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Old 10-27-2017, 02:49 PM   #1
johndallman
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Default [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

Bad Back is a Mundane Physical disadvantage, available in two levels, "mild" [-15] or "severe" [-25]. Whenever you make a ST roll, or roll 17+ on an attack or defence during melee, or on an athletic skill, such as Acrobatics or Lifting, you need to make a HT roll to avoid "throwing" your back out and suffering pain. This roll is harder, and the pain worse, if you have the severe level of the disadvantage, and on a critical failure of the HT roll, you can take actual damage. The disadvantage was created during the GURPS 3e period, but I'm not sure exactly when.

High Pain Threshold reduces, but does not eliminate, the pain, and Fit or Very Fit will help with the HT Rolls. A realistic character with Hunchback should have this disadvantage too, but this is not mandatory. It's possible to acquire a temporary case of Bad Back through bad luck on extra effort rolls while digging.

Action and similar genres are usually incompatible with this disadvantage and Bio-Tech has rules for treating it with physiotherapy or surgery. Reich-5 "science" from Infinite Worlds can cause it, but Low-Tech massage can relieve it. Martial Arts' advanced hit location rules provide a way to acquire this disadvantage, and Technical Grappling points out it makes you more vulnerable to attacks against your spine.

I don't think I've ever taken this disadvantage on a PC, partly because I know several real people who have something like it. I tend towards using disadvantages that I can live with, or which the character thinks are proper behaviour. Since I seem to be good at failing dice rolls to avoid disadvantage effects, I try to avoid ones that will be crippling.
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Old 10-27-2017, 03:47 PM   #2
Flyndaran
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

Some real people with hunchbacks from scoliosis don't have Bad Backs. They have restricted lung capacity and reduced endurance but can still throw down physically.
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Old 10-27-2017, 05:29 PM   #3
Railstar
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

Mostly I’ve avoided it. -3 DX for the rest of combat due to a poor attack roll is a virtual death sentence, the alternative being if you have enough HT to make it a non-issue… in which case it feels like cheating to take it. So I’ve never taken it “as written” for a PC.

One character did have a triggered form of it, inspired by the Towton Graves, in which the bodies of men-at-arms were shown to have their scapula separated into multiple parts due to vigorous childhood exercise. So this character, who was trained as a knight, would suffer Bad Back after receiving magical healing (because it would try to repair those bones, which were better off being separated). However, it never came up, because magical healing was virtually always after combat for him, and he usually had the opportunity to fix his back before the next combat. The accessibility was -80%, and it was really more effective for how he’d plan around the problem than for the problem itself.

However, the thread did give me an idea. Another character is based around the theme of using Alter Body or other spells to manipulate flesh and bone, a bit like the Tzimisce from Old World of Darkness. Bad Back disadvantage is a very good way to represent a flawed structure for those creations.

Overall, I see it as prohibitive for characters who routinely make ST-rolls, and irrelevant for most characters who don’t.
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Old 10-28-2017, 07:06 PM   #4
johndallman
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

Quote:
Originally Posted by Railstar View Post
However, the thread did give me an idea. Another character is based around the theme of using Alter Body or other spells to manipulate flesh and bone, a bit like the Tzimisce from Old World of Darkness. Bad Back disadvantage is a very good way to represent a flawed structure for those creations.
Makes sense to me. Like many disadvantages, this one is at least as useful for representing such problems as it is for designing player characters.
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Old 10-29-2017, 02:03 PM   #5
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

It is actually a fairly common disadvantage in the modern campaigns that I have been involved in, usually explained as a side effect of a career ending injury for former police, veterans, etc. It is a good disadvantage for horror and mystery games, where combat ready characters need explanations of why they are not serving police, active military, etc.
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Old 10-30-2017, 08:52 PM   #6
Railstar
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Makes sense to me. Like many disadvantages, this one is at least as useful for representing such problems as it is for designing player characters.
Combine this with what you said earlier about using disadvantages you can live with, this works even better for those cases because monsters are more expendable than PCs are. Even a PC's monstrous ally, if the PC has the spells to create it in the first place, can be assumed to be replaced should it ever die due to Bad Back at an inopportune moment.
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Old 10-31-2017, 10:38 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

I don't have this disadvantage, but I've experienced a crippling back pain such that I was at about -5 to DX and at least -3 to IQ from distraction for a few minutes. I'd like a milder version of this disad to represent people who are getting a bit creaky but don't completely come to pieces.
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Old 10-31-2017, 05:23 PM   #8
sir_pudding
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

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Originally Posted by RogerBW View Post
I don't have this disadvantage, but I've experienced a crippling back pain such that I was at about -5 to DX and at least -3 to IQ from distraction for a few minutes. I'd like a milder version of this disad to represent people who are getting a bit creaky but don't completely come to pieces.
Isn't that what Minor Handicap is for?
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Old 10-31-2017, 06:15 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

Quote:
Originally Posted by RogerBW View Post
I don't have this disadvantage, but I've experienced a crippling back pain such that I was at about -5 to DX and at least -3 to IQ from distraction for a few minutes. I'd like a milder version of this disad to represent people who are getting a bit creaky but don't completely come to pieces.
For normal people, Bad Back is probably the result of a critical failure of a lifting check. It happens all the time, especially to people who don't follow proper form when lifting, even light things.
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Old 10-31-2017, 06:55 PM   #10
Flyndaran
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bad Back

Critical failure is FAR too common for it to do that though. Even a natural 18 is only 1 in 256. No one sans medical problems throws out their back every week or so like that.
I've only hurt my back once, and that was from reaching for a remote control normally. So obviously weird things happen, but they're well below Gurps resolution.
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