[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Secret and Secret Identity

[johndallman]

Secret [-5 to -30] is a mundane social disadvantage. There is something in your past which you must keep hidden: if it is revealed, this disadvantage will vanish and be replaced by new lost advantages and/or disadvantages of twice the Secret’s value. This disadvantage appeared during the GURPS 3e period, but I’m not clear on just where.

The value of a Secret depends on the scale of the consequences: [-5] will cause considerable embarrassment, possibly causing loss of Reputation, Social Regard or Status, while [-30] is likely to turn into formidable enemies who want you dead. This is one of the disadvantages whose occurrence the GM can roll for before each game session, with a 6 or less on 3d indicating that it comes up, or can just decide on as suits the plot, as long as the frequency is about right.

A Secret coming up doesn’t mean it’s automatically revealed. You get a chance to do something about it, which might require submitting to blackmail, stealing something that could incriminate you, or even having to silence someone. However, dealing with a Secret will only be temporary, unless you buy it off with character points, or find a way within the setting to replace it with another disadvantage. Suppressing your Secret has plenty of potential to conflict with “noble” disadvantages, or even to acquire further Secrets; cover-ups can rapidly become worse than the original crime.

Secret Identity is a special form of Secret, which also appeared during the 3e period, possibly in Supers. It is the specific Secret of having a second identity, which you appear in for adventuring purposes, and is known only to close friends and family, at most. It is priced the same way as any other Secret, according to its consequence; threats to it usually come from someone who can publicise your real identity. It has one additional rule: if you have Status 3 or higher, threats to your Secret are more common (7 or less on 3d) and you get an extra [-10] for it.

A Secret may be incompatible with having Security Clearance, and a Secret Identity may well be illegal unless you have specific permission to hold one. Secret is a fairly common disadvantage on published character templates, especially on the Discworld, which has such odd ones as “Mime Artist” [‑30], “Running multiple rival cults” [‑10] and “Wiped out a whole village in a moment of excess energy” [‑30]. Boardroom and Curia extends the disadvantage to organisations, and adds “Trade Secret” [-5]. Dungeon Fantasy omits Secret as a social trait, but in Portal Realms, your very nature may be a Secret. Horror has lots of people with deadly secrets, and Madness Dossier adds nested secrets. The value of some Secrets is unavoidably setting-dependent: a Secret (Heretic) [‑10] in Hot Spots: Constantinople would be no more than a quirk in many societies today, while Secret (Homosexual) [‑5] in Hot Spots: Florence is worth far more in intolerant societies in the present day.

The Secret in Infinite Worlds is not a Secret in the usual sense, because it isn’t personal, and the people it has to be kept from mostly would not believe it without evidence, although ordinary Secrets can cause problems for Patrolmen. Locations: Worminghall has a fine collection of secrets, and Mysteries offers ways to acquire new ones. The Power-Ups series has perks and quirks that use Secret’s mechanics, and Psionic Campaigns has psionics as a Secret in its own right. Social Engineering deals with blackmail and socially required Secrets, and Ultra-Tech has people whose secret is that they’re artificial.

Many of the Secrets that characters of mine have had haven’t been on their character sheets. When all the PCs are MI5 psis, or monster hunters, there’s no real need to make it a Disadvantage. If you plan to take Secrets and buy them off, consider carefully how that will work. If a functioning society, suppressing criminal records that aren’t linked to you, without giving yourself away, is surprisingly hard.

How much trouble have Secrets caused in your games?