Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman
Social Disease [-5] is a mundane physical disadvantage. You have some kind of disease that can’t be readily cured, is not fatal in the short term, and is only transmitted by close unprotected physical contact. Anyone who knows about it reacts to you at -1, and automatically resists any seduction attempts you make. This disadvantage appeared during the 3e period, possibly in Cyberpunk.
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Yeah, it comes from Cyberpunk. Note that the cyberpunk genre originated in the early days of the AIDS epidemic, when it wasn't at all clear how that, or the social reactions to it, were going to play out, and this trait is in there to model some of the ways it was spun in fiction that responded to that. Not that it does a particularly good job, since that fiction might have the response be anything from society wide changes in sexual behavior to Reputation, Social Stigma or Secret (possible execution). Since those existing social disadvantages would've covered the range better anyway (and basically do in the variations you point to below), it's not very useful even if you want to tell stories in this space.