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Old 10-25-2017, 04:02 PM   #1
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Default "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

Pretty much what it says on the tin. I developed some houserules for bringing Passions into GURPS from Pendragon/Mythras/BRP; see below. These can be used instead of, or in addition to, Disadvantages and other social/mental traits; the mechanics of default Disadvantages and these Passions guidelines seem to overlap fairly well with some oversight. My personal intention is to combine them, utilizing Passions for big overarching character motivations and Disadvantages for purely limiting and narrow/specialized “edge” cases.

I’m putting them out here for other people to use or poke holes in. Feedback and suggestions are always appreciated, and of course, enjoy.



Passions background:

Passions originate in Pendragon as far as I know, but were included in Mythras more recently. Mythras is basically a setting-less Runequest 6. It's an RPG in the Basic Roleplaying d100 family. I will not go into exhaustive detail/advice here on actually using and developing them in play; for that, I would recommend checking out Mythras. This will be a fairly basic mechanical rundown.



Passions description (for the unfamiliar):

Passions represent several things – Loyalties and allegiances, strongly held beliefs or ideals, and emotion felt towards someone or something.

A Passion is composed from the simple combination of a verb (subvert, torment, uphold, loyalty to, love, desire) and a noun (person, place, organization, ideal, object/substance); this combination results in something like "Passion: Subvert the Church," "Love of my Country," or "Seek Sir Gallahad's respect" (or even "Desire the Iron Throne"). They are a simple character-centric mechanic designed to encourage the pursuit of in-game character arcs and to drive conflict and maintain active character goals organically within the game world.

In short, they provide skill bonuses in situations where you are pursuing your Passion, stand in for ordinary willpower where a Passion is at risk, influence/interfere with your actions depending on the strength of the passion, and they also compete with each other when multiple Passions are at odds (to see which one your character ends up aligning with in a given situation). They are designed to be added, removed, changed and “inverted” (love to hate, respect to subvert, etc.) smoothly in-game.

In BRP, they act like unique skills which have special effects depending on the circumstances and the strength/level of the Passion.



GURPS Passions (Houserules):

Note: the following assumes you are familiar with "GURPS Power-Ups 5: Impulse Buys" as well as the articles "Impulse Control" from Pyramid #3/100 (thanks, Christopher!) and "A Full Complement" from #3/65 (or Action, etc.). Though, you should be able to get the general idea without those.

Passions are treated like special attributes (special thanks to Jachra for his input) rather than an ‘ordinary’ Disadvantage + control number. There are no hard limits on the number of Passions one character can possess or acquire; each Passion stands alone with its own rating, though they can and do interact.

Adding Passions at character generation or in play is free (costing no character points regardless of the Passion’s nature or numeric rating); a new character may begin with up to 3. There is no hard minimum or hard cap to the number of Passions a character can possess, only what's meaningful to the player and the GM and what you're willing to put up with in play. Passions can be raised+lowered, gained+lost, or even corrupted+inverted+renamed in play as is necessary and appropriate. Passions are intentionally designed as a "loose" mechanic that gains more from situational interpretation during play than through strict mechanical codification. They're designed to be fairly interpretive even in Mythras. That being said, some guidelines follow.
• Each Passion functions like an attribute, rather than a Disadvantage w/control number (default value begins at 10, then modified by relevant skills and applicable traits from both the owner and subject of the Passion. If you have “Passion: Loyalty to Captain Cutler”, you might start at base 10 but end up adding + 2-3 from Cutler's high Leadership/Public Speaking/Psychology levels, with more modifiers +/- level of his Charisma or Reputation/Rank/Destiny/Appearance, etc. (maybe another +1 from the PC himself being Chummy) and end up at a total of 14 or 15. These same modifiers (except Chummy!) might apply even if you *hate* Captain Cutler, instead!

• Passions should be rolled against to see if they take effect, either at the beginning of a scene or on a spot basis when Passion-related actions/events arise. They can even be rolled against other Passions via Quick or Regular Contests, to see which one wins out in influencing your character in a given situation (or to prove which of multiple characters has the strongest of a specific Passion, like Loyalty to the People of Gallia in order to draw a legendary magic sword from the stone); you could even require minimum Passion values to gain access to certain effects, such as requiring a character to foster Uphold True Justice to 18 or better in order to lift or move the hammer Mjolnir (but not necessarily use its powers)!

• Passions rated lower than 8 or higher than 13 are either very neutral/passive in nature or a significant influence on much of what a character does, respectively. If a character’s Passion for his cult rises above 18 and the player of the PC felt that the character's story had been satisfied at that point (ideally as part of the conclusion to an adventure that heavily featured his Passion), he might very well be retired to NPC status as a fully-fledged cultist fanatic!

• Passion ratings shift, invert, appear or cancel out depending on events in the game. This is highly dependent on the circumstances, how the player feels his character would react/respond/change according to the stimuli in question (if at all); it can be done either gradually or dramatically, as is appropriate. Quick example: the PC is betrayed by Captain Cutler, and a close friend is grievously injured in the ensuing domino of events; the player decides he will keep his passion at the same rating, but now it has changed from “Loyalty to Captain Cutler – 15” to “Despise Captain Cutler – 15” instead! If it were a slighter breach of faith, he might simply lower the rating by one or two (or by 1d-4; or on a successful Passion roll, it might not change at all!).

• Successfully activated Passions can be used to replace the core attribute of any skill roll which is immediately and directly related to pursuit of the Passion (ex. if you are defending your wife who is being attacked by parrying the attacker’s blade with your knife, and you have Passion: Protect my Wife Gwen - 17, you could replace your paltry Knife – 12 at DX + 3 with Knife – 20 at Passion + 3 instead, for that single action; this is considered both 'immediate' and 'directly related' to pursuit of your Passion because if you fail your parry, it directly opposes your Passion's verb [Protect] as well as risking its subject [Gwen] who might very well die!). If your Passion activates and you are acting directly against it, opposing a Passion higher than the base attribute for a given skill applies a penalty equal to the difference. The Passion may even actively Influence the PC - applying its margin of success over his Will defense, if winning the ensuing contest, as a penalty to the PC's Self Control rolls for relevant disadvantages, perception checks, or other relevant rolls (per "Influencing PC's" in either the Basic Set or Social Engineering) where the PC must act against the intent of his Passion. Passions can also be used as a complementary skill under certain circumstances, for instance when the native attribute is a higher level or if the Passion would have a more muted/conservative effect (ex. As a bonus to multiple daily Hiking rolls to get back home to your sickly son).

• If a specific scene is either rooted in or heavily related to one of your Passions (like if the entire scene is about you finally showing up to save your wife), roll against the Passion at the beginning of the scene; on a success, you gain 1 Impulse Point on an ordinary success or 2 points on a critical success (critical failure might warrant some kind of crisis of conscience, extreme overreaction, temporary mental stun, etc.). These points disappear either at the end of the triggering scene or the scene following it, and can only be applied to actions or outcomes related to pursuit of the Passion. Beware, as if you need to act directly against your Passion in that significant scene then the GM may be able to use those Impulse Points against you, as if they were Villainous Points!

• Can stand in for Will under appropriate circumstances during contests, resistance rolls, etc. like resisting torture to extract intel from you if you have Loyalty to the Motherland. Rule of 16 does NOT apply to resistance rolls where a Passion stands in for Will!

• Can behave like an ‘unfriendly’ skill, initiate Contests against your actions (even a "reverse" complementary skill) or another competing Passion, where your actions (or another Passion) would go directly against the active Passion in question! If a new Passion comes into play which conflicts with one already active, the newly activated Passion must win the ensuing contest to overtake the currently active one.

• Above all, this is just a set of tools. Conversation and agreement between the player+GM is absolutely paramount with regards to adjudicating the effects and limitations of this system. Use your best judgement, and remember that these are only guidelines and suggestions, not a straight jacket; the best ruling is the one that not only makes sense, but is also the most fun!
Also, see: http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...55&postcount=6

Last edited by Antiquation!; 10-29-2017 at 11:58 PM. Reason: Clarity (thanks again Jachra!), trimmed a few oversights, addition (thanks RyanW)
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Old 10-25-2017, 06:21 PM   #2
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

Yay, I got credited.

I find this interesting. Dunno if I'd use it myself, but fun.
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Old 10-25-2017, 06:40 PM   #3
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jachra View Post
Yay, I got credited.

I find this interesting. Dunno if I'd use it myself, but fun.
I'm glad it was a fun read at least. Certainly not for everyone, or for every campaign.

It has a more "narrative" flavor to it, and lacks concrete/comprehensive rules (though if I noodle on it I can probably build and refine a better skeleton) which makes it impractical for many types of players/GM's/campaigns, but I think it's a fun tool if you're trying to encourage big, dramatic stories and drive + highlight a less codified part of character growth/change.
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Old 10-25-2017, 07:58 PM   #4
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

This is very well thought out and presented, thank you (both). Looking forward to trying this in GURPS, I've tried it in the other games you mentioned and it always added to the campaign very nicely.
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Old 10-25-2017, 08:23 PM   #5
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

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Originally Posted by Bud View Post
This is very well thought out and presented, thank you (both). Looking forward to trying this in GURPS, I've tried it in the other games you mentioned and it always added to the campaign very nicely.
Thanks, I'm glad to be able to make it available in some form to others. I hope it works to your satisfaction!
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Old 10-27-2017, 01:50 AM   #6
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

Two additional guidelines:
• Consider using the detailed modifiers for Continued Relationships from page 43 of "GURPS Social Engineering" for guidance during situations where a Loyalty or Love or similar might either come into question or strengthen due to the actions of one of your Passion's subjects, or for modifiers bestowed by a long-lasting relationship.

• As a campaign switch: NPC's are likely to have at least one of their own Passions, too! Even just one or two 'generic' ones for a few faceless baddies, Highwaymen "Desire for Coin - 12," Troll "Protect my Spawning Ground - 15," etc. Important NPC's in particular should have Passions, ideally two or more; these can be a handy way to keep track of your NPC's relationships, important desires and other ties to the game world and the PC's, all of which you have hopefully already begun sketching out and thinking up for your world by the time you write their Passions down! I recommend checking out Mythras and its ilk for more great inspiration and examples of NPC (and monster) Passions.
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Last edited by Antiquation!; 10-27-2017 at 10:35 AM.
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Old 10-27-2017, 08:34 AM   #7
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by Antiquation! View Post
• Passions can be used to replace the core attribute of any skill roll which is immediately and directly related to pursuit of the Passion
This works in an elegant manner, but is wide open to abuse. I'd think a game using this mechanic would not draw munchkins, but if it does expect PCs with "Protect Myself-20" and "Slaughter My Enemies-19" etc.

Quote:
if you have to feign kindness and show respect to Captain Cutler at a party honoring him in front of many foreign dignitaries you're supposed to be buttering up, your "Despise Captain Cutler - 15" might cap your Diplomacy [normally 18] rolls for the duration of the party
This, however, is inelegant. In the example above, if I hate Cutler MORE than you ("Despise Captain Cutler - 18") I am better at controlling it.
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Old 10-27-2017, 08:41 AM   #8
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

One thing that jumps out at me is the skill cap. If you really hate Captain Cutler (Passion 18), it's easy to pretend to like him. But if you dislike him just a little (Passion 4), it's virtually impossible.

Ah, ninja'd. So I'll suggest a fix: Instead of capping, opposing a passion higher than the base attribute applies a penalty equal to the difference.

I would also only do replacement for higher passions for the same reasons. Being mostly indifferent (Passion 4) should not make things more difficult than being completely indifferent (no passion at all).
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Old 10-27-2017, 08:57 AM   #9
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post
This works in an elegant manner, but is wide open to abuse. I'd think a game using this mechanic would not draw munchkins, but if it does expect PCs with "Protect Myself-20" and "Slaughter My Enemies-19" etc.
And the first time you have to ignore the enemy to save a friend, you realize just how handicapped your neuroses can leave you.
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Old 10-27-2017, 09:58 AM   #10
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Default Re: "Passions" mechanic in GURPS

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post
This works in an elegant manner, but is wide open to abuse. I'd think a game using this mechanic would not draw munchkins, but if it does expect PCs with "Protect Myself-20" and "Slaughter My Enemies-19" etc.
You are absolutely correct. Attribute substitution, beyond even the other options, is particularly open to abuse if handled improperly. That ruling in particular should be used as thoughtfully as possible; traditional Complementary rolls would seem to apply best in most 'garden-variety' scenarios in which a Passion could help motivate, but isn't directly and immediately dependent upon, an action or the resulting goal.

Quote:
Originally Posted by martinl View Post
This, however, is inelegant. In the example above, if I hate Cutler MORE than you ("Despise Captain Cutler - 18") I am better at controlling it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RyanW View Post
One thing that jumps out at me is the skill cap. If you really hate Captain Cutler (Passion 18), it's easy to pretend to like him. But if you dislike him just a little (Passion 4), it's virtually impossible.

Ah, ninja'd. So I'll suggest a fix: Instead of capping, opposing a passion higher than the base attribute applies a penalty equal to the difference.

I would also only do replacement for higher passions for the same reasons. Being mostly indifferent (Passion 4) should not make things more difficult than being completely indifferent (no passion at all).
Excellent points both, and thanks for the feedback. Consider that example and usage of Passions trimmed for now; I may re-implement it later if I can think of a good reason for using a Passion as a skill cap.

RyanW, I do like your suggestion about adjudicating a penalty based on the difference in relevant Passion ratings between two characters.
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