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Old 11-05-2020, 02:28 AM   #1
johndallman
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Default [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

Fashion Sense [5] is a small-t talent for using clothing to improve appearance. If you can plan your dress in advance, you get +1 to reactions in social encounters; you can also give this bonus to others, if they let you dress them. This advantage first appeared in GURPS Cyberworld for 3e.

Using this ability doesn’t normally cost much money. You are so attuned to the ebb and flow of fashion that you can create a distinctive look with very basic materials. This presumably works even if you’re a hermit living on a mountain; your robe may be old and ragged, but you wear it with style and commitment.

Before 4e, this advantage gave you “the potential to be a successful fashion designer,” but that was dropped. It probably does help with getting into that trade, but high skill levels are likely to be more important for long-term success. Designing clothing is IQ-based Sewing, and this advantage gives +1, and also to Connoisseur (Fashion). The clothing rules (p. B266), have an interesting detail about Fashion Sense for men in Earth cultures at TL5+: most high-status men can wear Status 2 clothing without penalty, because men’s clothing is fairly conservative. However, Status 3+ men with Fashion Sense (or someone to use it for them) need to buy clothing appropriate to their full status to make use of this advantage. This seems like a quirk of a particular set of cultures, rather than a universally applicable rule.

Fashion Sense is almost a cliché advantage for front-men and other social specialists, such as bards, courtiers and entertainers in general. Bio-Tech reckons that it can only come from experience and thus can’t be genetically engineered, while Fantasy: Portal Realms offers it as a result of experience, or as innate genius. Lands Out of Time says the advantage is meaningless there, although I’m not so sure. Power-Ups 2 makes it a “gateway” advantage for learning some Talents, and Power-Ups 6 has a quirk that’s the opposite. Social Engineering clarifies the effects of Fashion Sense in many circumstances, and adds a variant for virtual reality avatars. Steampunk settings have clothing as a social signifier, and this advantage can help a lot, especially with reducing encumbrance.

I definitely lack Fashion Sense, personally, so I haven’t tried to play it. Characters of mine have had it done for them, to good effect, and as a GM, I’d be willing to have characters buy clothing fitted to them that included use of Fashion Sense by the tailor/seamstress. How has this advantage played (or failed) in your games?
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Old 11-05-2020, 09:03 AM   #2
ericthered
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

I don't think I've seen this as a distinguishing feature. by the time my players running face characters reach for it they've already stacked up on charisma, appearance, and voice.


Which is a shame. But I think I can see where they are coming from:
  • Appearance is cheaper if all you want is a reaction bonus
  • reputation is fiddly and work to build and justify
  • voice and charisma give (relevant) skill bonuses
  • status usually just happens, giving the player a nice bonus
social regard is also fairly rare, but the character concept often suggests it more directly than fashion sense.


social chameleon is even more rare.
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Old 03-15-2023, 03:17 AM   #3
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

In my games it's reasonably common, but unfortunately some of the players tend to dismiss it's use (even when their own characters have it) to 'so, we get +1 for Fashion Sense'. I'd much prefer it if just once they leaned into it and we spent some time on it's use - it costs the same as Charisma and while it can be 'lent' to others it's less generally applicable, so I think characters that have it deserve to get a little screen time out of it.
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Old 03-15-2023, 03:41 AM   #4
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

Interesting to think how this might fit in with sumputary laws - presumably you get a choice between pretending above your station and being dressed the best you can at your actual status. Perhaps a bonus to disguise or acting to emulate higher status?

...and for the cynics amongst us, should we consider this "dress sense" or "fashion sense": after all, being well dressed is timeless, being fashionably dressed is temporary...
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Old 03-15-2023, 07:51 AM   #5
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

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Originally Posted by The Colonel View Post
Interesting to think how this might fit in with sumptuary laws - presumably you get a choice between pretending above your station and being dressed the best you can at your actual status. Perhaps a bonus to disguise or acting to emulate higher status?
I'd let it be used as a bonus for pretending to higher status, or as a bonus to reactions when not pretending.
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...and for the cynics amongst us, should we consider this "dress sense" or "fashion sense": after all, being well dressed is timeless, being fashionably dressed is temporary...
"Timeless" is pushing it. When I encounter people in the street in Elizabethan garb (which happens reasonably often here, due to the annual Shakespeare festival) I can make some kind of guess at the Status they're dressed for, but have no way to tell if they're doing it well by Elizabethan standards.
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Old 03-15-2023, 10:30 AM   #6
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
"Timeless" is pushing it. When I encounter people in the street in Elizabethan garb (which happens reasonably often here, due to the annual Shakespeare festival) I can make some kind of guess at the Status they're dressed for, but have no way to tell if they're doing it well by Elizabethan standards.
I would posit that you can tell if someone is wearing clothes that suit them and fit to their advantage, even if they are not fashionable - much like the hermit in the OP - whereas ... I recall some quote from a restoration comedy, mocking someone who was dressed in the then height of fashion who still caused "dogs to bark, and small children to run after him in the street" (much as anyone wearing modern high fashion in public might).
So yes, can someone still make Elizabethan schmutter look good? They probably have dress sense... but to make it fit with Elizabethan fashion might be a different skill.
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Old 03-15-2023, 11:42 AM   #7
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

In my current campaign, one of the PCs has Fashion Sense. In addition to its standard uses (including helping her sister get dressed for a date!), I've allowed the character a bonus to Connoisseur (Fashion).

My understanding of Fashion Sense is that it's not about knowing what clothes and accessories and perhaps makeup are current In. Anyone can have those for money. It's about having such perfect judgment that you can pick up something in a thrift store and make it In by wearing it.

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Old 03-15-2023, 08:47 PM   #8
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

Honestly I think Fashion Sense is an obsolete advantage. It would be easy to create a Style Talent that gives you more for the same price
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Old 03-15-2023, 09:05 PM   #9
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

This is a noteable trait for one of the PCs that I GM for; the player loves playing out her choices. When the character had to spend time in a mental institution (long story) and couldn't choose her own outfits, she definitely missed that added +1 bump and the player got some extra roleplaying mileage from the PC's disappointment.
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Old 03-17-2023, 03:44 AM   #10
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Fashion Sense

It was not until this thread where I had to actually go and check what type of trait this was. Turns out Mental. I guess that makes the most sense.

It's pretty interesting in that 'using' Fashion Sense and getting the bonus don't happen at the same time. Because it can apply to others, it implies you don't have to keep it to keep the bonus. So there's some odd build you can do with Affliction, but more importantly it's a fantastic trait to take as an Alternative Ability (you don't really lose anything by doing so, but it also isn't easy to explain as an AA).

I've literally seen one character in all my playing have it, and I made her about a month ago. Although thinking about it, there's likely a lot of my NPCs that had it without me knowing it. But the reason I've never taken it is because there's so many fully passive traits that just make more sense most of the time. That, and 'having clothes' or 'being free of disasters that would ruin my looks' are very much not guaranteed (hey wait, Sartorial Integrity exists, hmm...).
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