Less Sleep limitation: mental activity only?

[vicky_molokh]

Greetings, all!

What would be a fair limitation for Less Sleep that makes the character only be able to use the affected hours for mental activity, with the body remaining asleep in the physical sense? That is:

• The character cannot walk around in its body, or otherwise perform physical actions. Essentially this allows nothing other than Concentrate, All-Out Concentrate or Do Nothing - kinda like the restrictions for the non-dominant compartmentalised mind.
• Likewise, the character cannot use physical teleoperation.
• The character can freely perform purely mental tasks, such as composing poems in its mind, pondering problems, making Concept Rolls (though this is something of a moot point), living in mental realms (Astral Plane, Virtual Reality etc.), meditating, casting spells that do not require gestures and do not require words (in a magical setting) etc.
• The character may perform other mental actions that are made possible by other traits, e.g. talking to others and watching videos with Telecommunication, solving complex mathematical tasks with Intuitive Mathematician, use CAT/CAD to engineer new things with Accessory (Computer) or a computer connected through Telecommunication, studying skills with Telecommunication and a teacher/teaching program or Reawakened,

Thanks in advance!

[sir_pudding]

You can't study from books, a teacher, or on the job. Nor can you stand guard. So this is a significant limitation because extra study time and the ability to stand extra watches seems to be main utility of the trait. At least -20% but I'd say -50%.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

You can't study from books, a teacher, or on the job. Nor can you stand guard. So this is a significant limitation because extra study time and the ability to stand extra watches seems to be main utility of the trait. At least -20% but I'd say -50%.

Well, you can study from a teacher, but you need the teacher to have a proper interface that allows purely mental exchange of information, such both of you having a USB jack in your heads and connecting to the same virtual realm (which feels like an extra step, and does require the character to have another Advantage, but far from impossible to arrange in a setting where it is relevant), or having a two-way Telesend (in campaigns with supernatural), or something like that. Accessory (Computer)/VII kinda dodges the inability to study from books too.

Not being able to stand guard does feel like a serious drawback under 'out in the hostile area' conditions, I'll grant that. Not being able to interact with others in meatspace feels like something ranging from a nuisance to a large problem depending on how those specific people react to such weirdness.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Well, you can study from a teacher, but you need the teacher to have a proper interface that allows purely mental exchange of information, such both of you having a USB jack in your heads and connecting to the same virtual realm (which feels like an extra step, and does require the character to have another Advantage, but far from impossible to arrange in a setting where it is relevant), or having a two-way Telesend (in campaigns with supernatural), or something like that. Accessory (Computer)/VII kinda dodges the inability to study from books too.

If there's full body simulating mental VR that totally replaces real-life for everybody in every way, then it's not worth anything at all. Most settings aren't going to have that though. Even in settings where you can do something useful with this it's going to represent an investment of points and/or money in enabling it and probably still won't let you study many (or even) most skills because of the lack of body-feedback.

Not being able to stand guard does feel like a serious drawback under 'out in the hostile area' conditions, I'll grant that. Not being able to interact with others in meatspace feels like something ranging from a nuisance to a large problem depending on how those specific people react to such weirdness.

At TL0-8 without supernatural abilities, it's barely useful at all and won't be distinguishable from sleep (in fact it's a only a hallucination away from Paralysis During Normal Sleep which ought to be a disadvantage embellishment quirk that goes with Nightmares).

[McAllister]

-10% if supernatural advantages that allow mental communication are available without Unusual Background (or other burdensome prerequisites)
-20% if such advantages are available with Unusual Background
-30% if such advantages are unavailable

additional -10% if PCs have a reasonable expectation of being attacked while they sleep

That's how I'd do it. It's also a cool concept, I like it. Now I want to play Sleeping Beauty, the comatose astral projector...

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Greetings, all!

What would be a fair limitation for Less Sleep that makes the character only be able to use the affected hours for mental activity,

I wouldn't put a percentage value on that until the player told me just what kinds of mental activity the character would be capable of.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

If there's full body simulating mental VR that totally replaces real-life for everybody in every way, then it's not worth anything at all. Most settings aren't going to have that though. Even in settings where you can do something useful with this it's going to represent an investment of points and/or money in enabling it and probably still won't let you study many (or even) most skills because of the lack of body-feedback.

I was thinking Transhuman Space primarily. I did want to keep an eye out towards generification for other settings.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

At TL0-8 without supernatural abilities, it's barely useful at all and won't be distinguishable from sleep (in fact it's a only a hallucination away from Paralysis During Normal Sleep which ought to be a disadvantage embellishment quirk that goes with Nightmares).

I vaguely recall that Mendeleyev's most famous New Invention, the Periodic Table of Elements, was created in his sleep. I might be confusing him with someone, but either way, this curious bit of historical-scientific trivia is my primary inspiration.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by McAllister

-10% if supernatural advantages that allow mental communication are available without Unusual Background (or other burdensome prerequisites)
-20% if such advantages are available with Unusual Background
-30% if such advantages are unavailable

Blindess is worth full points even if you can cast Rider Within. I'm not seeing much of a difference here.

additional -10% if PCs have a reasonable expectation of being attacked while they sleep

Isn't that like every game, pretty much ever? GURPS prices generally assume that you are going to be having adventures with violence and danger.

Less Sleep is 2/points per level (to a maximum of 4 levels). The game advantage of it is (a)you get extra hours for study or long term projects and (b) you can stand extra watches while the other PCs get some sleep. This proposed limitation serious limits (a) and completely eliminates (b). It is only useful if you have some other way to do (a) and even then is going to be restricted in most cases to purely mental activities (which eliminates study of any skill with a physical component at all). This looks like a pretty serious limitation to me, even in games where there is something you can do with it. In games where you can't do anything with it, it's not worth anything at all.

What's the difference between Less Sleep (Mental Only (No abilities available, party may be attacked -50%) 1/level and just taking a Paralysis During Normal Sleep quirk without taking Nightmares?

[Flyndaran]

That's not sleep but temporary paralysis.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I was thinking Transhuman Space primarily. I did want to keep an eye out towards generification for other settings.

You'll need a full VII, and a Neural VR program as well as real-time access to an appropriate virtual environment. I'd still not allow skills with physical components to be studied without non-simulated feedback from your meatspace body. Seems like it's still a significant limitation.

I vaguely recall that Mendeleyev's most famous New Invention, the Periodic Table of Elements, was created in his sleep. I might be confusing him with someone, but either way, this curious bit of historical-scientific trivia is my primary inspiration.

Anybody can have a useful dream, there's no point cost for this.

If you want to have a lot of useful dreams like this, then you can probably take a perk like the Visions (Aspected, Dreams) perk:

Inspiring Dreams
When you have "blocks" on tasks that require creativity and invention, you are often able to dream a solution to them. If you fail a roll that Versatile (p. B96) would apply to, and go to sleep with the task unfinished, you may roll against IQ after a full nights sleep. On a success you get a hint in your dreams that gives a +1 to your next attempt at the same task.