Adding "Fear Check" to an Advantage

[Coinage]

Suppose I wanted an Advantage wherein the person uses some "See Invisible". I want to add 2 things:

1) The Limitation: "Must take Fear Check" whenever they use the Advantage.

2) The Limitation: "Always remembering what you see".

Any thoughts on how I would do that? My own thinking is that it would be some kind of Nuisance Effect (B112-113).

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Coinage

Suppose I wanted an Advantage wherein the person uses some "See Invisible". I want to add 2 things:

1) The Limitation: "Must take Fear Check" whenever they use the Advantage.

2) The Limitation: "Always remembering what you see".

Any thoughts on how I would do that? My own thinking is that it would be some kind of Nuisance Effect (B112-113).

On average a failed fright check amounts to 3 or 4 seconds of doing nothing (yeah occasionally it's worse, but fairly often it's no effect too). That's worth something like -40% on an attack (on the model of Takes Extra Time) but on a sensory advantage like See Invisible it is more like a nuisance. I might give it -10%.

Always remembering what you see isn't a limitation. It's a useful extra advantage - Photographic Memory (accessible: only while Seeing Invisible). I know, I know, you want to call remembering horrible things a problem, but by itself it has no game mechanical drawbacks. And if a character is in the habit of suffering recurring horrible memories or something, he again has some other disadvantage like Flashbacks or Phobias, not a modification of See Invisible.

[Anaraxes]

You can compare the price for a few seconds of Do Nothing by looking at Nuisance Effect (Backlash - Stunning). Might tweak that up or down a bit based on the rest of the Fright Check table. Then just make that Fright Check roll instead of having a fixed, predetermined result.

Malloyd's point about adding a Disad for the bad memories is a good one. In this case, though, they might keep getting worse and worse as the character keeps seeing more invisible horrors. So, the Corruption mechanic from Horror might be a good choice. In this case, the Corruption points would just be used to add Disads like Flashbacks / Nightmares / Phobias, as suits the events when the ability was used. That will raise the question as to ways for the character to get some counseling or psychic healing to remove that Corruption (and get rid of the Disads, or at least keep them from building to the point of being crippling).

[Humabout]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

You can compare the price for a few seconds of Do Nothing by looking at Nuisance Effect (Backlash - Stunning). Might tweak that up or down a bit based on the rest of the Fright Check table. Then just make that Fright Check roll instead of having a fixed, predetermined result.

Malloyd's point about adding a Disad for the bad memories is a good one. In this case, though, they might keep getting worse and worse as the character keeps seeing more invisible horrors. So, the Corruption mechanic from Horror might be a good choice. In this case, the Corruption points would just be used to add Disads like Flashbacks / Nightmares / Phobias, as suits the events when the ability was used. That will raise the question as to ways for the character to get some counseling or psychic healing to remove that Corruption (and get rid of the Disads, or at least keep them from building to the point of being crippling).

This might also be a good application of Stress/Derangement from Horror, too.

If you go the Corruption route, I'd suggest the following list of disadvantages for "someone haunted by what they see":

Absent-Minded (Memories are distracting and make it hard to concentrate)
Addiction/Alcoholism (Make the memories go away!)
Delusions (even if they are true!)
Flashbacks
Insomnia (Can't sleep or they'll get me)
Nightmares
Paranoia (They're gonna get me!)
Phantom Voices (your broken psyche has given voice to your visions)
Phobias

[Coinage]

Perhaps one way to do it is this:

Link Eidetic Memory (B51) with the Advantage, which requires an IQ roll whenever you try to recall it. Add the Limitation: Requires Fear Check [-40%] to represent the fact of how traumatic the memory is. Also, add the Limitation - Accessibility: Only works on memories gained with the Advantage [-40%].

I just wonder if the cost of "Accessibility: Only works on memories gained with the Advantage [-40%]" is high enough. Should the price be lowered and raised?