Maximum Realistic Reaction Bonus

[tbone]

There was recently a related thread: How to deal with an extreme reaction mod (if you consider that a problem) not by restricting the mod itself, but by tweaking the Reaction Table to make an extreme reaction harder to achieve.

It may or may not do what you're looking for, but I for one like the idea: your character could keep her +16 mod, without necessarily inspiring worshipful awe in everyone around her. (Although no matter how you tweak reaction results, I'd expect that +16 would – and should – still generate a fair amount of fervor. : )

If interested: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=149821

[dcarson]

You shouldn't turn an Advantage into a Disadvantage because you didn't realize how powerful it was. If it is really causing problems talk to the player about how you both can change it to not be a problem while keeping the flavor.

Even large reaction bonuses shouldn't affect some things or only change how bad they are. Say they are going through Customs. The Customs agent will not search their luggage because they are suspicious because of the positive reaction. They will search if they search every N or if some random search this person method comes up. If they find undeclared jewelry they'll let you amend the form since you must have made a mistake, had a moment of weakness and no sense causing a nice person like you trouble. If they find C4 or drugs the reaction bonus will just make them sad that you went wrong and arrest you. Claiming that your companion put them in your luggage, coerced you into carrying them or such will have a good chance of working. Good for you, bad for another PC or Ally.

[munin]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I'm strongly opposed to such an approach to a fairly-bought Advantage. …

Except in this case, one of the advantages explicitly says it comes with "nuisances" like slave traders which will "become a problem for you" (p. B21). They might not seek you out regularly like an Enemy would, but if you encounter them, they're more of a problem than they would be for others.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Kabufu

I agree completely, that is a terrible and belligerent way to run a game.

However, I do feel that elements of what I said earlier can be used if the combination of advantages gets out of hand or starts breaking game so badly the other players are getting upstaged.

It's still a terrible way to handle it.

What you should do if a combination of traits gets out of hand and starts breaking the game is tell the player the combination is out of hand and breaking the game, and we need to talk about editing your character sheet and/or house rules. That is you address the issue *out of character*, not in the context of the game world.

Trying to fix what are essentially out of game problems in the game world by GM fiat rarely works. Talk with the player, beating the character with a stick and hoping that somehow conveys the same message without words is not a reliable method of communication.

Edit: And on the actual thread title, no reaction bonus whatsoever is realistic. The entire reaction roll system is fundamentally not realistic - it takes something enormously complex and abstracts it to a single die roll! It's way less realistic than, say, the D&D combat system - at least that allowed for two variables (to hit and damage) and multiple rolls. If you want realism, you need an out and out replacement, not a restriction on modifiers to a single die roll that resolves everything.

[Alonsua]

I still have no idea about what to do,

I am considering the approach of +1 dice/+2 Reaction Bonus (take the highest three). Otherwise and, although I see it highly possible (Very Beautiful may be obtained by Cosmetic Surgery from Attractive, with Charisma +4 and Voice +2 being inborn, which turns a probability of one among a population of 9,725,100 to 61,129,200 people. Then she can easily gain a Reputation and/or Status, based solely on the high performance granted by her inborn traits, and so on...) you quickly stack your way to Excellent reactions almost all time from everybody, being able to suck up to -10 modifiers (for "impossible" goals) and stay on Excellent reactions even so... (Did I mention that, being the leader of a major religion, she is Status 6 yet?)

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

I still have no idea about what to do,

I am considering the approach of +1 dice/+2 Reaction Bonus (take the highest three). Otherwise and, although I see it highly possible (Very Beautiful may be obtained by Cosmetic Surgery from Attractive, with Charisma +4 and Voice +2 being inborn, which turns a probability of one among a population of 9,725,100 to 61,129,200 people. Then she can easily gain a Reputation and/or Status, based solely on the high performance granted by her inborn traits, and so on...) you quickly stack your way to Excellent reactions almost all time from everybody, being able to suck up to -10 modifiers (for "impossible" goals) and stay on Excellent reactions even so... (Did I mention that, being the leader of a major religion, she is Status 6 yet?)

If this character is placed into a campaign, the campaign will quickly become about this character. You've created a plot hook, not a PC.

[Phil Masters]

Random reactions do not override predetermined or automatic NPC responses. This character has simply spent a lot of points on having most NPCs favourably disposed to them, in the absence of other determining factors. Fine. There'll still be people shooting at them (regretfully, because they look kinda cute, but hey, that's life), arresting them (regretfully, because someone that likeable shouldn't have to go bad, but wotcha gonna do?), disagreeing with them vociferously online (and none of that stuff helps them there, and their dedicated fanbase just look like jerks), and all the rest.

If I met (confessing to a personal susceptibility here) Scarlett Johansson in real life, I'd probably find myself annoyingly inclined to agree with stuff she said and be nice to her, because her looks push my heterosexual male buttons, I think she's got a nice voice, and she's probably got good at dealing with far nastier people then me through sheer practise. That doesn't make her Killgrave the Purple Man; I'm not going to jump off any cliffs for her, I'm just going to kick myself for grinning like an idiot after she left the room. Someone like that achieves useful results, but has limits.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Alonsua

you quickly stack your way to Excellent reactions almost all time from everybody, being able to suck up to -10 modifiers (for "impossible" goals) and stay on Excellent reactions even so...

Why not give us a situation you think could come up that would lead to unrealistic outcomes? Hard numbers and concrete examples might shed light on the problem. I find that people often overestimate what a particular reaction means, and tend to neglect situational penalties.

[GodBeastX]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I'm strongly opposed to such an approach to a fairly-bought Advantage. It reminds me of Emily's story about how when she had a character very skilled in jumping, the GM interpreted that as jumping too high and overshooting the target. That's antagonistic.

The positive appearance advantages state that sometimes they can be problematic.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by munin

Except in this case, one of the advantages explicitly says it comes with "nuisances" like slave traders which will "become a problem for you" (p. B21). They might not seek you out regularly like an Enemy would, but if you encounter them, they're more of a problem than they would be for others.

For one of them, it does. And yet I think that the way it does so is part of the antagonistic and unfair approach I mentioned. I maintain that the reasons for that are:[list][*]The extent of trouble is unclear from the advantage write-up, and thus can vary drastically based on fiat. Not in the 'GM ignored the RAW' fiat, but 'RAW is non-informative, encouraging random fiat' fiat.[*]The cost of Appearance is already too high. Apearance costs about [4 per +1], which accounts for Vision Based -20%, but also includes racial restrictions, making it already worse than Charisma or Reputation. But at Beautiful/Handsome and above, it gets bundled with a built-in nuisance without getting discounted for it, which is even worse.[*]It cooks in character aspects that are not equally appropriate to all concepts and genres.[/spoiler]