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Old 10-26-2020, 07:44 AM   #321
ericthered
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

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Originally Posted by Plane View Post
I am penalized for lacking common sense because I need to buy Common Sense to have GM let my char roll IQ to avoid making mistakes I would make. :(

Meanwhile, people who are smart as their chars can play them w/o ever needing to buy Common Sense.

It's like... if you are suave you can just talk NPCs into doing things and the GM could be so caught up in the words YOU use that they don't even both to roll for social skills.

That reminds me of another rule I ignore: the common sense advantage. If I see that on a character sheet I tell the player that I play as though everyone had it, because if they're doing something that stupid the odds are better than even that I, the GM, confused them in some way and misrepresented the situation.
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Old 10-26-2020, 08:13 AM   #322
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

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Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
That reminds me of another rule I ignore: the common sense advantage. If I see that on a character sheet I tell the player that I play as though everyone had it, because if they're doing something that stupid the odds are better than even that I, the GM, confused them in some way and misrepresented the situation.
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Old 10-26-2020, 08:53 AM   #323
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My players learn quickly to change their actions when I use the word 'interesting'.
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Old 10-26-2020, 10:40 AM   #324
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

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Originally Posted by Rupert View Post
Visualisation isn't a combat advantage unless heavily modified.
Visualisation is a MagikarpPower: it's very very underwhelming in its base form, but becomes pretty powerful once you fully upgrade it (at about 50-60 points).
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Old 10-26-2020, 12:24 PM   #325
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Plane View Post
I am penalized for lacking common sense because I need to buy Common Sense to have GM let my char roll IQ to avoid making mistakes I would make. :(

Meanwhile, people who are smart as their chars can play them w/o ever needing to buy Common Sense.

It's like... if you are suave you can just talk NPCs into doing things and the GM could be so caught up in the words YOU use that they don't even both to roll for social skills.
If it didn't come up earlier:

I've never officially run a game where this is the case, but back in my high school days - the last time I GMed and was part of a regular group - we had a house rule we found so natural I didn't even realize it was a house rule. If you pay for IQ X, your character has IQ X. If a player wants their character to do something far more clever than their IQ would suggest, it is reasonable to require an IQ roll. Thus, it seems natural the GM would roll if the player wants their character to do something but the character should "know better".

Yes, other traits can affect this, as can specific circumstances in the game, but it becomes the general baseline. This also helps with the GM/Player disconnect. What is really obvious or common to one of us may not be to another, let alone everyone in the group. It isn't about keeping the party stuck on the rails, but like a rumble strip to make sure you're intentionally going that direction and at that speed.

I still think there also ought to be a "Common Sense" Advantage, it just builds on the rules I described. Maybe a bonus to the aforementioned IQ roll, explaining the low IQ (GURPS meaning) character who displays a high level of (real-world definition) common sense. Possibly, there would be some other benefits. For example, raising your effective Skill with respect to Critical Failures. You fail just as often as someone without the trait, but your failures are less likely to make you look like an idiot. Stuff like that.
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Old 10-26-2020, 02:18 PM   #326
David Johnston2
 
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

Wanna make "Common Sense" more palatable? Increase the cost of Intuition by 5 points and let it be "common sense". When the character is about to do something stupid tell him "You have a bad feeling about that idea.". It's much less insulting than telling him he wants to do something dumb.
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Old 10-26-2020, 11:26 PM   #327
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Plane View Post
I am penalized for lacking common sense because I need to buy Common Sense to have GM let my char roll IQ to avoid making mistakes I would make. :(
That's a huge change I have when I GM. If the player seems to be doing something stupid, I will absolutely pause play for a moment to be like "I think one of use interpreted things wrong." Even smart and methodical players make stupid choices because of the lack of information compared to how much you receive in IRL situations.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ericthered View Post
That reminds me of another rule I ignore: the common sense advantage. If I see that on a character sheet I tell the player that I play as though everyone had it, because if they're doing something that stupid the odds are better than even that I, the GM, confused them in some way and misrepresented the situation.
Now what I do with the Common Sense advantage is when the player is doing something that does make sense but is actually stupid because I know it's stupid, Common Sense can protect them. To give examples;

Let's say the party comes across a camp of armed barbarians and things are tense. If one player is like "I run forward and stab him in the eye" I'll definitely comment "There are five of them, are you certain?" and give the player a moment to rewind and not do that, but I won't stop the player if they still decide to go forward. There's always the chance the player had thought there was only one there.

But let's say the scout was sneaking around, scoping the area out, and realized the barbarian's loot was hidden a bit away from the others. I'm not going to stop them from trying to steal the loot. But if the scout has Common Sense (and makes the roll) then I'll add "Are you sure it's safe?". I didn't say there was anything and the scout might have already checked for traps, but it's really easy to assume that there could still be a problem so Common Sense helps in a situation where nothing else really applies.

It also plays into the "Common Sense isn't common" ;)
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While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
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Old 10-27-2020, 08:55 AM   #328
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

Common Sense probably should represent forecasting ability, as in the ability to forecast the most likely consequence of an action. In general, it should probably allow the player to roll against IQ and, on a success, ask the GM if their character's proposed action is a good idea.
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Old 10-27-2020, 04:15 PM   #329
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
Common Sense probably should represent forecasting ability, as in the ability to forecast the most likely consequence of an action. In general, it should probably allow the player to roll against IQ and, on a success, ask the GM if their character's proposed action is a good idea.
That's a pretty good idea, but that feels pretty similar to Intuition. Then again, I dislike how Intuition works but I don't have a good fix for it.

On the note of another thread, I remembered I changed the Aim rules based on something T Bone brought up; You get +1 per second you aim. It's easier to remember than +1 after the first second and helps out in various situations, plus it's easier to remember.

https://www.gamesdiner.com/rules-nug...pg-better-aim/
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While I do not think that GURPS is perfect I do think that it is more balanced than what I am likely to create by GM fiat.
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Old 10-27-2020, 09:55 PM   #330
Mark Skarr
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Default Re: Rules you ignore/alter.

Hand of Bobb and I just had a fairly lengthy discussion about Afflictions, Side Effect and No Wounding. What we decided:

Side Effect, +50%, will continue to work as we have been using it—it’s the basis for an improved, but damaging, Affliction. Or, an attack with a Side Effect. But, it is working, unchanged.

We are also going to add a Side Effect +/-0% version. This comes, built-in, with No Wounding (this is important for us as we use Multiplicative Modifiers). To prevent the Small Piercing shenanigans that had led to some of these issues in the past, we are applying the following fix:
Instead of working on “penetrating damage,” it will, instead, be “conditional injury.” Basically, if there is a wounding modifier, from the innate attack it is applied to the penetrating damage before the penalty is calculated. Yes, this is a change, but it will help balance the differing point costs. So, basically, a Small Piercing attack would get -1 / 4 pts of damage, a regular piercing attack would be -1 / 2 pts, a large piercing would be . . . -1 / 1.5 pts (or something, not doing the maths right now), and huge piercing is -1 / 1 pt. Unliving and other modifiers (like locational wounding) do not apply.
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