Heroic Safe Mode
 

Is there an existing set of advantages to have a character have Heroic Safe Mode

If not, what should it cost?

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

Mental Alternate Form. In this case, your "base template" includes any mental Disadvantages you'd rather not have come into play while in Safe Mode, while the form you are changing into lacks these and might have other Disadvantages.

Away from my Basic Set, but a very bare-bones example would be a character with Sense of Duty and Guilt Complex. Their "Safe Mode" would lack these and have Bloodlust, Callous, and No Sense of Humor.

As Alternate Form requires a good deal of time (10 seconds IIRC) to switch forms, or a lot of points invested in making it faster, this probably won't be too unbalanced. I think it's even a RAW option in BioTech.

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

Based on the description at that tvtropes link (you are a bad, bad man, TroyGuffey), I'd say this is basically a case of Controllable Mental Disadvantage Perks (PU:2 p 12), probably Low Empathy or Callous (note that the two are mutually-exclusive by RAW). You could also sandwich the removal of compassionate/squeamish/timid/whatever-type Mental Disadvantages in with this by buying them as Personality Change Quirks that only kick in when the controllable Disadvantage is off, but that negates most of their value (which is kind of proper IMHO since you can toggle them at will, but someone will be along shortly to insist that you call it a -10% Limitation on the Disadvantage's full value).

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

Isn't that how player characters normally function? If anything, I could make a case for a character who doesn't function that way having various disadvantages: Combat Paralysis, or Pacifism (Reluctant Killer), or Post-Combat Shakes.

Alternatively, you could look at a Resistant or Immune trait. What you have to do then is define the roll that the character is better able to withstand. Perhaps it helps with Fright Checks?

Bill Stoddard

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

Don't most people do this? At least until a state of emergency is passed, or you get some rack time and spend it sobbing into your pillow, or similarly some R&R time to sob into your beer? Basically I think this is a psychological survival trait that allows us to become hyperfocused on dealing with a given situation especially once some emotionally horrific event occurs. It's even true when something bad happens (like your relative or friend dies, significant other with whom you live walks out, etc.) and you have a bunch of stuff to take care of in the short-term. Sure you're in shock, but it's easier (I think) to put off dealing with the emotional impact and attend to the work you have to do in the short term. This seems to allow my subconscious to deal with the situation enough that I can actually start processing once the busy work is done.

Maybe I'm wrong...

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

Controllable Disadvantage: Split Personality would be what I use. Note that you can't snap back out of it once you turn it on.

Alternate form would work if you eventually want it off - you simply add things like aftermath and trigger to it to represent what causes it and the after effects.

Alternatively, it's a "cold berserk."

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

Canonically, you could look up Mark Piotr Vorkosigan's writeup in the GURPS Vorkosigan Saga book.

He has four "split personalities" which show up in different stress situations.

From 3E, there's a character from GURPS Uplift (Jacob Demwa, IIRC?) who has a "split personality" show up when he needs it.

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

Ditto; I've used it before. I actually like having one personality have the perk, and the other the full-blown disad: You control when you go into safe mode, but not when you come out. Lower it from the full-blown disad to the quirk Personality Change if the referenced "cooldown hug" works.

Of characters I built this way, one was a cold berserk, and the other was a psionic assassin with a Jekyll-like cover ID created by means of psychic surgery. She didn't just memorize a cover story, she became it, and forgot (Amnesia) all about her other skillset. This second character, I did not play myself; I built her for a player (my wife) who wanted a dark secret of which the character was unaware. She entered the campaign as Dr Jekyll, unaware of the circumstances that would trigger her secret mission. It was a brief campaign, but fun.

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

Yes, from the Uplift trilogy (the only one there is), it was indeed Demwa who had that, in the first book. I can't recall if it is included in his writeup in "GURPS Uplift 2nd Edition", or even if Demwa himself has a writeup there, but if you claim it's there, then you're almost certainly correct.

Re: Heroic Safe Mode
 

I do agree that it's proper. Disads, whether mental or otherwise, are disads exactly because they're present all the time, even when it is deeply inconvenient. If they go away when it would be convenient for them to go away, then we're in -80%'ish territory. Or at least 60%'ish/70%'ish.