02-22-2020, 01:35 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Mar 2016
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New Social Stigma idea
This has been bouncing around in my head for a bit. I've been making a custom android template for a Monster Hunters inhuman, and I'm trying to find a good way to represent their ambiguous social status. I think I've found a decent way to model it, but I'm looking for feedback.
Social Stigma (No Legal Status) [-10] You are a well-preserved undead, dimensional traveler, or highly advanced android. Your status cannot be seen by a simple visual observation, but the most cursory legal investigation will reveal it. You have no birth certificate, identification, or citizenship (at least, not anymore) and cannot get any. Many things are simply off-limits to you, including almost all licenses, and if you ever end up in government custody, you will have no legal rights. This will rarely result in direct reaction penalties. It's essentially a toned-down version of Social Stigma (Dead), with bits from other Social Stigmas mixed in. |
02-22-2020, 01:55 AM | #2 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
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My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters. |
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02-22-2020, 02:04 AM | #3 |
Join Date: Mar 2016
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
Zeroed is an active ability. If you have Zeroed, not only are there no records on you, no records on you can be formed, at least not for very long. I remember reading a thread on that subject at some point, it's not clear in the Basic Set. The way this would work, you start the game with no records (or possibly some, depending on if you took other relevant disadvantages) in the system, but there's nothing stopping a trail from forming around you.
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02-22-2020, 02:11 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
No. The advantage of zeroed is "People keep losing your records". So if you get arrested, your mug shot and your fingerprints, your whole file disappears. If you leave fingerprints at the scene of a crime, they'll lose those too. Security camera footage? Oh no, there was a glitch. People's cell phone video? Get's messed up. What's more, it only happens if you don't need those records to exist. You can have a bank account (under a fake ID) and they won't lose i while it's open, but the moment you shut it down, all trace of it is gone from the system. Zeroed is so much more than just "I don't have a birth certificate". Which really isn't useful at all.
Last edited by David Johnston2; 02-22-2020 at 02:19 AM. |
02-22-2020, 02:22 AM | #5 | |
Join Date: Mar 2016
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
Here's the relevant Kromm post:
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02-22-2020, 02:39 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
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As to their mutual exclusivity, what drawbacks does this have that aren't already inherent in Zeroed?
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My ongoing thread of GURPS versions of DC Comics characters. |
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02-22-2020, 08:11 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
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I think there is no relationship with Zeroed at all. Essentially everything Basic says about Zeroed with respect to records is nonsense. It's clearest if you assume the Divinations form is primary, and the technological version does the same thing where the "divination" method is "do a records search". Your records aren't suspiciously absent, the search just fails to turn up "conclusive details" that reveal anything useful to the diviner. It helps to realize Zeroed's original purpose is to model a Cyberpunk trope, originated I think with Roger Zelazny's My Name Is Legion, in which you can edit the universal recordkeeping system yourself. The main virtue of that isn't you can erase your old IDs, but that you can essentially create an endless string of new Alternate Identities to replace them.
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02-22-2020, 11:53 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
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Reputation isn't necessarily obvious but it is fairly trivial to discover it and not everyone is going to care about it when it is discovered. It would be appropriate for something like being a criminal, suspected or convicted, but it doesn't seem appropriate for having no legal rights. [You may have a legally recognized existence, either as property, or as a verminous pest, but no enforceable rights.] I would suggest that having no legal status is best represented as Social Status: -4 Outsider [20]. The status may not be immediately obvious, but once it's discovered, there isn't a lot that can be done about it. Heck, fleeing may be the best/only option. |
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02-22-2020, 12:55 PM | #9 | |
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(If you have to ask . . .) Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Somewhere high up.
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
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I think the cost of -10 would be fine, but there shouldn't be any reason you can't gain a Legal Status. In fact, it would almost be mandatory the moment it was discovered. I think this would be better modeled as Secret (No Legal Status) at -10 or -20. The moment it's uncovered, you'd lose it and get some other disadvantages. |
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02-22-2020, 01:10 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
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Re: New Social Stigma idea
I agree that a Secret would be a better way to handle this.
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