[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Laziness and Lunacy

[edk926]

I have Laziness aspected "Outside of my job". If I absolutely have to do something, which is usually the case when you work, I'll try to do it to the best of my energy and ability. Otherwise, I don't want to do anything ever if I could help it.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Bruno

What category does diversionary work fall in?
For instance, if you are dreading doing your taxes, you suddenly find yourself doing the laundry you've been putting off, cleaning the kitty litter box, cleaning out the "junk drawer" in the kitchen, organizing your shoes, and then individually ironing every pair of socks you own.

Yeah, I've seen people do this, but all of the above are far too much 'work' for me to do them instead of something else. In fact, I feel like that doing any category of useful work exhausts fuel and makes me less willing to do anything else useful.

It's funny, because my job and my hobbies probably look very similar externally (research stuff on computer, write stuff on computer, read a bunch of reference works, write more), but I'm willing to do hours of research and campaign prep as long as there is absolutely nothing useful about it.

In fact, I think that one of the things that determines whether something counts as 'work' or 'timewasting fun' is whether or not a hypothetical reasonable person would encourage me to do it. Worst of all, obviously, is if someone tells me to do something. I used to love playibg football, but once I realized that I was expected to turn up at a certain time and that my parents would be annoyed if I didn't, I stopped enjoying practice, because I started to file it as 'work'.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Icelander

… I'm willing to do hours of research and campaign prep as long as there is absolutely nothing useful about it.

Hence your willingness to do so much background work for Antarctic Space Nazis who are apparently imaginary within the context of the campaign thay feature in?

[ericthered]

what would someone use lunacy for? I think of werewolves but little else.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Hence your willingness to do so much background work for Antarctic Space Nazis who are apparently imaginary within the context of the campaign thay feature in?

Ah! Possibly imaginary.

The PCs differ on their frame of reference for creatures and persons encountered within the Dreamlands of Ms. Delvano's consciousness.

Lucien Lacoste believes that 'it is all fake, anyway and none of this is real', so he doesn't understand why the PCs should help anyone or in general allow anything encountered there to distract them from their Quest.

Alice Talbot believes that anything with a personality is likely to represent a part of Ms. Delvano's personality, memories or self. Anything that apears as NAZIS is pretty clearly not a good part of her consciousness and anything fighting to escape Nazis should be regarded as something that represents goodness in Ms. Delvano's mind. Alice also believes that as the ritual they used to visit inserts them into the dream in the context of a heroic Quest, they should regard encounters with anyone needing help as an opportunity to display positive moral qualities, in case it's a Grateful Dead/Grateful Beasts/Grateful Beggar folklore type scenario.

'Nonc' Morel is torn between agreeing with Lacoste and considering this an unnatural imaginary place and his innate intuition that anything that acts alive and believes itself to be real should be treated as a real person. The Mi-gö seems to be really suffering from its enslavement and the way Lacoste used that to turn it into a living compass to the Monster at the End of the Dream and dismissing the creature as imaginary doesn't really negate its suffering.

Teddy Smith is concerned that not everything they encounter is a result of the ritual-as-framing-device or the dreaming subconscious of Ms. Delvano. After all, Something from a place beyond our known reality opened a kind of pathway or portal into Ms. Delvano's mind. The Mi-gö beast whose soul or spirit is wrapped in tendrils of hoary frost seems to him to be neither imaginary nor something the PCs' ritual created. Smith is not sure, but he sees no reason to exclude the possibility that the Antarctic Space Nazis have more in common with the enslaved Mi-gö brought from outside, through the influence of Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, than the other familiar figments found in Ms. Delvano's personal Dreamlands.

So there is a chance that even if the PCs survive, seal the pathway to the Outside that opened within Ms. Delvano's mind and somehow make it home to the real world and their bodies again, they might somehow encounter Antarctic Space Nazis again, somewhere in an infinite multiverse.

But yeah, mainly I am willing to do research and prepwork because it's fun and doesn't feel like work. Sure, I'll admit that I'm more likely to do prepwork that is pointless worldbuilding almost entirely divorced from anything that is likely to directly come into play, because my brain appears to be wired with perverse incentives, but generally, gaming is far removed enough from anything useful or socially desirable for me to be able to view prepwork as still basically useless and not 'work', even if it is something that might actually come up in play.

I suppose if I established a strict schedule of gaming and campaign preparation, with sensible organization and an obligation to arrive prepared for each session, I could manage to suck all fun out of it and make me unable to do campaign prepwork, by having made it 'work'.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by ericthered

what would someone use lunacy for? I think of werewolves but little else.

In general?

People who think they have some connection to the moon. Whether real or a delusion, if the overall effect is the same as the disadvantage, giving them the disadvantage would be apropriate. A person having a delusion that they're affected by the moon's phases would likely pay close attention to those phases and attribute any change in mood to their supposed connection. And this extra attention could shift their actual mental balance towards how they're "supposed" to act/feel.

[Þorkell]

Originally Posted by Bruno

For instance, if you are dreading doing your taxes,

Just as an FYI, it took me less than 10 minutes doing my taxes this year and some of that time was spent looking for the password to the tax filing website. I am not unusual among Icelanders for being so quick to do my taxes. In fact, I don't think it has ever taken me more than 10-ish minutes.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Just as an FYI, it took me less than 10 minutes doing my taxes this year and some of that time was spent looking for the password to the tax filing website. I am not unusual among Icelanders for being so quick to do my taxes. In fact, I don't think it has ever taken me more than 10-ish minutes.

And yet, this post has reminded me that I delayed, procrastinated and asked for an extension, but then ended up not really wanting to look for the password thingy.

Guess I should really get on that one of these days. On the other hand, I think I've managed something like a grand total of one tax return on time in my life, even though it is literally a five minute job and there are probably some consequences to not filing on time.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Just as an FYI, it took me less than 10 minutes doing my taxes this year and some of that time was spent looking for the password to the tax filing website. I am not unusual among Icelanders for being so quick to do my taxes. In fact, I don't think it has ever taken me more than 10-ish minutes.

This year, the IRS "simplified" tax filing. That turns out to mean that I still have to fill out a schedule C (business income), D (capital gains), and SE (self-employment tax—how business owners pay into Social Security), but I also then have to copy information onto new schedules 1, 4, and 5 and THEN copy it onto the form 1040. I think it all took an hour or two, but part of that was tracking down all the relevant records.

I'm so long accustomed to using paper forms that I'm not willing to deal with an online interface, though I believe the US has one.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by edk926

I have Laziness aspected "Outside of my job". If I absolutely have to do something, which is usually the case when you work, I'll try to do it to the best of my energy and ability. Otherwise, I don't want to do anything ever if I could help it.

Ditto. When it comes to a paycheck I'm 'Johnny On The Spot' and put in more work than most of my co-workers... but outside of work? I need some serious motivation.

Okay, I do stay on top of cleaning my house (kitchen, bathroom, etc) but dusting and organizing? Or doing any paperwork of any sort (taxes, gaming, etc)? Ugh....

Originally Posted by Icelander

... I'm willing to do hours of research and campaign prep as long as there is absolutely nothing useful about it.

It's useful to your campaign. I mean... right?

Originally Posted by Icelander

... there are probably some consequences to not filing on time.

In my case it's literally that I won't get my money back in a timely fashion... but I still can't manage to be arsed to do them... from last year...


I'll get to it any minute now... oh look, someone is wrong on the internet, I must go do hours and hours of research so I can tell them in exacting detail how wrong they are, I'll be back in while. Maybe tomorrow.