Just another blah question

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Having a sense of duty to your home town means not leaving it except in pursuit of something that will help it.

That's an overgeneralization. You might very well feel an obligation to help when they're in true need, but not expect them to be in true need very often.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's an overgeneralization. You might very well feel an obligation to help when they're in true need, but not expect them to be in true need very often.

If you never see your friend except maybe once a year, do you really have a sense of duty to them? In common language, sure, but in Gurps terms is that even a quirk?

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If you never see your friend except maybe once a year, do you really have a sense of duty to them? In common language, sure, but in Gurps terms is that even a quirk?

Guess it depends on how strong the sense in should it be called on.

A mate you see every week in the pub and will buy a few beers for because he's struggling with cash is probably worth less in "sense of duty" terms

Than a mate who you see once year, but when you do you help dispose of a body!

(although to be fair I tend to run a one body limit tab system, unless it's quid pro quo of course)

[Flyndaran]

There isn't much room for granularity in Sense of Duty, I guess.
Otherwise it should be adjusted for how far you're willing to go for them, how often they'll need you, etc.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If you never see your friend except maybe once a year, do you really have a sense of duty to them? In common language, sure, but in Gurps terms is that even a quirk?

If it virtually never comes up, it might not be worth anything. But there's a lot of ground between "virtually never comes up" and "you can never be away from them because they need your constant support."

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If you never see your friend except maybe once a year, do you really have a sense of duty to them?

Could be.

If you only have one adventure a year, and most of those are because your friend needs help it seems entirely reasonable to let you claim the points for it. If the campaign is only expected to last through the summer military campaign and you don't expect to even see him before Christmas, then no it's not. In a way you can think of most disadvantages as having "per session" rather than "game-time" considerations built into them.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

If you never see your friend except maybe once a year, do you really have a sense of duty to them? In common language, sure, but in Gurps terms is that even a quirk?

I think it's more important what'll happen if your friend calls you in the middle of the night, and tells you he needs you to rush to some far-away location, bringing two shovels, because there's a dead body and, umm, it's kinda complicated...

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by whswhs

That's an overgeneralization. You might very well feel an obligation to help when they're in true need, but not expect them to be in true need very often.

It doesn't matter whether they're going to be in true need very often if you've no way of finding out when they are or to get back there in time to help.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

It doesn't matter whether they're going to be in true need very often if you've no way of finding out when they are or to get back there in time to help.

It seems to me to be way over the top to say that Sense of Duty requires that you constantly be in touch with the subject just in case they might need you for something. That sounds more like a rather severe Obsession.

I mean, okay, it's plausible that being totally out of touch with someone for months or years at a time doesn't go with Sense of Duty. But there's a lot of space in between total lack of communication and never being able to leave. I think you're falling into a false dilemma. "Just because I say I like sea bathing, I don't mean I want to be pickled in brine."

It's perfectly possible to be away but able to get a message. And in fact that's the only way Sense of Duty makes sense for an adventurer! Otherwise, either you can't leave the subjects, and then you can't go on adventures; or you have to take them with you, and that turns them into Dependents.

[Bruno]

This is a bit of a weird case, though, in that you absolutely can go on adventures in and around a settlement. And as noted, you can go on adventures for a settlement (soldiers seem to end up with Sense of Duty (Nation) on their templates pretty regularly, and soldiers are expected to handle foreign service without having a nervous breakdown just because they've left the country and can't physically check on it every five minutes.

In fact, looking at SOD Nation further: very few characters can even check on the whole dang country in a single day, let alone on a regular basis. Superman types, sure, and some kinds of psychics, but even these characters can't actually help everywhere.

Looking at SOD: All Humanity, sure it's a saintly trait, but it doesn't say it requires you to have divine powers that can intervene on behalf of All Humanity at once, or know that any of All Humanity might be threatened by something.

There are practical limits, and they don't require you to take your SOD subject with you adventuring. Possibly quite the opposite: I wouldn't take a small child into a dungeon. Like, ever.

I might go into a dungeon if that was the only way to earn money to feed, clothe, house, and educate that small child... although more realistically I'd have other ways of doing so.