Critique please: some perks

malloyd · 11-23-2018, 09:59 AM

[QUOTE=Bicorn;2223881]
Dietary Supplement Physical, Exotic
I think this is fine, but maybe a little over specific.
For example humans actually can eat grass, the reason it is mostly non-nutritious for them is the same reason leaves aren't - inability to break cellulose down into it's component sugars. Actually, I don't think any animals can, but some of them have symbiotic microorganisms that are able to. Anyway if you could then it's not just grass that becomes nutritious, you can now derive substantial calories from lettuce or other leaves, tree bark, natural fiber rope or cloth.... None of those are after all *toxic*, it's just eating them is pointless.

Dog's Guise Physical, Exotic
I go back and forth on whether or not this is a valid class of perks.
It's essentially an application of Disguise that automatically works. On the plus side since your basic appearance is pretty much free choice, one point seems ample. On the other hand, a single point to automatically succeed at one of the more common uses of Disguise - become unrecognizable to people specifically looking for you - feels cheap.

Dual Perk
No. When you are down it this sort of base point range, stuff simply is not balanced for enhancements or limitations, which is why they aren't allowed. You want two limited perks, they cost you 2 points no matter how limited they are. If you want this to fit several traits inside a perk limit, the right approach is to ignore the perk limit for one or both traits.

Facial Memory Mental
Sure

Fainting Trick Physical/Mental
I allow a more general Controllable Condition to afflict yourself with any particular involuntary reflex or Irritating Condition at will. Some of them are admittedly more useful than others - Controllable Blushing or Crying or Shivering or Sleepy seem a lot more useful than Controllable Unconsciousness or Agony, but if you want to be able to render yourself unconscious at will, sure, why not.

Gourmet's Nose Physical
I'd say no. This is probably the biggest slice of the utility of the advantage - finding food or detect poisons in it is most of what chemical senses are for - and it's a fairly expensive advantage to start with. Getting it down to a point implies this is a pretty huge limitation, and I don't think it is.

Heave Ho! Physical
Doubled Extra Effort makes me a little nervous, I'd worry about unexpected interactions with other Extra Effort rules. A flat +10%, including to any extensions from Extra Effort would be fine though.

Lead Belly Physical
Sure. Though honestly I think the radiation rules are one of those places GURPS has let realism go overboard - Hit Points and Fatigue are fine for everything from being crushed by rocks, to having your blood sucked out, to subtle chemical poisons, but radiation needs a separate system?

Lick Wounds Physical
Sure.

Memorized (body of work) Mental
I've allowed that forever, as Repertoire. The thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't allow you to *do* anything much with the memorized work - you still need some other skill - Performance, Public Speaking, Singing, Theology etc. - for most actual applications. The perk is in allowing you to skip rehearsal times or unfamiliarity penalties, it is *not* the ability to perform the work flawlessly.

Memory Hole Mental
I don't allow you any chance to recover the memory. And recommend you don't either unless you are going to allow some similar process for the erasure to fail when mind readers, torturers etc. try to pull it out from you.
Note that sufficiently major memory modifications may take skills or abilities with them at the GM's option - erase all your memories of your employment by a secret group and you forget their secrets too - if you had a Hidden Lore skill for them, it's gone.

Money Sense Mental
Absolutely not. Determining how much cash somebody is carrying is a really useful ability to your typical murder hobo adventurer I'd require a full on Detect advantage for. Possibly several different ones. Likewise for the other sources of wealth if they are big enough.
I'd probably be OK with the look at somebody and know their relative Wealth level bit though.

Mysterious Stranger Social
Not a perk. Working only when needed is not a limitation on anything, not even an Ally. This one, where you roll each time he could help and not once per session, is an actual *enhancement* - sure you failed the first roll but if a situation where he'd help comes up again, you get another attempt....

Perfect Pitch Mental
Sure. I also allow you to tell if two notes have the same pitch even if you aren't hearing them at the same time. And you can identify the note by name (or numerical frequency) if your culture has such a system of named notes.

Perfect Teeth Physical
Sure. I might toss in lost teeth regrow after a while - treating it as Regrowth (teeth only). Admittedly -95% is pushing for a limitation on the Minor Regrowth advantage, but then I tend to think Regrowth is vastly overpriced (considering Injury Tolerance (Unbreakable Bones) usually makes it irrelevant for less) and this is a trait real animals often do have.

Personal Diet Physical, Exotic
Sure. Though I suspect for most cases it'd come up, I'd probably just call it Immunity to Deficiency Diseases - as long as you get enough calories, you're fine.

Phrenologist Mental
This isn't a perk. It's maybe a separate skill, or given how effective you've written it to be, a serious advantage (like Empathy, Aura Reading as an innate spell, or one of Kromm's Detect (traits) writeups) with a touch range and takes extra time limitation.
About the maximum I'd consider allowing is a perk to let you make a (maybe Per based) roll against a skill you already have to learn something a successful roll against the skill could already tell you. So take a few minutes to feel the bumps and make a PER based Psychology roll, and you can learn something you actually could find out with Psychology, but without needing to conduct an interview, administer an IQ or Personality test etc. If it wouldn't be apparent to a psych test, a perk isn't going to be enough to detect it either.

Psychedelic Visionary Mental, Supernatural
There are perks like this already (Drunken Fighting and Afflicted Casting for example), but I'm skeptical of them. They after all amount to a skill (or attribute) bonus with a limitation (must get intoxicated) which is essentially preparation required and temporary disadvantage (reduced attributes for everything else). Building it like that would usually be quite a few more points than a perk.

Redoubled (effort) Physical
Maybe OK, but again I worry about interactions with other modifications to the rules with "doubled" and would prefer a different phrasing.

Rich Inner Life Mental
Sure. Though given there are no game mechanical effects to boredom in the first place I've always wanted to find some sort of actual benefit to make immunity to it worth the point. Never managed to think of one I liked though.

Run Away! Physical
Same deal about doubling extra effort. Note that +1 Move (only when fleeing) all by itself is worth more than a point, so if you can ever gain more than that, I think it's pushing. On the other hand, successfully running away is something I like to encourage, so if somebody actually wanted this perk, proving it's a tactic they actually plan to consider, I might allow a much bigger bonus than I would if the limitation were anything other than "while running away".

Schtick: No Fingerprints
My rule for the game mechanical effect of this is it applies a -2 to Forensics rolls to link you to a location or crime.

Strenuous Exercise (type) Physical
Sure, I'd allow a perk to burn HP instead of Fatigue for pretty much anything you want it for, *provided* your character doesn't also have some sort of self healing that would be useful in combat time. The abuse to watch out for here is the character who can burn HP instead of fatigue, regenerates it all next turn, and does it again every action.

Bicorn · 11-23-2018, 08:21 PM