Wanted: GURPS Power-Downs 1

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Lord Carnifex

It's an interesting idea, and one I've toyed around with myself for a while. But there seems to be a few problems:

1) Psychological and psychiatric disorders are notoriously tricky to define. Each new theory of personality seems to redefine disorders and their diagnostic criteria; witness the ongoing debate on just what is and what is not schizophrenia. On top of this, a given disorder can manifest itself differently from person to person, or even from time to time in one person.

Agreed, but I'm not sure it's as big a deal as it might seem. The classic approach in GURPS is that "the color can be whatever you want; it's the game-mechanical effects that matter." In this case, I think the theory of what lies behind a mental problem would be "color"; its effects within the game would be what determined the build and the point value.

As far as manifesting differently, it's not uncommon to suggest alternate builds or lenses for a particular ability (Powers did this frequently), and the "Modular Anti-Abilities" mentioned above might help for conditions that vary widely in a single being.

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

Agreed, but I'm not sure it's as big a deal as it might seem. The classic approach in GURPS is that "the color can be whatever you want; it's the game-mechanical effects that matter." In this case, I think the theory of what lies behind a mental problem would be "color"; its effects within the game would be what determined the build and the point value.

As far as manifesting differently, it's not uncommon to suggest alternate builds or lenses for a particular ability (Powers did this frequently), and the "Modular Anti-Abilities" mentioned above might help for conditions that vary widely in a single being.

Yeah, I see a template / meta-trait for each condition. Some of these meta-traits might have "-15 points chosen from amongst the following...", with guidelines about the most common game mechanical problems that might arise.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

Agreed, but I'm not sure it's as big a deal as it might seem. The classic approach in GURPS is that "the color can be whatever you want; it's the game-mechanical effects that matter." In this case, I think the theory of what lies behind a mental problem would be "color"; its effects within the game would be what determined the build and the point value.

There's still a target audience for a supplement that helps translat the colour of real-world phenomena into game terms. It may not be very big, but then again, it might.