09-03-2020, 03:26 PM | #1 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
Xenophilia [-10*] is a mundane mental disadvantage with a self-control roll. You have a strong interest in, and affection for, strange and alien people. In a mundane campaign, you’ll try to socialise with foreign soldiers, or learn about excluded groups in society. In a campaign with exotic species, be it fantasy or SF, you’ll be trying to make friends with them as your comrades run, or prepare weapons. This disadvantage appeared during the 3e period, but I’m not sure just where, and was revised for 4e.
This disadvantage goes well with Curious. It does not exempt you from Fright Checks caused by alien creatures, but you do get bonuses to them, which are larger for harder self-control rolls. Distinguishing between “people who might be friendly” and “monsters that just want to eat you” is your problem, which is why this is worth [-10*]; a self-control roll of 6-, worth [-20], will probably get you killed in the long run. Xenophilia is fairly rare on published character templates, mostly appearing on social types in settings where weird creatures can be expected. There’s a quirk-level version, Broad-Minded, which has two separate versions: the Power-Ups 6 effects considerably exceed those of the Basic Set. This disadvantage can be quite significant in Fantasy: Portal Realms, Lands Out of Time and Mars Attacks. Space uses Xenophilia in the alien species personality design system, and points out that in multi-species societies, the disadvantage only applies to outsiders. Don’t take Xenophilia in a Zombies campaign, if you want to stay human . . . The only use I recall making of this disadvantage, as player or GM, was an NPC who was intended to shake a PC out of his comfortable misery and combined it with Overconfidence and Lecherousness. She ended up becoming an associate of the Cabal, which was more interesting than her previous life and not terribly dangerous. Has Xenophilia entertained in your games?
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09-03-2020, 03:43 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2018
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
Seems like the value of wanting to socialize with likely-hostile creatures would be even larger if we subtracted the build-in "Fearlessness (Non-Humans)" from this meta-trait.
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09-03-2020, 03:55 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
I take it on probably a fourth to a third of all characters and I think I've not taken Broad-Minded (the quirk version) twice ever. Two players do similarly. It's just a fun disadvantage to have. And it goes great with the various Empathies.
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09-03-2020, 05:12 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Hmm, looks like Earth, circa CE 2020+
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
One of my current PCs has both Xenophilia and Curious. Most of the time, I don't roll on them, I just do it.
But she was fortunate that she didn't become the victim of an "interesting" demonic flying monkey. And looking through the property of someone who had just died, she got hold of a wax-sealed letter to a prince. (This is in a TL4 game played last month.) In regard to making a roll on Curious, I asked the GM, "Does Mini get a plus because she could be executed if she breaks the seal?" Fortunately, another PC thought of trying to look through the envelop using sunlight, so she didn't have to make a potential death roll. As for Broad-Minded, many of my PCs have that.
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09-03-2020, 05:28 PM | #5 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
I've had trouble making Xenophilia a disadvantage in my games. In a number of cases, I've just banned it. Sometimes using words like "Xenophilic behavior is considered normal, in-genre, and not a disadvantage in this campaign"
Of course, that was lost in dreams, which is about learning new magic and technology and making friends with weird people.
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09-03-2020, 05:59 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Dreamland
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
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Then again, maybe in a campaign where becoming friends with weird and bizarre things Xenophilia would be a step further, whatever that means. |
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09-03-2020, 07:32 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
Combat Reflexes [15] and Xenophilia (6-) [-20] is actually a good combination, as the character gets a +6 to Fright Checks (combine it with Will 20, and the character is capable of dealing with entities with Terror 13). Strangely enough, Cosmic on Terror does not technically impact the bonus from Xenophilia, so it actually offers more protection from Cosmic entities than any advantage.
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09-03-2020, 08:08 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Mar 2016
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
To me, this basically seems like a large Delusion (along the lines of "Dangerous foreigners and monsters are actually friendly") with a self-control number, combined with a limited version of Fearlessness. Does that seem like a fair description?
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09-03-2020, 08:40 PM | #9 | ||
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
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Quote:
My players take it a fair amount too. We had an awesome bard in our first DFRPG campaign who was always trying to strike up a song with every weird slime monster that we met. |
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09-03-2020, 10:17 PM | #10 | |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Xenophilia
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I'm also curious if it is intended as a "good" Disadvantage. It strikes me as a "neutral" trait unless taken in combination with the correct other traits. After all, not everyone treats people all that well. Imagine some being that thinks it is "God", or something resembling the idea. It might be favorably disposed towards "interesting" beings (even humans) if they were exotic/mysterious/strange enough to qualify as Xenophilia targets, but would still consider them lesser beings (as with the rest of humanity).
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