Switchable Disadvantage with Conditions

[Nedorus]

I'm sure this has been discussed somewhere but my search fu is failing me right now.
I'm trying to build an animal companion that can (under certain circumstances) speak.
It has the Meta-Trait 'Domestic Animal' and I want to set a limitation on "Cannot Speak". But somehow all things I consider (costs fatigue, limited use) seem to be specifically designed for Advantages.

I'm thinking of adding an advantage that cancels the disadvantage out but that somehow seems wrong.

I was even considering 'Accessibility' but that doesn't seem to achieve what I want.

Can someone please point me to a thread or rules section that would discuss this ... it would be much appreciated.

[Fred Brackin]

Buy off the Cannot Speak giving you the Advantage "No Can Not Speak" and then put your limitations on that.

<shrug>I know it seems complicated but it gets you in the category you want to be in i.e. Limited Advantage.

[Nedorus]

Yeah, I was thinking of that:

I'm thinking of adding an advantage that cancels the disadvantage out

But somehow I feel there must be a more elegant / GURPSish way of doing it ...
If all else fails, I'll go that route...

[David Johnston2]

There's a more elegant way of phrasing it which is to say just call the advantage "Can Speak". In general, if you had mute as a separate disadvantage rather than part of a package, you'd use Mitigator.

[Varyon]

Negated Disadvantage is generally the RAW way to do this, but if you think that's too weird on the character sheet, then just take the Limitation(s) you want to apply, add to 100%, and then make the result negative. So Costs FP 1/minute, normally -5%, becomes -95%. For Disadvantages, Limitations can go below -80% (if they reach or exceed -100%, or otherwise wind up worth less of a discount than [-1] just call it a Quirk), and you round toward 0. Call the new Limitation something like Negation: <Limitation Name> - in the above case, you're looking at Cannot Speak (Negation: Costs Fatigue, 1 FP/min -95%) [-0.75], which works out to just a Quirk.

[Donny Brook]

Mitigator might work, depending on what clnditions allow speech.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Nedorus

Can someone please point me to a thread or rules section that would discuss this ... it would be much appreciated.

Didn't have a chance to look before I responded earlier, but you can find a discussion of this in GURPS Power-Ups 8: Limitations, on page 6. That gives the same two options I mentioned in my post - either take a negating Advantage and Limit that, or change the value of the Limitation and apply it to the Disadvantage (although it explains it more concisely than I did - subtract the Limitation value from -100%).

[Stormcrow]

Personally, I find nothing awkward about using an advantage "Can Speak" on a character sheet for an animal companion that can speak.

(This is, in part, because I follow normal GURPS convention and do not write the components of racial templates on character sheets, so there is no Cannot Speak on the sheet to begin with.)

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

(This is, in part, because I follow normal GURPS convention and do not write the components of racial templates on character sheets, so there is no Cannot Speak on the sheet to begin with.)

Doing that is useful for saving space, but unless you have every component of the template memorized, actually listing them on the document you use for play can be helpful. And, of course, while this particular example might have a racial template in play, there are plenty of character concepts that work out to "Has Disadvantage X, except under these circumstances (or maybe "only under these circumstances)" where no template or metatrait is involved - or you may be building a new template/metatrait that includes that limited Disadvantage. I do think the cleanest option is typically to simply adjust the value of the Limitation and apply it directly to the Disadvantage.

[Nedorus]

Sorry for the late reply.
Thanks to everyone who answered here.
I think the way to go for me here is the one described by Varyon (thanks once again!).
The "Can Speak + Limitations" options seems to awkward foe my taste though it would certainly work.