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Old 07-22-2012, 09:34 PM   #1
Raekai
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Default Affliction Question

Simple: How would you build memory loss as an Affliciton? I'm trying to do this as a standard D&D-type Pixie. They shoot arrows that can cause sleep or memory loss.
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Old 07-22-2012, 09:36 PM   #2
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Default Re: Affliction Question

Affliction Amnesia or Absent minded could work.
A negative talent type thing or lowered IQ with limited for memory only are other options. But if for specific memories then I would go with something else.
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Old 07-22-2012, 09:43 PM   #3
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Default Re: Affliction Question

Affliction: Amnesia sounds like your best bet, but depending on how your fae/pixie work, Psionic Powers has Mind Wipe and Amnesia powers that would work very well for fae.
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Old 07-22-2012, 10:52 PM   #4
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Default Re: Affliction Question

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Originally Posted by Danukian View Post
Affliction: Amnesia sounds like your best bet, but depending on how your fae/pixie work, Psionic Powers has Mind Wipe and Amnesia powers that would work very well for fae.
Hello, mindwipe... How did I miss that?! Thank you so much!
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Old 07-23-2012, 03:12 AM   #5
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Default Re: Affliction Question

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Originally Posted by Raekai View Post
Simple: How would you build memory loss as an Affliciton? I'm trying to do this as a standard D&D-type Pixie. They shoot arrows that can cause sleep or memory loss.
Powers and Psionic Powers have two different takes on this.

Psionic Powers uses Affliction, Amnesia without any sort of extended duration to simulate a mindwipe that wipes memory equal to the duration of the affliction just prior to the attack or after (decide when you build the attack or take selective effect to be able to do either). But the memory loss is still enduring.

Powers adds Extended Duration, Permanent, but the effect is far more wide-reaching. With this, you can wipe out any memory you like and the loss endures.
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Old 07-23-2012, 06:11 AM   #6
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Default Re: Affliction Question

Horror also suggests variants for memory loss afflictions as well as Delusion (False Memory).
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Old 07-23-2012, 11:21 AM   #7
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Default Re: Affliction Question

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Originally Posted by B9anders View Post
Powers and Psionic Powers have two different takes on this.

Psionic Powers uses Affliction, Amnesia without any sort of extended duration to simulate a mindwipe that wipes memory equal to the duration of the affliction just prior to the attack or after (decide when you build the attack or take selective effect to be able to do either). But the memory loss is still enduring.

Powers adds Extended Duration, Permanent, but the effect is far more wide-reaching. With this, you can wipe out any memory you like and the loss endures.
Of the two, I prefer the Powers approach, as it's not relying on the mechanic twist introduced in Psionic Powers. Getting a lasting effect with a base cost Affliction just doesn't sit well with me.
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Old 07-23-2012, 11:48 AM   #8
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Default Re: Affliction Question

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Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery View Post
Of the two, I prefer the Powers approach, as it's not relying on the mechanic twist introduced in Psionic Powers. Getting a lasting effect with a base cost Affliction just doesn't sit well with me.
I used to think the same way until I compared it to Blindness. You will suffer a lasting effect of not being able to recollect stuff you would have seen if you were not blind for the duration.

The tweak to amnesia is sort of the same except it affects consciousness as a whole for the duration. On the other hand, it doesn't inhibit you at all during that time. So in in that sense much more trivial than being blinded.
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Old 07-24-2012, 10:08 AM   #9
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Default Re: Affliction Question

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I used to think the same way until I compared it to Blindness. You will suffer a lasting effect of not being able to recollect stuff you would have seen if you were not blind for the duration.
I've actually proposed the idea of memory as a sense before, but never considered it seriously. Blindness is not affecting your recollection but your perception, an easily noted distinction, to my mind. The temporal tweak made in the Psionic Powers version is a bit more nettlesome. What would retroactive Blindness mean? And the permanency still rankles... the assumed Time-Spanning probably wouldn't bother me so much if the memory wipe was temporary (before adjusting with Extended Duration). Anyway, it's just my beef with the mechanic based on instinct. It's possible that my qualms would be dispelled were I to compare the two side-by-side in a game, especially given what I know about Rev's thoroughness in play-testing his stuff.
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Old 07-24-2012, 10:20 AM   #10
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Default Re: Affliction Question

I think it's a fair cop, though, to argue that this Affliction affects your ability to form memories; it causes anterograde amnesia. The fact that the GURPS disadvantage called "Amnesia" only covers retrograde amnesia is just an oversight . . . Anterograde Amnesia would be priced somewhere between "the opposite of Photographic Memory" (-10 points) and Cannot Learn (-30 points), so using the -10 to -25-point range for (Retrograde) Amnesia gets the cost and most of the name right.
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