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 02-21-2018, 11:04 PM   #41
starslayer
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

Gotta say I don't agree with icelander on this one.

The disadvantage clearly states that the mechanical effect of failure on your xenophilia roll is that: you assume that the person/thing in question is interested in interacting with you socially.

That's the mechanical effect, end, nothing about ignoring eminent danger (only the APPEARANCE of danger).

So: BBEM pops out of the ground in front of the party and snarls lashing its claws about. Xenophile fails roll and assumes that the snarling and lashing of claws was some overture to be social with the xenophile- once the xenophile has concrete evidence that that snarling and lashing of claws was not in fact a 'hello' they can react 'normally'.

The BBEM does not get a surprise attack against the xenophile- but the xenophile is not going to 'shoot first'- after all its just saying hello.

If the xenophile encounters another BBEM very similar to the first one, they will not assume that the first one is an indication of the second one and if they fail their roll will assume it is trying to be social with them again.

Xenophillia becomes radically more dangerous when you have other disadvantages (lecherous, and gregarious being big stand outs) because that assumption that the xeno is trying to initiate social iteration will lead to triggering your other disadvantage (IE- the thing which man was not meant to know is growling at us; It's making a pass at me! Roll lecherousness or else 'accept' its seduction attempt)
starslayer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-21-2018, 11:54 PM   #42
Johnny1A.2
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
"99% and all stories told" is more a sign of extreme bigotry of the character and society rather than a lack of disadvantage.
No, it can be that, or it could be that Group A is trouble, and all the accounts are just telling the truth. Either way, if that's the background and experience of the PCs, that's the way they should be expected to think, in general.

For ex, in wartime, the enemy is Group A. No matter how nice they are in an absolute sense, interactions with them are likely to go badly if you're not in a position of strength.

It may well be fair to say that 'people are people', but that breaks down rapidly in a situation with multiple, significantly different intelligent species or creatures. All of a sudden some people are consistently very different from other people, not out of misperception or lack of knowledge, but simply because that is reality. There's no guarantee that such multi-sapients will be compatible with each other.

For a race of sapient rabbits, a race of sapient wolves or foxes is probably Group A (and the predator/prey relationship would not be a bad metaphor for the demon/mortal relationship). Or the vampire/mortal relationship. Predator and prey are, strictly speaking, natural enemies.
__________________
HMS Overflow-For conversations off topic here.

Last edited by Johnny1A.2; 02-21-2018 at 11:58 PM.
Johnny1A.2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2018, 09:01 AM   #43
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

Quote:
Originally Posted by starslayer View Post
Gotta say I don't agree with icelander on this one.

Xenophillia becomes radically more dangerous when you have other disadvantages (lecherous, and gregarious being big stand outs) because that assumption that the xeno is trying to initiate social iteration will lead to triggering your other disadvantage (IE- the thing which man was not meant to know is growling at us; It's making a pass at me! Roll lecherousness or else 'accept' its seduction attempt)
Lecherousness only applies if the character sees the entity as sexually attractive (correct gender with the Attractive or better appearance) and only applies to the character making a pass towards an attractive entity (there is nothing in the Lecherousness disadvantage that obligates the character to accept a pass from another entity). I would suggest modifying the effective appearance of an alien or exotic by +1 per level of Xenophilia. If the tentacle creature is Horrific (-6 Reaction penalty), then a character with Xenophilia (6) will consider it Ugly (-2 Reaction penalty) and will not make a pass at the tentacle entity unless they are really hard up (maybe if they have not have sex in a month). In addition, the tentacle entity would have to appear to be the correct gender for the character or else the character will not see them as sexually attractive.

The real problem for a character with Xenophilia is when the alien or exotic is already possesses an Average or greater appearance. If the tentacle creature possesses an Average appearance (let us say that they had a humanoid body of the correct gender laying within a nest of tentacles), then a character with Xenophile (6) would react as if the tentacle creature had a +4 Appearance (effectively Very Beautiful or Very Handsome). The character with Xenophilia (6) would almost certainly automatically fail their control roll for Lecherousness and would make a pass at the tentacle monster.
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2018, 09:05 AM   #44
Icelander
 
Icelander's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
(there is nothing in the Lecherousness disadvantage that obligates the character to accept a pass from another entity).
Have you never heard of the concept of modifying Influence rolls against characters due to their Disadvantages?

It's in Mysteries and Social Engineering.

Both for Lecherousness and Xenophilia, you appear to be interpreting the Disadvantages way too narrowly and not considering how they might make the character more prone to being manipulated by other characters who fall under the heading of the Disadvantage and the character therefore 'finds fascinating' / 'is attracted to' as appropriate.
__________________
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Icelander is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2018, 09:14 AM   #45
AlexanderHowl
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

I am just going by the rules in Characters . The rules in Mysteries and Social Engineering are going to be optional for most games, and that is only if the GM bothered to buy the book, so referring to them as if they are RAW rather than optional rules hardly makes any sense. Honestly, the majority of people are probably not going to have any GURPS book that they cannot find in their local gaming store, so they are going to just have the hardbacks (and the box sets like DF).
AlexanderHowl is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-22-2018, 09:23 AM   #46
Icelander
 
Icelander's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Re: How much does Xenophilia overrides self-preservation instincts?

Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
I am just going by the rules in Characters . The rules in Mysteries and Social Engineering are going to be optional for most games, and that is only if the GM bothered to buy the book, so referring to them as if they are RAW rather than optional rules hardly makes any sense. Honestly, the majority of people are probably not going to have any GURPS book that they cannot find in their local gaming store, so they are going to just have the hardbacks (and the box sets like DF).
All GURPS rules are optional. And all Disadvantages are to be interpreted by the GM in a way that makes sense, not by the player in a way that nothing that is not explicitly written down will ever hinder his character. GURPS is a Rule 0 game.

The rules in Mysteries and Social Engineering are always on topic if a GM asks how to run a certain scenario in GURPS, because they are GURPS rules. Even a GM who doesn't own or use the books can easily be inspired by an approach they took to social interactions and use those rules at his table, in lieu of making up his own modifiers for the situation.*

*Which, by the way, is equally RAW. Any roll can take a Task Difficulty Modifier and both Self-Control Rolls and Influence rolls routinely carry GM-assessed modifiers.
__________________
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!
Icelander is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

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 05:39 PM.


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