters who can do that sort of thing (gods of society and so forth), so I agree that a +50% Cosmic enhancement to allow social traits to be added or negated seems fair. |
01-24-2019, 09:28 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: The deep dark haunted woods
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
But I can think of at least one case i fiction where an Affliction did just such a thing.
In Finian's Rainbow, wishing magic transformed a Southern Gentleman into a black man, which in that time and place took him from a high Social Rank to a Second-Class Citizen. It may have been a physical transformation, but the effect still gave a Social Stigma and removed Social Status. Many times and places have Social Advantages and Disadvantages linked to physical states. Which begs the question - when an Affliction-induced physical transformation would affect Social Status, should the cost be figured into the calculations for the Affliction?
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"When you talk about damage radius, even atomic weapons pale before that of an unfettered idiot in a position of power." - Sam Starfall from the webcomic Freefall |
01-24-2019, 09:39 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2017
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
I was thinking of a spirit type that screwed with uppity types by messing with their connections to society. The scenario I was thinking might best model this would be something like:
Affliction-1 {Malediction 100%, Negated Advantage: Wealth/Filthy Rich [+50%], Negated Advantage: Status 7 [+35%], Disadvantage: Status -2 [+10%], Disadvantage: Struggling [+10%], Variable [+5%], Selectivity [+10%], Extended Duration (1 week per) [+160%]Cosmic/Affects Social Advantages/Disadvantages [+50%] } = 53 points. Basically the spirit cuts off the affected individual's access to their money and position for a period of some weeks. The money is still there; they just can't access it..problems being authenticated, and their appearance comes off shabbier than usual. Hm, perhaps add Glamour to this as well? That reflects that the issue is more a matter of difficulty*, and needs to be tested whenever they try to leverage either wealth or social status? *"Why won't you accept my PIN, Chase card???" Last edited by PiperHolmes; 01-24-2019 at 09:47 AM. Reason: Added example |
01-24-2019, 09:45 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2017
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
Quote:
I tend to the philosophy that in GURPs anything that results in a quantifiable ingame effect (like a penalty to Reaction Rolls) has a cost element, so the Social Stigma would be required. Otherwise the character in question looks different, but doesn't suffer an impact for it. Granted that may not be realworld realistic, but GURPs isn't completely simulationist. ;) |
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01-24-2019, 10:23 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
Quote:
Directly afflicting a social trait, on the other hand, wouldn't be susceptible to convincing others that it didn't apply. If someone uses Affliction to hit someone with Social Stigma (Valuable Property), the target can talk all they want, but they'll never convince anyone that they aren't supposed to be treated that way, because they are. It's not a case of mistaken identity or anything, it's simply the way the world actually works (for as long as the affliction lasts, at least). |
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01-24-2019, 10:32 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
You're effectively zapping someone with a curse. There are a lot of social disadvantages that wouldn't make much sense in that context but what would or wouldn't be applicable is really dependent on the nature of how the user causes affliction. If I have a ray gun that turns you black in 1920's Alabama then it would give you an affliction of a minor feature linked with an affliction of a social stigma. (Limitation: Persons who are already black are immune). As weird as a social stigma ray seems as an ability that's effectively how it functions in the setting.
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01-24-2019, 10:46 AM | #8 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
Quote:
I've always felt that Affliction being limited to Mental and Physical Ads and Disads was an oversight by the game devs. |
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01-24-2019, 11:02 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
Quote:
Now, if you want to see someone acquiring a trait, consider what a court of law can do. A warrant is issued for you: You have an Enemy. You are convicted of a crime: You have a Social Stigma. You are placed under conservatorship: That's a lot like Social Stigma (Valuable Property) combined with Social Regard (Venerated). The list could be prolonged. Yet a court is an entirely mundane entity. It would be really strange to say that everyone who's sworn in as a judge acquires several different Affliction advantages.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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01-24-2019, 12:51 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Mar 2014
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Re: Affliction: Social Advantages/Disadvantages
When an affliction causes mental changes in people other than the target (by for example making everyone else forget about the target's status), then it would make a lot of sense for everyone to be able to resist (or the one of them who are most likely to resist if it is all or nothing).
Otherwise you could do things like change the memories of a god by overcoming the resistance of an ant. |
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