02-13-2020, 02:55 PM | #1 |
Night Watchman
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
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[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
Sense of Duty [-2 to -20] is a mundane self-imposed mental disadvantage. You feel that you have a duty to help or care for some group of people, ranging from an individual [-2] to every living thing [-20]. You place their interests equal to or ahead of your own, at all times. This disadvantage appeared in the first edition of GURPS, and hasn’t changed much.
A Duty disadvantage is enforced externally; Sense of Duty is based on your own feelings. Behaviour like this is already assumed in the pricing of the Ally, Dependent and Patron disadvantages, so you can’t take a Sense of Duty towards such people. NPCs who know you have a Sense of Duty towards them, or others they care about, will react at +2 when deciding if they should trust you under dangerous circumstances. If you go against your Sense of Duty, the GM may penalise you for bad role-playing, although they should be willing to consider justifications. The Basic Set specifically describes having a Sense of Duty towards adventuring companions, and offers the option for the GM to require it. It also gives the GM license to override character actions under such circumstances, which seems a bit heavy-handed to me. Sense of Duty is a very common disadvantage option on published templates. The more interesting targets for them include “Alien Masters”, “Assassin Cult”, “Crime Victims”, “Cybernetic Microbes”, “Honest Folk”, “Host Vehicle”, “Lord of the Vines”, “Secret Masters”, “Small Animals”, and “Zombies”. There aren’t many rules additions for this disadvantage, but Fantasy has Sense of Duty to places, rather than people, and Power-Ups 6 has rules for scaling it down to a quirk. Social Engineering has important rules on multiple Senses of Duty, which should be considered before taking them. Sense of Duty seems like a good way of modelling stable relationships between NPCs, who aren’t eligible to have Allies or Dependents under RAW. It seems possible to have a Sense of Duty towards a mundane job that isn’t a Duty, from personal experience. I quite often take this disadvantage on my PCs, since I find it easy to play, which is always helpful for disadvantages. How has it been important in your games?
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12-11-2020, 12:03 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Nov 2014
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
Both as a player and a GM, I have never played a game where it was not a hard, non-negotiable requirement to have Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions).
It is a bit heavy handed to be able to override the player on what the character does, but I have yet to run a game where inter-party conflict is wanted, so I am glad that this advantage exists. It puts actual rules to the sometimes unwritten and unspoken rule that the PCs will always have each others' backs and will not betray each other. Other uses of Sense of Duty come up occasionally, mostly when wanting something self-imposed that is more flexible than a Vow. |
12-11-2020, 12:17 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
Quote:
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12-11-2020, 12:24 PM | #4 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
There is a big difference between not being willing to harm your companions, not being willing to oppose them, and feeling the need to bail them out of trouble.
I think a party that at least has different goals for how they want they want victory to shake out can lead to some good play. But then I often play shorter campaigns rather than longer ones.
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12-11-2020, 12:38 PM | #5 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
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Of course there are other Disads that people will end up playing but for some reason don't take. Pacifism:Can't Harm Innocents and Greed come to mind.
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12-11-2020, 12:42 PM | #6 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
SoD(Companions) can be very useful in getting a party to work together for a very short (1 or 2 session) adventure. Whether for complete newbies, strict character sheet based roleplayers or just players at a con who might not know each other and never meet again after the game.
With it, the party won't split up to go do different things without a very good reason to do so (if the GM remembers to poke the players about it). And if it does happen, every member will have a good reason to go help the others if/when needed. |
12-11-2020, 01:28 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Portsmouth, VA, USA
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
Sense of Duty is one of those disadvantages I've seen commonly taken by my groups. In DF I require SoD (Adventuring Companions) and allow it to break the rule for max disads.
In general, SoD can prevent party infighting and I find that very useful as a GM.
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12-11-2020, 03:27 PM | #8 |
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Hmm, looks like Earth, circa CE 2020+
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
Many, if not most, of my PCs have some form of Sense of Duty. But sometimes that's a SoD that's completely unknown to the other PCs or players.
I don't recall ever requiring Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions), but I've been blessed with fellow GURPSians who are more interested in everyone having fun than in "winning" (of course, everyone having fun is a big win). I personally like it when PCs are sometimes at odds, as long as the players are all enjoying it. While SoD (AC) doesn't completely eliminate that, it does, of course, limit options. One of my players wisely bought Sense of Duty (Adventuring Companions) because he has a PC who has Absent-Mindedness, Clueless, Curious, and Easy to Read. While that PC is the smartest one of the group, she almost constantly has to be told what to do and not do--and SoD makes it work. (In case that PC's player sees this, she's one of the most fun PCs I've ever run with).
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12-11-2020, 05:36 PM | #9 | |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
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12-11-2020, 06:11 PM | #10 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Sense of Duty
If Sense of Duty is required of all player characters, do you even really need to specify Sense of Duty at all? It's not going to be worth points if it's required of everyone. It's just a fact of your game. A 100-point game with a Sense of Duty [-5] requirement is really a 105-point game in disguise.
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