Odious Personal Habits

[thulben]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Ah yes, the old "what the mainstream calls atrocity many others call a fetish." Or circus act.

I'm not saying piercing/scarification. I'm saying "hey you... wanna watch me jam a needle into my arm/slice into it with a knife?" There's a difference between knowing something happened in the past and being made to bear witness to it in the present.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by MetaRob

Any are welcome; I'm especially interested in the -15-point habits. Thanks in advance for the ideas :)

Remember that -15 point OPHs are *very* bad - equivalent problems include you are an actual monster (Social Stigma Monster) or animal (Bestial), a dangerous lunatic who attacks purple things on sight (Severe Delusion), a serial torturer (Sadism) or rapist (Uncontrollable Appetite Sex).... This isn't something that's just irritating or disgusting, it's something most people think you should be locked up for, if not just shot on sight. You can (and almost always should) claim extra points for Enemy (law enforcement) for that, but that's the scale you are looking for.

[thulben]

Originally Posted by NobodyPro

Wouldn't that be Bad Smell?

Yes! OPH is something you do, not something you are.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by thulben

I'm not saying piercing/scarification. I'm saying "hey you... wanna watch me jam a needle into my arm/slice into it with a knife?" There's a difference between knowing something happened in the past and being made to bear witness to it in the present.

Circus act. For fun, I used to use a needle and thread to stitch my finger tips together and pull them tight. I barely broke the skin, but it seemed to disturb people.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by thulben

Yes! OPH is something you do, not something you are.

Most people will at least unconsciously judge someone emitting rotten fish odors even they believe it to be genetic. "Why don't you just shower more often then?"

[Not]

My reading of GURPS has it more concerned with effects than causes. And the effect is the reaction modifier.

[Bruno]

No concept of personal space.

Inappropriate social touching (touching too much, OR not touching when expected to).

Eating food with your left hand.

Persistently using a disrespectful or incorrect mode of address. This can range from annoying and unprofessional, in a relatively relaxed country like America to really obnoxious in a language like Japanese. The Quakers were notorious for this - their persistent use of "thee" (the original second person singular) was too intimate for strangers.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by simply Nathan

Cannibalism/anthropophagany or equivalent willing consumption of known sapients is one example, and used on several templates.

Public nudity.

Open homosexuality in some cultures, even when it's not something illegal warranting Social Stigma/Secret.

As if the two previous ones aren't also culture-dependent.

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

Extreme arrogance, to the point of calling your friends your "followers", putting them down at every occasion, perpetually reminding your gaming buddies you are "the best witch on the [MMO] server", and the best at everything (especially if you're not, it's annoying enough if you can put your money where your mouth is), and generalized delusions of grandeur...

Yes, this is based on someone I knew, and believe me I wanted to punch him in the face several times, but he took me in his group when I was lonely and vulnerable, so I had to bear with him.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by NobodyPro

Wouldn't that be Bad Smell?

Yes, it would. I think two key elements of OPH is that it's frequent behaviour so that other people observe you doing it and react negatively based on what they observe (if they've just heard that you do it, then it's Reputation), and also that if you're subject to sufficiently strong mind control or your mind is completely taken over then the OPH would no longer apply (unless the controller wants to maintain an impression that nothing has changed, by trying as best he can to copy the odious habit).

A better example of an OPH would be if the character very frequently rubs himself all over with rotten meat or rotten vegetable matter, or feces; obviously combined with "doesn't bathe as often as he ought to".