Optional Restricted Diet?

[PK]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Not sure I understand this correctly. Being able to feed off electricity isn't a net Advantage in GURPS 4e, so what'd I even apply the mod to?

To Doesn't Eat or Drink. At heart, this whole scheme is a way to get around the need for food and water (in this case, by replacing it with something else).

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by PK

To Doesn't Eat or Drink. At heart, this whole scheme is a way to get around the need for food and water (in this case, by replacing it with something else).

Well yeah, the goal is to replace food and drink with something else. But officially, needing food and drink can be replaced by needing electricity/batteries for a net gain of ten points, a net Disadvantage, not Advantage (as opposed to the case where a need for consumables is eliminated instead of being changed). And we seem to have several ways of handling disads: Controllable Disadvantage, Alternate Form, Nuisance Effect. Point-wise, the utility seems to be somewhere between [2] and [4]. Even Universal Digestion costs a mere [5]. In no way is the ability to expand your diet to include one more (mildly restricted) category worth more than the ability to feed off anything organic (a huge category).

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Well yeah, the goal is to replace food and drink with something else. But officially, needing food and drink can be replaced by needing electricity/batteries for a net gain of ten points, a net Disadvantage, not Advantage

Restricted Diet is a disadvantage, though, because your diet is both different, and more limited than a standard human. Even the -10 level of Restricted Diet, Very Common, you're limited to something as narrow as "batteries" or "power cells". And I would rule that it has to be the right size of battery or power cell, too - you can't just shove 100 AAAs into your car and expect it to work like one B. Note, for example, that all the cybershells in Changing Times use Restricted Diet, specifying power cells, and given THS' general attention to setting detail, I doubt the intent was to allow shells to run on any size of power cell no matter the size.

So, it seems to me that being able to subsist on food about as varied and frequent as organic food is for humans is a feature. Being able to subsist on human food and another sort of sustenance is an advantage. Personally, I'd rate "any electrical source" as being about that varied, at least in the modern day. So a creature that could drain any size of battery, plug into a wall socket, or even just stand on a hill in a lightning storm, would be no more limited than a human.

All that said, I think I disagree with PK's build. I think the more appropriate advantage to model someone who can eat both normal human food and something else is actually Reduced Consumption, with an equivalent of the Cast-Iron Stomach limitation. Cast-Iron Stomach already greatly expands the set of substances that counts as "food" for a human. Switching that expansion from "spoiled food and drink" to "other materials" sounds about right to me. You could even tweak the limitation value based on exactly how large a category of other substances you could eat. I'd call "spoiled food" about as common as a Very Common Restricted diet, so perhaps call it -25% to be able to eat something as large as a standard dietary category, -50% for equivalent to a Very Common Restricted Diet, -60% for a Common-sized category, and -80% for anything more limited than that.

[Flyndaran]

What are you modifying with that percentage? It doesn't seem to make sense for Cast Iron Stomach or Doesn't Eat/Drink.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

Restricted Diet is a disadvantage, though, because your diet is both different, and more limited than a standard human. Even the -10 level of Restricted Diet, Very Common, you're limited to something as narrow as "batteries" or "power cells". And I would rule that it has to be the right size of battery or power cell, too - you can't just shove 100 AAAs into your car and expect it to work like one B. Note, for example, that all the cybershells in Changing Times use Restricted Diet, specifying power cells, and given THS' general attention to setting detail, I doubt the intent was to allow shells to run on any size of power cell no matter the size.

So, it seems to me that being able to subsist on food about as varied and frequent as organic food is for humans is a feature. Being able to subsist on human food and another sort of sustenance is an advantage. Personally, I'd rate "any electrical source" as being about that varied, at least in the modern day. So a creature that could drain any size of battery, plug into a wall socket, or even just stand on a hill in a lightning storm, would be no more limited than a human.

All that said, I think I disagree with PK's build. I think the more appropriate advantage to model someone who can eat both normal human food and something else is actually Reduced Consumption, with an equivalent of the Cast-Iron Stomach limitation. Cast-Iron Stomach already greatly expands the set of substances that counts as "food" for a human. Switching that expansion from "spoiled food and drink" to "other materials" sounds about right to me. You could even tweak the limitation value based on exactly how large a category of other substances you could eat. I'd call "spoiled food" about as common as a Very Common Restricted diet, so perhaps call it -25% to be able to eat something as large as a standard dietary category, -50% for equivalent to a Very Common Restricted Diet, -60% for a Common-sized category, and -80% for anything more limited than that.

Do note that power cells are rechargable, so you just carry one extra cell and an adaptor, and recharge them from a wall socket. Or feed off bioelectricity, if your SM is small enough that bioelectricity is enough electricity for you. And that's the [-10] version.

But yes, being able to feed of both electricity and normal food is a net advantage. Worth less than Universal Digestion, but probably more than 1 point (Controlled Disadvantage) due to being indefinitely enablable.

[Anthony]

The examples given for Restricted Diet are odd -- they don't actually match the text of the disadvantage. Specifically, the disadvantage says your diet must be a 'specialized food or fuel that is hard to come by'. Presumably that means, at a minimum, more difficult to get than ordinary food.

In a modern game, 'gasoline' and 'any hydrocarbon fuel' are not more difficult to get than ordinary food (they're similar effort, and much cheaper at the same energy content). Electric batteries are marginally more difficult, but only if they're non-rechargeable -- electricity is not more difficult to get than food.

[Celti]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The examples given for Restricted Diet are odd -- they don't actually match the text of the disadvantage. Specifically, the disadvantage says your diet must be a 'specialized food or fuel that is hard to come by'. Presumably that means, at a minimum, more difficult to get than ordinary food.

In a modern game, 'gasoline' and 'any hydrocarbon fuel' are not more difficult to get than ordinary food (they're similar effort, and much cheaper at the same energy content). Electric batteries are marginally more difficult, but only if they're non-rechargeable -- electricity is not more difficult to get than food.

Food you can find growing/running around the landscape naturally. Gasoline has to be refined, raw hydrocarbons at the very least you have to mine/drill for. They are, speaking in very broad strokes, more difficult to obtain than normal food. Likewise for electricity — batteries don't grow on trees, and you can't find a power outlet in the brush.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Celti

Food you can find growing/running around the landscape naturally.

There are plenty of places that have no meaningful naturally available food sources. In a TL 7+ setting, both amount to "go to the store", and the slight difference in availability of gasoline is more than offset by differences in price and ease of transport. A gallon of gas is equivalent to about two weeks food for a human.