What would it be like to wake up with 20 dex?

[SRoach]

Overcorrecting.
You'd probably spend a day being Very good at things you don't work on, but have to do occasionally, like catch a falling glass of water, while the things where you'd learned your limits, and how to account for them, you'd be reacting TOO soon. You'd jump the gun if you were trying to time something, because you'd spent so long learning how long before an event you had to react to it. You'd move just a little too fast to do things smoothly.
This would fade in hours, at about the same rate as you caught on, but for a little while you'd be simultaneously an instant klutz and very smooth.

Similar to how if you woke up with 20ST, your first clue could be when you absentmindedly crushed your coffee cup while picking it up.

Fortunately, for a sudden 20DX person, the very attribute you'd need to get your reactions back under control would be the very one that was suddenly amplified and causing the confusion.

A 20ST person might be breaking things and crushing hands for a day or two before they got reacquainted with their own strength.

Just my opinion on the matter.

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Yeah, if I suddenly became insanely healthy, I would obviously not need my glasses. But my diabetes medication would lead to at least one nasty hypoglycemic episode before I made the connection.

Though it's hard to imagine how sudden super Dexterity could cause problems.

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Why not? In GURPS terms, vision falls under Per rather than HT. In real world terms, most bad vision is the result of the shape of your lenses, which isn't going to change because of better overall health, any more than missing teeth are going to grow back. I suppose if we're talking about macular degeneration or something of the sort HT might have an effect, but I didn't think glasses helped with such problems. . . .

Indeed. "HT" is a rather loose abstraction, but there are some GURPS Disadvantages that are officially incompatible with high HT, and would presumably be cured as part of the miracle-handwave process of gaining HT 20 - but Bad Sight isn't one of them.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

Indeed. "HT" is a rather loose abstraction

The best description I've ever heard is this: "GURPS Health is a little weird . . . it rates how healthy you are except for everything that's wrong with you." Sort of like how IQ rates how well your brain works except when your psychological blind spots come up.

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

but there are some GURPS Disadvantages that are officially incompatible with high HT, and would presumably be cured as part of the miracle-handwave process of gaining HT 20 - but Bad Sight isn't one of them.

It's a very, very short list: Fat, Hemophilia, Skinny, and Very Fat. So if HT is pushed to 20 "no matter what," you'll end up with average or Overweight build and no Hemophilia. You'll still have your Bad Back, Chronic Pain, Susceptible to Disease, and Terminally Ill; you'll just be limited less by the first three. The last one will still kill you even if your HT goes to 100.

Were I doing this as the GM, I might tell the player, "You've magically been given 100 points with which you can raise HT or remove physical disadvantages, but do nothing else. Anybody with Terminally Ill has to buy that off first. Otherwise, have fun."

[Joe]

I'm really quite struck by how many of my fellow forumites think it would take a really specific DX-y event (catching a falling object, driving in traffic, or whatever) to let you know that your DX was suddenly 20.

Many of us even seem to think that you wouldn't notice until you did something that would require a DX or DX-based roll in GURPS terms.

Does no-one else think that you'd know immediately? I think that when you woke up, you'd be vastly, vastly more aware than you ever had been before of exactly where your body parts are, precisely how they relate to each other in space, and so on, and you'd feel like a whole different person. I think you'd know instantly that something was up, because, even just lying there in bed, you'd be inhabiting your body in an entirely different way.

Anyone else share this view? Or am I the lonely crazy over here?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Joe

Anyone else share this view? Or am I the lonely crazy over here?

I share your view. I think that DX 20 relative to the DX 8-12 most of us are walking around with would reflect such a radical rewiring of the nervous system that your sense of self and possibly your personality would be affected to a noticeable degree as soon as it happened.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Joe

Anyone else share this view? Or am I the lonely crazy over here?

Originally Posted by Kromm

I share your view.

This is great news: I might still be crazy, but I ain't lonely anymore. Thanks!

More seriously, I wonder who else agrees with this... Do forumites think that it would take a DX check, DX-based roll, or similar, to let you know you'd acquired 20 DX? Or would you realize right away?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Joe

I'm really quite struck by how many of my fellow forumites think it would take a really specific DX-y event (catching a falling object, driving in traffic, or whatever) to let you know that your DX was suddenly 20.

Many of us even seem to think that you wouldn't notice until you did something that would require a DX or DX-based roll in GURPS terms.

Does no-one else think that you'd know immediately? I think that when you woke up, you'd be vastly, vastly more aware than you ever had been before of exactly where your body parts are, precisely how they relate to each other in space, and so on, and you'd feel like a whole different person. I think you'd know instantly that something was up, because, even just lying there in bed, you'd be inhabiting your body in an entirely different way.

Anyone else share this view? Or am I the lonely crazy over here?

Originally Posted by Kromm

I share your view. I think that DX 20 relative to the DX 8-12 most of us are walking around with would reflect such a radical rewiring of the nervous system that your sense of self and possibly your personality would be affected to a noticeable degree as soon as it happened.

Originally Posted by Joe

This is great news: I might still be crazy, but I ain't lonely anymore. Thanks!

More seriously, I wonder who else agrees with this... Do forumites think that it would take a DX check, DX-based roll, or similar, to let you know you'd acquired 20 DX? Or would you realize right away?

I agree that DX 20 is no where enough to experience.

[Balor Patch]

Originally Posted by Joe

Anyone else share this view? Or am I the lonely crazy over here?

Oh, absolutely you'd notice almost immediately.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Why not? In GURPS terms, vision falls under Per rather than HT. In real world terms, most bad vision is the result of the shape of your lenses, which isn't going to change because of better overall health, any more than missing teeth are going to grow back. I suppose if we're talking about macular degeneration or something of the sort HT might have an effect, but I didn't think glasses helped with such problems. . . .

I really should stop posting right before bed.
Though insane Health would allow more ability to adjust the lens to compensate for poor vision of a purely focus problem.
Divers that don't use face masks often strengthen their ability to adjust to water's different refractive index, if I remember correctly.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I really should stop posting right before bed.
Though insane Health would allow more ability to adjust the lens to compensate for poor vision of a purely focus problem.
Divers that don't use face masks often strengthen their ability to adjust to water's different refractive index, if I remember correctly.

I don't see why that would fall under HT. It looks to me like it would be better Per, or maybe Acute Vision.