Choosing not to wear glasses...

[panton41]

I can tell you my best friend effectively has Bad Sight with corrective lenses and Blindness without them. He has glaucoma and its at the point where he's legally blind even with corrective lenses.

[LemmingLord]

Yeah, it seems rather arbitrary to base on TLs. It is clear that sometimes GURPS RAW is written without being as genre flexible as you would expect for GENERIC in the title. The writers of GURPS are making the assumption with the Bad Sight disadvantage that you are :

0) The corrective technology is going to be cheaply attainable.
1) Playing in a continuuing game.
2) That going to the store will be an option.
3) That TL6+ technology can correct any kind of bad sight.

Consider a Farenheit genre where reading and books are outlawed. Glasses may not be available to the masses. It maybe illegal to own glasses. What if your character is honest?

Consider a one shot where the character has lost her glasses fleeing from zombies in the middle of the night?

Consider an insubstantal ghost character whose bad sight is due to being mostly on another plane of existence. "Baby, is that you? I can hardly see. Damn. What'd you do to your hair?" (That's a GHOST reference, in honor of Patrick Swayze)

These are all cases where as the GM I would assume bad sight to be as limiting as the full 25 point version.

As players and gamemasters, I think it is important to fully realize the ramifications of the disadvantages (or advantages) taken. Since 40 is the usual limit to disads, then if you have a 25 point disadvantage, then that should be a factor in almost every scene you are in.

I have more trouble with giving 10 points for bad sight because it seems like its not all that disadvantageous in the games I've seen it in. If your GM doesn't have your glasses fly off on occasion or get broken on head strikes, you really have nothing more than a quirk, "wears glasses."

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by LemmingLord

These are all cases where as the GM I would assume bad sight to be as limiting as the full 25 point version.

Ulzgoroth's reply earlier in the thread (post #5) covers these situations. Basically, if the character does not/can not/will not correct their vision, even if the means to do so might be available, it is reasonable to give them the unmitigated value for Bad Sight. Should the situation change in play, that correction becomes feasible for the character, it can be treated as buying off a disadvantage normally would be.

[Sense of Duty (Kittens)]

Of course, it may be appropriate to take the -10 version of Bad Sight and Vow (Eschew all corrective appurtenances) [-15] for a total of -25.

[Darkwalker]

@LemmingLord:

Reading glasses are not the only kind so even in a Fahrenheit-Setting people will need glasses. Simply to operate vehicles (near-sighted) or maschines (far-sighted).

[LemmingLord]

Originally Posted by Darkwalker

@LemmingLord:

Reading glasses are not the only kind so even in a Fahrenheit-Setting people will need glasses. Simply to operate vehicles (near-sighted) or maschines (far-sighted).

What I'm saying is that in some restrictive societies glasses may be off limits for your character. In some Fahrenheit settings you may just not be allowed to operate vehicles or machines if your vision is that bad.

Another setting might be a eugenics based society where to have glasses shows you are genetically inferior and should be killed or put into the ghettos for inferior people.