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Old 08-13-2015, 07:50 PM   #1
DanteDeathHermit
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: UK
Default Using Skills in unorthadox ways

Bit of backstory so things make more sense for the uninitiated...

This is the first game of any sort of Tabletop RPG any of us except she who is playing Usmaiel. (who is a veteran of many rulesets like Pathfinder and Numenara) so we're playing the game on a "let's make an interesting story" basis rather than a strictly "balanced" basis.

In my game we have our GM, Usmaiel the half-drow ranger/bard (AKA the angsty teen half-black girl), Kyran the fighter/craftsman (AKA pompous rich boy), and then my character Artha, our stealthy rogue, who is of a species I created myself from my own world, who is one-of-a-kind in this gameworld because she was transported via a magical portal a few years ago (AKA the civil xenomorph strength-based rogue who tanks and hits like a truck).


Artha is a tarsolt, specifically she's a 7'1 humanoid terrestrial salamander with natural 15 ST, Talons, a 5 DR armored coat that she will never take off because it's organic and a natural part of her body (she was literally born with it), she suffers from issues such as Nightmares and generally has a lot of eldritch crap in her head.

Notably, she has Social Stigma - Monster, and she is Beautiful, because while she's terrifyingly intimidating and dangerous looking, she's also very pretty, in a xenos sort of way.


I'm curious as the the use of skills in ways that you wouldn't normally use them, but don't really have an alternative that makes as much sense.

Specifically, Artha had convinced a gaggle of street urchins to follow her to a new home for them, though darkness was falling in the town, a guard thought that she was a monster kidnapping the children and they yelled at him that she wasn't a monster, Artha shies away from the guard and lets out a whimper of fear (her voice is perfectly human) that ends up sounding rather strange, and rolled on Sex Appeal that the guard would feel less inclined to attack me.

I had +0 to Sex Appeal with +4 from Beautiful, rolled a 7, 8 successes.

Decided that Artha straight up lets out a weird moaning sound as she shies away (there is justification for this but it's complicated) and guard just turns around like NOPE, NOT PAID ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH THIS. (GM said that while it turned him on, he wasn't interested in a "giant lizard thing", hence him just going NOPE)


Thoughts on this?
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Old 08-13-2015, 08:18 PM   #2
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

That's almost exactly how the Pitiable advantage is supposed to be used, for a start.
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Old 08-14-2015, 08:36 AM   #3
DanteDeathHermit
 
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Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
That's almost exactly how the Pitiable advantage is supposed to be used, for a start.
Now that you mention it, that makes sense.

Though our GM isn't using Reaction Rolls, we're going more off of context, so technically it'd be a useless advantage apart from just justifying actions like that.

[EDIT:] Though I am using things like Social Stigma - Monster and Beautiful in odd ways, I'm probably gonna take Pitiable and GM would probably let me be able to use things like Sex Appeal pitiably, which is rather hilarious.

Last edited by DanteDeathHermit; 08-14-2015 at 09:43 AM.
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Old 08-14-2015, 10:50 AM   #4
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

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Originally Posted by DanteDeathHermit View Post
Though I am using things like Social Stigma - Monster and Beautiful in odd ways, I'm probably gonna take Pitiable and GM would probably let me be able to use things like Sex Appeal pitiably, which is rather hilarious.
"You don't just want to jump her bones; you see her and want to take care of her" is a classic narrative bit, isn't it?
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Old 08-14-2015, 02:30 PM   #5
DanteDeathHermit
 
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Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
"You don't just want to jump her bones; you see her and want to take care of her" is a classic narrative bit, isn't it?
Pretty much.


I have a rather specific question too.

So Artha is supposed to have an issue with bananas, because there was a member of a mutant strain of her kind that she always fought with when she was still a slave, he had a bright yellow coat with white skin, and black armor plates, his strain also smells of bananas.

This male tarsolt fought viciously with Artha a lot and tried to force himself on her a few times, they hate eachother and there was an incident between her, him, and the slavers that was actually what set her off to finally escape from slavery. (She went Berserk for the first time.)

For the record, Artha has a dusky black coat with dirty orange mottling on it (her armor plates are the same), and her skin is deep orange with black markings.


I've discussed this back-and-forth with the GM for a week now and we can't decide what fits her hatred of bananas properly, because it's not a Phobia because she's not afraid of bananas, nor is she really repulsed by them (Revulsion), it's more like a trigger for a psychotic episode.

We've just left it alone for now, though when talking about her past in relation to that "banana tarsolt" she has to roll for self control or something appropriate to the situation happens, like if it's inflicted on her or someone gets on her nerves around it then she goes Berserk, if she's having an emotional episode of sadness or something then she faints.

Bananas are about as common as you would find them realistically, you'll see them in markets and such a lot but not exactly in every home, though we are taking a ship to a tropical continent... *deep sense of foreboding*

For now it's just noted on her character sheet that she has "Banana PTSD".


Any ideas?


I also have another idea for something I'm probably gonna sort out with our GM by ourselves, but I might post it here, basically Artha gets monthly heats that make her get emotional and sexually frustrated, we're going to make a new disadvantage that works similarly to Lunacy.
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Old 08-14-2015, 05:05 PM   #6
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

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Originally Posted by DanteDeathHermit View Post
For now it's just noted on her character sheet that she has "Banana PTSD".
Do you have GURPS Power-Ups 6: Quirks? It offers Disadvantage Embellishment, which defines a particular way in which a disadvantage manifests itself: Perhaps Bad Temper or Berserk with "Loses control when confronted with bananas." There is also Extremely Limited Disadvantage, which would be one of those traits ONLY when exposed to bananas. Either of those might fit.

Quote:
I also have another idea for something I'm probably gonna sort out with our GM by ourselves, but I might post it here, basically Artha gets monthly heats that make her get emotional and sexually frustrated, we're going to make a new disadvantage that works similarly to Lunacy.
Probably as good as anything. Though you could also look at Sleepy as a model.

GURPS Power-Ups 8: Limitations has a table on p. 4 giving percentage reductions in point value for something that doesn't work all the time. For example, if she's aroused for one week a month, that's 25% of the time, which is a -30% limitation. You can apply that to the cost of a disadvantage that she suffers from only that much of the month.

With that mechanic, you might define a disadvantage comparable to Selfish. Selfish is defined as "loses temper when condescended to or treated disrespectfully." This could be "loses temper when sexually frustrated," maybe.
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Old 08-14-2015, 07:59 PM   #7
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
GURPS Power-Ups 8: Limitations has a table on p. 4 giving percentage reductions in point value for something that doesn't work all the time. For example, if she's aroused for one week a month, that's 25% of the time, which is a -30% limitation. You can apply that to the cost of a disadvantage that she suffers from only that much of the month.
IIRC, there's similar table in either GURPS Characters or GURPS Powers. If the table in PU8 isn't improved in some way, relative to that, then I think it's preferable to refer the OP to the most core'ish book possible.
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Old 08-14-2015, 08:56 PM   #8
DanteDeathHermit
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: UK
Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Do you have GURPS Power-Ups 6: Quirks? It offers Disadvantage Embellishment, which defines a particular way in which a disadvantage manifests itself: Perhaps Bad Temper or Berserk with "Loses control when confronted with bananas." There is also Extremely Limited Disadvantage, which would be one of those traits ONLY when exposed to bananas. Either of those might fit.
We just have the GURPS Basic Character PDF, all of the different manuals just confuse us TBH.
(Not to mention their freaking insanely costly prices, like JFC they're SO expensive, it's off-putting and scary.)

Half of what you just said went straight over my head.

Quote:
Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Probably as good as anything. Though you could also look at Sleepy as a model.

GURPS Power-Ups 8: Limitations has a table on p. 4 giving percentage reductions in point value for something that doesn't work all the time. For example, if she's aroused for one week a month, that's 25% of the time, which is a -30% limitation. You can apply that to the cost of a disadvantage that she suffers from only that much of the month.

With that mechanic, you might define a disadvantage comparable to Selfish. Selfish is defined as "loses temper when condescended to or treated disrespectfully." This could be "loses temper when sexually frustrated," maybe.
There are a few things about Artha's (and other tarsolts', -because I'm making a racial template for them at some point-) heats that we're working with right now that I'd like to generally keep the same.

On the 21st day starting from the day she comes out of heat, she has a day when she gets emotional and angsty, though this is purely roleplayed, maybe someone could specifically choose what afflicts them on this day from a list.
(Artha has taken her anger out on a tree by punching it to death.)

Then she gets one day when she's normal, but then the next day I roll 1D6+1 for how many days her heat lasts for.

That's as far as we've gotten for what is generally for certain with this, right now she just has to roll a Will check each day and if she fails it then she has to be relieved somehow or she MUST have a breakdown somehow.


It's probably worth noting that tarsolts are actually the bigger badder cousins of dawsolts, that being that dawsolts are "swamp solts" which are about as tall as a human and rely on running away or just not being seen when confronted with danger, while tarsolts are the only species of solt that rely on "fight" response rather than "flight".

Dawsolts just get rather sad and cuddly when in heat (temporary lecherousness if they aren't already), tarsolts are the same but they aren't quite so much "soft" in their cuddliness, if that makes sense.
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Old 08-14-2015, 08:59 PM   #9
DanteDeathHermit
 
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen View Post
IIRC, there's similar table in either GURPS Characters or GURPS Powers. If the table in PU8 isn't improved in some way, relative to that, then I think it's preferable to refer the OP to the most core'ish book possible.
What you just said went completely over my head.
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Old 08-14-2015, 10:27 PM   #10
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: Using Skills in unorthadox ways

Quote:
Originally Posted by DanteDeathHermit View Post
We just have the GURPS Basic Character PDF, all of the different manuals just confuse us TBH.
(Not to mention their freaking insanely costly prices, like JFC they're SO expensive, it's off-putting and scary.)

Half of what you just said went straight over my head.
Well, I'm not sure how to clarify it, but if you want to ask about the specific points that you aren't getting I can give it a try.

The Power-Ups books are a series of eight books that give you expanded treatments of some secondary ideas from the Basic Set: perks, quirks, talents, enhancements, limitations, and so on. I find perks and quirks invaluable when I'm building a character; they let me pick ways of customing the nuances of their behavior. Enhancements and limitations, not so much, but if I'm writing up a set of abililities I used those volumes a lot in getting the abilities to work exactly as I envision them.
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