Does Appearance Belong on a Racial Template

[Hide]

What's up!

Given the “cosmetic approach” of appearance, I let players decide whether or not they want their characters look attractive. This means I usually do not put appearance in templates.

My reasoning is that appearance is individual, and if a player invests on it, it should apply without penalties at least among the playable/main races in the setting.

Racial templates reflect the general characteristics of a group of creatures; they include established elements that at least the playable/main races in the setting must equally perceive as either negative or positive. For example, if I want to give orcs a negative reaction modifier, I could give them a social stigma (because social stigma's scope is often broader than appearance's).

Changing social stigma could be as challenging as changing culture, but the PC may neutralize its effects buying other advantages that provide positive modifiers, such as appearance.

Originally Posted by whswhs

Well, if you'd like to see my racial templates, send me a private message with your e-mail. I have versions of dwarves, elves, ghouls, men, nixies, selkies, and trolls, each taking off from the fantasy standard with some odder stuff mixed in.

If you don't mind, I would like to check that too!

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Hide

If you don't mind, I would like to check that too!

No, of course not. Private message me with your e-mail.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Provinto

So I've had an argument on Reddit where I asked for help determining what kind of Appearance an orc and a half-orc should have. I was basing Appearance on the fact that humans and those with human-like standards of beauty would be reacting to their perceptions of orcish Appearance. There aren't really any NPC orcs in the campaign's area to react to RAW orcish Appearance, so I made Appearance which is strictly among other orcs as either a perk or a quirk.

Someone latched onto the fact that I was using Appearance and, despite my decision to just use it as I'd made it and the fact that the PC Racial templates had been made and people have already made characters, argued that Appearance didn't belong in a racial template, as Appearance RAW refers to Appearance within a species. So, I'm turning it over to the proper GURPS hive mind: does Appearance belong on a Racial Template?

If it's a fantasy template, yes. Elves are beautiful, Fay are beautiful, orcs are ugly as sin. Sci Fi templates, generally no, in most Sci Fi universes there is no one standard of beauty. Some pulpy Sci Fi might be different. In a "No Aliens, but plenty of Parahumans" setting, yes could be the answer, but there would be limits.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

I did try and clear this up a bit in Discworld...

What was your solution/viewpoint? My copy of that book is in storage for the foreseeable.

[vicky_molokh]

Sure it belongs there, but think carefully about what it's meant to affect, as there are two variants of it:

Originally Posted by GURPS Fantasy, page 128

In a fantasy world with multiple
sapient races, Appearance can be a
racial trait, as well as a personal one.
If a level of Appearance is taken at
the standard point cost, its reaction
modifiers can apply either to your own
race and races that closely resemble it,
or to the dominant race in your world
and races that closely resemble it. If
they apply to both, treat this as the
Universal enhancement to
Appearance level (+25%).
Example: Orcs have Unattractive
appearance (-1 reaction modifier).
This affects humans and races that
resemble humans, such as elves. Orcs
don’t find other orcs exceptionally
unattractive.

There's also the way it is handled in Bio-Tech with parahuman races that have Racial Appearance.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Rupert

You might want to consider a modified version of that, though - the Universal enhancement de-genders the reaction bonuses, and that might not be what you want.

Valid point, but it would be a very minor tweak to RAW to allow the GM or player to decide whether Universal good Appearance is "gendered" or not.

As long as the point cost works out to 5 CP per +1 to reaction bonuses which affect everyone the exact mechanisms don't necessarily matter. As you suggested, using the modifiers for Reputation makes the most sense.