Cultural and Technological Consequences of Racial Daredevil trait

[Jerron]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

... please remember that Daredevil is an Advantage granting bonuses in risky situations, and not a Compulsive Behavior. So it's not like they can't behave safe, it's just that they can afford to take more risks because they're protected from a lot of their negative consequences.

I see the advantage leading to a greeater degree of the occurance, so while it might not be a compulsion, it will color the culturally acceptable behavior to such a degree that *other* races might see it as a compulsion. I do agree that it is not, still the collective psychology will be tainted to a huge degree. Otherwise why have it as a racial ad? It would mean little more than a limited form of racial luck if it didn't.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Unmodified Honesty works that way. These characters don't have to obey their own laws outside of its jurisdiction; that's the purpose of the limitation.

Unmodified honesty does not do this. You follow the laws, which include jurisdictional changes to the laws. There are certain issues regarding whether you know them and such, but granted the power to know all of the laws and jurisdictional considertions, you follow the local ones, not your home ones. Basic set- "In an area with little or no law, you do not "go wild" - you act as though the laws of your own home were in force." I believe this was what you were thinking of. This race could perhaps follow their own laws no matter the jurisdiction- a sort of honesty where they believe only their laws have jurisdiction over them. We have RL examples of this, but perhaps some sort of Diplomatic Immunity would be best to model this in GURPS *if and only if* the local jurisdictions respect this point of view.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Jerron

I see the advantage leading to a greeater degree of the occurance, so while it might not be a compulsion, it will color the culturally acceptable behavior to such a degree that *other* races might see it as a compulsion. I do agree that it is not, still the collective psychology will be tainted to a huge degree. Otherwise why have it as a racial ad? It would mean little more than a limited form of racial luck if it didn't.

I'm just trying to remind people not to try turning an Advantage into a special form of low-key insanity . . . at least no more than other social expectations turn out to be.

Originally Posted by Jerron

Unmodified honesty does not do this. You follow the laws, which include jurisdictional changes to the laws. There are certain issues regarding whether you know them and such, but granted the power to know all of the laws and jurisdictional considertions, you follow the local ones, not your home ones. Basic set- "In an area with little or no law, you do not "go wild" - you act as though the laws of your own home were in force." I believe this was what you were thinking of. This race could perhaps follow their own laws no matter the jurisdiction- a sort of honesty where they believe only their laws have jurisdiction over them. We have RL examples of this, but perhaps some sort of Diplomatic Immunity would be best to model this in GURPS *if and only if* the local jurisdictions respect this point of view.

My reason for giving the limitation was to point out how perfectly they adhere to their laws on their islands, not to cause them trouble abroad - that is handled through a CoH, but let's not get entangled in local politics, unless people want to discuss the idea-seeds of the whole setting rehaul. ;) I'm trying to figure things one at a time.

[Corlock Striker]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Either way, please remember that Daredevil is an Advantage granting bonuses in risky situations, and not a Compulsive Behavior. So it's not like they can't behave safe, it's just that they can afford to take more risks because they're protected from a lot of their negative consequences.

Although, I would imagine that in teaching their own history to the next generation, there would by necessity be a heavy enphasis on the fact that risky behavior carries great rewards, due to the, unknown to them, bonuses they receive from such actions. Also, I imagine that everyone would have a story about how something horrible happened to someone they knew who "played it safe." I really do think that there would be something of a local almost superstition about acting in a safe manner, and that most people would frown upon such an idea. After all, historically and from an anecdote perspective they always achieve better results when taking risks, than they do when they don't. So, as this is a racial behavior, I could see it turning into something akin to low-key insanity. Except from their point of view these actions would be perfectly reasonable given their history and the stories they have of aquaintences who "played it safe."

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Appearance is basically ±4pts per ±1 reaction. Appearance normally affects own race (or the major race of the setting). Making appearance Universal is +25%, resulting in a ±5pts per ±1 reaction. The species-limited version costs 80% of the Universal version.

Appearance already has a "Requires target able to see me" limitation built in on the reaction bonus. As far as I can tell, the racial benefit is actually a 0 cost under the assumption that "humans only" in a mundane campaign covers "everything that isn't an animal, and thus everything I'd bother to make a reaction roll against anyways".

EDIT: I'm modifying this for my game, explicitly breaking out the "Visual" limitation and the "Species that share senses of aesthetics" limitation.

Note also that the basic Appearance advantage assumes a 50/50 split (or thereabouts between two genders - species with a different ratio or a different gender arrangement (most likely is no genders and hermaphroditism of some sort but Scifi is funky) will want to adjust costs. If you're female, and your species is 90% female, getting an additional +4 reaction from males vs the +2 from females isn't nearly as useful as a human would get.

[Jerron]

One thing I thought of- these folk would, in theory, limit their risks to the same averages as other normally, sane people. Their risks however, would be much more flamboyant- they would be routinely doing things considered suicidal by other races. Their averages for failure would be lower, and their averages for critical failure- where most of the fatalities would be- are exponetially lower.

Their average risk, of say, a normal human with a 12 skill in some death-defying task, would be similar to comparing a normal human flying a plane, to one jumping out of a plane with one of those surf-board things instead of a parachute. People think flying small planes is somewhat dangerous (I don't agree). People think jumping out of one is risky, and without a parachute insane. This race's 'insanity threshold' would begin where ours leaves off.

With this in mind, I can see all sorts of daredevil hobbies being invented. Jumping into live volcanoes while wearing a fire-proof suit, or rock-climbing with explosives. And I can see similar professions. Oil-well firefighters are around the edges of our professions; these folk might just put on that fireproof suit to go swim in lava for research.

And that paragraph leads to the assumption that this race would tend to be hired for such dangerous and... er, 'crazy'... work. Red Adair was always called for the worst oil fires... Imagine a whole race of people like that. And then give them the keys to new experimental aircraft and see if they'll do a test flight... Anyone else might crash to death, while they tend to crash and survive.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I'm just trying to remind people not to try turning an Advantage into a special form of low-key insanity . . . at least no more than other social expectations turn out to be.

Jerron's point looks valid to me. You are not talking about an individual, nor a PC, but a race. It seems reasonable to expect a racial trait to affect the way that race acts, and appears to others. I find the concept of a racial Daredevil difficult to rationalize, but accepting it as given, it only makes sense that the race would appear to others as disposed toward risky behavior.

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery

Jerron's point looks valid to me. You are not talking about an individual, nor a PC, but a race. It seems reasonable to expect a racial trait to affect the way that race acts, and appears to others. I find the concept of a racial Daredevil difficult to rationalize, but accepting it as given, it only makes sense that the race would appear to others as disposed toward risky behavior.

They were kidnapped by aliens long ago to be genetically modified into slave soldiers. A charismatic leader led a great revolt and they freed themselves. Now they retain the disproportionate lack of fear instilled in them.

As a result, this race would also have a larger breeding capacity, and a greater proportion of Combat Reflexes.

They are ruled by an aristocracy called The Survivors who earned this title from surviving enough daredevilish feats to be allowed to relax. One of the jobs of a Survivor is to hold the high-strung nature of the younger one's in check.

As a side note, the word Survivor in their language has two connotations and a visitor must know the difference. In certain contexts and tones of voice, it can mean, "coward."

[Jerron]

Perhaps this isn't so much daredevil, as something else. I could see unfazeable with impulsive doing pretty much what you want, without being daredevils. While both ads are 15 points, one is much more a mental trait than meta-gaming sort of thing. Throw in the disad, and the package is worth a lot less. I tend to think racial templates should be done with the minimum cost possible, but that's just me. (And no I don't tend to actually *do* all that work, it's just my opinion of how I *should* if I weren't lazy.)

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Jerron

Perhaps this isn't so much daredevil, as something else. I could see unfazeable with impulsive doing pretty much what you want, without being daredevils. While both ads are 15 points, one is much more a mental trait than meta-gaming sort of thing. Throw in the disad, and the package is worth a lot less. I tend to think racial templates should be done with the minimum cost possible, but that's just me. (And no I don't tend to actually *do* all that work, it's just my opinion of how I *should* if I weren't lazy.)

Impulsive+Unfazeable would make for a completely wrong effect: they would make the race distinct by their reckless psychology, as opposed to being 'resistant' to the negative effects of recklessness.

[jason taylor]

I still like the back story I gave. It is a compelling explanation of how this trait was bred into the race.