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Old 08-13-2020, 06:11 AM   #1
johndallman
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Default [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

Weirdness Magnet [-15] is an exotic mental disadvantage. Things happen to you: your life is filled with bizarre and unlikely events. It isn’t immediately lethal, but it is inconvenient, over and above the normal annoyances of a dangerous and exciting life. This disadvantage appeared during the 3e period, quite possibility in GURPS Illuminati.

The exact form of the weirdness you attract is going to be setting-dependent, but it’s always likely to push the bounds of setting reality. You probably won’t find a real genie bottle in a Transhuman Space campaign, but you might well be regarded as the Maitreya. Once people realise that strange things keep on happening around you, most of them will regard you as weird and dangerous, for ‑2 to reactions. However, people with highly unconventional beliefs are likely to assume that you will bring confirmation, and follow you around seeking it.

Weirdness Magnet is a moderately common disadvantage on published templates, although it tends to be confined to templates for settings that feature magic, superhuman powers and other sources of weird events, usually wielders of such abilities. Adaptations makes it a plot driver of The Odyssey, and several Casey & Andy characters enjoy it. Fantasy’s True Kings have it as an option, probably for when they’re neglecting their duties, and it’s a near-guaranteed way to discover Portal Realms. In Horror games, it means the horrors keep on happening, and it hangs around the reality shards of Madness Dossier and Infinite Worlds. The new fields of knowledge in Steampunk make it common there, and Supers has a version for superhero origin stories.

I may not see this disadvantage as quite so annoying as it’s meant to be: a great-grandmother of mine had a tendency to weird incidents, such as finding her kitchen full of sheep, and I tend to cause surprising things to happen via unconventional thinking (and eBay). I find it useful as a GM, because it means I don’t have to worry much about the plausibility of things happening to the PCs, rather than someone else. I’ve been noticing it more on my PC in our Monster Hunters campaign set in Florida!, but even there, the events it brings can sometimes be turned to use. How has it entertained in your games?
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Old 08-13-2020, 06:27 AM   #2
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

I like Mailanka's tweak to it for Psi-Wars:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mailanka
Weirdness Magnet: This means that Broken Communion can and will regularly create miracles around the character. This does not have to explicitly harm the character, but it generally brings harm to the world around him. Treat it as Destiny specifically associated with Broken Communion worth -15 points.
Something similar can be done with Unluckiness, of course, and both disadvantages feel too hazy to me, as a GM, as far as how much and how often goes.

I haven't had any players take Weirdness Magnet in any form yet, but I have a similar experience of "why do strange things keep happening around me?" like working at a place for a month and having several things happen where the other employees told me something like "this doesn't usually happen."
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Old 08-13-2020, 07:00 AM   #3
WingedKagouti
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

I've had it on a couple of characters and have only have it come up once ever. And that was only after I reminded the GM that my character had Weirdness Magnet.

So for me it has usually just turned out to be 15 free points.
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Old 08-13-2020, 07:08 AM   #4
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

Two of my players in Tapestry are creating new characters, to replace established characters who aren't suited to the military turn of the campaign. One of them took Weirdness Magnet for a character who regularly gets messages from the spirits.
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Old 08-13-2020, 08:50 AM   #5
ericthered
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

Lost in dreams has weirdness magnet on the standard pc template, mostly to remind me (the gm) to strive for weird and extreme situations.
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Old 08-13-2020, 09:07 AM   #6
Anders
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
I may not see this disadvantage as quite so annoying as it’s meant to be: a great-grandmother of mine had a tendency to weird incidents, such as finding her kitchen full of sheep, and I tend to cause surprising things to happen via unconventional thinking (and eBay).
If it's not annoying and does not cause a reaction penalty, I would say that's the quirk version.
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Old 08-13-2020, 12:16 PM   #7
AlexanderHowl
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

I love Weirdness Magnet, it is an automatic plot hook, the only issue is keeping the craziness from derailing the game. I have been using a group of competing sapient animal magician conspiracies for decades in my games, which I often use for Weirdness Magnet. There is nothing like having a player realize that they have been manipulated by a squirrel.
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Old 08-13-2020, 12:25 PM   #8
Say, it isn't that bad!
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

The problem I see with Weirdness Magnet is that, if used as described, it would take over (be the driving force behind) the campaign.

Which is good if that's what you want.
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Old 08-13-2020, 12:28 PM   #9
Phil Masters
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

It's a disad which throws the responsibility for making it effective onto the GM. That's far from unique, but Weirdness Magnet gives the GM the additional responsibility of making the results interesting, amusing, and somewhat in keeping with the style of the campaign (while still being weird). That's an aggravating extra load, and the tendency to forget it and get on with the plot leads to the "15 free points" perception.

It might work better if one was using the previously-discussed variant idea that some or all disads don't give you any points at the start of the campaign; rather, you get bonus points at the end of each session if your declared disadvantages disadvantaged you. That would encourage the player with Weirdness Magnet to be the one to suggest how and when it could manifest. However, that would amplify the other problem with this disad; it's catnip for spotlight hogs. "I have Weirdness Magnet, so every session should feature lots of my character's oh-so-wacky life." If this optional rule is in play, there's an active disincentive to remind the GM of most disadvantages too often, because extra bonus points are of little use to a character who's dead. But Weirdness Magnet is explicitly supposed to be non-lethal...

So my totally non-existent GURPS 4.5, which has this optional rule noted and indeed strongly recommended, includes Weirdness Magnet, but drops the non-lethal bit. You only get those bonus points if Weirdness Magnet not only kicks in but seriously hurts your character, or at least if it's genuinely entertaining for everyone.
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Old 08-13-2020, 01:50 PM   #10
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Default Re: [Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters View Post
It's a disad which throws the responsibility for making it effective onto the GM. That's far from unique, but Weirdness Magnet gives the GM the additional responsibility of making the results interesting, amusing, and somewhat in keeping with the style of the campaign (while still being weird). That's an aggravating extra load, and the tendency to forget it and get on with the plot leads to the "15 free points" perception.
This is why I tend to discourage it in my games. I don't usually ban it outright, but I need some good justification for how the player intends it to work, and it had better be more interesting than 'I get 15 points in exchange for making your job harder and getting more of the spotlight'.

I'm a lot more forgiving of 'aspected' forms of it, like Monster Hunters' Divine Curse (Monster Magnet) which is basically an alternate, specific Weirdness Magnet that's being classified under a different disadvantage, because something like that actually tells me-as-GM what it's supposed to do and suggests how it will probably be disadvantageous.
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