10-27-2020, 12:42 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Flavoring disadvantages completely differently
Recently I was talking with a player about an NPC and they said the NPC might actually have Killjoy. I knew she didn't (she could and did feel pleasure) but mechanically the trait did fit; -3 to Carousing definitely made sense and reactions to her did line up with "she doesn't seem to care". Even being immune to Euphoria and Ecstasy lined up with how I imagined her acting, effectively getting immunity to them for free. She doesn't not feel pleasure, but she still came across as a killjoy to everyone around her. It probably didn't help she spoke very monotone (Disturbing Voice).
It then made me think of other times this has come up. I've had players change Nightmares and Chronic Pain to Non-Prophetic Dreams and Chronic Euphoria respectively which don't change the underlying mechanics but vastly change what they mean; The first was someone who basically thought their dreams were prophecies of the future (critical failures were them looking really hard for clues from their extremely vague dreams) and the second was someone who was a recovering drug addict (I don't recall the details perfectly). I've taken On The Edge as effectively a psuedo vow of pride. Anybody have any stories of when they've done this before? I love the idea of vastly different flavor for the same mechanics, especially when those mechanics seem to imply a certain thing. |
10-27-2020, 06:08 AM | #2 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: Flavoring disadvantages completely differently
I don't know how "Completely Different" these are, but I've used callous in a detached character rather than in the intentionally cruel character its expected in.
I've also used Selfish to mean "Stuck-up arrogant guy". Its not immediately apparent that those two work together (probably due to the name), but its a really good fit.
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10-27-2020, 06:19 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: FL
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Re: Flavoring disadvantages completely differently
Delusions and OPHs can be really flexible (and essentially interchangeable) if you don't look at the skin too hard.
Delusion (Racial Confusion) [-10]; could just as easily be OPH (Racial Confusion) [-10]; the point is, the character basically believes: If you have a beard, you are a dwarf If you are beardless and tall, you are an elf If you are beardless and short, you must be awesome, and you are a gnome. He could be convinced to move from those conditionals if people argued, but generally by assuming they were some other race they weren't. The character was a gnome, if that last conditional doesn't make it obvious.
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Formerly known as fighting_gumby. |
10-27-2020, 11:31 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Feb 2013
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Re: Flavoring disadvantages completely differently
I view point costs as paying for effects. The fluff about causes I view as RP advice, which I don't always take.
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10-27-2020, 12:54 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Flavoring disadvantages completely differently
There's nothing inherently wrong with that. In fact it's a fairly standard way to create new advantages and disadvantages. When I added Ultrapower to GURPS Supers, I based it on Gadgeteer, for example. I do recommend coming up with a new name, but you seem to be doing that. Then you can think of it not as "a different flavor of the same disadvantage" but as "an analogous disadvantage."
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
10-27-2020, 01:01 PM | #6 |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: Flavoring disadvantages completely differently
Frankly, "Arrogant" is probably a better fit for the written description of the disadvantage (always striving for status and social dominance, and lashing out when thwarted in that regard, but with no particular reluctance to share things otherwise) than "Selfish".
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I predicted GURPS:Dungeon Fantasy several hours before it came out and all I got was this lousy sig. |
10-27-2020, 04:40 PM | #7 | |||
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: Flavoring disadvantages completely differently
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On the note of Selfish, I remembered one character took I think Fanaticism (Self) as an extreme version of Selfish. |
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