10-11-2019, 02:12 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
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10-11-2019, 02:13 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Nov 2016
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
Please read below.
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On the other hand, maybe you want an advantage to skip parts of a campaign:
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- 画龍点睛。Hide。 Last edited by Hide; 10-11-2019 at 02:16 PM. Reason: Merging posts. |
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10-11-2019, 02:30 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Oct 2014
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
1) John Doe is sent doing some recon, and grabbed some operation critical intel againt irregular fighters.
2) John Doe's signal is jammed by localized ECM. He has to move out of range of the jammer to call for extraction. 3) The way out of the area is dangerous John Doe fails his check to notice an IED. Roll damage, John Doe is at -3(max HP). No way he would make it. 4) John Doe uses his discount Serendipity to avoid the IED putting him in a coma. 5) John Doe caught a lucky break, thus he is alive, lightly injured (1D worth of injury), can't call for extraction even when he moves out of ECM Jammer range (radio is busted) nor a resupply, and has to make his way back to base with limited equipment (thus risking starvation, dehydration, or plain getting ambushed with only his sidearm, which is less effective than his service rifle) to report his findings. It's coherent (lots of soldiers in real warfare did survive for the sole reason that they caught lucky breaks (a few of them caught a lot of lucky breaks)), consistent (the player had an in-game ability to catch a lucky break), and more engaging than either his character dropping dead because of a failed roll or negating said failed roll outright. As for comparing it and Luck, Luck can alter dice rolls, which 1) still isn't a guaranteed result, and 2) Luck can not generate a non-dice related lucky break. |
10-11-2019, 02:47 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
IMO these seem to be aspected Impulse Point uses more than Serendipity. But if I squint a little, I could see it going either way (or both).
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10-11-2019, 02:58 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: Nov 2016
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
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Once he failed to notice the IED, the player could have suggested the GM that John noticed the IED because he spotted the IED when he wanted to tie his boots. Lucky break! Had he decided to tie his boots one step further than now, he could have died! Or Had John decided to run along the enemy lines, aware of the risks of possibly stepping over IEDs, he could have employed his daredevil advantage to have +1 to notice them and possibly avoid one or several of them. Sadly, the player did not suggest anything like that. The player decides taking regular action and then taking the IED’s damage because he thinks serendipity will help him. But no, serendipity does not make for his failed HT rolls or other skill checks. He should have bought very fit or luck to help him his HT checks. Also, serendipity does not buy success. John fails his HT roll, and falls into coma. Nevertheless, thanks to his serendipity (the one he failed to apply before), a member of John’s unit noticed the explosion and managed to call some help. John will be available until the next campaign. And still, there is no reason to buy a discounted serendipity.
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10-11-2019, 03:03 PM | #16 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
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10-11-2019, 05:05 PM | #17 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
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10-11-2019, 07:35 PM | #18 | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
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The fact that you can argue that it might be modeled by a different GURPS advantage doesn't mean it HAS to be that way. Lots of GURPS stuff can be done many different ways. |
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10-11-2019, 07:57 PM | #19 | ||
Join Date: Nov 2016
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
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So, a -20% under what assumption? An “emergencies only limitation” is worth -30%, and it basically means you lose control of your advantage. The lesser version of “emergencies only” is worth -20%, and it’s for advantages that cannot work at full power; serendipity is not cut for this, serendipity either works or does not. Serendipity is not a free pass for anything, if that was the case, one could buy serendipity “combat only” and strike critical hits on final bosses as desired, and at discounted price: "I play my combat only serendipity, oops i beheaded the final boss", and then you could argue that beheading the final boss is likely to happen because he is an elf and you got short-sword (15). (This would be a fail-safe attack to win the final battle really quick, and on top of that, at a discounted price). In the example, John steps over the IED, then he should die. However, the take is having John stepping over the IED, losing his gear sustaining marginal damage instead of dying… That’s a wish enhancement (+100%)! Definitively, a normal serendipity is not there to save you from situations like this, this is just too forced. Or is John Doe a messiah within the matrix? In the other example, “John does not have water, but uses serendipity with ‘could be worse’ to solve his situation”, the proposal is something like this: “John finds a neutral guy (in the middle of a battlefield) that sells water at high price (that’s the 'bad thing')”. “He abused John because he sells water at high prices”. However, the fact John had to give something in exchange for the water is worth nothing, because it’s very likely to be like this (given the context). If you want a limited serendipity, maybe you could do something with Unluckiness. Unluckiness is worth -10 points, so it roughly (at most) becomes a -10% when you apply it to serendipity “something good happens, but something about it is rotten”. And the effect should be detrimental, beyond the regular consequences of the situation. Following the previous example, maybe John finds the guy and buys the water, but the water is poisoned. Now he needs to roll an HT each time he drinks water or he falls unconscious and loses 2 HP. And this would be worth a -10%, not a -20%.
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10-11-2019, 11:45 PM | #20 |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: "Could be worse" advantage
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