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How would you build this disadvantage?


ScrewySquirrel

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The 'Cartwright Curse'

 

Any Love Interest that the hero meets is either dead or otherwise removed forever from his or her life by the end of the episode or story arc. 

 

Named for the distressing frequency it happened to the Cartwrights on Bonanza, but it also turns up in a bunch of other stories.

 

In Bonanza, Ben Cartwright, the patriarch of the Cartwright family, has three sons from three different women. One of his wives died in childbirth, another died after falling from a horse, while the other one was killed in an Indian attack. Each Cartwright man has a string of girlfriends over 14 seasons, many of whom do not survive the experience. The worst man to flirt with, statistically, was the youngest, Little Joe Cartwright: over 14 seasons, he had 39 girlfriends, 25.6% of whom died. His girlfriend mortality rate became so legendary that other TV shows started to lampshade it. (For example, on Happy Days, Mrs. Cunningham refuses to watch any episode where Little Joe gets engaged, simply because "that girl is headed straight for Boot Hill!")

 

In the Anime Devil Hunter Yohko, Yohko had a hard enough time asking guys out to begin with (and to be honest, she's shy, but frisky -- so its doubly irritating). But, after becoming the next Devil Hunter in the Mano Family line, anyone she takes a romantic interest in either dies, or ends up possessed by demonkind, to ensure she never has children, as a ploy by her demonic enemies so she won't be able to continue the bloodline.

 

In comics, Starfire doesn't catch a break in her romantic life, since every love interest she had other than Dick Grayson died.

 

Getting in bed with James Bond is, under Massachusetts state law, Assisted Suicide. Tracy, the one woman whom he married in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, didn't even make it to her honeymoon (and really, how cruel is that? Why else would anyone marry James Bond if not for the experience of the honeymoon?) Even Dominique Paradis, the first girl in video game Nightfire gets kicked off a roof for her trouble. Generally speaking, it's best to be the second woman Bond hooks up with during the course of a mission, but even then, they don't usually show up a second time.

 

And every time Samurai Jack tries to get a love interest, it ends so badly because Aku always gets involved.

 

 

so, its clearly some for of unluck, but it applies to others, not directly to you.  Is this even buildable in HERO?

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This trope was common in the 1960s.  It gave the show a Father who could still date because their wife had passed away.

 

List of shows with this trope

 

Bonanza

The Rifleman

The Courtship of Eddie's Father

The Andy Griffith Show

Nanny and the Professor

Daktari

The Governor and J.J.

The Beverly Hillbillies

Gidget

Flipper

My Three Sons

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You have to answer a couple of questions here:

 

Does the player get anything out of it? Meaning, are these poor doomed souls macguffins, whose life and guaranteed death are a special effect/style element? Or are these characters who are providing a skill or service to the player and party? 

 

The He recommendation to make it a floating DNPC works, so long as a new victim is introduced into each arc AND the pc is sufficiently motivated to rescue them. A mopey hero who can no longer deal with the constant tragedy shouldn’t get points for it. My way of doing this would be more flexible. I’d do it with Rivalry (Player unaware of Rival). This does a number of things: first, it relieves the every episode requirement; if you go the DNPC/NPC route, you create a small group of interchangeable people to secure the points and reward the effort. Second, it saves the trouble of justifying it later (See last Bond film). Third, it layers the story. Even if the death is heroic, accidental, what have you, it’s because at some point the rival stepped in. Lastly, when the player goes looking for a reason, it’s already ready in your mind.

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20 pts Hunted:  Assorted beings, forces, and circumstances. Infrequently (Mo Pow; NCI; PC has a Public ID or is otherwise very easy to find; Mildly Punish (remove love interest permanently))

Whether enemy action, blind misfortune, or even the character's own inadvertent self-sabotage, every potential love interest is soon eliminated one way or the other.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary thinks we did this before and it wasn't so many points......now if we can find that character again....

 

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As a point, if it doesn't really affect things within the context of the show, it's probably just a version of Girlfriend of the Week (floating DNPC), but with different plot hooks (swap Oh No, My Ex Turned Up! for Her Brother Turned up Demanding Revenge!).

 

Split it up into the following:

 

1) Actual person (DNPC)

2) Effect on the character (Psych, Addiction, maybe Physical in some cases)

3) How others react (Social, Reputation, Hunted, Rival)

 

Any or all of those can be used to build versions of the idea. You could even leave DNPC out of it if the love interest plays out off-screen and never turns up in the actual game, in which case it's probably more background colour. The following might not even require a Complication:

 

"Letters from home boys."

"Oh my god!"

"What's the matter, Joe?"

"Jane... she, she died of cholera!"

"Now that's a damn shame. You sure do seem to have bad luck with women. What's that...four now?"

 

Poor Joe.

 

Or:

Social Complication: Boyfriends are always Marked for Death

 

Unluck is probably more of an enabler, to excuse why this sort of thing keeps happening. But pretty much any Complication could be used as the cause of the loss (an arch enemy Hunted shot her, the character's Reckless Psych led to him taking too many risks, his One Eye Physical meant that he didn't see her cross the road as he turned the corner, his Addiction caused him to crash their car while drunk...)

 

You could also run it as swapping out DNPC for Psych: Wracked with Grief or Psych: Depressed... until Miss Rebound come along and the Complications get changed up again.

 

Also worth keeping in mind the Complications of the DNPC. One with their own Unluck or Hunteds may be living on borrowed time.

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It really depends on how meta you want to get.

 

Thia was on the money and I like the idea of the love interest being a special effect of the Rival disadvantage.  I also like the idea that the love interest is a floating source of information, skills etc.  You could build that as a Summon or even just a VPP.  You give the hero a psychological disadvantage that means he/she cares about the love interest and you have skills that are in the game until the love interest is taken out by the opposition/environmental effects.

 

Red shirts were essentially summoned entities to provide alternate targets, short term muscle/skills for the early part of most Star Trek episodes.  :-)

 

Doc

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That's a little harsh, Christopher. Even if they end up dead at some point, this sort of DNPC will often be the focus of a lot of saving  and protecting along the way. Possibly moreso than your average DNPC who doesn't have a Sword of Damocles hanging over their head.

 

It doesn't require death every session.

 

And to my mind it's not much different to the well-established "girlfriend of the week" DNPC, who also may never be seen again. She still gets saved and protected during the sessions she shows up for.

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Well my perspective is that its going to be kind of harsh on the player if not the character if they fail to save their DNPC over and over and over and over... you know what I mean.

 

Having a different girlfriend or just whoever you like at the time isn't the same as having the plot compel the girl to be different each time because of an absolute separation.

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1 hour ago, Christopher R Taylor said:

Well my perspective is that its going to be kind of harsh on the player if not the character if they fail to save their DNPC over and over and over and over... you know what I mean.

 

Having a different girlfriend or just whoever you like at the time isn't the same as having the plot compel the girl to be different each time because of an absolute separation.

 

Harsh? Sure. But I'd assume for the purpose of the discussion that this is something the player has asked for. I agree it's not something the GM should impose without a damn good reason.

 

I'd argue that in game terms it basically is the same as a floating DNPC for the purpose of the DNPC complication itself, although as we've discussed above there may well be other Complications to look at because of the "curse", which wouldn't be taken for a Boyfriend of the Week.

 

Things will play out differently, and you'll have different plot hooks, but that applies to various flavours of DNPC anyway.  

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On 11/25/2017 at 9:41 AM, Ninja-Bear said:

Yes - floating Dnpc. Perhaps Unluck and maybe Negative Reputation.

 

I like the floating DNPC alot. I wouldn't use Unluck or Neg Rept since the character is already having problems: it's just the way it's being played out.

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How would you build this complication?

 

In this game, doing this sorta League of Extrodinary Gentlmen version of Edwin Abbot Abbot. Hes notable for being the author of the novel, Flatlands. 

 

So I want this complication, to be that Edwin is visually but physically two demensionals. He only visually has height and width. You can see his front and back, but hes a faint line from sides and top.  Physically, he still takes up three demensions. So he cant use this ability to slide under cracks in doors or stealth around really, as he only "invisable" from a very particular propesctive, so I dont see it or want it to be that practical. 

 

So this is kinda comical but when things are given to him, they still retain their three demensional ality, except when hes holding it, visually collopses into 2d space. Kinda pops from 2d to 3d.  It doesnt damage any objects.  He can still freely interact with things.

 

I'm just not sure if fits better as a social or physical complication, or something stranger still.

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If it's really just visual, I'd go with Striking Appearance/Distinctive Features. The 2D effect could be a done as DCV with a limitation that varies the value based on the viewing angle (maybe +4 DCV from the side, +0 DCV from front or back and +2 DCV from other angles?)

 

Reputation and Social Complication might also be of use, depending on how people react.

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One potential Social Complication might be some variation on Public Identity. That's not required - if his existence as the Two Dimensional Man is not widely known, it's not appropriate. Essentially, if his condition hampers him socially he should take it.

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