'Haunted' the Disadvantage - what book is it in?

[Qoltar]

Okay so I'm making characters in the 'GCA' for my GURPS Star Trek campaign and I see "Haunted" as an available -5 disadvantage.

Which is just the right number for something one of my players wants to do...

However I can't find a definition of it in the "CHARACTERS" book.

Is it psychological 'haunted'? Or is it an actual ghost or spirit 'haunting' a character?

In this past week's "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" episode three characters appear to be 'haunted' by their experiences in the Klingon War.

Thats what my player wants to emulate or imitate.

-Ed C.

[Phil Masters]

I suggest that you start by checking which sourcebook data files you have loaded. It doesn't appear on the list when I load up just the Basic Set.

[Blind Mapmaker]

For what it's worth a search in my 4th edition PDFs turned up not hits that looked likely and I don't remember it from my reading. Phantom Voices will probably go a long way whether you're looking for a real or psychological haunting.

As an aside, I am bit shocked that GCA does not give book or page references. I realise it's a bit of a one-man project, but that would seem to be a really useful feature.

[Donny Brook]

I wonder if it's the same as 'Guilt Complex'.

[Varyon]

If it's not in Characters, it sounds like something that might be in Mysteries or Horror. Or maybe it's something completely different, like an Anti-Talent (from PU3)? If it doesn't show up in any of those (away from the machine with most of my books on it, and I actually don't think I own Mysteries anyway), maybe check if you've loaded any custom files or however one would put custom content in.

As for a "Haunted" effect, there's a few ways to potentially do that with the Disadvantages in Characters, both for psychological and supernatural haunting. Phantom Voices, Delusion, and the various options for roughly emulating PTSD mentioned in this thread. And, yeah, some of those are basically opposites of each other (Chummy/Gregarious vs Loner, for example), but that's because different people react to stress quite differently.

[Anaraxes]

Treasure Tables (DF 8) has "Haunted" as a -0.5 CF modifier for items. Other than that, I don't find a game mechanic by that exact name in my collection.

Flashbacks (B136) could match Qoltar's description of effects. The Mild form is -5 CP, and not utterly paralyzing.

SNW S3E08, "Under the Cloak of War", uses flashbacks in the movie/TV sense of a writing/direction technique to fill in several character's backstory, but I don't recall any of them having a Disad-like reaction in the "present day".

(That is, the character has some memory, the viewers jump to the past to see what they lived through that explains and motivates the character in the present day, but the present characters aren't frozen for 2d seconds while stuck in their memory. Nor do others around them notice, react to anything they supposedly said about the backstory while the flashback occurs, and so on. The flashback is instantaneous in present time, at least as far as I recall, and whatever other characters perceive is portrayed in present time.

So I'm not sure that's what Qoltar is looking for. Freezing game time while the player relates some relevant and hopefully entertaining bit of backstory for the other players isn't a Disad. Taking the character out of action is, but if in the middle of, say, combat, neither the other characters nor players are likely to be paying a lot of attention to the details of whatever the character is saying as they stare off into space. In the show, the stress was mostly social. Consequences, if any, were due to present-time things the character said or did just before or after the flashback.)

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

However I can't find a definition of it in the "CHARACTERS" book.

If you add the disadvantage & open the edit window, there is place where it tells you the book & page number.
Where that is depends on the CGA version.

[Blind Mapmaker]

Originally Posted by Tinman

If you add the disadvantage & open the edit window, there is place where it tells you the book & page number.
Where that is depends on the CGA version.

Ah that makes more sense than GCA not having this feature. I actually installed GCA 5 for this and loaded everything up that was compatible, except for 3rd Edition books (which is pretty much worst practice for everything but searching for a trait). There are only two references to "Haunt", one is the template from pg. 27 in Horror and one is a weird specialisation for the Area Knowledge skill that gives a reference to Characters, but is probably from a template too.

Qoltar, are you sure you have only 4th edition data files from the official programme loaded? Or are you using GCA 4?

[Qoltar]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

Qoltar, are you sure you have only 4th edition data files from the official programme loaded? Or are you using GCA 4?

I only use 4th edition GURPS ever since it was released. My books are autographed by both Steve Jackson and Sean Punch.

As far as I know my 'GCA' is the most up to date version - it is "GCA 4"...

-Ed C.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Qoltar

As far as I know my 'GCA' is the most up to date version - it is "GCA 4"...

Well, there's a GCA5 now.

Irregardless, GDF files are plain text. You could use Notepad++ or some other program to search through them for the disadvantage easily enough. It's probably a user created or out of date file; I don't see anything like that in the most recent update.