06-05-2010, 03:05 AM | #1 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Pennsylvania
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alternate form as a disadvantage
Pretty simple question...
How would you model an alternate form which is a disadvantage? For an example which is close to what I'm trying to do with a character, I'm thinking of what happened to some of Anne Rice's vampires after not drinking blood for a while. Instead of dying, they started to turn into something like a statue. |
06-05-2010, 06:13 AM | #2 | |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
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However, if such a transformation occurred in response to some unknown, uncontrollable factor it might be worth something similar to Epilepsy or the most extreme Flashbacks. |
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06-05-2010, 06:38 AM | #3 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: The ASS of the world, mainly Valencia, Spain (Europe)
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
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06-05-2010, 08:36 AM | #4 |
Join Date: Dec 2006
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
Conversely if you REALLY want to do this with an alternative form <and I can see some reasons why, like a gargoyle who turns to stone during the day, but gets a tougher body and regeneration while doing so>
Built the alternate form as the default state of the creature; in the above gargoyle example this might be: Sessile ATR -5 ST - 0 HP+40 DR 15 Regeneration: Fast (1/min) Regrowth Alternative form: Always on, accessibility: only during the night Then buy your other stats/abilities normally. When daylight hits you switch to an alternative form that cancels that entire package with the exception of the alternative form and switches you to whatever your normal ST/HP/other abilities are and you effectively get a 10% discount on the 'awake' form as a result (since you only pay 90% of the difference in cost)- since ATR-5 is a 500 point disadvantage that means that the alternate form is worth ~50 points. Side note: To ANY GM who sees a player do this, make sure that there alternative form is setup in a way so as not to be active enough for it to essentially be free points (like an always accessible alternate form with no reason to change forms). A blanket rule like 'the form you spend most of your time in is your default form' would work fine; in which case the gargoyle above would be acceptable (spends ~50% of it's time in either form), but the vampire who only turns into a statue when starving would not. |
06-05-2010, 12:02 PM | #5 | ||
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Pennsylvania
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
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I was thinking it is a disadvantage because they don't necessarily have control over it. It's pretty much the same idea as the normal disadvantage a GURPS vampire would have involving eventual death, but less severe. Instead of death, they started to slow down and harden (maybe a penalty to DX in GURPS terms.) My first thought was that it would be draining as per normal, but the character would lose DX instead of HP. It's possible that what I have in mind may not be viewed as a disadvantage by GURPS. I'm not sure. The statue form is less severe than death as a consequence for not eating, but it still seems as though it would have drawbacks. Losing your ability to move being a rather serious drawback. The second part of your post brings up an interesting point. While different from what I was originally asking, it deals with the same idea, so it would be interesting to have an answer to how something like that would work. For an easy generic example, let's say a certain type of attack causes you to morph into an alternate form which is undesirable. For sake of example, let's say a character has a trait which causes his body to start turning into brittle glass whenever he takes damage from fire or heat. |
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06-05-2010, 12:35 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Your imagination
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
The first solution I thought of was to put all the advantages and disadvantages in a package and apply a mitigator. That it doesn't happen instantly sounds like SFX.
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06-05-2010, 12:50 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Feb 2008
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
You could always build the main form as the crappy one and just tool around in the "alternate" form all the time. ;)
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06-05-2010, 01:01 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
This is definitely not a disad. Losing your ability to move is a serious drawback... But you lose that ability when you die, too. Vampires will have the restricted diet disad, but going without your specified necessary food triggers normal starvation rules. Your vampires just use different rules for starvation. This is a feature or a perk or possibly even a 5-point advantage, depending on how often it comes up. If it is likely to just serve as campaign flavor, it's a feature. It sounds to me like something that might well save a character from death, though, which would make it worth some points. I mean, assuming that your vampires probably already have Unaging and Unkillable 1, this effectively removes yet another weakness from them (you cannot kill them by starving them).
Imagine that a vampire character has been trapped somewhere without access to food and will be unable to escape for a long time. A normal human would starve to death in this situation. The vampire will turn into a statue and might live again. Not a disad. (Put another way, imagine that both humans and vampires treat these as powers. The human has the amazing ability "Can kill self or cause severe, long-term damage to physical and mental capacities by not eating food for a long period of time!" The vampire also has an ability: "Can turn into a nearly indestructible statue by not eating food for a long period of time. It can live forever in this statue form until it somehow gets food.") Last edited by bea_bumble; 06-05-2010 at 01:05 PM. |
06-05-2010, 07:14 PM | #9 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
Try the suggested rules for Disadvantageous Alternate Forms, from the Powers Designer's Notes.
Seems like a long time since I have referenced those :/ |
06-06-2010, 01:19 AM | #10 |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: alternate form as a disadvantage
That was the old 3e way and was very abusable - it made it cheaper to be a world leader and a kickass werewolf than to be either one separately.
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