My Honest Opinion

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Point values are not a perfect guide to how problematic a disadvantage is in a given campaign. In a gritty WWII special operations campaign, Pacifism (Reluctant Killer), or indeed, any other pacifism, is a much greater handicap than their point-values suggest. In a campaign where the PCs are supposed to be freelance criminals and covert operatives in the style of Ronin, playing multiple sides against each other, Easy to Ready and Truthfulness are much more crippling than their point value would indicate. And in a campaign where the PCs are meant to be undercover narcotics officers, several Disadvantages, such as Honesty or Intolerance (Drug Dealers), would be so crippling as to make the character unsuitable for the campaign.

And in a campaign where the PCs are meant to be an extrajudicial death squad handling problems that the mundane law enforcement authorities of the world neither know about nor are equipped to handle, Honesty is archtypical of a Disadvantage that makes a character unsuited for the very concept of the campaign. Taking Honesty for an outlaw whose very career is against the law is like taking Lame (Sessile) for a runner.

There are variations. But the default assumption is that PCs are adventurers of some sort, but not necessarily Ronin-style crooks. And so a calibration of disads to an adventury campaign should be considered. Are you saying that in the majority of typical campaigns, the amount of trouble you describe is a fair amount of trouble for 10 points?

And notice that Kromm, Hackard and/or participated in the making of MH, Action, Mysteries (where That Darn Kid can have Honesty), and probably other books with Honest adventurers, then that seems to indicate that the authors and editors of GURPS don't interpret Honesty the way you do.