Stating a made-up disadvantage.

[zelameh]

As part of her backstory, I gave my most recent character in a Superhuman campaign a pretty restrictive trait that was just meant to be justification for why she's even involved with her party, what drives her to be there.

However, a party member suggested that it's SO restrictive, it ought to count as a disadvantage. I tried to stat it out, just for fun, but am not really sure where to even start.

Essentially she's a prisoner of the US Government who works for them as an alternative to execution (they can't figure out how to kill her, but if she fails to cooperate, they'll sure try some more!) or permanent imprisonment. This is because she's a danger to society and difficult to subdue, but the same traits that make her a threat also make her useful.

Her situation is this: I took Murder Addiction (-60, 3e, Compendium I p. 99), as well as Supernatural Durability (150, 4e, Basic Characters p. 89), and this sweet, Pitiable, little 18 year old Scottish-American girl of Fit build and average appearance - has murdered 40 people in cold blood that the government knows of. This is set in the 60's and due to her Pitiable trait, age (she was 16 when she was originally caught), and ideas of feminine fragility at the time, she ended up in a mental institution for the study of hysteria, rather than on death row, and eventually as the property of the U.S. Armed Forces.

She is restricted to base at all times, unless she is sent out on a mission, and cannot leave her barrack without supervision. Any episode of MIA or AWOL could cost her what little liberty she's allowed, such as rank, pay, having a bedroom instead of a cell, being allowed to leave that room to go to the commissary or on-base businesses (escorted), and even a revoke of the agreement entirely.

This is a life-long situation. The GM, who is also our units commanding officer, has said twice now that if she outlives her usefulness, there's no way she'd ever be allowed back into the general population as a civilian, even if the best they can do is lock her in a deep, dark hole somewhere and melt the key down into a paper weight.

She has no real future.

(She's been conditioned so that members of the U.S. Armed Forces fall under a Sense of Duty disadvantage, making her able to ignore them as targets for her Murder Addiction.)

How would you stat something like that? That she's practically a prisoner with a stay of execution in exchange for military service. What other disadvantages could I compare to this in trying to figure out how to stat it? I already have all the disadvantages the GM is allowing for this build, so stating this out isn't an effort to get more character creation points, it's just for fun.

[lvalero]

I would built with two disavantages:

Duty: She is restricted to base at all times, unless she is sent out on a mission, and cannot leave her barrack without supervision

Secret: In fact, you are not cured of your Murder Addiction!

[zelameh]

@ lvalero - I did consider adding Secret in the sense that none of the party members know about this. I asked the GM if any of them, especially the two with rank, would have been informed and he said they would not, the information was Need to Know. If they found out they'd probably reject her socially and resist working with her as a part of their unit. Understandably, she's a monster. But like I said I'm maxed out on disadvantages anyway.

What I want to do is quantify the situation she's in; specifically that she's got a choice between military service or a cramped cell and a straight jacket Hannibal style, and there's really no chance of her ever going free again unless she wants to become a fugitive. She's not exactly a slave and definitely doesn't have Slave Mentality, but she's not free by most definitions either. Technically it's iffy whether or not she still has any rights.

The only two books I have access to are Characters and Campaigns - so if a disadvantage just like this already exists in another book, cool - does anyone know which one, and what it's called? I found out about Murder Addiction from the official list of disadvantages posted on this site, and had to dig for ages to find the wording.

[Dalillama]

Murder addiction no longer exists in 4e. The character you describe, in 4e, has Uncontrollable Appetite (Murder) -15* (p. B159), Secret (is a compulsive serial killer) (probably only -10, since most of the negative consequences have already happened), p. B 152, and Duty 15-(extremely Hazardous, involuntary ) [-25] p. B134.

[zelameh]

@ Dalillama - Ah. I had seen a magazine article converting it but hadn't seen the name change. I'll look at Uncontrollable Appetite and see if the point difference affects my character too much, (She has a bunch of disadvantages that I had taken at 0 because I was already maxed out).

Edit: Found it. Read up. Boo. I don't agree with that conversion - of course I'll do whatever my GM says I need to, but I think lumping Murder Addiction into Uncontrollable Appetite, the way UA is worded, is kinda lame. Murder Addiction specifically allowed for a creepy serial killer vibe. It took into account the risk associated with the act being extremely illegal and hard to accomplish without getting caught.

Uncontrollable Appetite covers all addictions from heroin to sex and CAKE, so it can't possibly account for the level of social taboo associated with the individual acts. It also seems to play like a berserker shark in bloody water, considering that one has to roll Will any time anyone tempts them even slightly, and on a botched roll must keep indulging until there's nothing left to consume. That means one botched Will save could result in an entire room full of bodies, in public, in front of my party members, with no planning or grace, completely ignoring the killers MO or preferred victim (so pretty much stripping it of all it's flavor) so that it all but ensures blown cover and plenty of sloppy evidence left at the scene. The point cost and gameplay seems extremely nerfed.

"Whenever you have an opportunity
to indulge, you must make a self-control
roll. Roll at -2 if someone deliberately
tempts you, or if the item you
feed on is available in large quantities
within range of your senses ... If you fail, you must
feed. Make a second self-control roll to
stop feeding once you have had your
fill. If you fail, you go into frenzy and
overindulge, which could kill your
victim."

[starslayer]

If it's damned near supernatural;
Dependency - murder

Is a better way to model murder addiction vs uncontrollable appetite.

Have it reduce iq when ignored rather than deeper HP and eventually the pc devolves into a mindless killing monster if they do not indulge.

[Bruno]

GURPS Horror (for 4e) reintroduces "Murder addiction" in the form of Compulsive Murderer, which is base -15 points modified by self-control.

The thumbnail description is that instead of having a fixed time period within which you have to murder someone or suffer (like an addict with a drug), it's based on exposure.
If you spot a suitable victim (defined when you take the disad), you succeed on Self Control or immediately begin planning the murder. If you take too long enact the plan, or the GM otherwise gets the impression you're stalling, he's to afflict you with things like Bad Temper, Chronic Pain (headaches) etc until you actually make the kill.

This is a fairly realistic kind of Serial Killer disadvantage, although some serial killers really do seem to degenerate into having a sort of "count-down to next murder" timer. As their condition worsens, they escalate to shorter and shorter periods between killings, and usually more violent and/or elaborate and ritualized killings. If not caught, this can end self-destructively - suicide, murder/suicide, spree-killing and murder-via-cop, or taking more and more risks to get the next victim until someone fatally wounds the killer in self-defense.

Uncontrollable Appetite doesn't have the "I have a countdown timer to murdering" effect, and neither does Compulsive Murderer. Dependency doesn't quite feel right to me, either - the idea is that you have a mental desire/compulsion to murder, not that you have a physical (or mental) dependency on it and you're punished for not doing it. The difference between wanting it and having to do it.

[Flyndaran]

I can't help but connect that write up with a previous thread I just read about cats.
I think most cats have Murder Addiction only that a "kill" could be a symbolic "neck snap" to our feet.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Bruno

GURPS Horror (for 4e) reintroduces "Murder addiction" in the form of Compulsive Murderer, which is base -15 points modified by self-control.

The thumbnail description is that instead of having a fixed time period within which you have to murder someone or suffer (like an addict with a drug), it's based on exposure.
If you spot a suitable victim (defined when you take the disad), you succeed on Self Control or immediately begin planning the murder. If you take too long enact the plan, or the GM otherwise gets the impression you're stalling, he's to afflict you with things like Bad Temper, Chronic Pain (headaches) etc until you actually make the kill.

This is a fairly realistic kind of Serial Killer disadvantage, although some serial killers really do seem to degenerate into having a sort of "count-down to next murder" timer. As their condition worsens, they escalate to shorter and shorter periods between killings, and usually more violent and/or elaborate and ritualized killings. If not caught, this can end self-destructively - suicide, murder/suicide, spree-killing and murder-via-cop, or taking more and more risks to get the next victim until someone fatally wounds the killer in self-defense.

Uncontrollable Appetite doesn't have the "I have a countdown timer to murdering" effect, and neither does Compulsive Murderer. Dependency doesn't quite feel right to me, either - the idea is that you have a mental desire/compulsion to murder, not that you have a physical (or mental) dependency on it and you're punished for not doing it. The difference between wanting it and having to do it.

What if you used Limiting Disadvantages here from Power-Ups 8? So let's say you have Compulsive Murderer (12) [-15] + Not Compulsive Murderer (12) [15] and then added Minimum Duration to the latter? It's clearly a beneficial ability. So Not Compulsive Murderer (12) (Minimum Duration, 1 month, -25%) [12] so Compulsive Murderer (12) (Accessibility, One-Month Trigger, -80%) [-3] means that every 30 days the character feels a compulsion to kill a sentient being and if they don't they have to wrestle with their inner serial killer until they do.