[SE] Sanitized Metabolism: how useful is +1 in in 'close confines', like 'elevators'?

[Flyndaran]

Not sweating won't help if your clothes stink from all remnants of the outside.

[Keiko]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Speaking of which, I kinda assumed this is included in a grooming kit
('A leather Gladstone, vanity, or toilet
bag holding comb, hairbrush, razor,
toothbrush, soap, aftershave, shoe-
polish kit, etc.')

Then again, minimising the penalties/problems of lacking many of those items is what Sanitized Metabolism does.

I'm not sure why quoted me?

[Keiko]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Not sweating won't help if your clothes stink from all remnants of the outside.

It'll make it somewhat less offensive and you can quickly change clothes while bathing often takes more time.

I'd imagined some forms of SM don't mean you don't sweat (which could be debilitating) but your skin lacks of the microbes and your sweat the chemicals that give it an offensive odor (or contain something that neutralizes them).

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Keiko

It'll make it somewhat less offensive and you can quickly change clothes while bathing often takes more time.

I'd imagined some forms of SM don't mean you don't sweat (which could be debilitating) but your skin lacks of the microbes and your sweat the chemicals that give it an offensive odor (or contain something that neutralizes them).

Sweat still stinks over time. It's only human pit and crotch sweat that promotes ultra stinky communicative odors.
Cinematic perks usually have unrealistic aspects.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Keiko

I'm not sure why quoted me?

Because you brought up supplies used during menses. At least a few types of those are TL1 or so, but High-Tech doesn't go into that detail (not sure about Low-Tech; Bio-Tech has a Perk, which is a different matter), and some people (particularly some of those who grew up in the USSR) think those were only invented in the late late 1980s.
Thus my comment on 'etc.' in the grooming kit, which includes an assortment of other stuff.

[Keiko]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Sweat still stinks over time.

Apparently not if you have Sanitized metabolism.

It's only human pit and crotch sweat that promotes ultra stinky communicative odors.

Not in my experience. Those are the worst but sweaty people get funky after awhile particularly in close quarters even if the take a "Whore's Baths" and hit the the worst spots The microbes on the skin that promote body odor are everywhere but they're densest under the arms, the crotch and feet (moist and little light) but form everywhere and can cluster in some odd places like behind the ears, at the hairline, behind the knees or under folds of fat (or your breasts if well endowed). And some sweat odor comes from the perspiration itself. Generally, (to me) the smell is a little different more sour and musky than the flat our rank funk of underarm and other sweat BO but still unpleasant to be around for very long.

Cinematic perks usually have unrealistic aspects.

Goes without saying. :)

[Keiko]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Because you brought up supplies used during menses.

Ah okay. I admit I was defaulting to a "D and D" type environment not something modern or futuristic. Not sure why I do that. I haven't even played D and D much at all for decades.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Keiko

Yeah, its odd. I think you have to accept it as a part of the abstraction that RPGs have to engage in. The character gets at +1 because there is less chance of them being inadvertently offensive (which a bad Reaction roll could indicate), above and beyond the assumed effects of hygiene and grooming or off setting any bad habits or incidents they might have had before the encounter. As most games don't go into minutia about the PCs personal hygiene (Did you wash behind ears?) unless its mechanically noteworthy (Bad Smell or Odious Personal Habit, for instance). SM means there's less to go wrong for the character (fewer/no bad smells, missed sweat stains, lingering bad breath from lunch, etc) compared to a character without it. GMs would have to adjudicate the precise reasons and applications.

You know, your post (and a few others) have got me thinking...

What if we grant everyone a +1 reaction bonus if they make a point out of "cleaning up." Right? Like your character has freshly showered and is wearing fresh clothes and put on a bit of deo, brushed their teeth, etc. You might give them a +1 under those circumstances, provided it's appropriate to the circumstances. That seems like a reasonable course of action, if a bit of a simplification.

Sanitized Metabolism, then, becomes a sort of exotic version of a SOP: "Assume I am always clean." The character always gets the +1 in circumstances where being well-groomed and freshly bathed would apply a +1, even if they wouldn't have access to the materials needed to clean themselves (because they are naturally clean and pleasant smelling).

I think I could run it that way.

[wellspring]

Originally Posted by Keiko

Ah okay. I admit I was defaulting to a "D and D" type environment not something modern or futuristic. Not sure why I do that. I haven't even played D and D much at all for decades.

I'm playing a first ed game right now so it's freshest in my mind. But you're right that modern/scifi games tend to have better hygiene. Which fits with gritty realism but not the cinematic Orlando Bloomesque elven experience many of my players visualize.

Originally Posted by Mailanka

You know, your post (and a few others) have got me thinking...

What if we grant everyone a +1 reaction bonus if they make a point out of "cleaning up." Right? Like your character has freshly showered and is wearing fresh clothes and put on a bit of deo, brushed their teeth, etc. You might give them a +1 under those circumstances, provided it's appropriate to the circumstances. That seems like a reasonable course of action, if a bit of a simplification.

Sanitized Metabolism, then, becomes a sort of exotic version of a SOP: "Assume I am always clean." The character always gets the +1 in circumstances where being well-groomed and freshly bathed would apply a +1, even if they wouldn't have access to the materials needed to clean themselves (because they are naturally clean and pleasant smelling).

I think I could run it that way.

That's how I use it already. I suppose you could give people a -1 unless they washed up immediately before, but as a rule I'm against Advantages that introduce new penalties or perils and then you buy the advantage to exempt yourself out. The way you wrote it seems perfect.

[Otaku]

[QUOTE=Flyndaran;1850735Cinematic perks usually have unrealistic aspects.[/QUOTE]

This one isn't even cinematic, it is exotic. So allowing it for a human in even a cinematic campaign wouldn't be the norm. I remember this as a full on Advantage in 3e, first seeing it in Bio-Tech (I think). Doesn't mean that is where it first showed up, just where I first remember seeing it.