Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-08-2019, 06:55 AM   #1
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Sexual Abilities

So, sexual abilities are abilities that possess some variation of Accessibily, Only during sex, -25%, usually with Blood Agent, -40%, or Contact Agent, -30%, and commonly include Accessibility, Preferred gender or sex, -20%, Aura, +80%, and Melee, C, No parry, -35% (-30% with Aura). I am curious what sexual abilities you use in your campaigns. Is it something that you are willing to touch, or is it something that you avoid with a ten foot pole?
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 09:02 AM   #2
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

That seems an odd definition. I would define a sexual ability as one that enhanced a character's sexual performance in some way. And for that kind of abilities, "Only during sex" might not be an allowable modifier.

I don't have any objection to the type of abilities you describe, but I've never seen a player come up with them.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 09:40 AM   #3
Stormcrow
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

Based on the Blood Agent/Contact Agent requirement you list, I suppose you're talking about affecting your sexual partner with your abilities as opposed to performing magic powered by sex or enhancing your own sexual prowess.

I've never done anything like that in a game, but if I did I wouldn't use those modifiers you list. It really depends on exactly what kind of abilities you're talking about.

Let's suppose you have the power to mentally enslave anyone you have sex with. I would simply go with Mind Control (Accessibility: must be having sex with victim to activate, -30%) [35]. This brings with it the added complication of having to seduce your victim before you can enslave them, but this avoids having Accessibilities about preferred gender and so on. This complication is the player's problem to deal with, not the rules. The -30% is my guess based on other, example Accessibilities.
Stormcrow is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 10:03 AM   #4
naloth
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
And for that kind of abilities, "Only during sex" might not be an allowable modifier.
A variant of "not during emergencies", perhaps? One assumes you would not be trying to start that during combat. Hopefully it also has extra time built in. It shouldn't be the type of activity for 1 second rounds. (Immediate) Preparation Required is probably more reasonable than extra time...

Quote:
I don't have any objection to the type of abilities you describe, but I've never seen a player come up with them.
More or less, that's been my experience. Advantages have been used during (and disadvantages have led to), but with the minor exception of magic that was fueled by specific rituals, sex hasn't been required for using anything.
naloth is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 10:23 AM   #5
Otaku
 
Otaku's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

Another angle to consider is what constitutes "sex" and who is being affected. Whether going for comedy, horror or even just straight-up storytelling, you can change things dramatically based on this... and justify a larger or smaller "discount" for traits using it as a Limitation. Let's stick with Stormcrow's example. Someone could have Mind Control that only activates by engaging with coitus and automatically targets the other person involved in the act. Furthermore, the target must be a willing participant.

Or maybe it just requires achieving an orgasm and can target anyone who would normally be in range. Talk about a power suited to a creepy stalker... or perhaps a sleeping teenager. Keep... um... tweaking things and you can get quite a dark power, where someone does need to engage in sexual acts, and whomever else is involved is the automatic target, but no consent is needed. In which case, various methods of rape (whether through deceit or overpowering the victim) become an even greater violation.
__________________
My GURPS Fourth Edition library consists of Basic Set: Characters, Basic Set: Campaigns, Martial Arts, Powers, Powers: Enhanced Senses, Power-Ups 1: Imbuements, Power-Ups 2: Perks, Power-Ups 3: Talents, Power-Ups 4: Enhancements, Power-Ups 6: Quirks, Power-Ups 8: Limitations, Powers, Social Engineering, Supers, Template Toolkit 1: Characters, Template Toolkit 2: Races, one issue of Pyramid (3/83) a.k.a. Alternate GURPS IV, GURPS Classic Rogues, and GURPS Classic Warriors. Most of which was provided through the generosity of others. Thanks! :)
Otaku is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 10:37 AM   #6
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

The basic example that I take my idea from the Succubus (Horror, p. 66). The Succubus requires sexual intimacy to use her Leech ability (it is also a Contact Agent that takes extra time). Hypothetically though, you could use that criteria for ability that targets other characters. For example, you could have a cyclic Toxic attack that is faced through intimate contact (a superpowered STD).

An alternative would be a beneficial affliction granted through sexual activity. For example, you could have Affliction 1 (Accessibility, Consensual Sex, -30%; Advantage-Modular Ability (Cosmic Power; Physical or Mental, +100%) 1, +200%; Aura, +80%; Blood Agent, -40%; Cumulative, +400%; Exposure Time, 1 minute, -30%; Extended Duration, Permenant, Fades after a Moon, +150%; Melee, C, -30%; No Signature, +20%; Selective 'Area', +20%) [84]. The character gives their consensual sexual partners increasing mystical powers for every minute that they engage in consensual sexual activity.
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 10:48 AM   #7
jason taylor
 
jason taylor's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

Quote:
Originally Posted by Otaku View Post
Another angle to consider is what constitutes "sex" and who is being affected. Whether going for comedy, horror or even just straight-up storytelling, you can change things dramatically based on this... and justify a larger or smaller "discount" for traits using it as a Limitation. Let's stick with Stormcrow's example. Someone could have Mind Control that only activates by engaging with coitus and automatically targets the other person involved in the act. Furthermore, the target must be a willing participant.

Or maybe it just requires achieving an orgasm and can target anyone who would normally be in range. Talk about a power suited to a creepy stalker... or perhaps a sleeping teenager. Keep... um... tweaking things and you can get quite a dark power, where someone does need to engage in sexual acts, and whomever else is involved is the automatic target, but no consent is needed. In which case, various methods of rape (whether through deceit or overpowering the victim) become an even greater violation.
That might be a good villainous trait, perhaps in a crime and punishment based campaign. Another possibility is in a Femme Fatale. In fact the second is one of the few places where I can see it's relevance as an episode of the plot as opposed to the justification for the plot. That is a serial rapist villain is a pretty good target for a manhunt, and if he has a vampiric charm it might make him interesting, but he is not normally a direct threat to the PCs unless one is setting themselves up as bait.

Normal and more-or-less healthy sex might be harder to make relevant to a game. Luscious scenes in a book might be fun to read but are you really going to stop the game for the equiv of a ten page description? And how do you use the dice? And anyway you need a reason to do it that is more interesting then, "we kind of felt like it" if you wish to use it to move the plot along.
__________________
"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison
jason taylor is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 12:10 PM   #8
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

Quote:
Originally Posted by jason taylor View Post
Normal and more-or-less healthy sex might be harder to make relevant to a game. Luscious scenes in a book might be fun to read but are you really going to stop the game for the equiv of a ten page description? And how do you use the dice? And anyway you need a reason to do it that is more interesting then, "we kind of felt like it" if you wish to use it to move the plot along.
I have had a lot of campaigns with scenes of that sort. They play a variety of roles. They can be part of a "shore leave" session where the PCs are enjoying a bit of downtime between adventures, along with visiting bars or taverns, going shopping, or the like. They can be a "my day at work" scene, if the PC has the right occupation; in some cases they're comparable to the scenes at the start of Buffy episodes where Buffy is dusting a couple of routine vampires who are no real threat to her. They can be relationship-building. Or they can be plot drivers, when a PC gets involved with someone with baggage and gets in trouble by doing so.

As for how you use the dice, to start with, you can make a reaction roll to see if the person the PC approaches is interested; or an Influence roll to see if they can be persuaded (my usual practice is to allow any skill for the initial approach, but to require a Sex Appeal roll to get serious); or a search roll to locate someone who's interested. You can also roll against Erotic Art, or make a DX roll for basic sexual technique, to see if you're any good (or it might be a Per or Per-based roll to judge what pleases your partner). In one campaign I had a PC roll against HT, with successively increasing penalties, to see how many rounds he was good far—while the other players laughed and cheered him on, and made jokes about his having the Iron Head trait (which he actually did, but in a literal, combat-relevant sense, being a soccer hooligan).

All that isn't likely to take as long as running a serious fight, but it can be a source of entertainment.
__________________
Bill Stoddard

I don't think we're in Oz any more.
whswhs is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 12:28 PM   #9
Black Leviathan
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

Unless the given ability is massively unbalancing in the game like sexy time travel, I'd just give it a normal accessibility penalty or make it a perk ability. We have sex in our games but it's not very common and it's not an terribly difficult obstacle to overcome in most game worlds.

If you just start throwing coins at desperate people really any sexual door can be unlocked, and that reality is more uncomfortable to explore at your the table than any of the weird kinks gamers might want to throw dice at to shock their fellow gamers.
Black Leviathan is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-08-2019, 01:06 PM   #10
Gold & Appel Inc
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: One Mile Up
Default Re: Sexual Abilities

"Paging Bueno Excellente. Bueno Excellente, please answer the pink courtesy phone in the rear..."

Striker: Pi++ (Access: Pin or Consent -20%, Nuisance: -3: Reaction -15%, Takes Extra Time x1 -20%) [4].

Last edited by Gold & Appel Inc; 02-08-2019 at 01:27 PM.
Gold & Appel Inc is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
sexual intercourse, succubus

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 04:11 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.