How do you handle Affliction: Destiny?

[Prince Charon]

What it says on the tin. Sure, 'I would not allow the ability to afflict someone with a Destiny ad or disad at all' is a valid response, but if you did allow it, how would you handle it? After all, an Affliction is usually temporary, and Destiny is something that needs to be worked into the campaign. Celtic Myth is full of people (some of them close enough to mortal to make plausible PCs) who can place a geas on others, and a geas (geis, gesa) in that sort of setting is a variant of Destiny, so the question is somewhat valid for that setting, as well (even though those are usually permanent).

(For clarification, I'm not assuming that 'allows Destinies as Afflictions at all' is in any way equivalent to 'allows PCs to afflict any Destiny which they can think of.' Forbidding unbalancing, game-breaking, or otherwise fun-killing abilities is part of the GM's job.)

[the_matrix_walker]

The easiest usage is the Impulse buys version, giving the target points to spend for the afflicted advantage version, and points used against them for the afflicted disadvantage.

You cannot afflict a specific destiny, as normally the GM determines a Destiny in secret. You'd likely need to extend the duration to permanent because Destiny's don't become fulfilled overnight.

I think this is the wrong way to go for a Geas. Mind Control with conditioning can implant a Compulsive Behavior or obsession. or you can Afflict those disadvantages.

If you want to get a little closer to a geas, you can use affliction to grant the Cursed disadvantage, with a mitigator. The daily "treatment" to satisfy the mitigator would be pursuing the stated order of the geas. I find that feels right with the historic "follow your geas to avoid your doom" stories.

[WingedKagouti]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

If you want to get a little closer to a geas, you can use affliction to grant the Cursed disadvantage, with a mitigator. The daily "treatment" to satisfy the mitigator would be pursuing the stated order of the geas. I find that feels right with the historic "follow your geas to avoid your doom" stories.

That actually sounds like a really good idea.

Mythologically speaking, Destiny is closer to "This will happen to you regardless of what you do" while a Geas is more along the lines of "You will do this or else!"

[kirbwarrior]

The default way I've done it in the past is "This requires Permanent +300%". Advantageous Destinies can change to other traits when fulfilled, disadvantageous ones require being paid off or replaced. Since both fundamentally change the character, Permanent is the best starting point.

If you want to be able to give someone another Destiny, then that would require Cumulative and probably Accessibility: Not someone who is currently going through a Destiny. Cumulative because you are changing someone's point total even if it gets its name changed from Destiny to (say) Reputation and Accessibility so you can't stack them up all at once (although any heavy cost, such as Costs CP, can easily replace it). Of course, Cumulative + Permanent is probably the scariest combo in GURPS so....

As for selecting what type of Destiny, I usually don't let that be under the player's control, but I did with one particularly strong character and that required a +300% enhancement as per Powers 133. Without that, the target gets a Destiny but the user has no idea what it is aside from power level.

I'm flexible on Permanent and player choice. If they really want a very specific Destiny (for instance, "Won't be home on the one day they needed to be") and combine with an Affliction that merely lasts days or weeks (as per PU4 p14), then you can have a neat luck-manipulation power (in this case, for a powered thief). And Permanent +150% does work, but any new traits gained are still affected by the kill condition.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

If you want to get a little closer to a geas, you can use affliction to grant the Cursed disadvantage, with a mitigator. The daily "treatment" to satisfy the mitigator would be pursuing the stated order of the geas. I find that feels right with the historic "follow your geas to avoid your doom" stories.

Most gesa that I recall are 'don't do X' type of things (e.g. don't eat the flesh of a dog, don't refuse any food offered to you by a woman), though of course not all, so the worth of the mitigators is probably variable. There may be an enhancement on some gesa, due to breaking one gesa creating a situation where you break another, and another, and then suddenly you realize that you're following three red men into the house of red, and you die soon after (in a rather epic way, though).

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Most gesa that I recall are 'don't do X' type of things (e.g. don't eat the flesh of a dog, don't refuse any food offered to you by a woman), though of course not all, so the worth of the mitigators is probably variable. There may be an enhancement on some gesa, due to breaking one gesa creating a situation where you break another, and another, and then suddenly you realize that you're following three red men into the house of red, and you die soon after (in a rather epic way, though).

Then perhaps you would prefer to base it on "Dependancy: Good standing on Geas, constantly" so that if you break your geas, you take damage until you die. It can just be a special effect in regards to the damage source, in that the dependency does not cause it directly, and instead, fate delivers it through circumstance.

[Anthony]

Affliction: Destiny doesn't work that well for a geas, but it does a decent job for curses, which frequently are in the form of "You will suffer bad thing X", with neither method nor timeframe specified.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

Then perhaps you would prefer to base it on "Dependancy: Good standing on Geas, constantly" so that if you break your geas, you take damage until you die. It can just be a special effect in regards to the damage source, in that the dependency does not cause it directly, and instead, fate delivers it through circumstance.

I don't think I'd base it on Dependency, since it's only the Death Geas that is certain to cause damage (sort of), the others just set up the situation that leads to your death, without themselves necessarily causing any damage at all. Curse with some type or variant of Mitigator probably works better, it just needs a fitting enhancement.

[David Johnston2]

By requiring it to be bought as Permanent. Destinies have no set time limit and setting one would make a Destiny affliction more, not less useful. So cursing or blessing someone with doom or to become the Chosen one would be insanely expensive. Unless you want curses to be easy, in which case no need for duration.