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Old 05-16-2017, 12:28 PM   #21
ericthered
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

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Given that the GM was allowing it to work, is it really abuse?
Given that you had newbie GM who had only played a few weeks of PbP before, and who had never played outside of 3.0 D&D with younger siblings and cousins as a teenager (and the social dynamic of that group was free of many of the pitfalls of internet groups), yes, it was abuse. I didn't hold it against the players, but it was not what I was prepared for. I'd never played with folks who knew a system better than I did before.


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In both cases, the GM can take advantage of this to tell a better story. Perhaps a role that was going to be reserved for an NPC goes to your character because hey, you had time to learn the language before landing? Adjust things because now you're Lockpicking is 20 instead of 18. Actually had something else for your character to spend that time on; could still be your choice, but studying means Path A, goofing off means Path B, ship maintenance means Path C, etc.

Don't get me wrong, GM's I had needed some time to realize these things, and the only reason I didn't mess it up myself in my own campaigns is they didn't last long enough (and were torpedoed by other, more significant problems). >.>
Yep, there are ways to handle this. But those require skills I was still picking up!
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Old 05-16-2017, 03:32 PM   #22
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

I've never played a GURPS character who could justify Doesn't Sleep.

I played a medic in Reign of Steel who gradually bought Less Sleep as a reflection of his conscience giving him trouble sleeping.

I have another character in play who'd like Less Sleep, but there's always something more urgent to buy.

The Deep Sleeper perk is very worthwhile in a game where sleep can be problematic, especially if you have Combat Reflexes.

Last edited by johndallman; 05-18-2017 at 05:16 AM. Reason: Spelling
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Old 05-16-2017, 06:14 PM   #23
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
Similar for me with regards to reading and simple math. I hate how it's "common knowledge" that it's impossible to do those.
Like the myth that no one can tickle themselves. I know someone that can.
The myth that you can't see colors in your dreams (I think this sprang up around the eras of common black and white film and black and white television being ubiquitous), the myth that you can't feel pain in your dreams so you should try to pinch yourself to make sure (monstrously false), the myth that you can't safely urinate in a dream without it also happening to your sleeping body in bed...
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Old 05-16-2017, 11:11 PM   #24
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

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The myth that you can't see colors in your dreams (I think this sprang up around the eras of common black and white film and black and white television being ubiquitous), the myth that you can't feel pain in your dreams so you should try to pinch yourself to make sure (monstrously false), the myth that you can't safely urinate in a dream without it also happening to your sleeping body in bed...
...that you can't read in your dreams
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Old 05-17-2017, 12:35 AM   #25
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

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...that you can't read in your dreams
False and true.

I can read in my dreams, but the words on the page do not match the words they represent (and they weren't gibberish, just wrong - and I know this in the dream as well - but I can't actually suss out what the written words are until I wake up). I have in the past awoken remembering both what I was reading and what the written words were, the written words were just random words that could change with every reading, but the words they represented remained the same for me.
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Old 05-17-2017, 07:23 AM   #26
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

That's really very similar to the way "actors" in your dream will be very different from the "role" your mind assigns them. E.G. dreaming about the lunch lady from school except she's your mom. Not "dreaming your mom works at the school cafeteria instead of at the post office" or "dreaming that your dad married the lunch lady instead of your mom" but seeing one and identifying them as the other.

The vision process in your brain has about 40 different steps, IIRC, and it's a separate, late-stage step that assigns meaning to the things you see, and another separate step that assigns emotional importance to what you see. The step that recognizes a face is different to the step that pulls up the correct emotions and associations for the person who is attached to that face. Reading is similar because it leverages the same general "stations" in the brain - recognizing the shapes of letters, recognizing that the letters are in the right order for given words, assembling sentences, attaching emotional meaning to everything.

Your brain, while dreaming, is free to do any random thing for any step in that chain. You can get a picture of one text, the meaning of another. The picture of one person, the meaning of another. "This is my house" when your dreaming about a tent. "This is my dog" when you're dreaming about a pig.
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Old 05-17-2017, 09:36 AM   #27
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

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The myth that you can't see colors in your dreams (I think this sprang up around the eras of common black and white film and black and white television being ubiquitous)
I've done black and white dreams before. And I've had color dreams. The black and white ones were generally lucid.

I've never heard the myth that you can't see colors in your dreams before. In fact, most people upon hearing that I dreamed in black and white almost exclusively for part of my life expressed surprise.
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Old 05-17-2017, 10:53 AM   #28
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

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I've done black and white dreams before. And I've had color dreams. The black and white ones were generally lucid.

I've never heard the myth that you can't see colors in your dreams before. In fact, most people upon hearing that I dreamed in black and white almost exclusively for part of my life expressed surprise.
I have heard the black & white myth before; I don't feel like looking up citations, but the short version is there may have been an increase in black & white dreams due to black & white films and/or television. Basically, people would "dream in TV".

Considering I've had dreams that were essentially cartoons, video games, text (like a book), following GURPS rules, etc. I am inclined to believe it. On a related note, I've died in my dreams before; one followed the video game example. Before that point it wasn't a video game, just some kind of action movie, and even though I don't play a lot of first- or third-person shooters, when I suddenly got shot and died, I just held on that screen while the action continued to play out around me, such as in some of those kinds of video games. XP
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Old 05-17-2017, 11:23 AM   #29
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

Oddly, the number of times I dreamed in color could be counted on one hand until I started taking Paxil. Now even though I'm long off it, my dreams often have some color component. It reset something in my brain.
Meaning ascribed while dreaming being radically different from waking cognition is very true. My most terrifying nightmares are so absurd as to make even me wonder why my sleeping brain found them so scary. 6 inch tall vampire, psychic in utero kittens, etc.
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Old 05-17-2017, 11:35 AM   #30
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week (#42): Doesn't Sleep, Less Sleep

My dreams generally include the full sensorium — vivid colours (some of which may or may not exist in nature), rich sound, full smells, touch all of mundane or pleasing or painful, and more esoteric senses most people don't think of *— have you ever been dizzy in a dream? How's your proprioception in the the world through the looking-glass? Essentially, other than the oddties of dreams impacting what they see, my senses are fully as engaged in dreams as in life.
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