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Old 12-04-2017, 12:20 PM   #31
RogerBW
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

I think high-IQ Bestial might be interpreted not as "I don't understand civilisation" but "I may understand civilisation, but I simply don't care how the ants feel". It's someone who simply takes what he wants when he wants it. It's the behaviour of the vampire lord just before the PCs show up to kill him, strolling down the street biting everyone he feels like, in plain sight. It needs a fair bit of Overconfidence too.
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Old 12-04-2017, 12:56 PM   #32
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

That's pretty much how it plays in my campaign. Bestial, for this guy, means his concept of society shrinks down to the absolute basics an animal could understand: dominance and submission, territory, predator and prey; all of it enforced by violence or the threat of violence. Most importantly, he loses his grasp of how and why to hide the fact he's a vampire. So, for example, he's not going to put on clothes, because what's that got to do with drinking blood?
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Old 12-04-2017, 12:59 PM   #33
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

But that's equating bestial with stupid. Inability to hide among prey is a severe disability for predators.
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Old 12-04-2017, 01:07 PM   #34
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

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But that's equating bestial with stupid. Inability to hide among prey is a severe disability for predators.

I think Bestial is a particular kind of stupid that humans happened to evolve our way out of. Anyway, he can hide with the best of them, but snakes don't pretend to be frogs and leopards don't pretend to be gazelles. They sneak up and sink their teeth in.
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Old 12-04-2017, 01:21 PM   #35
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

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But that's equating bestial with stupid. Inability to hide among prey is a severe disability for predators.
Hiding among prey seems like a rather uncommon behavior for predators. Not entirely unknown I'd say, but quite rare.

One might expect it to be among the most basic instincts of a vampire, but vampire's a flexible enough concept that deciding otherwise doesn't seem too much a stretch.
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Old 12-04-2017, 01:25 PM   #36
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

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One might expect it to be among the most basic instincts of a vampire, but vampire's a flexible enough concept that deciding otherwise doesn't seem too much a stretch.
Plus, remember the mitigator: this is a problem the guy has and tries his best to keep in check. Other characters have similar "thirst defects", or disadvantages that take effect if they haven't fed properly the previous night: one looks and smells like a corpse, another can't sleep, etc.
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Old 12-04-2017, 01:51 PM   #37
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

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Hiding among prey seems like a rather uncommon behavior for predators. Not entirely unknown I'd say, but quite rare.

One might expect it to be among the most basic instincts of a vampire, but vampire's a flexible enough concept that deciding otherwise doesn't seem too much a stretch.
So when a human becomes a vampire they lose the human traits that most directly benefit vampiric survival? That's bizarre as much as I suppose it is cliche.

It sounds like becoming a were-cat but developing a fear of mice.
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Old 12-04-2017, 01:59 PM   #38
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

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So when a human becomes a vampire they lose the human traits that most directly benefit vampiric survival? That's bizarre as much as I suppose it is cliche.
Did you miss the part where I specified that this is a personal disadvantage of the character that kicks in when he hasn't fed enough?
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Old 12-04-2017, 03:00 PM   #39
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

Okay. It's how you've used the disadvantage in an unusual manner.
That doesn't define it any better. If anything, it makes the entire meaning less clear.
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Old 12-05-2017, 04:04 AM   #40
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the week: Bestial

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Okay. It's how you've used the disadvantage in an unusual manner.
That doesn't define it any better. If anything, it makes the entire meaning less clear.
I don't know. Not wearing clothes fits pretty well, I think, into not understanding "standards of morality or propriety". The character understands dominance and territory, the two interpersonal concepts explicitly spelled out in the disadvantage description as ok.

The disadvantage description calls out high IQ as possibly problematic to combine with Bestial. You might say, a sapient-IQ character would still understand that they need to wear clothes to blend in... But in my opinion, you're just neutering the disadvantage then. Compare an IQ 15 character with Non-Iconographic: no matter how long they stare at it, they will never be able to figure out a map or an Ikea instruction leaflet, even though they've got the requisite brainpower. It's just not something they can process. Likewise, this IQ 11 guy, when affected by Bestial, just doesn't get the idea that people think clothes matter.
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