Why is Broad-Minded a Quirk?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

No, a house ruling is when you depart from what is RAW.

I haven't. It's still a "A trivial level of Xenophilia". Those are the important words when figuring out what the rest of it means.

[Jeffr0]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

Narrow-minded is not a thing you 'get' to be. Fundamentally, unless you impute a negative to it because the rules require it, the common semantic meaning of broadminded denotes a trait that would be positive in GURPS terms.

I disagree.

This totally depends on the campaign setting and core premise. If his god/religion is real, being "broad minded" would not be a good thing for a cleric. He may be required to be role play a certain degree of "narrow mindedness" in order to be able to purchase higher levels of status in his order.

[kenclary]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

Narrow-minded is not a thing you 'get' to be.

How so? I see no reason why "Narrow-Minded" isn't a perfectly valid quirk, for example.

Fundamentally, unless you impute a negative to it because the rules require it, the common semantic meaning of broadminded denotes a trait that would be positive in GURPS terms.

How is it a positive? It does not give a net gain to any success rolls. Any social benefits it has would be very context-dependent, and generally countered by similarly context-dependent downsides.

Concerning "common semantics," all of "attentive," "honest," "careful," and "humble" are considered positive within various cultures, but they are all disadvantages/quirks in GURPS.

Attentive and Distractible are both quirks. Nosy and Staid are both quirks. Congenial and Uncongenial are both quirks. GURPS does not assign a "positive" to any of them; despite being pairs of opposites, they are all considered small negatives. They just further specify the character in a way that the game (and likely the GM) considers worth giving the player a point.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Those are the important words when figuring out what the rest of it means.

An amusing assertion, albeit arbitrary and unsupported.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Jeffr0

I disagree.

This totally depends on the campaign setting and core premise.

However, in the post you are replying to, I had referred to the common, present day usage of broadminded, in the context of how SJG had chosen to name the trait.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

Narrow-minded is not a thing you 'get' to be. Fundamentally, unless you impute a negative to it because the rules require it, the common semantic meaning of broadminded denotes a trait that would be positive in GURPS terms.

Can you specify what that trait is? It doesn't seem worth guessing what, in your opinion 'a common semantic meaning' of broadminded is.

I can't think of a meaning in which it would be positive rather than default or negative, myself.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

An amusing assertion, albeit arbitrary and unsupported.

There are two sentences in the description:

"A trivial form of Xenophilia"

and

"You get along well with other races and species and strange looks rarely bother you."

Of the two sentences which makes sense as a description of a quirk in isolation? Why do you prefer the interpretation that doesn't make sense?

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

There are two sentences in the description:

"A trivial form of Xenophilia"

and

"You get along well with other races and species and strange looks rarely bother you."

Of the two sentences which makes sense as a description of a quirk in isolation? Why do you prefer the interpretation that doesn't make sense?

The first sentence doesn't have any content to operationalize.

[Figleaf23]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Can you specify what that trait is?

One that liberates a character from normal levels of narrow-mindedness.

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by Figleaf23

One that liberates a character from normal levels of narrow-mindedness.

There is no such thing as normal levels of narrow-mindedness for a PC. So being liberated from them is a no-op. A PC's thoughts and choices are constrained only by their disadvantages. If you don't have any disadvantages making you narrow-minded, you're not in any way obliged to be.