Wanted: GURPS Power-Downs 1

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

That said, I would absolutely adore a serious supplement that does for disadvantages what Powers did for advantages - one major part of that book could be traits (either new disadvantages or composite traits with modifiers and such) showing how to build most of the most common and / or interesting physical and mental disorders (including perhaps an expanded treatment on addictions including alcoholism). Horror touched upon some mental illnesses, but there's really so much more to do, and characters battling with addictions, mental illness, or physical disease can really add drama to a game. Now we're more or less forced to break out the DSM-IV and try to DIY-build the conditions in GURPS-stats.

I agree that there are some things GURPS' RAW does not handle well enough.

One thing is extra FP loss from certain causes, like thirst or starvation. I'm pretty sure the RAW doesn't have the building blocks necessary to build this.

Another is various alcohol disorders other than Alcoholsm (see the thread from which I took JC's quote, for more debate on this specfic issue).

I don't know what GURPS Horror does with Phobias. I've barely skimmed it so far. But maybe some extra treatment could be good? I've always reacted negatively to the "I am a roleplayer because I have created my character with a phobia"-meme. Can the concept of phobias be salvaged from cheesyland with strongly worded advisory text and/or a few game-mechanical tweaks? Even to the amazing and extraordinary point where it becomes effectively possible for a player to create and play Adrian Monk?

Compulsive Behaviour could probably do with more examples.

I really like the "vulnerable to temptations" model I use for Sagatafl's psychological disads, Flaws. GURPS doesn't have anything really like that, which means that there are some ways in which playes might want to say "my character sucks because of X" that they are not getting duly compenated for, thus failing to encourage this behaviour (I know there are a lot of holy true roleplayers out there who don't care about being compenated for putting suck traits onto their character sheets, but if GURPS begins catering to them then SJ Games is alienating 80% of the potential target audience).

Code of Honour could use a lot more examples, and slightly better defined ones. It'd probably have to go into real-world cultures, Vikings, Kelts, Romans, Arabs/Moslems and so forth, but even real-world examples would be of much value to builders of fictional (non-historical) worlds.

I'm thinking 48 pages, maybe less. GURPS isn't massively lacking in this department. It just has a few omissions. I've also deliberately not titled this hypotehtical book "Power-Downs 1: Disads" because I'm sure if there is a Power-Downs 2 and 3, they will also deal exclusively with disads, since that's what Power-Downs are.

But what else is missing? And am I mistaken insome of the above?

[Gorkamorka]

I just want to throw in my 2 cents and say that this would be something I would buy. I have more problems finding good disadvantages for my characters then I do advantages.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Gorkamorka

I just want to throw in my 2 cents and say that this would be something I would buy. I have more problems finding good disadvantages for my characters then I do advantages.

More advice for players on this could also be good.

[Anders]

Definitely an interesting concept. I can't promise to buy it, since money is tight, but I'd definitely want to buy it!

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Asta Kask

Definitely an interesting concept. I can't promise to buy it, since money is tight, but I'd definitely want to buy it!

I promise to buy it! :-)

[Rocket Man]

Now, if we can have someone promise to write it, we'll be halfway home. :)

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

One thing is extra FP loss from certain causes, like thirst or starvation. I'm pretty sure the RAW doesn't have the building blocks necessary to build this.

Between B426 and the Leech advantage from Powers what is there that hasn't be covered?

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

But what else is missing?

Variants on some of the physical disadvantages. For example, the Epilepsy disadvantage as written captures gran mal epilepsy pretty well, but there are other, less vigorous alternatives that could be just as inconvenient. One could easily build petit mal using the Basic Set, but as with Powers, it's nice to have the writeup right in front of you.

[smurf]

When you hit 80% that's the lowest you can go.

Some are nice: like useable x times, takes y hours recharge.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by smurf

When you hit 80% that's the lowest you can go.

True, but that shouldn't apply to disadvantages I would think; the -80% limit is to avoid the situation where someone gets a highly advantageous trait at an insane discount.

Plus my players and I don't really care about points so much, so many times, although I do enforce the -80% cap on advantages, in the effort to build the trait as it was envisioned, its true uncapped limitation value might get much higher than that (although in some circumstances I just say "it's a perk now").