Using Skills in unorthadox ways

[DanteDeathHermit]

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?

[whswhs]

That's almost exactly how the Pitiable advantage is supposed to be used, for a start.

[DanteDeathHermit]

Originally Posted by whswhs

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.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by DanteDeathHermit

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?

[DanteDeathHermit]

Originally Posted by whswhs

"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.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by DanteDeathHermit

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.

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.