New Perk

[Tech]

A player of mine, ok - my brother, wants to have a young heroine get a perk not mentioned. That would be: PERK: LEGALLY INDEPENDENT. Although the origin isn't finished yet, the heroine would be under 18, yet legally responsible for taking care of herself since her parents are presumably dead. At what young age do you think the heroine could get it (in a superhero world, not reality) and how much?

[Markdoc]

A player of mine, ok - my brother, wants to have a young heroine get a perk not mentioned. That would be: PERK: LEGALLY INDEPENDENT. Although the origin isn't finished yet, the heroine would be under 18, yet legally responsible for taking care of herself since her parents are presumably dead. At what young age do you think the heroine could get it (in a superhero world, not reality) and how much?

Since normal PCs are legally independant, I'd suggest 0 points: just make up a special effect ie: note the reason she is considered legally independant.

Normally you don't pay for a Perk which is essentially "treated like everyone else".

If OTOH she is getting points from a disadvantage for being a young girl, look at how much she is getting. Appearing to be underage is likely to have some drawbacks, even if they come without legal strings attached.

cheers, Mark

[yamamura]

I would have to agree with Markdoc on this one.

[Tech]

Since normal PCs are legally independant, I'd suggest 0 points: just make up a special effect ie: note the reason she is considered legally independant.

Normally you don't pay for a Perk which is essentially "treated like everyone else".

If OTOH she is getting points from a disadvantage for being a young girl, look at how much she is getting. Appearing to be underage is likely to have some drawbacks, even if they come without legal strings attached.

cheers, Mark

Yep, she's underaged. That being the case, ordinary people would be assigned a legal guardian or given into the custody of an aunt, uncle, older brother or sister or something like that. However, this heroine is legally treated as being able to take care of herself, hence the Perk. Otherwise, it will naturally be questioned: who's taking care of her?

Just in case, no the public doesn't know she's a superhero.

[Fox1]

Agree with the posters above.

It shouldn't be a perk, instead is should be reflected in a reduced 'teenager' disad, assuming she even has one.

[Lord Kilsco]

I wouldn't have covered the subject in this way. To my mind :

- If the character is under 18 and not legally independent, he/she has a Disadvantage, like Social Limitation : Under 18 - Minor - Not legally independent (Frequently, Major)

- If the character is under 18 but legally independent : no Perk nor Disadvantage, it's a nearly "normal" character ; maybe a "Immature" psychological limitation if necessary.

[Silbeg]

I wouldn't have covered the subject in this way. To my mind :

- If the character is under 18 and not legally independent, he/she has a Disadvantage, like Social Limitation : Under 18 - Minor - Not legally independent (Frequently, Major)

- If the character is under 18 but legally independent : no Perk nor Disadvantage, it's a nearly "normal" character ; maybe a "Immature" psychological limitation if necessary.

I agree with this statement completely! Being a minor, and treated as such, should be a disadvantage. In fact, even if the person is treated as an adult, etc., he/she could still get social lims such as "Seen as a minor" or "Treated as a Minor, even though she is not one" - or whatever.

[Blackberry]

Remember that a HERO character is assumed to be a perfectly normal average person, and then you add and remove whatever is needed to form that basic clay mold into your character.

Since "gets treated like everyone else" is part of the base mold already, you don't need to add or subtract anything to get there.

[Black Lotus]

Everyone brings up good points. I'm inclined to go with a value of 0, myself.

Ask yourself this question: "Will this character actually be at a quantifiable game play disadvantage (or advantage) from being a minor?"

If the answer is "yes" to either question, assign a value to Legally Independent. You have to answer this yourself, because you're the GM, and only you can decide whether it will have a noticeable effect either way. If the answer is "Neither, it's about even" just go with a value of 0.

Just a suggestion!~

[philnicau]

I would agree that it is a zero cost ability, except in a game were all of the PCs are minors, then its clearly an advantage, as it gives you a level of freedom that other don't have.

[concord]

A little on the subject... legal rights of minors in the real world... google is your friend... got this from an "empower youth" website by searching "underage emancipation"...

"A minor may go before a court, by petitioning it, and request such rights as the following: the rights of adulthood through emancipation, exemption from laws restricting work, the right to marry. A judge considers what is in the best interests of the minor. For emancipation, a minor must be capable of taking on the responsibilities of adulthood and be able to provide for their own welfare with employment. Laws made to restrict employment of minors are traditionally made to prevent child labor, so a parent's desire is important on this issue. In other issues, if the parent's are arbitrarily counter to the individual's best interests, a judge may still rule in favor of the best interest of the minor."

Each state has a review process setup in the family court system for these types of cases...

In game terms if a Perk is created for this, I would give it a cost of 1 point if I gave it a cost at all...

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Bill Beane
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[Dr. Anomaly]

In game terms if a Perk is created for this, I would give it a cost of 1 point if I gave it a cost at all...

Similar to the "License to practice profession" perk, I suppose...

[Zed-F]

My thoughts:

If you're a legal minor in the usual sense of the word, that's probably a (Frequently, Minor) Social Lim.

If you're a legal minor but legally don't need a guardian (why not?) then I would reduce that to a (Infrequently, Minor) Social Lim. You still can't buy booze, vote, get looked at funny in adult contexts, people ask where your folks are, etc.

[Doc Democracy]

My initial thought was that it should be 0 points - you woulldn't be getting the advantage of points from the disadvantage for being legally independent.

My second thought was that if the characters are all being given that disad as a campaign disad (no points for it), then the cost of the perk is what it would cost to buy off the disadvantage....


Make sense?

In a comic-book world I think that this perk could come at virtually any age though there would have to be some kind of rationale for it - better and better as the age gets lower...


Doc

[BobGreenwade]

My thoughts:

If you're a legal minor in the usual sense of the word, that's probably a (Frequently, Minor) Social Lim.

If you're a legal minor but legally don't need a guardian (why not?) then I would reduce that to a (Infrequently, Minor) Social Lim. You still can't buy booze, vote, get looked at funny in adult contexts, people ask where your folks are, etc.

These match almost precisely with my thoughts.