Weirdness Magnet in Transhuman Space

[combatmedic]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

It's not about realism or the opposite. No, I don't believe that Luck or Serendipity or Weirdness Magnet exist as actual features of human beings in the real world. (Appearances are deceptive, and frequently result from statistical flukes.) However, people in the real world aren't characters in a game or story. They aren't part of a plot. Characters in a story can have those features without being "supernatural" in the story-world, because that's how those characters interact with the plot of the story.

If someone wants to run a hardcore "simulationist" game, a more or less rigorous simulation of reality-as-we-know-it, then those sorts of character features should be banned from the game, with extreme prejudice. If they want to run a more or less "narrativist" game, though - a game whose objective is to construct a narrative as it is played - then those features can be valid and useful. Neither approach is right or wrong; it's all personal taste. But a Transhuman Space game can be hard SF, with no supernatural elements, and still be narrativistic; it can aim to construct a hard SF story.

A Transhuman Space character with Weirdness Magnet is a story-character whose plot function is (partly) to have a whole load of weird stuff happen to him, her, or it, within that game world.

That hardcore simulation would be reality as Phil Masters knows it, of course. ;)
Other people may have a different view of how the real world works and what is realistic.

That said, I think you make an important distinction between metagame and in-game elements, Phil.

[ClayDowling]

Heck, I had one whole campaign with an unbelievably high rate of critical failures. One of the more fun fantasy campaigns I've ever been in (and one of the few I've run). I rewarded the players for critical failures, and always described the outcomes in as outlandish a manner as possible. The characters never accomplished their mission, but it was hilarious. At one point, while trying to rescue a damsel is distress (who was played by a ringer I brought in for the game), the damsel gave up on the PCs, declared it the worst rescue ever, and promptly rescued herself with an improbable series of successes, including a critical at the right moment that left her kidnapper cold on the ground.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

A pattern of events need not be supernatural to still exist. Among humans it is common to assign causation to verifiable patterns of events, even if there is no common cause. Thus, we have things like a series of statistically unlikely outcomes described as a lucky streak. One need not believe in luck as a supernatural entity to accept that unlikely events do actually occur, and even cluster around individuals or places.

Agreed! Especially since Weirdness Magnet is a Social Disadvantage!! People only need to perceive the PC as a source of disruptive weirdness. Such perceptions need be in no way fair or justified.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Agreed! Especially since Weirdness Magnet is a Social Disadvantage!! People only need to perceive the PC as a source of disruptive weirdness. Such perceptions need be in no way fair or justified.

If it's not justified, it's just a negative Reputation. A Weirdness Magnet is an epicentre of weirdness in game terms.