[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Social Stigma

[johndallman]

Social Stigma [-5 to -20] is a mundane social disadvantage. You are a member of some group or class that is considered to be socially inferior, which gives you reaction penalties and/or limitations on your actions or freedom. This disadvantage appeared at GURPS 1e, and hasn’t fundamentally changed.

To be worth points, a Social Stigma must be obvious to people who meet you, or widely known because of a public announcement, or readily learnable by anyone who cares to check up on you. Applying Reputation’s modifiers for the proportion of people affected and the frequency of recognition would seem plausible, but isn’t part of this disadvantage’s rules. This disadvantage is the opposite of Social Regard: while it is possible to have both, they can’t have the same cause, at least not in a single society.

There are many types of Social Stigma, depending on the society, and it’s often possible to have more than one. Examples include:

• Criminal Record [-5]: if you’re also wanted by the law, add an Enemy. “Known Criminal” (Banestorm) and “Criminal” (DF) are the same thing if marked by branding, mutilation or tattooing, or widespread public denouncement.
• Disowned by your family [-5 or -10].
• Excommunicated from a dominant religion [-10 or -20].
• Ignorant, in a society where having certain skills is very important, [-5] per skill you lack.
• Minor [-5] because you aren’t yet a legal adult.
• Minority Group [-10] because you’re a member of an outsider group deemed inferior by society. “Barbarian” (Banestorm) is much the same thing.
• Monster [-15] because you’re a race that is greatly feared and likely attacked on recognition, even if you’re personally peaceful and friendly. DF3 has a variant, at the same price, but with different rules.
• Second-Class Citizen [-5] because you’re part of society, but not considered worthy of full participation.
• Subjugated [-20] because you’re part of a slave race, or something similar, giving you the effects of Second-Class Citizen and Valuable Property, plus a major Enemy if you escape.
• Uneducated [-5] because you’re a rural bumpkin or otherwise seriously lacking in education.
• Valuable Property [-10] because you’re regarded as someone’s property, rather than a “legal person.”

As well as these, the Basic Set mentions that some societies may have Social Stigma for people with Dwarfism, Giantism, Innumerate, Neutered or Sexless. Revealed Secret disadvantages may also create Social Stigmas.

There’s a useful Kromm posting on the relationship between Social Stigma and Odious Racial Habit. An ORH needs to be something that you actually do regularly, while a Social Stigma is a general dislike, not based on anything you personally do, or don’t do.

Social Stigma is a fairly common disadvantage option on published templates. GURPS supplements add several versions:

• Dead [-20] is in several books, including Fantasy, Horror and Zombies.
• Freak [-10] is from Supers, for mutants and similar people with superhuman abilities.
• Half-Breed [-5] and Infernal [-15] are from DF3, and use DF rules for social interactions.
• License Revoked [-5] is from Action, for doctors who’ve lost their medical license.
• Logical Impossibility [-10] is from Discworld. You’re something that is considered impossible in society, such as a talking dog, and people ignore you, rather than react badly.
• Outlaw [-15] is because you live entirely outside the dominant society (of robots, in Reign of Steel: Will to Live where this version originates) whose laws give you no protection whatsoever, and whose members can do whatever they like with you, should they take any interest in you.
• Overdressed Foreigner [-10] is also from Discworld. You’re annoyingly rich as well as an outsider, and a magnet for people after your money.
• Perceived as an Animal [-10], from Banestorm, is for intelligent beings who are wrongly believed to be “just animals.”
• Savage [-10] is from DF3, see Half-Breed above.
• Supernatural Embodiment of Evil [-20] is for Satan, who’s a major character in Casey & Andy.
• Vermin [-15], is from Fantasy. You are disgusting, and people shun your touch. Nobody will object if you are killed.

Fantasy also categorises the various Social Stigmas of the Roman Empire, and Hot Spots: Constantinople extends this to the Byzantine Empire. Infinite Worlds has out-timers as Second-Class Citizens on both Homeline and Centrum, while it’s easy to qualify as Ignorant in Lands Out of Time. Mysteries and Psis deal with exactly who has Social Stigma in their game styles, and Power-Ups 2 has a couple of useful perks. Social Engineering has a useful classification of types of Social Stigma, and its effects on interactions with bodies like the police, or mobs.

I’ve made some use of Social Stigma as a player. One case was a British Romany, who tended to be vary wary of the 1930 police, as a Second-Class Citizen, and took good care not to break the law in ways that people expected for Romany. Another is a PC’s wife, born in London in 1900, who decided she wasn’t going to accept being a Second-Class Citizen just for being female, and neither were her daughters. As of 1945, this seems to be working.

How has Social Stigma played in your games?

[Michele]

Originally Posted by johndallman

How has Social Stigma played in your games?

Well, I ran a few campaigns set in the 1930s-40s, some of them straight historical, while some were cross-overs with GURPS Monster Hunters. That period was rife with racism, of course, which generally means Social Stigma (Minority Group) [-10]. I left it at that, until the state in which the campaign was set began actually persecuting the minority, which added the state as an infrequent but formidable Enemy.

Should I stage such a campaign now, I'd probably add an intermediate situation, for that window when the state isn't actually out to imprison or kill you (yet), but has passed laws restricting the rights you previously had, like it happened in Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. That situation would be portrayed by adding to Minority Group (the perception most of your society has of you) also Second-Class Citizens (because there are actual laws depriving you of civil rights you previously had). The character is socially discriminated against, and there are things the majority of the people around him can do, but he can't (without violating the racial laws).

It makes for a grim landscape for the character, of course, but any campaign set in Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy isn't rosy to start with. And a couple of the players (also thanks to the fact that their characters were Monster Hunters stuff) accepted the challenge.

For more, see GURPS WWII: Iron Cross and other books in that series (for 3e).

[ericthered]

Lost in dreams visits a lot of different worlds and time periods. Female characters in that game are allowed to take Second Class Citizen (some worlds -50%) and Valuable Property (Some worlds -50%). We've probably had as many female as male characters. The limiter maybe should be more extreme than that, but its worked so far. Minor has also shown up on a character, and that one is easy to work with.



I stick valuable property on a lot of Robots and Sentient Magical Creations, which I have a liking for, for whatever reason. Criminal Record and Ignorant are disads I always think I'm going to use but never do. I don't usually do much with minority group or excommunicated.



Monster frustrates me, because I feel like it should be worth more. I've run into fairly dangerous animals in the wilderness, and they have a remarkable effect. It is important to be able to buy that off, but a mere -3 seems understated.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Monster frustrates me, because I feel like it should be worth more. I've run into fairly dangerous animals in the wilderness, and they have a remarkable effect. It is important to be able to buy that off, but a mere -3 seems understated.

I guess you could model it more realistically by combining a few stigmata, but for elegance' sake it should be one disad with a bigger cost.

[WingedKagouti]

I've seen and played characters with one or more varieties of Social Stigma. Same with Secrets that would turn into a Social Stigma (plausibly along with other disadvantages) if revealed.

It is IMO one of the disadvantages that feel most naturally to both purchase and play for the characters where it makes sense. But there are certainly cases where a character that could have a Social Stigma shouldn't have one (or even a Secret covering it).

[RogerBW]

This is the kind of generic and universal disadvantage which I think is core to GURPS, as distinct from some of the more specific ones we've had recently.

Secrets that lead to Social Stigma if revealed could be of any of the classes of Secret, though the more deadly ones would be rare. (Being revealed to have been passing as white in 1850s Georgia…)

I'm guessing homosexuality for most of the 20th century in the west would count as "minority group", at least in terms of the game effects, but would usually start as a suitable Secret instead.

Of course like many disadvantages this is going to break if you move between worlds a lot, or even different cultures in the same world. Obwhswhs: GURPS Fantasy: Portal Realms uses the Reference Society to solve this problem.

[jason taylor]

What about someone whose position shifts? A Zionist immigrant smuggler has Social Stigma from Nazis, British, and Arabs (most simply and obviously in the first case). With Nazis he is obviously Enemy. With British and Arabs his position shifts through complexities especially with British who are often allies and sometimes work closely enough with them to sympathize. For instance, Maj Arthur Whittall of MI6 had a cushy deal where he would support their people smuggling and they would flag him information gained in expeditions into enemy territory associated with that. But the foreign ministry tended to be some-say-criminally and certainly exasperatingly clogged. With Jews in Palestine a Zionist immigrant smuggler has Social Regard (war hero) or maybe I am confusing with Reputation. With Arabs he is usually an Enemy and sometimes has a racial or religious Social Stigma, but a few weird times (like the conquest of Vichy Syria) had them as allies.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

What about someone whose position shifts? A Zionist immigrant smuggler has Social Stigma from Nazis, British, and Arabs (most simply and obviously in the first case).

I think Social Stigma really has to be done in terms of the campaign's reference society, which for simplicity's sake I tend to regard as "where most of the adventuring is going to happen". For multiple groups like the situation you mention, I'm more inclined to use Reputation, which doesn't have the special effects of the Social Stigma modes but does cover group size and frequency of recognition.

[Dalillama]

Outlaw originally showed up in Middle Ages 1, and would be appropriate for many fantasy societies.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

What about someone whose position shifts? A Zionist immigrant smuggler has Social Stigma from Nazis, British, and Arabs (most simply and obviously in the first case). With Nazis he is obviously Enemy. With British and Arabs his position shifts through complexities especially with British who are often allies and sometimes work closely enough with them to sympathize. For instance, Maj Arthur Whittall of MI6 had a cushy deal where he would support their people smuggling and they would flag him information gained in expeditions into enemy territory associated with that. But the foreign ministry tended to be some-say-criminally and certainly exasperatingly clogged. With Jews in Palestine a Zionist immigrant smuggler has Social Regard (war hero) or maybe I am confusing with Reputation.

You are in fact confusing it with reputation. Social Stigma isn't about what you do. That's why there's no social stigma for being a suspected criminal but there is one for being an ex-con.