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Old 12-14-2021, 12:21 AM   #61
lugaid
 
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Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

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Originally Posted by Not another shrubbery View Post
That's not what the trait is assuming. You should be starting the campaign off with all the people around where you are knowing about your reputation. Without the -2 reaction, all you have is a 5 point minor curse.
See, that's even worse for the game than the disadvantage as written, which is just dumb, distorts the campaign for no benefit to anyone but the player taking the disadvantage, and over-valued. The disadvantage specifies that:

Quote:
People who understand what a Weirdness Magnet is (and that you are one) react to you at -2.
So, no, by the disadvantage written in the book, you should not be "starting the campaign off with all the people around where you are knowing about your reputation". It's a small group of people who are affected by the reputation component.
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Old 12-14-2021, 01:32 AM   #62
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Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

A fair version of weirdness magnet (or any other magnet) is:

Plot Preference (0)
All PCs are the kind of person that attract and are attracted to unusual events; that's why they're PCs. If you specify a plot preference for your PC, that is a suggestion to the GM about what sorts of plots you would like to see. If the tendency to get into that sort of event has social effects for you, buy an appropriate Reputation.

Weirdness Magnet winds up being somewhere between [-1] and [-5] in this model, as it's a -2 reputation with a limited group that may also have a limited chance of recognition.
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Old 12-14-2021, 05:13 AM   #63
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Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

Different genre and campaign wants can push certain traits off the table (and certain traits only mean something in certain ones). Ignoring those specifics;

Terminally Ill is the only trait I outright ban. As PK puts it, it's barely worth the quirk "I will replace my character at some point in the future". It's fine as an affliction, though. But it's really a free 99pts with the caveat that the player has some personality choices based on it.

Wild Talent is all but banned. Not out of choice, but there's zero campaign where a player ever considered it. However, I recently added a house rule to significantly cheapen it, might be worth taking. Other traits already got changed costs, but many of those were "I want this and only consider not taking because of price" instead of "I'm not sure I ever want this and especially not at this price".

I actually have no issue with Weirdness Magnet. It's an uncommon -2 to reactions (-5pts) and then -10pts of inconveniencing the player (sometimes less, sometimes more, sometimes positively, the randomness keeps players on their toes). I can't remember the last time someone took it as a disadvantage, but I do see it crop up as a "weak" Whimsy with Controllable Disadvantage: Weirdness Magnet.

One of my playgroups has jokingly banned IQ8 (and it's such an involved and stupid joke I couldn't possibly hope to explain it to someone who doesn't know).

Common Sense doesn't actually do anything (just like in real life). I'm not here to punish my players, everyone is stupid at least once (per character!), and there's always the chance of miscommunication. I offer a better version of it just as how I GM. However, I did make a new trait based on the idea of it for the same price; If the player is in a situation and the GM knows the character's choice is stupid but the character can't possibly know that, then I roll their IQ to see if they 'realized' something about their choice that made them know it was bad even if they hadn't figured it out yet. But that doesn't actually make sense with the name Common Sense (maybe this should be Intuition).

EDIT: I remembered more about attributes. No IQ 5 or less (must be sapient), no HT under 10 (and often under 12), and no one has tried to convince me they should be able to take DX under 8. I don't need a minimum Per or Will because everyone is scared of bringing those below 10, and ST just lives in its own world.
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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 12-14-2021, 07:08 AM   #64
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Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

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Originally Posted by lugaid View Post
See, that's even worse for the game than the disadvantage as written, which is just dumb, distorts the campaign for no benefit to anyone but the player taking the disadvantage, and over-valued. The disadvantage specifies that:

"People who understand what a Weirdness Magnet is (and that you are one) react to you at -2."

So, no, by the disadvantage written in the book, you should not be "starting the campaign off with all the people around where you are knowing about your reputation". It's a small group of people who are affected by the reputation component.
Taking this to a new thread. Why Weirdness Magnet is valued at -15

Last edited by Not another shrubbery; 12-14-2021 at 08:10 AM. Reason: added link
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Old 12-14-2021, 08:21 PM   #65
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Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

I don't think this quite counts, but Unnatural is another trait that is "forbidden" in the sense that no one (even myself) will ever take it. Logically, it's a fantastic deal (use it to offset points in HP and Damage Divisor!), but everyone is far too scared of it.
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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 12-14-2021, 08:27 PM   #66
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Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

Good heavens, I disallow a great whopping heap of them, quite aside from that I run Renaissance-tech fantasy and that (say) cyberwear's inappropriate. A number of Advantages/Disadvantages I slap a "restricted" tag on it, with the understanding that I will (a) need a good explanation, (b) may well require Unusual Background, and (c) reserve the right to reject it outright at my whim.

Disads like Bad Temper, Bully, Cowardice, Kleptomania, all that lot carries the "restricted" tag: these things are likely to make interaction with other PCs hard, and I dislike that as an unvarying thing.

I'm also not keen on -15+ Disads; they tend to dominate play and sidetrack plots, again making like harder for a party. Someone taking a -20+ Enemy just made the campaign about the Enemy-vs-PC, and I'm not keen on that.

I also faithfully follow the dictum that a disadvantage that doesn't disadvantage the character isn't worth points -- hence my down on Terminally Ill, which carries no penalties and has no effect other than that the sheet gets torn up after Point X.
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Old 12-14-2021, 08:31 PM   #67
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Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

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Another form of Alternate Weirdness Magnet/Trouble Magnet that I've occasionally thought about (which I though was in GURPS Mysteries, but if so I haven't found it again) is Murder Magnet: Like Miss Marple, Jessica Fletcher, Brother Cadfael, Father Brown, and other fictional 'amateur sleuths,' people have a habit of getting dead around you, though usually not in a way that has the cops thinking you must have done it (if you live in a time and place that has cops as we think of them).
My wife and I have long been of the belief that the longsuffering residents of Cabot Cove would have surely sacrificed Jessica Fletcher to whatever gods would remove the curse she laid upon that town, that anyone who knew her could be murdered at any time. Good grief, that poor small town had more murders a year than all the rest of Maine combined did.
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Old 12-14-2021, 09:30 PM   #68
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Default Re: Which traits are Forbidden in your games?

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My wife and I have long been of the belief that the longsuffering residents of Cabot Cove would have surely sacrificed Jessica Fletcher to whatever gods would remove the curse she laid upon that town, that anyone who knew her could be murdered at any time. Good grief, that poor small town had more murders a year than all the rest of Maine combined did.
One person determined that over the run of the show, they averaged 5.3 murders per year (many episodes took place elsewhere). The town has a population of 3560. Which gives it a murder rate that would make you think about finding a safer place in New England to settle down, like Derry, Innsmouth, or Amity Island.

But it is not only a tourist destination, but also hosts many people who maintain a summer home but whose primary residences are elsewhere. These people would not be counted in the population of Cabot Cove. Many such places that host large seasonal populations really do have high reported crime rates, because of the misleadingly low official population. If you included all the folks from Boston, the murder rate looks much less implausible.
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