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Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance


BhelliomRahl

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Its a matter which has come up in a game I am running recently about who is the most attractive. This is in relationship to Contest which the party has to infiltrate.

 

In 5th edition it was easy, you had the Comeliness Characteristic, however in 6th edition its not so clear.

Striking Appearance seems the best method but it does not necessary imply the character is attractive, just that their appearance is striking.

My consideration was to say that people have a comeliness of 10, an average person and each level of Striking Appearance alters this by 5pts; Increasing comeliness if the level of striking appearance is in relationship to attractiveness or decreasing if its in relation to ugliness, however this comeliness score will be fluid depending on the perception of the viewer.

 

The other benefit of using this comeliness conversion is that I can compare it to 5th edition characters and charts to work out how attractive someone is.

i.e. COM 30 or Striking Appearance 4 lvls = Helen of Troy.

 

Am I over complicating things, is it just better to use the levels of Striking Appearance and leave comeliness out of it?

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

The Great COM Debate was one of the largest flame wars that resulted from the conversion of 5th to 6th.

 

Real sore spot amongst some posters... people left or were were banned, frendships were disolved, brother fought against brother type stuff...

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

Well, the problem was that in my game, people actually had "Comliness Wars." It was STUPID. And Useless, and defied the logic of the rules. Those points were better spent on other things, except that people used this statistic to try and substitute for every social skill in the game.

 

This is why striking appearance is so much better, because now it modifies those rolls, but you still need to buy the skills.

 

Use the social skill modifiers for Striking Appearance and ask them how they're using their skills to obtain those modifiers. Make them roleplay it out. Then tell them to roll dice.

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

This subject was extensively discussed, debated, argued, then finally screamed about. Names were called, fights were picked, and numerous people were banned, most temporarily, some permanently. Others exiled themselves out of anger over the subject, and how they were treated by people on the other side of the fight. A few went so far as to go back and delete every single post they ever made before they left.

 

Yes. Tempers really did run that high.

 

In short... there can be no civilized discussion of this topic. So don't try.

 

If you're interested, the threads might still be around somewhere, or you can PM people who were here at the time and see if they're willing to discuss it. Don't be surprised if they won't, though.

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

Striking Appearance is like any other Hero System power: you can define any Special Effect you want for it. If your character is drop-dead gorgeous, then Striking Appearance = "drop dead gorgeous." If he's a three-meter high talking lizard, then Striking Appearance = "big freaking lizard." If he talks like Don Pardo, then Striking Appearance = "awesome voice."

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

I see them as two very different things, and think the best solution is to use both. As a GM, I'd never allow most of the uses either have been used for by many other GMs, but they each have their place.

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

If this is about infiltrating a beauty contest, then you are coming at it from the wrong direction. Figure out which character(s) would be the most interesting or entertaining to put in a beauty contest and weight circumstances toward them. Make it clear to the players that this isn't about which character is the most physically attractive (because beauty is such a subjective thing), but about which one would be the "best" for the job (i.e. do they have espionage or acting skills or other powers that would help in the mission). Or maybe which character would squirm the most depending on your taste. Let the players help you decide of course, but if you need an in-game reason for one of the gorgeous characters to be out of the running, then a black eye from a superbattle or similar accident might be in order.

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

Flame On!

 

We have Striking Appearance now, which works as a range of attractiveness - not everyone perceives the same things as attractive but some appearances are more likely to be considered attractive than others, within social and cultural groupings. Comeliness, which never actually had any mechanical effect, gave an absolute value, and, if you like the idea of being 'the most attractive' and want to pin a number on it, count how many character points you spent on Striking Appearance and other 'looks' related power builds, and whoever spent most is the winner. Don't expect everyone to agree though.

 

When you come up with an empirical measure of attractiveness that everyone can agree on, you can have Comeliness back.

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

Flame On!

 

We have Striking Appearance now, which works as a range of attractiveness - not everyone perceives the same things as attractive but some appearances are more likely to be considered attractive than others, within social and cultural groupings. Comeliness, which never actually had any mechanical effect, gave an absolute value, and, if you like the idea of being 'the most attractive' and want to pin a number on it, count how many character points you spent on Striking Appearance and other 'looks' related power builds, and whoever spent most is the winner. Don't expect everyone to agree though.

 

When you come up with an empirical measure of attractiveness that everyone can agree on, you can have Comeliness back.

Like you could take it from me :)

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

Like you could take it from me :)

 

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter.

Gentlemen may cry, I don't fancy yours much

The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the fashion magazines will bring to our ears the clash of resounding opinions!

Our brethren are already in the night clubs! Why stand we here idle?

What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Blonde? Brunette? Redhead?

Is a round of drinks so dear, or looks so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of marriage?

Forbid it, Almighty Steve! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me Comeliness/Striking Appearance* or give me death

 

 

 

*Delete as applicable

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

I owe the forum an apology, I did not intend to throw petrol on the embers of this war.

 

Well I have settled my war. I created the five judges for the contest and decided their interests and what they consider attractive. I had the characters with Striking Appearance who entered the contest describe in detail what their Striking Appearance represented (Pictures were allowed).

The contestants who meet the perceived attractivenss of a judge gained a point. Other points are gained for the other events; Talent and Q&A.

 

I'm interested see how it will work out.

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Re: Attractiveness - Comeliness Vs. Striking Appearance

 

Well I have settled my war. I created the five judges for the contest and decided their interests and what they consider attractive. I had the characters with Striking Appearance who entered the contest describe in detail what their Striking Appearance represented (Pictures were allowed).

The contestants who meet the perceived attractivenss of a judge gained a point. Other points are gained for the other events; Talent and Q&A.

 

This is pretty much the way Striking Appearance is intended to be used, IMO (note whether they bought it at 2 or 3 points/level). Analogous to any of the combat Powers (Blast, Drain, Killing Attack, etc.); when you buy Striking Appearance, you decide how much you buy and what the SFX are (i.e. the details of your appearance). You don't get to decide whether you "hit" with it, though (whether a particular character finds your appearance attractive or not).

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