[Basic] Disadvantage of the Week: Honesty

[johndallman]

Honesty [-10*] is a mundane, self-imposed, mental disadvantage with a self-control roll. You have a strong desire to obey the law, and not doing so requires a self-control roll. Keeping to your word matters to you. You can lie where it doesn’t involve breaking the law – Truthfulness is a separate disadvantage – or mislead legitimate enemies in wartime, but those aren’t things you like doing. Honesty appeared at GURPS 1e, and hasn’t fundamentally changed since.

As well as obeying the law yourself, you want others to do so. In a place with no laws, you act as if the laws of your homeland were in force. You assume other people behave in the same way, too, unless you know otherwise; you get an IQ roll to realise that others are being dishonest, unless you’ve previously seen proof that they behave that way. Honesty also comes with a special Reputation bundled in: people who know you are so honest have +1 to all their reaction rolls to you outside combat, or +3 if there’s an issue of trust or honour involved.

You can fight, and even start fights, if you do that in a way that’s legal. You can kill in self-defence or in other circumstances where it’s legal, but you won’t murder. If you need to steal to survive, or for some other great need, you’ll do it, but you’ll attempt to compensate victims later. If you’re arrested for a crime you didn’t commit, you won’t attempt to escape if you have decent prospects of a fair trial. Presumably if the trial is unfair and you’re sentenced, you’re then willing to escape, but not to harm people to do so. If you have a need to break an unreasonable law, you need to make a self-control roll to manage it. If you do that, you need a second self-control roll to avoid turning yourself in afterwards.

A self-imposed disadvantage with a self-control roll is a unique combination. It’s presumably set up that way because laws are imperfect, and sometimes it is necessary for heroes to evade or break them.

Obviously, this disadvantage rules out making a living as a criminal. It’s limiting for use of the Scrounging skill, but not crippling: you won’t steal, but it doesn’t forbid soliciting gifts, buying things cheaply, or salvaging things that have been thrown away. While it isn’t normal for merchants, it isn’t a major problem for them. Indeed, there is a successful UK business that has additional clauses in its Honesty: they always pay bills by the due date, and if they are offered something that is too cheap, such that the vendor could get more for it elsewhere, they’ll say so.

Honesty is a pretty common option on published character templates. Caravan to Ein Arris points out how worthwhile it is for a party to have someone who’s known to be trustworthy, and Discworld golems are very Honest. DFRPG has this disadvantage, but it does not apply in dungeons, Lands of Evil, or uncivilised wilderness, and the same should go for DF. Fantasy: Portal Realms and Infinite Worlds point out that Honesty can be interesting in their styles of setting, while Horror and Magic show how various styles of corruption can erode it.

There are several quirk-level versions in Power-Ups 6, more annoying than virtuous, while Powers uses it as an example of a required disadvantage for powers of Good. The Psi series points out that it’s one of the few ways that psis can seem trustworthy, and many Reign of Steel: Will to Live robots are honest, albeit hostile. Social Engineering has its effects on bribery and on mobs, Steampunk 2 has an investigative automaton which is advanced enough to need Honesty, and Supers explains its incompatibility with vigilantism. Thaumatology has more on virtuous disadvantages and wielding divine powers, and Transhuman Space: Changing Times points out that all the AIs that are deliberately constructed in that setting are required to have Honesty.

If I ever get my GURPS Glorantha plan sorted out, the Lunar Special Operations teams will always have someone with Honesty, to look after the empire’s funds, but it won’t be the party diplomat. How has Honesty made your games more complicated?