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Old 01-08-2020, 07:58 AM   #1
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Alternatives to Lecherousness

So we have been talking about how the wording of Lecherousness leans towards one particularly gross approach and other disadvantages can be better for representing some famous oversexed characters. Someone with the Basic Set's Lecherousness keeps making passes on a significant fraction of the people he or she meets, and continues even if rejected ("If someone turns you down very firmly (e.g., a black eye, or an arrest for sexual harassment) the GM may give you a bonus to future self-control rolls regarding that individual . . ."). Does the following trait sound like it fits SJG's house style and avoids the issues with the wording of Lecherousness?

Compulsive Seduction [-10*]
Quote:
You are always looking for new lovers. When someone strikes your fancy, you set out to make your interest known, using all the skills and wiles at your disposal. Depending on the situation, this might be a blunt invitation or a delicate campaign of seduction, but you escalate your advances until you get what you want or are firmly and unambiguously rejected. If they refuse, you move on; if they accept, after days to months a period proportionate to the initial courtship your eyes will start to wander again. If you have not met anyone appealing for some time you may widen your standards of attractiveness! You are not normally deterred by possible consequences, except when your advances on one person could hurt your chances with another, and often pursue people with possessive families or partners or who could help or harm your current adventure. Make a self-control roll, at -5 if the object of your affections is Handsome/Beautiful and -10 for Very Handsome/Beautiful, to avoid pursuing a specific appealing person.
This is aimed at characters like Harry P. Flashman who don't obsessively harass the wait staff at their favourite restaurant but do keep making advances at people who pass through their lives.

Compulsive Sexual Activity [-5 or -10 points*] Pyramid #3-06 p. 6 represents people like Bruno's friend who constantly seek sex but not necessarily new partners.

Odious Personal Habit (Groping or Catcalling) If you can't go through a public space without putting your hands on someone but can resist specific people with power to hurt you (eg. a police officer or your boss), that is typically a split reaction penalty eg. -3 vs. the gender you are interested in, -1 to all other people for a base [-10 points]
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Last edited by Polydamas; 01-19-2023 at 03:55 PM.
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Old 01-08-2020, 08:24 AM   #2
Stormcrow
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

I haven't read the other conversation. I think Lecherousness touches on some behavior that has only become really reprehensible in the last decade or so, after the advantage was written. It won't agree with current thinking.

When I think of Lecherousness, I think of a character like Julian Bashir in the first couple of seasons of Deep Space Nine. He hit on every attractive woman he saw, and continued to do so even after being rejected. His behavior wasn't truly awful, just unwanted, even though nowadays it would definitely qualify as sexual harassment. We most often see him making passes at Dax, so he doesn't avoid hitting on women he sees constantly. He does harass the Dabo girls at Quark's, but that's what they were hired for, so they let him do it.

Lecherousness also doesn't specify what you have to do with your conquest if you succeed. The disadvantage is just "an unusually strong desire for romance." That could mean you just really, really like taking people out to dinner and getting all goo-goo-eyed, but you never go any farther. That part is up to the tastes of the lecher and the date.

Part of repeat offenses is also the self-control number: if your number is 15 and you've been strongly rejected (the GM gives you a bonus to resist), you'll probably never try to hit on that person again, just by the numbers. But a self-control roll is only used when you need to resist your normal tendency; even with a high self-control roll you will still voluntarily act with Lecherousness a lot (and the GM should decline to give you your usual role-playing character-point bonus if you don't). You'll always roll to resist the ones whom you know you shouldn't try for.
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Old 01-08-2020, 03:50 PM   #3
Ulzgoroth
 
Join Date: Jul 2008
Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

The "days to months" suggests that a successful seduction leads to a vague potentially substantial downtime in which the Disadvantage is effectively passive. Unsure if that's intended...
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Old 01-08-2020, 07:15 PM   #4
Phoenix_Dragon
 
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Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

Looks good to me. Compulsive Sexual Activity at -5* points is one that I've already adopted (I forget which GURPS book has something like that). And Compulsive Seduction at -10* looks like an appropriately limited Lecherousness.
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Old 01-08-2020, 07:41 PM   #5
awesomenessofme1
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

One thing that confuses me a bit is that Compulsive Sexual Activity is worth more in a puritanical setting, but not regular Lecherousness. Is this just because Lecherousness is a strong enough disadvantage that the setting doesn't make much difference?
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Old 01-08-2020, 07:45 PM   #6
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
The "days to months" suggests that a successful seduction leads to a vague potentially substantial downtime in which the Disadvantage is effectively passive. Unsure if that's intended...
If they don't immediately rebound to a new target I think they ought to suffer depression or something.
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Old 01-08-2020, 08:43 PM   #7
TGLS
 
Join Date: Jan 2014
Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

Quote:
Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1 View Post
One thing that confuses me a bit is that Compulsive Sexual Activity is worth more in a puritanical setting, but not regular Lecherousness. Is this just because Lecherousness is a strong enough disadvantage that the setting doesn't make much difference?
Obviously in a puritanical setting you're modulating your approach to fit the society. Or you aren't and you bought an OPH.
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Old 01-09-2020, 03:07 AM   #8
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
The "days to months" suggests that a successful seduction leads to a vague potentially substantial downtime in which the Disadvantage is effectively passive. Unsure if that's intended...
I think its fair to give the character a brief time with their new conquest before they have to start looking elsewhere. Could I improve the wording to make it clearer that the time delay is proportionate to the difficulty of the conquest? So at a frat party they might get slapped after being found in the bathroom with someone else by their first friend of the night, while after a year-long campaign to make a married person run away from their spouse, they can get through the getaway and the weeks in the hotel without propositioning the staff.

Someone with RAW Lecherousness can't control themself that way, as long as they keep meeting people of a sex they are attracted to they keep hitting on them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormcrow View Post
When I think of Lecherousness, I think of a character like Julian Bashir in the first couple of seasons of Deep Space Nine. He hit on every attractive woman he saw, and continued to do so even after being rejected. His behavior wasn't truly awful, just unwanted, even though nowadays it would definitely qualify as sexual harassment. We most often see him making passes at Dax, so he doesn't avoid hitting on women he sees constantly. He does harass the Dabo girls at Quark's, but that's what they were hired for, so they let him do it.
Thank you for the fictional example! Similarly, I don't think Asimov wanted to go to bed with every woman whose bum he pinched (although whenever he was in public he propositioned a lot of ladies: I would like to read Janet Asimov's essay to see whether the problem with admitting he had AIDS was stigma in general or the fact that he had a reputation for promiscuity in particular).

But some people seem to be giving their characters a 15-point disadvantage, not because it fits their vision for their character, but because its the only "oversexed" disadvantage they know. In that thread, I see a lot of people saying "well, what the disadvantage says is too severe, so we don't enforce it" but a 15-point disadvantage should be severe and the wording fits one real and fictional pattern of behaviour.

I think that the better solution is to help them find the right quirk, 5-point, or 10-point disadvantage for their character.
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Old 01-09-2020, 03:18 AM   #9
Sunrunners_Fire
 
Join Date: Mar 2010
Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

Quote:
Originally Posted by Polydamas View Post
I think that the better solution is to help them find the right quirk, 5-point, or 10-point disadvantage for their character.
I'd suggest using Odious Personal Habit.
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Old 01-09-2020, 03:18 AM   #10
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Re: Alternatives to Lecherousness

Would an Odious Personal Habit (-3 to the gender you are interested in, -1 to others) [-10] be suitable for people who aggressively catcall, pinch, or grope? That is another major real and fictional archetype.

OPH is not suitable for any of the three archetypes above: like Brett said, a very common consequence of Lecherousness or Compulsive Seduction is that you will be assaulted by someone who believes that their wife/child/beloved reacted too well to you.
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