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Old 09-15-2022, 10:27 PM   #21
Inky
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
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Default Re: Girl Genius: Sparks disappoint.

*lightning strikes thread* It lives!!!!!!


I'm bored and have been taking a crack at this, but I've run into a few snags.

I don't have access to GURPS Girl Genius - do Sparks have Quick Gadgeteer in that, or only standard Gadgeteer?

I put in "Compulsive Sciencing" (based on the other "Compulsive [so-and-so]" disadvantages). It seems like a close fit in general, but there's an unintended interaction with Berserk.
It seems like possibly either Sparks in general or some Sparks should have the actual Berserk disadvantage as well as any house-ruled "ze madness" disadvantage (see, for instance, Gil's fight with Vole after the Siege of Mechanicsburg), and Compulsive Sciencing interacts awkwardly with the Berserk disadvantage.
If you have to go a whole day without doing your Compulsive thing you have the Bad Temper disadvantage instead until you do. (Which, in itself, seems a close fit for the comic). And, RAW, even if you have a high self-control number for Berserk, failing a Bad Temper check automatically means you go Berserk, which seems excessive.
Does it seem reasonable to just rule that in this case it doesn't go to Berserk, or maybe have it go to the "ze madness" disadvantage rather than directly to Berserk?

Quote:
Originally Posted by naloth View Post
If you read the description, Fanaticism is basically a 15 point version of obsession that pushes it from rationalizing all your actions to reach "the" goal to include any sacrifices necessary (your life, other lives, whatever) to reach "the" goal. Extreme Fanaticism also includes bonuses for resisting things that would cause you to betray or divert from your goals.

Are sparks willing to kill themselves and others for the invention or just people that devote all their time to a goal?
On re-reading the Fanaticism description, Naloth is quite right, it is Fanaticism. Fanaticism is phrased in a way that assumes that it's about a group or ideal rather than about a goal like Obsession, which makes it seem like it wouldn't apply to this, but RAW it doesn't have to be.
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Old 09-29-2022, 10:44 PM   #22
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Default Re: Girl Genius: Sparks disappoint.

What happens if you have a disadvantage with a self-control number of 18? By RAW, following the cost progression logically, it should be worth 0 points. But would that be correct, if you're doing it like that with the expectation that it'll come into play when the character has a penalty to self-control rolls, and with a build where that can be expected to happen quite often?
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Old 09-29-2022, 11:16 PM   #23
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Default Re: Girl Genius: Sparks disappoint.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inky View Post
What happens if you have a disadvantage with a self-control number of 18? By RAW, following the cost progression logically, it should be worth 0 points. But would that be correct, if you're doing it like that with the expectation that it'll come into play when the character has a penalty to self-control rolls, and with a build where that can be expected to happen quite often?
IIRC, "Easily Resisted Disadvantage" is listed in Power-Ups 6: Quirks for this sort of thing. Sorry I don't have a page ref offhand.
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Old 09-30-2022, 08:33 AM   #24
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Default Re: Girl Genius: Sparks disappoint.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Inky View Post
What happens if you have a disadvantage with a self-control number of 18? By RAW, following the cost progression logically, it should be worth 0 points. But would that be correct, if you're doing it like that with the expectation that it'll come into play when the character has a penalty to self-control rolls, and with a build where that can be expected to happen quite often?
Also keep in mind you always fail on a 17 and critically fail on an 18, if critical failures matter (in this case they do not).



Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantasm View Post
IIRC, "Easily Resisted Disadvantage" is listed in Power-Ups 6: Quirks for this sort of thing. Sorry I don't have a page ref offhand.
Easily Suppressed Disadvantage, Power-Ups 6 Quirks pg 10. And it presumes a Self Control of 16.

"If the GM can “force” the problem on you only on a critically failed self-control roll (17 or 18), then it’s just a quirk."

Personally I do it a different way, I allow the Player to "buy Perks", +1 to Resist [Disadvantage], and they can even roll it into the Disad's cost. The cost of the Disad cannot be reduced to below -1. Mostly it's just a way for the PC to have the Disad, but have an easy way to resist it when they want.

I usually only see this on Berserk...
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Old 09-30-2022, 08:37 PM   #25
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Default Re: Girl Genius: Sparks disappoint.

Thanks both of you. Hmm, looks like that wouldn't be a good fit for "really only applies when actively Sparking" disadvantages, then, what with it leading to them happening anyway on a 17 or 18. Would have been neat and tidy to do them all like that, but it doesn't give the right results.

Somebody suggested adding a Temporary Disadvantage to Compulsive Inventing, but I'm not sure whether adding a Temporary Disadvantage to a Disadvantage is a legal move. Is it? If so, how would you price it?

Also,
Quote:
Originally Posted by dataweaver View Post
levels of Gastrointestinal
Explain? :-D
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Old 09-30-2022, 08:58 PM   #26
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Default Re: Girl Genius: Sparks disappoint.

Typo, obviously. From the context, I'm pretty sure I meant Gadgeteer.
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Old 09-30-2022, 09:24 PM   #27
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Default Re: Girl Genius: Sparks disappoint.

Ah, I see. That's a pretty exotic bit of autocorrect. Having not read GURPS Girl Genius, I thought it might be some kind of weird in-joke, this being Girl Genius :-D
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Old 09-30-2022, 09:45 PM   #28
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Default Re: Girl Genius: Sparks disappoint.

I have a finger-tracing virtual keyboard. Usually, it's a timesaver; but every once in a while, it does something funky. This is especially likely to occur with exotic words like “Gadgeteer”.
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