[ATE] Freaky Freakishness

[Bruno]

Regarding new mutations, and how much Freakishness to assign, read the New Mutations box on page 27 - there's a minimum Freakishness of 1 per mutation though.

The intention isn't that PCs must have dozens of mutations, if only because the starting budget isn't good enough for that. The intention is that mutation is not obvious, except for gross physical mutations (like having a second head). Instead, the primary problem is Side-Effects and Reaction Penalties.

"Bulgy Eyes" is an example of a minor physical deformity or oddity, as you select for every 6 levels of Freakishness. However, Night Vision is not a particularly extreme mutant power. Per Basic Set, it's legit for perfectly mundane humans to have Night Vision 9 (which is perhaps ridiculous, but still an important point in context). Dark Vision would be Freakishness about 4 or 5, and indeed "Black Sight" has Freakishness 4 (page 27).

Setting Freakishness to the cost of the Advantage means the net mutation is Free. It also means the PC rapidly collects Side-Effects, and you'll quickly have a party full of flammable grumpy berserkers who can't take Aspirin (or whatever).

EDIT: Freakishness is a package; 3 Distinctive Features [-3 points], -2 Reaction Penalty [-10 points], and one [-5 point] disadvantage ("Side Effect"). That's an 18 point disadvantage; Divide into an 18 level disadvantage and you've got Freakisnhess. If you want more Distinctive Features, you can rework the package.

[Bruno]

Alternately, you can just ask players to take more Distinctive Features. I played a mutant in mlangsdorf's game, and the guy could be mistaken for a gigantic, carnivorous, mutant parrot (or other dinosaur). I just took a bunch more Distinctive Features and some Appearance problems.

[lordabdul]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Regarding new mutations, and how much Freakishness to assign, read the New Mutations box on page 27 - there's a minimum Freakishness of 1 per mutation though.

Gah! I had totally missed it. I'm an idiot. Thanks for pointing it out (the boxed text, not that I'm an idiot).

The intention isn't that PCs must have dozens of mutations, if only because the starting budget isn't good enough for that. The intention is that mutation is not obvious, except for gross physical mutations (like having a second head). Instead, the primary problem is Side-Effects and Reaction Penalties.

Yes, so that's exactly what I'm saying. It seems that ATE tailored the Freakishness rules in a way where the expectation is to be able to have dozens of mutations (100+ points) before side-effect/reactions become too much of a problem, whereas in my game I wanted to put that limit way lower at a couple mutations only...

I guess it's like how you can run both high-powered and low-powered games in GURPS -- you just change the base character point budget (500 pts vs. 100 pts) and the economics of buying traits mostly takes care of the rest. In this case, however, it seems there's no "tweakability" to the "mutation level" of a game? (or at least not clearly documented)

I could increase the Freakishness "percentage" to, say, 40% of the Advantages' cost, maybe? Or, on the other hand, decrease the effects of Freakishness from multiples of 6 down to multiples of 3? Freakishness as a package sounds like another potential solution, I'll think about it, thanks!

you'll quickly have a party full of flammable grumpy berserkers who can't take Aspirin (or whatever)

Oh yeah I forgot to mention that this side-effect table really doesn't do it for me and I would probably replace it with some general Mental Disadvantage that represent how quickly you're becoming a mindless zombie.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by lordabdul

Yes, so that's exactly what I'm saying. It seems that ATE tailored the Freakishness rules in a way where the expectation is to be able to have dozens of mutations (100+ points) before side-effect/reactions become too much of a problem, whereas in my game I wanted to put that limit way lower at a couple mutations only...

I think you're exaggerating the numbers there.

Regardless, you probably want to change the ratio between reaction penalty and Side Effect at the very least, and perhaps add more Distinctive Features. If you make Freakishness = Point cost (and remember, that makes the advantage free but balanced by a big pool of disadvantages) you'll end up with zombies very quickly.

[lordabdul]

Originally Posted by Bruno

I think you're exaggerating the numbers there

I don't think so? With an average of 17.5% Freakishness, 100pts of mutation powers give you, well, just below 18 levels so your character still only has 2 small physical oddities (if none of those Advantages inherently have obvious physical aspects), and -2 to reaction/Shadowing/etc. rolls. I would say that's still manageable (IMHO -3 is where it's becoming a real problem).

Thanks for your other suggestions! I may end up going with the rules as written just to test them for real before changing them... I'm thoroughly undecided about this whole business, I just know *something* is bugging me about it :)