[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Weirdness Magnet

[transmetahuman]

Originally Posted by Stix4armz

The main issue l have with Weirdness Magnet is the way it is often leveraged against the entire party instead of just the player. It's basically a disadvantage for the whole party, but only one player gets the extra points for taking it.
...
I'm writing/running an entire game, I don't want to take the time to come up with weird red herring encounters as well.

Great points - I hadn't even thought about the effect of weird red herrings on investigative scenes where players already often have trouble figuring out what the GM thought would be more obvious. Weirdness shouldn't come with a convenient tag saying "oh, this is just your disad, pay no attention". It's arguable that a PC would even understand what a Weirdness Magnet is, or that he is one.

PK used to have an entry in his MyGURPS page about how it's way overpriced for the "plot hooks and fun zaniness" ways that people tend to use it, and people's examples in this thread really reinforce that generalization. If a PC is getting hassled by people avoiding/stalking him for the weirdness, make it a Reputation disad - and think about whether you'd let the rest of the PCs take it in a regular game. After all, in most worlds, the normal stuff PCs get into is weird enough as it is. Even with Extra Weirdness, the whole party is dealing with it; they should all get the Reputation.

I bet if you fairly priced the actual hassle of the weirdness itself, it'd be no more than a quirk in most people's games. Maybe -5 if it's often very inconvenient but not truly dangerous. Maybe use Frequency pricing adjustments, with the Reputation stuff completely separate.

[Anders]

Another problem I have with Weirdness Magnet is that it's a way to grab screen time.

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Anders

Another problem I have with Weirdness Magnet is that it's a way to grab screen time.

That's really true about many disadvantages- Bad Temper means "I get to ham up an 'angry' scene", likewise for other disadvantages that compel behavior, to say nothing of disadvantages like Enemy or Dependent that take over the plot. The difference, I suppose, is that Weirdness Magnet compels the GM rather than the player who took it to put in most of the work.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by transmetahuman

I bet if you fairly priced the actual hassle of the weirdness itself, it'd be no more than a quirk in most people's games. Maybe -5 if it's often very inconvenient but not truly dangerous. Maybe use Frequency pricing adjustments, with the Reputation stuff completely separate.

Well, wouldn't that just mean people weren't using it correctly in their own games? Unless you want to argue they're intentionally under-pricing* it?

Weirdness Magnet isn't supposed to attract things that are initially fatal. If it were, then the [-15] rather over-priced* as it would just be a specially themed form of... a negative, fatal Destiny? Terminally Ill? Something more along those lines. The Weirdness can (and probably should) become fatal if you don't handle it well.

Even when your character can cope with the Weirdness, it should cost that character. That's why I thought a Mundane version might possibly even be priced the same as the RAW Disadvantage; imagine coming home and finding your house full of livestock! Clean-up alone may not take much real-world time, but in-game? Plenty of things you'll have to skip that can cause FP penalties, missed chances for Study CP, problems with in-game jobs or in-game family, etc. There's also the cost of repairs, or yet even more time if it is a setting where "insurance" is a thing (and you've got the coverage). Yes, hitting someone this hard probably isn't how you start out with Weirdness Magnet in the first adventure of the campaign, but it seems worded to escalate at time goes by... or maybe it is just that the minor stuff keeps happening day after day after day?

Now, if that isn't what players and GM are looking for, then rewrite and reprice Weirdness Magnet how you see fit. That's the beauty of GURPS, after all... but I'm thinking that some are low-balling the actual drawbacks of the Weirdness and focusing too much on the Reputation penalty. Which matters as well, of course, but if you think its -14 to -10 CP worth, the Weirdness being tossed at the PC(s) may be too benign.


*Disadvantages are worth negative points, so if you think it ought to be a Quick (-1), that means the full fifteen is actually under-pricing it. If it is supposed to kill you eventually, then it would be overpriced. I think. >.>

[Daigoro]

Some other variations I came up with over breakfast:

Accident Magnet
Crime Magnet
Murder Magnet
Many fiction protagonists have these traits.
In Man of Steel, Clark Kent was always close to some disaster that required him to reveal his powers- a bus crash, a tornado, an oil platform collapse.
Other superheroes hear cries for help or bank alarms going off on a daily basis, requiring their intervention.
And murders happened often enough around Angela Lansbury that the suspicious should expect that she was somehow causing them.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Some other variations I came up with over breakfast:

Accident Magnet
Crime Magnet
Murder Magnet
Many fiction protagonists have these traits.
In Man of Steel, Clark Kent was always close to some disaster that required him to reveal his powers- a bus crash, a tornado, an oil platform collapse.
Other superheroes hear cries for help or bank alarms going off on a daily basis, requiring their intervention.
And murders happened often enough around Angela Lansbury that the suspicious should expect that she was somehow causing them.

I like where this is going...

[kirbwarrior]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Some other variations I came up with over breakfast:

Accident Magnet
Crime Magnet
Murder Magnet
Many fiction protagonists have these traits.
In Man of Steel, Clark Kent was always close to some disaster that required him to reveal his powers- a bus crash, a tornado, an oil platform collapse.
Other superheroes hear cries for help or bank alarms going off on a daily basis, requiring their intervention.
And murders happened often enough around Angela Lansbury that the suspicious should expect that she was somehow causing them.

Love them. Another fun one;

Artifact Magnet
You always happen to stumble across important, legendary artifacts and often quite literally stumble over them. That itself might not be much, but further complications could involve it being cursed, sapient, the goal of rival, the goal of a soon-to-be-major villain, etc. Doesn't matter where you go; If you stay home, the Triforce might fall out of your tv while playing Zelda.

[Celjabba]

Originally Posted by Stix4armz

The main issue l have with Weirdness Magnet is the way it is often leveraged against the entire party instead of just the player.

That is true of many disadvantages. They often end up having consequences for the entire party one way or another.

[Jariel]

I think of Weirdness Magnet as a combination of Enemy(Weirdness) and a bad Reputation. If you look at like an enemy then you can modify the Weirdness to suit your character better, watcher level Weirdness could be low level stuff while rival is more dangerous and possibly fatal.

[smurf]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Some other variations I came up with over breakfast:

Accident Magnet
Crime Magnet
Murder Magnet
Many fiction protagonists have these traits.
In Man of Steel, Clark Kent was always close to some disaster that required him to reveal his powers- a bus crash, a tornado, an oil platform collapse.
Other superheroes hear cries for help or bank alarms going off on a daily basis, requiring their intervention.
And murders happened often enough around Angela Lansbury that the suspicious should expect that she was somehow causing them.

I though Accident Magnet would be covered by Klutz!