Heroic Safe Mode

[whswhs]

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

[ULFGARD]

Originally Posted by whswhs

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

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...

[Fwibos]

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."

[Pragmatic]

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.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

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

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.

[Pragmatic]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

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.

As someone who was lured to GURPS because of their licensing of the Uplift universe, I can tell you, yes, he DOES have a write-up in that book. :-)

[Gef]

Originally Posted by Fwibos

Controllable Disadvantage: Split Personality would be what I use.

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.