[Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Appearance

[johndallman]

Appearance is a Mundane Physical disadvantage, if it's below average. Its value is [-4] per -1 to reactions; -5 or worse reactions may be supernatural, or confined to very alien beings, possibly from other dimensions or universes. There's some discussion of disadvantageous appearance here, in the Advantage of the Week thread on Appearance, but that's mostly about the advantageous side of the trait.

Hunchback, Neurological Disorder, One Eye, and Supernatural Feature can limit your appearance, or provide reasons why it might be bad; being ugly is actually helpful with Intimidation, although it's very bad for Sex Appeal, and having your appearance get worse with advancing age is an alternative to losing Attribute levels. Being extremely ugly is a possible justification for the Terror advantage.

Below-average Appearance is a stereotypical disadvantage for big dumb thugs, like Discworld Trolls. Gargoyles, minotaurs, zombies and ghouls usually also have this disadvantage. Bio-Tech has options for altering appearance (downwards is easier than upwards), and City Stats deals with the looks of cities. Creatures of the Night has a monster that can reduce your Appearance in exchange for Status, and many mythological monsters in Fantasy have horrific appearance, as a signal to normal people that they should run away. Fantasy also has a sensible limitation for negative appearance: Not to Own Kind, -25%. Horror follows Fantasy, but the most dangerous monsters are often beautiful; Martial Arts covers appearance worn down by injuries. The Power-Ups series has a lot of perks and quirks about appearance, and Psionic Powers has the Mold Flesh ability, which lets you reduce Appearance radically. Social Engineering has plenty about Appearance, and being ugly is most unfortunate if someone's trying to rouse a mob against you. Space has rules about cross-species Appearance, and Thaumatology covers losing Appearance to magical calamities or use of dark forces.

As someone with very average appearance and rotten vision, I tend not to create characters or NPCs with much in the way of Appearance modifiers, preferring to use Charisma. I'm far more interested in how characters think than what they look like. How have you had fun with poor Appearance?

[Railstar]

My experience is appearance is… not quite binary, but tends towards extremes – most characters I’ve encountered are either Beautiful+, Average, or Monstrous/Horrific, with very little in-between. Sometimes a racial template will give Attractive or Ugly, but I don’t see it being taken willingly.

One thing to note is the difference between Hideous, Monstrous & Horrific is not straightforward. Monstrous says “Most people react to you as a monster rather than a sapient being”, which implies almost a Social Stigma-lite wrapped in there. So if you’re going to take Monstrous, you might as well take Horrific if you can… because nobody with Monstrous is going to be much use in a social situation anyway.

So even though the difference between Hideous & Monstrous is only -4 points, and the difference between Monstrous & Horrific is also -4 points, you suffer more for making the jump to Monstrous than for the jump to Horrific.

Once you pass a certain “point of no return” (say past -4 in reaction penalties), you’re already saying “my character is not going to be any use in a social situation” and so you almost might as well go all the way to being Horrific + Social Stigma: Monster – since Intimidation is really your only option in a social situation.

One thing that I think is worth thinking of is how plausible is it to mitigate such foul appearances? The trope of a lich wearing hooded robes and gloves is semi-traditional, or for a more modern game a SWAT team of Improved Zombies (covered head to toe in gear). The idea is even though the outfits will draw negative attention, it’ll be less than they draw without the outfit (if I saw a heavily armed SWAT team, I’d stay out of the way, not get close enough to realise they are mummified underneath).

In the case of the Z-Team, I still presume they look wrong even with the outfits (like they smell of spices used to preserve them, they’re emaciated), but I guess the question is how much can covering up mitigate negative appearance.

I have taken negative appearance just because it fits the character. For instance, a half-orc who can pass for human was still Ugly, since the main benefit of his rugged bad looks was being able to pass for human and get into town in the first place – which made him the perfect scout for the rampaging orc warlord.

[RogerBW]

I often drop a +1 or +2 Appearance onto a character who'll be doing a fair bit of talking: it's a trifle cheaper than the standard [5] per +1, and it's a different weapon in the reaction modifiers toolkit. I don't think I've gone outside the 0 to +2 range, though.

A house rule I use for Action is that everyone gets +1 Appearance as part of their template, because they're going to be played by a Hollywood actor - but everyone reacts from their own +1 baseline, so a normal person without wardrobe and makeup (average Appearance) would effectively be at -1. This is more to get people thinking in a cinematic manner than for serious game purposes.

[Flyndaran]

I wouldn't think normal Ugliness/Beauty should require mitigators like masks to avoid effects in a general sense. But for true Horrific/Monstrous, it seems to negate the major effect.
My small child demon with a rotting face could just wear a mask or walk with only slight shy creepiness with her long hair covering things. Still off putting, but not anywhere near as much.

[ravenfish]

Regarding masks as a mitigator, one should note that, outside of certain limited contexts, "won't show his face" is likely to cause reaction penalties in and of itself.