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Old 11-16-2019, 06:18 PM   #21
jason taylor
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

I have squeemish about certain types of meat. They are the typical ones for Americans. Domestic beasts can't be eaten (it's rather like eating your little brother). Umbles I dislike the thought of eating, just because.

The funny thing is, I never had a problem with shellfish even though they eat detritus.
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Old 11-16-2019, 06:27 PM   #22
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

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Originally Posted by khorboth View Post
Use the table normally except the disadvantages gained are considered temporary. After a night's sleep, roll self control/will again as if exposed to the same conditions. On success, the disadvantage is now gone. If not, it persists. Additional rolls are made after one week, one month, and one year. If all those rolls are failed, then it's permanent.
That's a nice idea. I never thought of just sticking durations on the effect. maybe I'll take a harder look at using that fright table.
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Old 11-18-2019, 09:50 AM   #23
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

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Originally Posted by WingedKagouti View Post
In this specific case I'd rule that the character would be uneasy while not in a dungeon and something like a town square might require a roll. At least if going with the default value in that type of campaign.
Well, yes, but my point was making an example of why it's not so easy for me, as a GM, to make decisions about Phobias.
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Old 11-19-2019, 12:13 AM   #24
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
This has prevented me from putting phobias on my characters, and I strongly discourage players from putting it on their character sheets. Last time I had a player take phobia, I reduced the disad from [-10] to [-5] and said we weren't using the fright table.

I have strong ... dislike ... of traits that change character's point values in play.
The exact opposite is true for my Cliffhanger campaign. We think it is hilarious when people roll new Disadvantages. The campaign has often cocurring elements of horror or off-worldly things. Characters all have fair to good IQ, so rolls aren't failed that often. But when someone rolls on the Fright Check Table we cheer for hitting 13 "Acquire new Quirk". A full blown Phobia or the like doesn't happen very often.
The campaign has run for a long time, with players coming, going, and often returning. Point values vary a good deal between characters, but points earned in play are rarely spent very effciently. That the old characters gain more Disadvantages only serves to even out any imbalance. It also gives more distinction and character.

In my previous, and also very long running, Cliffhangers campaign, one character had a Phobia against oceans. It made sea travel a pain, and he spent most journeys self-medicated with opium. He eventually took Addiction for that. He was also afraid of balconies, because he had taken a bad fall. Ana minor phobia against nuns - I can't for the life of he remember why. That character was retired about half way through that campaign, and that player's next character also racked up some negative stuff, although nothing as crippling.
My own character through all of those years of playing got deafness in one ear in the early years in an unnecessary bar brawl. That was a recurring gag for years.
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Old 11-22-2019, 12:42 PM   #25
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

I see your point. Gaining surprise Disadvantages during play does sound like a laugh. If you write your character in every detail at the beginning and then have to stick to them more or less unchanged session after session, the usual way, thinking glumly that they aren't really as interesting in practice as you thought they were going to be, it gets boring. At least, it does for me.

It depends how much of a death spiral Fright Checks turn out to be in practice in your game, I suppose. If it does get too bad, another variation (and maybe a more realistic one) might be for a certain margin of success on the fright check to mean a character loses a level of the phobia. "Hey, I don't appear to be dead after all".

I've been thinking about a variation of Phobias where, rather than running away necessarily, fear leads a character to overreact to a certain thing, to the point of abandoning principles or common sense. For instance, Dr Clef from the "SCP" stories faced with "reality bending" powers ("That is a monster. You have to stop thinking of it as a little girl"), or new-series Doctor Who in the presence of Daleks or generals. Has anyone done anything like that? Any thoughts on how? Would it just be a "if I don't think you're playing this out I'll dock you points", or could it have specific rules, e.g. something like the Bad Temper rules, or an alternative Fright Check table?
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Old 11-23-2019, 07:30 AM   #26
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

A phobia is a disadvantage. So long as the failed roll reaction is noticeably disadvantageous, it should work.
Psychotic overreaction is a known behavior to phobic situations. People have used hand guns, burnt small buildings, etc. just to take out small animals.

I fully expect someone phobic of a "minor" supernatural danger to go ham on it in ways other "hunters" would consider nutty overkill.
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Old 11-25-2019, 09:45 AM   #27
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

Makes sense to me! How would you mechanics that? I mean, how would it work if somebody did have that but instead of having regular Phobia reactions, like running away or fainting?
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Old 03-03-2020, 12:31 AM   #28
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

(Is it thread necromancy after three months?)

I just had a character who investigated a bombed school and failed a fright check due to the carnage. He ended up puking his guts out.

I am thinking he's picked up a quirk-level aversion to such things, but can't decide if it should be quirk-level Squeamishness, Hemophobia, or Necrophobia.

He is a gunslinger, and has no problem with killing people, at a distance*, and ideally with an elegant bloody little hole. Not these random body parts scattered about, or even worse random bloody pieces that you can't even tell what part of the body they are from.

So which of the three would it be? Or some other phobia?

And what would the game effects be? -1 on reaction rolls, or -1 on trying to do use skills in the presence of such carnage?

* He doesn't have much in melee or hand-to-hand combat skills, as he firmly believes that if you let an enemy get within arm's reach of you, you are Doing It Wrong.
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Old 03-03-2020, 02:09 AM   #29
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Default Squeamishness

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
I know someone with Squeamish. It's a very hard to define phobia. She's so creeped out by blood that I can't even mention checking my blood sugar. But she has no problem with her own, which is fortunate as she has a clotting disorder.
In some ways, it's more of an ick factor dialed up to 11 than basic blood, insect, dirt, etc. phobia.
Yeah, I think several people I've known meet the criteria for Squeamish, at least a version with a high SC (I've rarely seen them faint or auffer lasting psychological trauma, but then again, I've never seen them in a Carrie situation or covered in rotting corpse and maggots).

An informal survey of NPCs reveals that Squeamishness seems fairly common in my campaigns; but almost exclusively for young noblewomen (or middle class raised to emulate nobles) in fantasy games. I don't know if full-blown Squeamishness is realistic, but some trait to distinguish them from dungeon-delving adventurers who wallow in filth, innards, dirt and bugs seems called for.

An influence might be that in real-life, I find this sort of exeggerated 'ick' reflex an endearing and absolutely adorable trait*, which makes it easy and fun to portray in a game. For a twist, I like to have this trait on NPCs who have abilities that might trigger it, at least once the first shock of adrenaline, hormones or other things wears off and they realize what they're covered in. Squeamish NPCs with decent to good combat skills, which could lead to surviving a close-quarters battle with all the attendant gore.

And probably my favorite, a Squeamish vampire. She's got a mitigator of some sort so that she doesn't care about blood and the usual fluids produced by sexual activities while she's engaged in feeding or sex, but she absolutely hates having any of that icky stuff on her once she finishes.

And under normal adventuring conditions, she will absolutely not go near the ubiquitous rats, bugs and the like (her vampire gifts should grant her control over the Creatures of the Night, especially those that traditionally eat corpses, but if she has any powers in that direction, she's using them unconsciously to tell every last creepy-crawly to bugger off post-haste).

*Yes, I know. The things I'm attracted to are deeply problematic from a gender relations standpoint and no doubt I set the cause of equal rights back decades whenever I have a crush. All I can say is that whatever unconscious subroutine responsible for being attracted to people for whatever mysterious reasons is the one who is sexist and I don't seem to be able to consciously control to whom I attracted. I do control what I do about it, which is probably why I don't try to pursue very many air-headed, incompetent, naive, fragile and needy girls.
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Last edited by Icelander; 03-03-2020 at 06:42 AM.
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Old 02-21-2024, 11:44 PM   #30
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvatage of the Week: Phobias and Squeamish

Has anyone used Technophobia? If so, did you use the standard rules or change them? Being unable to learn any skills related to any machinery 'more complicated than a crossbow or bicycle' at all seems pretty crippling at high TLs, and Aichmophobia doesn't seem to have any such rule, you just have to make a Fright Check and, if you succeed, have a penalty to all DX, IQ and skill rolls while using sharp objects as usual, but no mention of not being able to learn the relevant skills.
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