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Old 01-11-2019, 01:22 AM   #1
johndallman
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Default [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

Increased Life Support is an exotic physical disadvantage, used for beings that can’t survive in an environment suitable for normal humans, or who are dangerous to have in such an environment. It was created for aliens who live in different environments and appeared in GURPS Uplift, for 3e, but it can also be used for normal humans who need special life support (e.g., an “Iron Lung”) to survive.

This disadvantage is about logistical requirements for life support. The health effects of doing without it (or not) are covered by Dependency, Maintenance and/or Restricted Diet. Some requirements will have both health and logistic aspects. For example, breathing fluorine, rather than oxygen, would be a large Dependency, Increased Life Support, and likely a reaction problem given the danger any breakdown in your life support poses to oxygen-breathers.

The examples of Increased Life Support in basic, each worth [-10], are Extreme Heat/Cold, Massive, Pressure and Radioactive. Others are obviously possible, normally at the same price, although Space has some more extreme versions. There’s a limit of [-40] even if you need many kinds of special life support. You can only claim Increased Life Support if it’s necessary on a large scale: needing a small whiff of fluorine daily as a Dependency would not let you claim a disadvantage for having a cabin with that as its sole atmosphere, even if it would be more comfortable for you.

This disadvantage mostly appears on racial templates. Bio-Tech has a couple of examples, and Horror has the variant for a disembodied brain. Powers: The Weird has an ability that makes this disadvantage unnecessary. Space has a lot about Increased Life Support, including when it applies, different life chemistries, and non-chemical life, and Underground Adventures has a race as weird as any in Space.

I’ve never used this disadvantage as a player or GM, having mostly done GURPS on a human-beings scale. How has it complicated your games?
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Old 01-11-2019, 12:18 PM   #2
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
I’ve never used this disadvantage as a player or GM, having mostly done GURPS on a human-beings scale. How has it complicated your games?
This is a very human-centric disadvantage; it's fine for Jovian jellyfish creatures in a Traveller type game where most things are scaled for humans, but not really appropriate if the baseline assumptions are different. (GURPS Fantasy - Portal Realms has some good material on this sort of problem.)

It does occur to me that it's appropriate for use for people who need, e.g., to carry a supplemental oxygen supply about with them – the person I know who does this has a portable oxygen concentrator rather than anything involving pressurised gas, but it's a significant logistical consideration when they want to leave their home.
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Old 01-12-2019, 08:43 AM   #3
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

Does this trait have any relevance at low tech levels? It clearly matters for spaceships, space stations, Iron Lungs, ventilators, etc. But would it matter on a sailing ship or on land, if only low-tech non-magical life support is available?

That is, in a situation where pressurized cabins, ventilators, radiation shielding, etc. aren't even available, would a creature only have Dependency, Maintenance, or Restricted diet?
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Old 01-12-2019, 09:29 AM   #4
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

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Does this trait have any relevance at low tech levels?
You could have it for a merfolk who can't leave their water tank.
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Old 01-12-2019, 09:44 AM   #5
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

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Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi View Post
Does this trait have any relevance at low tech levels?
Only in so far as it does in any other TL, as far as Characters are concerned.

Extreme Cold/Heat and Radioactive doesn't go away because TL drops.

Note the line:

Quote:
Increased Life Support represents the logistical inconvenience of special life-support requirements, while Dependency (p. 130), Maintenance (p. 143), and Restricted Diet (p. 151) all reflect the health effects of doing without such requirements.
So yes, if your Fae Nobility require additional magical supplements in order to survive outside the more 'pure' magical environment of the Fairy lands, then they need some way of getting those requirements fulfilled, and Increased Life Supports covers that logistical requirement. In this specific example I'd consider refluffing Pressurized, Massive, or Radioactive to reflect how I want their living quarters to treated by others.... damaging but survivable, maybe space usage, or long term mana-warping health effects.
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Old 01-12-2019, 09:59 AM   #6
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

OK, but I'm asking specifically about a setting with no high-tech and no magical life-support. Real world historical low-tech.
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Old 01-12-2019, 10:16 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

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Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi View Post
OK, but I'm asking specifically about a setting with no high-tech and no magical life-support. Real world historical low-tech.
I could see a human character who was massively overweight, to the point of requiring people to carry them around in a litter or the like and putting serious strain on wooden floors, claiming Increased Life Support at some level. I'd probably price that at -5, half the value of Massive.
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Old 01-12-2019, 10:22 AM   #8
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

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Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi View Post
OK, but I'm asking specifically about a setting with no high-tech and no magical life-support. Real world historical low-tech.
It's very unlikely to come up in such a case. But not quite impossible. Say you have a race of sapient aquatic beings that suffocate in air. It wouldn't take more than TL 1 or 2 to provide a water tank for them to travel in. It would be massively heavy (32 cubic feet of water per ton) and would limit their mobility, but I think it could be done.

But ordinarily you'd use this with alien races at substantially higher TL, maybe TL 7 at a minimum.
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Old 01-12-2019, 10:40 AM   #9
Vaevictis Asmadi
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

Thanks, that's what I was thinking seemed likely, but really wasn't sure.

So I'm guessing then that ILS (Massive or Large) isn't something that happens just for having a large SM, except in cramped quarters on a ship or spaceship.



I must say, I'm finding these [X] of the Week threads very informative.
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Old 01-12-2019, 11:05 AM   #10
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Increased Life Support

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Originally Posted by Vaevictis Asmadi View Post
Thanks, that's what I was thinking seemed likely, but really wasn't sure.

So I'm guessing then that ILS (Massive or Large) isn't something that happens just for having a large SM, except in cramped quarters on a ship or spaceship.
I would say not even then. That part is accounted for just by being big and awkward. You don't have to pay points for being SM -4 and taking up far less space than a human; you shouldn't get points back for being SM +4.
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