09-30-2014, 07:41 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
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...That's a curious side effect of the missing +2 appearance level. Since Classic Features boosts you by one step in appearance, the step from Attractive is larger than others. (As, technically, is the step from Hideous, though that seems unlikely to come up.)
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10-01-2014, 01:45 AM | #22 |
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
Transcendence: Classic features could be of a specific deity.
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10-01-2014, 01:47 AM | #23 | |||
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
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10-01-2014, 02:53 AM | #24 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
The thing is that the Classic Features mechanic doesn't mean anything if your appearance can't be improved by a step, and there's no step above Transcendent.
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10-01-2014, 06:18 AM | #25 | |||
Join Date: Sep 2014
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
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From my personal experience (both my own and what I can perceive from people around me), when it comes to people of the opposite sex, you can tell plain/slightly above plain/cute (pretty, etc.) from each other instinctively. And that WILL affect you slightly - for example, that nice looking attendant in the shop at the mall makes you slightly more propense to buy, or you react well when a nice looking professor comes into your uni classroom. Anything beyond that level of beauty is not only "wasted" but, more often than not, more prejudicial than beneficial (again, IMHO). Be it because of your low self esteem, because of jealousy/envy, because you feel threatened, or just generally because that person reminds you how not stunning you look - for a whole lot of people, being around very good loking people of the same sex is more disconcerting than anything else, at least initially. When it comes to the opposite sex, though, things scale up much much faster. OK, plain is plain, kind'a cute is kind'a cute... but after that, there's no room for compromise or middle ground! Very good loking people will draw your attention whether you want it or not, and you will most probably feel inclined to be nice to them - much nicer you would be with less good-looking people in the same circumstances. Take the really cute girl/boy asking for directions on the street / sitting next to you in your classroom / asking you to fill a really long, boring survey (Sad, but true). Therefore the vertiginous increase in reaction bonus for people of the sex you're attracted to. I stressed heterosexual because I do think gay people have one or more "complicators" going own, namely the fact that the same good-looks on people you are attracted to may cause you yourlsef to feel uncomfortable with your own looks - because, after all, they are the same sex as you! An out of shape male who looks at a "ripped" man will feel both attracted and a bit ashamed that he isn't ripped himself (BTW if it's not clear by now, I am gay =p). I know this may happen with heterosexual people too ("she's WAY out of my league!"), but I think it is far less common than in the gay community. Quote:
All in all, hetero/gay issues put aside, my main point was: I think the way the rules where stabilished is very realistic. Quote:
But I have a SERIOUS issue with Androgynous. I think this modifier is HIGHLY unrealistic, and built up solely for the sake of "rule completion". Being able to use your good-looks to be attractive to both sexes involves A LOT of skill and not only "raw potential". In fact, I know of very very feel examples of this in reality (Courntney Act being definately one of them =D). And before you come to me saying that it's not about being a drag, I just find VERY HARD to believe you can be very impressed by a man (if you're a male heterosexual) who looks kind'a girly - even if it's very pretty girly. At least in our western culture - I've lived in Japan for two years, and I can say that different cultures do have (very) different approaches to androngynous looks. And since I meantioned different cultures, let me tell you that you don't need different races to have problems with different aesthetic values. Being a (plain looking) Brazilian who lived in Japan and who have visited Argentina on many occasions, I can tell. Brazilians are obsessed with straight teeth and big curves; lots of girls who are considered stunningly pretty in Japan are deemed ugly in Brazil because of their teeth or because they don't have enough bust/hips, and even some "American beauties" are commonly thought as very plain in Brazil. On the other hand, many Japanese people living in Brazil find women who are considered irresistable by natives as fat and unnatractive. I myself rarely draw attention at all in Brazil, but whenever I go to Argentina, some sort of mojo comes over me and I'm leered at and chatted to in bars and clubs far more often than I'm used to. And all that in a supposedly "globalized world"!!! Imagine what it would be like in a time with no TV, no magazines, no Internet telling you what is pretty and what isn't! When we get to different races, things get blown completely away in my opinion. Unless for supernatural/mystic reasons, elfs should be only be considered beautiful to cultures that learned to appreciate that. I'm not even saying "human-like races": I really mean culture! Imagine a stereotypical Viking-like culture, where men like their women "butch" - I bet elves are not that popular there! This is why I think Appearance levels should ALWAYS be bought with the Accessibility modifier for settings where many cultures/races are involved. There's little benefit in being an amazing looking human in a world dominated by orcs! In a final remark, still talking about cultures, I think different settings might also cause different types of reactions when very good-looking people are involved. In some cultures, being awkward and acting dumb seems very common, while in others, good-looking people seem to draw attention more of a negative kind - crude lines, leering, etc. In some countries, you will most likely get promoted easily , in others, probabilities are you will be harrassed into undesireable intimacy with some superior. I don't know how I would flesh that out in terms of points/costs, but assuming people will just react plain "nice" towards you because you're pretty seems very, very naive to me. I think this my token of contribution, sorry for my bad English and for all the gayness ^^ Last edited by fmultimedia; 10-01-2014 at 06:30 AM. |
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10-01-2014, 11:26 AM | #26 | |||
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
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For smaller groups of people, I suppose you could take Classic Looks: Epitome of Brazillian Beauty. It's a weird wording, but I suppose it's reasonably fair in a campaign where Brazillieros constitute only a small faction of encountered sapients. (The Perk, that is.) Actually, the thing about mixing the higher modifier for appearance and a some sort of nervousness factor for jealousy/self-esteem issues is an interesting addition. I'm not sure how it is to be handled. Normally, in settings where it isn't a Social Stigma, I treat gayness as a Feature, and bisexuality as a Quirk or two (one for being affected by Sex Appeal of both sexes, another if the character takes the higher Appearance modifier of both sexes). Hmm. Maybe characters for whom the second effect is true deserve more than a single point for it, not sure. |
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10-01-2014, 11:53 AM | #27 | ||
Join Date: Sep 2014
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
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Finally, there's the thing of the effects of being good-looking: in our recent history of slavery, there are plenty of (sad) examples of how being a good-looking black woman probably got you in more trouble than if you were "plain". I point out that that's not exactly the same as Social Stigma - being a black woman during slavery might be, but there probably isn't a Stigma for something like "hot slave"... How would you handle that? |
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10-01-2014, 12:31 PM | #28 | ||
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
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10-01-2014, 01:34 PM | #29 | |
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: South Dakota, USA
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
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The "sexual attraction" bonus should be on the beholder, not the person. It is just too mutable and subjective, at least if we are painting with the broad strokes of the actual Appearance rules. Androgynous is a bit misleading because it just means having better features in the huge area of overlap between men and women.
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10-01-2014, 03:13 PM | #30 | |||
Join Date: Sep 2014
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Re: [Basic] Advantage Of the Week: Appearance Levels
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And of course, anything that goes in levels is an abstraction of reality - Attributes, Skills, etc. But that's what the game is based on, right. EDIT: forgot to remark: I think the power of dressing up well and making-up is totally underrated in GURPS actually. I go to a shopping mall frequented by the high society, and suddenly all men are at least very attractive, loads of them being very, very attractive. I take the bus every day, and the percentage is so, but so much lower. I am not a "money bitch", just a regular (gay) guy who understood the power of a nice haircut, a shirt that fits well and the power of good quality, trendy clothes. Women have make-up on top of that... I seriously think that you could reach Very Attractive if you're not Ugly, through sheer strength of well spent money and time. At least in nowadays society. Last edited by fmultimedia; 10-01-2014 at 03:42 PM. |
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