[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Truthfulness

[Dalin]

I've put it on a few characters in the past and I've seen it on PC sheets when I'm GMing. It's a fairly fun disadvantage to play, I've found, but can always be mitigated (as Phil pointed out).

When I play with younger children, I often recommend it—sometimes along with Gullible and Honesty—since it's how they often play anyway. (And then they have a few birthdays and need Bloodlust and Kleptomania...)

[Inky]

Originally Posted by khorboth

2) ineptitude: "Don't trust me with a secret. I have more nervous ticks than a center for lime disease research. Sure, I could lie IN THEORY, but I break out in sweats, can't make eye contact and blush crimson."

*sees what you did there*

I found a Stargate GURPS PDF somewhere on the Internet one time, which included a character sheet for Jack O'Neill as an example, and they put Truthfulness on that, which is true when you think about it - and endlessly funny, the way he does it.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by khorboth

4) lack of understanding: "What do you mean by 'lie?' Say something not true? On purpose? Why? I don't understand." This can work well for non-humans. The bears in His Dark Materials have this version. I also used it on an animal companion paired with Gullible.

In Gulliver's Travels, when Captain Gulliver is among the Houynhmns, he finds that they don't have the concept of lying and can only paraphrase it as "saying the thing that is not."

[Michael Cule]

An opportunity to play a character who never lies?

A chance to tell people the truth and point at my character sheet whenever I disrupt their fiendish plans?

What's not to like?

(Admittedly I prefer to go for 'First Do No Harm' characters and expand their obnoxious virtue to cover the fact that liars always do harm.)

Why do I choose to play such offensively virtuous persons? We're trying to play heroes aren't we? This clearly is the sort of person I wish I was and can only realise in fantasy.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Truthfulness (N/A*) [-12] Would mean you can never tell any falsehoods and always blurt out the truth.

*page 60 Zombies

Yep. That's a very different disadvantage than what Mab Queen of the Faeries has. Both are useful, but for very different characters.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

He's a motor-mouthed extrovert, blatantly but loosely inspired by Luis in the Ant-Man movies...

However, an even more crucial part of his character concept was Fast-Talk skill (not so much a skill more a lifestyle), which was getting clobbered for -4 by the disad, which annoyed me too much.

Fast-talk isn't really about how fast you can literally talk. Luis talks quickly, and he manages to make it charming, but he's unable to quickly come up with words to make you think one thing rather than another, or even to intentional point your mind in one direction or another. I might call that a specialty of the performance skill, slickly moving from one point to the other faster than you can think and making it all sound cool.

[Flyndaran]

I don't get why extreme virtuousness is seen as so "obnoxious" or otherwise ugly/unrealistic. It's like how often Superman gets an edgy reboot or story where his basic morality is just tossed out the window. Or how so many D&D players have stories of despising the paladin class.

Refusal to lie isn't exceptionally hard unless you're doing something illegal. Or if you significantly care about causing distress to those that really are just looking for reasons to get upset.
"I'd prefer not to discuss that topic", "None of your business", and "Get out of my face", are valid truthful answers after all.

[khorboth]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I don't get why extreme virtuousness is seen as so "obnoxious" or otherwise ugly/unrealistic. It's like how often Superman gets an edgy reboot or story where his basic morality is just tossed out the window. Or how so many D&D players have stories of despising the paladin class.

Refusal to lie isn't exceptionally hard unless you're doing something illegal. Or if you significantly care about causing distress to those that really are just looking for reasons to get upset.
"I'd prefer not to discuss that topic", "None of your business", and "Get out of my face", are valid truthful answers after all.

This is quite true. In fact, "Extremely blunt" is an Odious Personal Habit I've taken on a character or two. One can certainly avoid topics or state things truthfully but diplomatically. There's a world of difference between "She's a lovely person" and "She's ugly but still likable." Both can be truthfully about the same person, but only one is nice.

In an adventuring world, lying comes up more often. You have to explain why you're carrying weapons, why you suspect the king is an imposter etc. Sometimes, the truth is more farfetched than a lie. Sometimes you're going against the local laws and want people not to know about it. Sometimes, you want to feed misinformation to the enemy be it an army or a thieves' guild or what have you.

[smurf]

I remember playing DnD and did something that was not becoming of my alignment... lawful good. The whole group and DM began lecturing me on what it was to be lawful good, one of it was Truthfulness.

However, they did not define Truthfulness and I just took it from GURPS definition. This all came unstuck when a Dwarf tried to lie to a Dragon about the army 'we' had outside. I mean lying like that, what was I to do, so I interjected and explained that was untrue and demanded why the Dwarf would lie like that.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Yep. That's a very different disadvantage than what Mab Queen of the Faeries has. Both are useful, but for very different characters.

But it sets a limit on how much "can mislead, but not outright lie" can be worth, I'd say probably 5 points for that.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

But it sets a limit on how much "can mislead, but not outright lie" can be worth, I'd say probably 5 points for that.

Yes. The correct price for divine curse (must tell truth) is -5, not -10.