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Old 11-23-2018, 04:10 AM   #1
Bicorn
 
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Default Critique please: some perks

I love perks - they're a cheap, easy way to add some extra flavour to a character. So here's some new miscellaneous perks I've come up with. Criticism, suggestions for improvement and pointing out design flaws are all welcome.


Dietary Supplement Physical, Exotic

You can get nutrition from something that's not proper food for others of your species; e.g. a human character with the ability to eat grass. You'll still suffer some kind of nutrition deficiency if you try to live on nothing but your supplement (unless you also have the Personal Diet perk), but it can make limited supplies last much longer.
Each supplement is a separate perk. This perk doesn't let you safely eat poisonous substances unless you also have Immunity to Poison, Immune to (poison) for the same substance, or several levels of Cast Iron Stomach.
At GM's discretion this perk may be available without the Exotic qualifier for supplements that are _almost_ food.


Dog's Guise Physical, Exotic
Prerequisite: canine form
This perk can only be taken by a wild canine (wolf, jackal etc.) or a character capable of transforming into one - a werewolf or other shapeshifter. You can subtly change your canine form to resemble a harmless-looking dog of indeterminate breed. You only have one dog shape, and may not mimic individual dogs. Change from wolf to dog or back takes a turn to complete, but if you're a shapeshifter you can change directly into dog form in the same time you'd change to a wild canine's form. The change is cosmetic and does not alter your abilities or size.
(adapted from a merit in Werewolf: the Apocalypse)


Dual Perk

When you take this perk choose two other perks; the perks must be related to each other somehow, both must have a limitation, and the limitations' values must total at least -80%. For example, you could take both with a -40% limitation or one with a -30% one and another with -50%. Both limitations must be worth at least -10%.
This perk has the same types (physical, mental, social, exotic, supernatural) as all of its component perks.


Facial Memory Mental

You have eidetic memory, but only for faces: you can recall what someone looks like with an unmodified IQ roll no matter how long ago or how briefly you met the person.


Fainting Trick Physical/Mental

You can pass out at will. You can't control how soon you'll wake up, though - use the normal rules for recovering from unconsciousness for that.


Gourmet's Nose Physical

You have Discriminatory Smell (p. B49) but only in regards to food and drink. (Living creatures, medicines, etc. don't count as food for this perk.)


Heave Ho! Physical

If you take a Ready or Aim maneuver before throwing something to wind up the throw, any range increase from using Extra Effort on the throw is doubled; if you use no Extra Effort, you get +10% range.


Lead Belly Physical

Against radiation suffered from consuming radioactive food or drink, you are considered to have PF 2 (or double your normal PF if you already have the Radiation Tolerance advantage). This perk has no effect on other radiation vectors (proximity, inhalation, etc.)
(adapted from Fallout)


Lick Wounds Physical

You can give +2 to rolls to resist bleeding and wound infection by licking a wound. This takes a minimum of one turn, up to 1d+1 turns for large wounds, and is not cumulative with bonuses from actual medical aid.


Memorized (body of work) Mental

You know a particular body of text by heart, and can quote it or recognize quotes from it with no roll needed. E.g. the Bible, the collected works of Shakespeare, etc.
The GM is the judge for how large the memorized corpus can be; a suggested rule of thumb is no more than your IQ*100,000 words. (The King James edition of the Bible is 773,693 words, and complete Shakespeare is 884,421 words.)


Memory Hole Mental

You can forget things on purpose; if desired, you can also remove the knowledge of having ever known the thing in the first place. Usually this requires no roll, but particularly stubborn memories (e.g. recollections of traumatic events) may require a Will roll.
After a thing has been forgotten it is usually gone for good, though if something strongly reminds you of it the GM may make an IQ roll for you; the memory returns only on a critical success.


Money Sense Mental

With a Per roll, you can tell whether someone you see has lots of money. Generally, this sense will trigger on anyone who has either higher than average Wealth, higher Wealth than _you_, or is carrying cash at least equal to setting-average starting wealth. With a success by 3+ you're able to tell whether they have cash on them right now or not, and to estimate their wealth level.
The GM may also let you detect other sources of wealth if they're big enough, e.g. to tell that an abandoned suitcase contains a lot of money. The money should be at least equal to average starting wealth to trigger the sense.


Mysterious Stranger Social

This is a variant Ally: a mysterious individual with abilities at a level comparable to your own sometimes shows up to lend you his aid, but only very briefly. In combat, he'll take a single shot at the enemy from cover with a genre-appropriate weapon of the GM's choice, then flee the scene; if you're dangling off a cliff he might toss you a rope and leave while you're hauling yourself up; if you're lost he may reveal himself in the distance long enough to point you towards the right way. Whether it is always the same individual or not is uncertain.
The Stranger's frequency of appearance is 9, but he only shows up when he's needed - e.g. when you're fighting a superior force, injured, or otherwise in trouble. Unlike a regular Ally his frequency of appearance is checked every time it might be appropriate for him to show up, not just once per adventure. (loosely based on the ability in Fallout)


Perfect Pitch Mental

You can always correctly identify the tone of a sound when you hear it. This doesn't give any direct bonuses to musical skills, but will make it easier to recognize a tune or play it back (if you have a suitable skill) after hearing it; it also makes it trivial to tell whether an instrument is correctly tuned. This perk fits well together with one or more levels of Musical Ability.


Perfect Teeth Physical

You never get cavities or dental calculus, and your tooth enamel regenerates faster than it wears down. Barring violent blows to the mouth or similar, you're guaranteed to have a full set of flawless teeth for your whole life.


Personal Diet Physical, Exotic

You can substitute a particular foodstuff for all other food - as long as you have your special food plus water (or just the personal food, if it is a liquid), you need no other sources of nutrients. The GM decides how much of the foodstuff is needed to equal one proper meal.
Each personal foodstuff is a separate perk. If you have multiple personal foods, you can subsist on any one of them or mix them freely. The foodstuff has to be something normally edible, unless you also take the Dietary Supplement perk.
At GM's decision, this perk may be available without the Exotic qualifier if the special foodstuff is one that contains a wide variety of nutrients (e.g. milk).


Phrenologist Mental

You can determine something about a person's character by examining the shape of their head. Each attempt takes 1d minutes. The GM secretly rolls Per or a suitable skill such as Physician or Physiology; -3 if you try to do this without touching the target. On a success the character's most signficant mental pecularity (GM's judgement; usually the highest-value mental disadvantage) is identified. Each repeated attempt after a success allows identifying the next most significant trait, but each new roll is at cumulative -1, and once a roll fails every subsequent one gives false or no information.


Psychedelic Visionary Mental, Supernatural

When you're hallucinating, reverse the usual IQ penalties into equivalent bonuses in regards to using supernatural abilities or mental advantages to gain information; e.g. ESP abilities, mind-reading, information spells, Oracle, or Intuition. You are still penalised normally for all other IQ-based activity, including normal Per rolls.


Redoubled (effort) Physical

Choose a specific type of Extra Effort when taking the perk; e.g. lifting, running, Mighty Blow, etc. You can pay two fatigue to get double normal benefit from the Extra Effort.


Rich Inner Life Mental

You are never bored and suffer no psychological harm from isolation or lack of social interaction.


Run Away! Physical

Whenever you are fleeing from a perceived, immediate threat you gain double normal benefit from using Extra Effort to enhance your movement with a minimum of +1 Move even if the roll fails. A fake threat works, as long as _you_ think it's real.


Schtick: No Fingerprints

You never leave readable fingerprints on things you touch, thus making it that much more difficult to track you. Note that if you actually have no fingerprints (rather than just knowing how to smear them on purpose) this can prevent you from obtaining an ID that requires a biometric identifier, unless you can get one with a different one (e.g. retina print).


Strenuous Exercise (type) Physical

Choose a particular form of Extra Effort when taking this perk. When you use that kind of Extra Effort, you may choose to spend hit points in place of fatigue points.
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Old 11-23-2018, 04:12 AM   #2
Bicorn
 
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

Hmm, the formatting ate the tabs between the perk names and their types.
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Old 11-23-2018, 06:11 AM   #3
Maz
 
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

These are all pretty good in my opnioin. Not too much but still add something new.


The only one I have a problem with is "Money Sense Mental". Thats just straight up Detect: Money. And should be priced like the full avantage it is.
It can be VERY effective to be able to tell if people carry a lot of money or not... let alone have the chance to know exactly how much.



Psychedelic Visionary Mental, Supernatural is a bit easy to abuse, so I might instead prefer it as a modifier to yourpower. But, then again, not really. I think its a very cool perk that can instantly add a lot of character to a PC or NPC.
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Old 11-23-2018, 06:59 AM   #4
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

I think you have Perk: Good at Thinking Up Perks.

I'm only going by a quick read, but for the most part, the suggestions seem to match fun ideas with appropriate effects for the cost.

And I second the opinion "I love perks". The Power-Ups: Perks book is really fun; like a book of poor man's superpowers.

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Rich Inner Life
Maybe this goes well with Quirk: Closed Valve? [semi-obscure (?) literary reference]
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Old 11-23-2018, 08:59 AM   #5
malloyd
 
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

[QUOTE=Bicorn;2223881]
Dietary Supplement Physical, Exotic
I think this is fine, but maybe a little over specific.
For example humans actually can eat grass, the reason it is mostly non-nutritious for them is the same reason leaves aren't - inability to break cellulose down into it's component sugars. Actually, I don't think any animals can, but some of them have symbiotic microorganisms that are able to. Anyway if you could then it's not just grass that becomes nutritious, you can now derive substantial calories from lettuce or other leaves, tree bark, natural fiber rope or cloth.... None of those are after all *toxic*, it's just eating them is pointless.

Dog's Guise Physical, Exotic
I go back and forth on whether or not this is a valid class of perks.
It's essentially an application of Disguise that automatically works. On the plus side since your basic appearance is pretty much free choice, one point seems ample. On the other hand, a single point to automatically succeed at one of the more common uses of Disguise - become unrecognizable to people specifically looking for you - feels cheap.

Dual Perk
No. When you are down it this sort of base point range, stuff simply is not balanced for enhancements or limitations, which is why they aren't allowed. You want two limited perks, they cost you 2 points no matter how limited they are. If you want this to fit several traits inside a perk limit, the right approach is to ignore the perk limit for one or both traits.

Facial Memory Mental
Sure

Fainting Trick Physical/Mental
I allow a more general Controllable Condition to afflict yourself with any particular involuntary reflex or Irritating Condition at will. Some of them are admittedly more useful than others - Controllable Blushing or Crying or Shivering or Sleepy seem a lot more useful than Controllable Unconsciousness or Agony, but if you want to be able to render yourself unconscious at will, sure, why not.

Gourmet's Nose Physical
I'd say no. This is probably the biggest slice of the utility of the advantage - finding food or detect poisons in it is most of what chemical senses are for - and it's a fairly expensive advantage to start with. Getting it down to a point implies this is a pretty huge limitation, and I don't think it is.

Heave Ho! Physical
Doubled Extra Effort makes me a little nervous, I'd worry about unexpected interactions with other Extra Effort rules. A flat +10%, including to any extensions from Extra Effort would be fine though.

Lead Belly Physical
Sure. Though honestly I think the radiation rules are one of those places GURPS has let realism go overboard - Hit Points and Fatigue are fine for everything from being crushed by rocks, to having your blood sucked out, to subtle chemical poisons, but radiation needs a separate system?

Lick Wounds Physical
Sure.

Memorized (body of work) Mental
I've allowed that forever, as Repertoire. The thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't allow you to *do* anything much with the memorized work - you still need some other skill - Performance, Public Speaking, Singing, Theology etc. - for most actual applications. The perk is in allowing you to skip rehearsal times or unfamiliarity penalties, it is *not* the ability to perform the work flawlessly.

Memory Hole Mental
I don't allow you any chance to recover the memory. And recommend you don't either unless you are going to allow some similar process for the erasure to fail when mind readers, torturers etc. try to pull it out from you.
Note that sufficiently major memory modifications may take skills or abilities with them at the GM's option - erase all your memories of your employment by a secret group and you forget their secrets too - if you had a Hidden Lore skill for them, it's gone.

Money Sense Mental
Absolutely not. Determining how much cash somebody is carrying is a really useful ability to your typical murder hobo adventurer I'd require a full on Detect advantage for. Possibly several different ones. Likewise for the other sources of wealth if they are big enough.
I'd probably be OK with the look at somebody and know their relative Wealth level bit though.

Mysterious Stranger Social
Not a perk. Working only when needed is not a limitation on anything, not even an Ally. This one, where you roll each time he could help and not once per session, is an actual *enhancement* - sure you failed the first roll but if a situation where he'd help comes up again, you get another attempt....

Perfect Pitch Mental
Sure. I also allow you to tell if two notes have the same pitch even if you aren't hearing them at the same time. And you can identify the note by name (or numerical frequency) if your culture has such a system of named notes.

Perfect Teeth Physical
Sure. I might toss in lost teeth regrow after a while - treating it as Regrowth (teeth only). Admittedly -95% is pushing for a limitation on the Minor Regrowth advantage, but then I tend to think Regrowth is vastly overpriced (considering Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones) usually makes it irrelevant for less) and this is a trait real animals often do have.

Personal Diet Physical, Exotic
Sure. Though I suspect for most cases it'd come up, I'd probably just call it Immunity to Deficiency Diseases - as long as you get enough calories, you're fine.

Phrenologist Mental
This isn't a perk. It's maybe a separate skill, or given how effective you've written it to be, a serious advantage (like Empathy, Aura Reading as an innate spell, or one of Kromm's Detect (traits) writeups) with a touch range and takes extra time limitation.
About the maximum I'd consider allowing is a perk to let you make a (maybe Per based) roll against a skill you already have to learn something a successful roll against the skill could already tell you. So take a few minutes to feel the bumps and make a PER based Psychology roll, and you can learn something you actually could find out with Psychology, but without needing to conduct an interview, administer an IQ or Personality test etc. If it wouldn't be apparent to a psych test, a perk isn't going to be enough to detect it either.

Psychedelic Visionary Mental, Supernatural
There are perks like this already (Drunken Fighting and Afflicted Casting for example), but I'm skeptical of them. They after all amount to a skill (or attribute) bonus with a limitation (must get intoxicated) which is essentially preparation required and temporary disadvantage (reduced attributes for everything else). Building it like that would usually be quite a few more points than a perk.

Redoubled (effort) Physical
Maybe OK, but again I worry about interactions with other modifications to the rules with "doubled" and would prefer a different phrasing.

Rich Inner Life Mental
Sure. Though given there are no game mechanical effects to boredom in the first place I've always wanted to find some sort of actual benefit to make immunity to it worth the point. Never managed to think of one I liked though.

Run Away! Physical
Same deal about doubling extra effort. Note that +1 Move (only when fleeing) all by itself is worth more than a point, so if you can ever gain more than that, I think it's pushing. On the other hand, successfully running away is something I like to encourage, so if somebody actually wanted this perk, proving it's a tactic they actually plan to consider, I might allow a much bigger bonus than I would if the limitation were anything other than "while running away".

Schtick: No Fingerprints
My rule for the game mechanical effect of this is it applies a -2 to Forensics rolls to link you to a location or crime.

Strenuous Exercise (type) Physical
Sure, I'd allow a perk to burn HP instead of Fatigue for pretty much anything you want it for, *provided* your character doesn't also have some sort of self healing that would be useful in combat time. The abuse to watch out for here is the character who can burn HP instead of fatigue, regenerates it all next turn, and does it again every action.
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Last edited by malloyd; 11-23-2018 at 09:08 AM.
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Old 11-23-2018, 12:16 PM   #6
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

Some of these already exist or very nearly so.

I believe the Perfect Pitch is in Enhanced Senses and maybe elsewhere.

The facial memory thing might be in Madness Dossier.

The Dog's Guise thing is Passing Appearance:Switchable. Technically 1.2 pts but perhaps Passing Appearnace was already being rounded up from a"fair" price of 0.8 pts.

The phrenology Perk can be interpreted as Extra Option:Phrenology actually works for you!. This of course assumes that it's pseudoscience for everyone else.
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Old 11-23-2018, 07:11 PM   #7
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maz View Post
These are all pretty good in my opnioin. Not too much but still add something new.


The only one I have a problem with is "Money Sense Mental". Thats just straight up Detect: Money. And should be priced like the full avantage it is.
It can be VERY effective to be able to tell if people carry a lot of money or not... let alone have the chance to know exactly how much.



Psychedelic Visionary Mental, Supernatural is a bit easy to abuse, so I might instead prefer it as a modifier to yourpower. But, then again, not really. I think its a very cool perk that can instantly add a lot of character to a PC or NPC.
The mental, supernatural etc. aren't meant to be part of the perks' names, they were supposed to be type tags like the symbols in the rulebook but the tabs I was using as separators didn't work right.
Anyway. I think you're right that Money Sense as written is basically Detect (large amounts of money). My intent with it was that the character can intuit mundane clues that someone is wealthy - noticing things like that their suit is an expensive brand, etc. How should it be rewritten to make that more explicit?
Psychedelic Visionary is made with the same principle as the Drunken Fighting perk. It's a bit abusible, but it does require some set-up to use effectively and has its downsides. Perhaps it should be restricted to only work with hallucinations caused by regular old hallucinogenic drugs, to prevent abusive combos.
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Old 11-23-2018, 07:12 PM   #8
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fred Brackin View Post
Some of these already exist or very nearly so.
Well yes, a lot of perks can be modeled with existing ones. Ignition is just Accessory:lighter, etc. I think it can still be useful to have them listed separately.
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Old 11-23-2018, 07:21 PM   #9
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Dietary Supplement
I think this is fine, but maybe a little over specific.
The grass was just an example, you're meant to choose what your supplement is.

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Dog's Guise
On the other hand, a single point to automatically succeed at one of the more common uses of Disguise - become unrecognizable to people specifically looking for you - feels cheap.
Hmm, that's a good point. Though it only works if they haven't seen the dog version of the character before.

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Gourmet's Nose
I'd say no. This is probably the biggest slice of the utility of the advantage - finding food or detect poisons in it is most of what chemical senses are for - and it's a fairly expensive advantage to start with.
My intent wasn't to let it work on poisons in the food, unless the poison is itself a foodstuff (e.g. bitter almond). Perhaps it should be stated explicitly.

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Heave Ho!
Doubled Extra Effort makes me a little nervous, I'd worry about unexpected interactions with other Extra Effort rules.
Also a good point.

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Phrenologist
This isn't a perk. It's maybe a separate skill, or given how effective you've written it to be, a serious advantage (like Empathy, Aura Reading as an innate spell, or one of Kromm's Detect (traits) writeups) with a touch range and takes extra time limitation.
My intent was for it to be basically just a party trick, so the effect probably should be nerfed somewhat.

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Redoubled (effort)
Maybe OK, but again I worry about interactions with other modifications to the rules with "doubled" and would prefer a different phrasing.
How about "+100% effect" instead? Then you don't get abusable multiplicative effects with other modifiers.

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Originally Posted by malloyd View Post
Strenuous Exercise (type)
Sure, I'd allow a perk to burn HP instead of Fatigue for pretty much anything you want it for, *provided* your character doesn't also have some sort of self healing that would be useful in combat time. The abuse to watch out for here is the character who can burn HP instead of fatigue, regenerates it all next turn, and does it again every action.
Again a good point.

Thanks for the extensive critique.
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Old 11-23-2018, 07:25 PM   #10
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Default Re: Critique please: some perks

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Maybe this goes well with Quirk: Closed Valve? [semi-obscure (?) literary reference]
Heh, indeed.
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