Peter Knutsen
2007-10-15 21:00:04 UTC
I posted this on the RPG-Create mailing list half an hour ago.
In Modern Action RPG, all players must select one physical Weakness for
their characters, as well as 3 psychological Flaws (although they can
choose to combine 2 Flaws into one Major Flaw, or pay some points to
have one Flaw less).
Flaws are psychological deficiencies; usually they represent
vulnerability towards some temptation, or greater weakness towards
something which is a temptation for everyone.
Almost all Flaws have strengths, rated in the number of dice that the
player must roll to see if the Flaw is triggered (the Sheltered Life
Flaw is one exception. It is instead a multiplier, applied to all
discomfort penalties, such as hunger or cold). Normally the strength is
3d6 for a normal Flaw and 4d6 for a Major Flaw, but for Flaws wher
temptations are very common, such as Alcoholism, the strengths are
instead 2d6 and 3d6 respectively, and for Flaws where triggeres are
rare, such as phobias against rare phenomena, the strengths may be 4d6
and 6d6.
But in addition to these 3 player-chosen Flaws, all characters have one
universal Flaw, meaning one that all humans have, and which one cannot
get rid of: A Sexual Orientation.
Available options are Heterosexual, Homosexual and Bisexual (unlike in
Sagatafl, being seducable by both sexes - bisexuality - is not viewed as
a greater disadvantages, but this is due to MA RPG being more
coarse-grained. Also unlike in Sagatafl, players cannot pay points for
the privilege of their characters being Asexual).
Simply put, all characters (all teenaged and adult characters anyway -
there should be an explicit exemption for child characters) are sexual
creatures, and as such vulnerable to sexual temptations, and to PCs and
NPCs who use the Seduction subskill.
This universal Flaw normally has a strength of 2d6, but the Lecherous
Flaw increases the strength by 1d6, and the Major Flaw of Very Lecherous
increases its strength by 2d6. Thus Lecherous/Very Lecherous does not
itself have a Flaw strength, but instead adds to another Flaw's strength.
I'm happy with Sexual Orientation being a universal Flaw. It fits our
species, and it fits most other species found in typical RPG universes
(fantasy or space opera) as well.
But should Sexual Orientation be the only universal Flaw?
There are arguments for this. For instance, it is something players are
likely to forget. They are much more likely to remember, as a natural
thing and without having to think about it, other common human fallacies
(see below), but sexual orientation, weakness towards sexual temptation,
is often seen as inconvenient.
I also don't want to turn MA RPG into Pendragon, where each character
has to have a rating for 10 or 15 or 20 different psychological
statistics. So far the list of Flaws for each character has 4 entries (3
chosen ones plus the universal), and I'd like not to go above 5 or 6.
One obvious additional universal Flaw, to me, is Pride. I already have
this as a standard player-choosable Flaw, but it seems to me that MA RPG
characters are a highly competent bunch of men and women.
Characters built on the standard budget, 200 points, are the equivalent
of 150 pointers in GURPS, at least the equivalent of 75 pointers in Hero
System, and they're not far behind starting characters in Feng Shui (in
fact MA RPG 200 pointers are probably on par with Feng Shui starting
characters, it's just that all the Feng Shui character classes are
heavily optimized for one specific skill, which will be rare in MA RPG).
In contrast to this, an average person (i.e. a non-adventurer) is
buildable on 25 or 50 points, depending on what kinds of skills he has.
Doesn't it make sense for such characters, characters who are *much*
more competent than the rest of us, to be noticably proud by default?
Individual players can, of course, take steps to make their characters
less Proud (I have an idea for a mechanic, a Veteran trait, i.e. a trait
intended to simulate experienced adventurers, which can be used to
reduce one or more such universal Flaws), but they have to do this
actively - if they don't, the default is what happens.
As for making a character more Proud than this default, that's just a
Flaw in the same style as Lecherous and Very Lecherous. It increases the
Proud rating by 1d6, or by 2d6 for the Very Proud Flaw.
But is Proud a good choice, to go along Sexual Orientation, on the list
of Flaws which almost all human adventurers have? (Non-adventurers have
Sexual Orientation too, but not Proud.)
If yes, are those the two Flaws that should be universal? Or can someone
suggest a third Flaw to put on the list?
I've thought briefly about Curious as a universal Flaw, but in terms of
Flaws, I long ago decided to split the phenomenon of curiosity into two,
Curiosity, which is shallow (modelled after the Curious disadvantage in
GURPS), and Inquisitive, which is a deeper, more adventurer-like (or
reporter-like) desire to know the causes of things (rather than, as the
GURPS core rule book says, to e.g. know the function of a partiuclar,
very visible red button).
I think players are able to supply curiosity themselves, without being
prompted by the rules system. Also, the curiosity of one character tends
to end up involving the entire party, and anyway it just feels better to
me to make this optional, so that ever party will (on average) only have
one or two PCs who are Curious or Inquisitive (or both), rather than
everyone being it game-mechanically curious.
Likewise, Special Flaws, which are non-psychological Flaws, of which
each player may choose one (so that instead of choosing 3 psychological
Flaws, the player can choose 2 psychological Flaws and 1 Special Flaw).
These are either developmental disads (barring the characters from
starting with or ever acquiring certain traits), or else
external/social, such as poverty (having fewer monetary ressources), or
having debts (which may force the character to accept deals and jobs, to
avoid falling into medium-duration poverty), or being a wanted criminal,
or having a family or spouse.
This last one, family or spouse (or girlfriend/boyfriend), might seem
like an obvious candidate for universality, but that's exactly the kind
of thing I don't want to force upon players. It should be there for
those who want it (e.g. as a way to fill in a single Flaw slot, if
you're unhappy about loading up on the psychological ones), but not
every adventurer has a Family or a Clan or a Wife or a Boyfriend.
In Modern Action RPG, all players must select one physical Weakness for
their characters, as well as 3 psychological Flaws (although they can
choose to combine 2 Flaws into one Major Flaw, or pay some points to
have one Flaw less).
Flaws are psychological deficiencies; usually they represent
vulnerability towards some temptation, or greater weakness towards
something which is a temptation for everyone.
Almost all Flaws have strengths, rated in the number of dice that the
player must roll to see if the Flaw is triggered (the Sheltered Life
Flaw is one exception. It is instead a multiplier, applied to all
discomfort penalties, such as hunger or cold). Normally the strength is
3d6 for a normal Flaw and 4d6 for a Major Flaw, but for Flaws wher
temptations are very common, such as Alcoholism, the strengths are
instead 2d6 and 3d6 respectively, and for Flaws where triggeres are
rare, such as phobias against rare phenomena, the strengths may be 4d6
and 6d6.
But in addition to these 3 player-chosen Flaws, all characters have one
universal Flaw, meaning one that all humans have, and which one cannot
get rid of: A Sexual Orientation.
Available options are Heterosexual, Homosexual and Bisexual (unlike in
Sagatafl, being seducable by both sexes - bisexuality - is not viewed as
a greater disadvantages, but this is due to MA RPG being more
coarse-grained. Also unlike in Sagatafl, players cannot pay points for
the privilege of their characters being Asexual).
Simply put, all characters (all teenaged and adult characters anyway -
there should be an explicit exemption for child characters) are sexual
creatures, and as such vulnerable to sexual temptations, and to PCs and
NPCs who use the Seduction subskill.
This universal Flaw normally has a strength of 2d6, but the Lecherous
Flaw increases the strength by 1d6, and the Major Flaw of Very Lecherous
increases its strength by 2d6. Thus Lecherous/Very Lecherous does not
itself have a Flaw strength, but instead adds to another Flaw's strength.
I'm happy with Sexual Orientation being a universal Flaw. It fits our
species, and it fits most other species found in typical RPG universes
(fantasy or space opera) as well.
But should Sexual Orientation be the only universal Flaw?
There are arguments for this. For instance, it is something players are
likely to forget. They are much more likely to remember, as a natural
thing and without having to think about it, other common human fallacies
(see below), but sexual orientation, weakness towards sexual temptation,
is often seen as inconvenient.
I also don't want to turn MA RPG into Pendragon, where each character
has to have a rating for 10 or 15 or 20 different psychological
statistics. So far the list of Flaws for each character has 4 entries (3
chosen ones plus the universal), and I'd like not to go above 5 or 6.
One obvious additional universal Flaw, to me, is Pride. I already have
this as a standard player-choosable Flaw, but it seems to me that MA RPG
characters are a highly competent bunch of men and women.
Characters built on the standard budget, 200 points, are the equivalent
of 150 pointers in GURPS, at least the equivalent of 75 pointers in Hero
System, and they're not far behind starting characters in Feng Shui (in
fact MA RPG 200 pointers are probably on par with Feng Shui starting
characters, it's just that all the Feng Shui character classes are
heavily optimized for one specific skill, which will be rare in MA RPG).
In contrast to this, an average person (i.e. a non-adventurer) is
buildable on 25 or 50 points, depending on what kinds of skills he has.
Doesn't it make sense for such characters, characters who are *much*
more competent than the rest of us, to be noticably proud by default?
Individual players can, of course, take steps to make their characters
less Proud (I have an idea for a mechanic, a Veteran trait, i.e. a trait
intended to simulate experienced adventurers, which can be used to
reduce one or more such universal Flaws), but they have to do this
actively - if they don't, the default is what happens.
As for making a character more Proud than this default, that's just a
Flaw in the same style as Lecherous and Very Lecherous. It increases the
Proud rating by 1d6, or by 2d6 for the Very Proud Flaw.
But is Proud a good choice, to go along Sexual Orientation, on the list
of Flaws which almost all human adventurers have? (Non-adventurers have
Sexual Orientation too, but not Proud.)
If yes, are those the two Flaws that should be universal? Or can someone
suggest a third Flaw to put on the list?
I've thought briefly about Curious as a universal Flaw, but in terms of
Flaws, I long ago decided to split the phenomenon of curiosity into two,
Curiosity, which is shallow (modelled after the Curious disadvantage in
GURPS), and Inquisitive, which is a deeper, more adventurer-like (or
reporter-like) desire to know the causes of things (rather than, as the
GURPS core rule book says, to e.g. know the function of a partiuclar,
very visible red button).
I think players are able to supply curiosity themselves, without being
prompted by the rules system. Also, the curiosity of one character tends
to end up involving the entire party, and anyway it just feels better to
me to make this optional, so that ever party will (on average) only have
one or two PCs who are Curious or Inquisitive (or both), rather than
everyone being it game-mechanically curious.
Likewise, Special Flaws, which are non-psychological Flaws, of which
each player may choose one (so that instead of choosing 3 psychological
Flaws, the player can choose 2 psychological Flaws and 1 Special Flaw).
These are either developmental disads (barring the characters from
starting with or ever acquiring certain traits), or else
external/social, such as poverty (having fewer monetary ressources), or
having debts (which may force the character to accept deals and jobs, to
avoid falling into medium-duration poverty), or being a wanted criminal,
or having a family or spouse.
This last one, family or spouse (or girlfriend/boyfriend), might seem
like an obvious candidate for universality, but that's exactly the kind
of thing I don't want to force upon players. It should be there for
those who want it (e.g. as a way to fill in a single Flaw slot, if
you're unhappy about loading up on the psychological ones), but not
every adventurer has a Family or a Clan or a Wife or a Boyfriend.
--
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org
Peter Knutsen
sagatafl.org