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Old 02-11-2018, 05:18 PM   #1
WaterAndWindSpirit
 
Join Date: Oct 2014
Default How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

Hello everyone.

So, I have a human NPC who has the Xenophilia trait, and I wanted to know what would happen in the following situations:

NPC is in front of an elf pointing a gun at their head. Does the "OH [insert generic swear word] THERE IS A GUN POINTED AT MY HEAD!" factor overrides the "Ohmygosh itsanelf!" factor?

NPC is dealing with a demon (Think The Creatures of Grimm from RWBY, but each of them ranging from as smart as a very low IQ human to smarter than most geniuses, with most of them being slightly above the human average), and knows fully well that demons are hostile by default and nothing good ever comes from interacting with demons. Do they try to interact with the demon anyway, or is it enough to just pull the smartphone and just record everything it does? Does the answer changes if they can reasonably deal with "weird" things like elves, dwarves, maybe a friendly vampire if they really want to see weird things and are really lucky anytime they want just by going to the right place (and maybe enough luck) and they know this?

In a more banal note, would such a character at a place filled with "weird" characters be constantly annoying everyone by pestering them for a date? Would many of the "weird" characters be able to get free drinks and meals just by swapping tales with the xenophile character?
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Old 02-11-2018, 05:47 PM   #2
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

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Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit View Post
Hello everyone.

So, I have a human NPC who has the Xenophilia trait, and I wanted to know what would happen in the following situations:

NPC is in front of an elf pointing a gun at their head. Does the "OH [insert generic swear word] THERE IS A GUN POINTED AT MY HEAD!" factor overrides the "Ohmygosh itsanelf!" factor?
The character can recognise when anyone, human or otherwise, is actually threatening or attacking him. He will just not prejudge horrible, scary creatures merely because everyone knows they are dangerous, but try to get to know them. And even if he's been attacked by every single elf he's met, he'll still believe that the next one will be different.

So, he wouldn't ignore the gun or necessarily do anything that would get him shot, but it wouldn't be bad roleplaying to combine avoiding any threatening moves and complying with what the armed elf ordered him to do with amazement, interest and attempts to make friends.

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Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit View Post
NPC is dealing with a demon (Think The Creatures of Grimm from RWBY, but each of them ranging from as smart as a very low IQ human to smarter than most geniuses, with most of them being slightly above the human average), and knows fully well that demons are hostile by default and nothing good ever comes from interacting with demons. Do they try to interact with the demon anyway, or is it enough to just pull the smartphone and just record everything it does? Does the answer changes if they can reasonably deal with "weird" things like elves, dwarves, maybe a friendly vampire if they really want to see weird things and are really lucky anytime they want just by going to the right place (and maybe enough luck) and they know this?
This is the core of why Xenophilia is a high point Disadvantage. Everyone else knows full well that demons are dangerous, but this character will never believe it (unless he buys off the Disadvantage), insisting that they can't judge an entire race by prejudices against them. Even after being attacked by lots of demons, they'll treat every new demon as a potential friend until he proves otherwise, never judging him by the actions of his kin, but only on his own behaviour.

Xenophilia is kind of admirable, actually. Suicidal, in a certain kind of world, but admirable.

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Originally Posted by WaterAndWindSpirit View Post
In a more banal note, would such a character at a place filled with "weird" characters be constantly annoying everyone by pestering them for a date? Would many of the "weird" characters be able to get free drinks and meals just by swapping tales with the xenophile character?
Depends on his other traits, actually. Xenophiles like meeting new and different folks of varying exotic natures, but they aren't necessarily open-handed with their money or constantly seeking romantic or sexual partners.

I would certainly assume that a character with Xenophilia took steps to get to know as many of the 'weird' characters as he could, but I wouldn't demand that an asexual character asked them out on dates or that a Miserly one bought drinks and food. The character will use whatever methods fit his personality to try to get to know the 'weird' characters.

But, yeah, he'll certainly be constantly approaching strangers in some fashion, initiating conversations, asking questions and generally trying to get to know all these potential new friends.
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Last edited by Icelander; 02-11-2018 at 06:33 PM.
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Old 02-11-2018, 05:53 PM   #3
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

Xenophiles aren't totally insane but they are halfway there. They are not going to accept the idea that talking to demons never leads to anything good. They just have so many questions. They can respond appropriately if immediately threatened with attack, but they will not be sensible about their love of aliens for anything short of that.
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Old 02-11-2018, 06:47 PM   #4
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

Xenophiles make good diplomats and, with Combat Reflexes, really good adventurers, especially in horror games (+3 to +7 on Fright Checks can be really good in the right campaigns). With Animal Empathy and Animal Friend, it can also represent an expert in exotic creatures. Of course, attempting to pet the werewolf (or sleep with a cute vampire) might end badly.
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Old 02-11-2018, 07:07 PM   #5
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

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They are not going to accept the idea that talking to demons never leads to anything good
The big problem is that they're not even going to accept the idea that talking to demons very rarely leads to anything good.

However, the labels "suicidal" or "halfway crazy" really only apply in gameworlds where you do have creatures with absolute behavior absolutely dictated by their nature (and shared with all other creatures of their kind, no matter personal experiences). In more reality-based games it's not so bad.

It does, however, remind me of the problem of not having fear. Certain kinds of brain injury can leave you unable to feel fear in most circumstances. People with this brain injury are very happy people. They live low stress, low anxiety lives, and live in a world filled with wonderful non-threatening people. Even when those wonderful non-threatening people are mugging them.
"Fear" is just the extreme end of "personal risk evaluation", and if your "fear" isn't working, your entire personal risk evaluation is basically offline. Xenophillia is basically an aspected version of this problem.

OTOH, you are literally fearless, and this can end up getting you out of a dangerous situation like the aforementioned mugging relatively intact because you clearly read as "fearless", and it's just not worth dealing with whatever brand of crazy you're selling. After all, you might not be crazy - you might have good reason not to be scared.

Side note: Irrational fear, like a phobia of spiders triggered by a rubber spider, is not affected by a general inability to fear - it's very difficult and upsetting for the person to interpret the emotion because they literally don't have a working brain region to process it, but it still exists.
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Old 02-11-2018, 08:43 PM   #6
Flyndaran
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

We as player characters can't know demons are 100% unwaveringly evil either. As players we can by word of GM. But our characters would just be making assumptions and prejudgments based on limited experience.

As a one time instance, it might be funny to have the monstrous demon to either be the rare good one, or the evil ones your characters previously faced the rare bad ones.
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Old 02-11-2018, 08:57 PM   #7
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

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Originally Posted by Bruno View Post
The big problem is that they're not even going to accept the idea that talking to demons very rarely leads to anything good.

However, the labels "suicidal" or "halfway crazy" really only apply in gameworlds where you do have creatures with absolute behavior absolutely dictated by their nature (and shared with all other creatures of their kind, no matter personal experiences). In more reality-based games it's not so bad..
I disagree. It's not that in a real world setting you are never going to run into a friendly Nazi. It's that you're in the grip of a compulsion that forces you to ignore people being dangerous or outright enemies and try to befriend them when you would be better off steering clear.

Last edited by David Johnston2; 02-11-2018 at 09:25 PM.
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Old 02-11-2018, 11:47 PM   #8
evileeyore
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

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It does, however, remind me of the problem of not having fear.
Having just made the Charitable, Chummy, Overconfident, Xenophile... I can't wait for this character to met the Weird Things That Go Bump In The Night.
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Old 02-12-2018, 01:00 AM   #9
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

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Originally Posted by Flynderan
As a one time instance, it might be funny to have the monstrous demon to either be the rare good one, or the evil ones your characters previously faced the rare bad ones. .
Better yet - have the next demon they face lie about most demons being good and they just got unlucky with the previous ones... then do its evil plans to them once they are off-guard.
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Old 02-12-2018, 01:26 AM   #10
Leeland
 
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Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

I am not sure if i have played the disadvantage wrong all the time.

My characters with Xenophile just react to everyone exactly the same as if the other guy was a "normal" human.

I would react to an elf intimidating me with a gun exactly like i would react to an human intimidating me with a gun.
On the flip side, i would acept an invitation to dinner from a demon as likely as i would acept an invitation from an human in the same situation.
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