high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

[Agemegos]

I designed the setting of my usual SF games (Flat Black) to run under an obscure SF/GP RPG called ForeSight. But ForeSight has been out of print since 1986, and it getting to be hard to find players who have access to a copy. Players are understandably less than enthusiastic about playing a game that has 120 pages of rules in 9-point type if they can't study them in spare hours. And I am understandable toey about offering long-term loans of either of my precious copies. A new edition of ForeSight is on the ways, but I am afraid that the designer will be axing some of my favourite rules systems.

 

On of the frequent players in my Flat Black campaigns is a keen Hero System buff. He occasionally runs a Flat Black adventure, and when he does so he naturally uses Hero System. I, too, have tried one campaign under Hero System rules. Also, there is a publisher with half-baked plans to produce a Flat Black comic with a Fuzion tie-in. And another of my old players is a GURPS enthusiast.

 

So what with one thing and another I have occasion to think about running Flat Black adventures under a system in which (unlike ForeSight) it is important that player characters have disadvantages. This raises an important issue because one of the features of the setting is that the best medical technology is very good. Severed or crippled limbs can be replaced using clone-android technology to produce synthetic allografts, and so can malfunctioning organs. Even allergies and addictions can be cured. It is therefore very difficult to justify a character having or long retaining any significant physical limitation.

 

Furthermore, psychiatry is also very well advanced, and developmental psychology has spawned an engineering discipline, which is used in schools, at least on advanced colonies. The result is that many of the more severe (and valuable) psychological limitations are also implausible. Though I must confess that certain pro-social limitations and cultural features can be worth a few points.

 

So consider the case in which a GM is running an adventure or campaign following the work of a field investigating team from the Imperial Justice Department. None of the characters can have any significant physical limitation, because they wouldn't pass their annual medical if they had. And they can't have any sort of debilitating psych lim either, because (a) they wouldn't pass their annual psych exam if they had, and ( if it gave them any sort of trouble they could easily get it fixed. The same applies to Enraged or Beserk.

 

JD people are very mobile. The Empire only posts about one per twenty million population to any planet, so a series of investigations will take a team of four all over a territory that is the social size of a large country. Even if the character's friends and loved ones are not safely ensconced in a high-security Imperial Enclave or safely at school in an orbital habitat, it is hard to rationalise their getting involved in adventures with any sort of frequency. Reputations are pretty tricky, too, except for the general reputation "high-handed, inflexible, holier-than-thou, supercilious, meddling S.O.B" that goes with being an Imperial Officer.

 

This brings us on to disads that go with the job, such as 'subject to orders', 'monitored by superiors', and 'monitored by the Secret Service'. I have trouble seeing it as a character disadvantage worth points that he or she has a characteristic that necessarily goes with being a character in the given campaign. If you are going to claim points for those, I reckon you ought to pay points for having sweeping powers of arrest, for it being a crime to hinder you in the execution of your duty, for having the right to go armed and armoured in any jurisdiction without let or hindrance (eg. from customs and immigration officials), for having the power to deputise temporary deputies, for being able to call for backup when needed. Best, in my opinion, to treat it all as an implicit package deal. Besides which it is far from clear that the PCs are going to come out ahead.

 

If you are fortunate enough that that the GM sets his campaign on a planet where the colony has discrimination as a social feature you can play a member of the discriminated-against race, class, or sex. But discrimination isn't worth a lot of points if you can arrest anyone who hinders you in your duties and get them mindwiped^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hrehabilitated.

 

Tony had us generate characters on 75 based points with up to fifty points of disadvantages. No mention was made (fortunately) of a limit on the number of points that could come from any one category of disads. And Tony allowed 'subject to orders', which I think was generous, considering that the only orders we were likely to get amounted to 'go on the adventure and do the best you can'. And I think we all took psych lims representing our dedication to the Imperial cause, justice &c. the result is that I think that 40 of the 50 points my character scored for disadvantages were not really legitimate.

 

But what do you do in such a situation? Get people to build 110-point characters with 15 points of disads?

[SirViss]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

Let's take this one step at a time:

 

You are using a campaign setting with a sci-fi background, so most of the medical problems should be taken care of for people that hold important posts in the interstellar (?) government. That can pose some problems with coming up with enough points.

 

I first should say that I am not the most experienced GM, though I have been gaming for around 15 years. I don't now either you or your friends, so I don't know your style of play.

 

Now, you have to ask yourself a few question when coming up with disads for characters:

 

1. Are the players and the GM on the same page as to what the "style" of the campaign is going to be. Seems obvious, but I have seen to many campaigns that died a quick death because of this. The way your post went, I don't think that is a problem. Sounds like all the players have played this setting before.

 

2. Are the disads appropriate to the campaign style. This includes the thought "is this really a disad?" One of the phrases often coined from FREd is (paraphrasing) "A disad that doesn't hinder the character, isn't a disad", which usually means that the character should get points for it.

 

Having said that, here are a few comments on your post:

 

Physical disabilities would be hard to explain, if medical tech is that advanced. One of the few reasons I would see one surviving the beginning of the campaign is that the character was assigned to some backwater colony that doesn't have all the med-tech, and between the time of his assignement and the beginning of the campaign. Then, it would probably be one of the goals of the character to get some leave time so that he can go to a higher tech colony and get looked after, but his obligations might keep him from doing that for a while (1 in 20 million is probably going to give you quite the work load!) Another, is if the character is simply a "sidekick", not really on the gov-payroll, but for one reason or another winds up always helping the characters. He might be looking to get ON the gov-payroll (especialy for the med-plan ).

 

Psych disads are sorta easier. Some of these are bound to leak through. One reason is that if everyone was absolutly "sane", it would make for a boring campaign. You have to remember that it would be possible to get some of the limitations from simply living. This would circumvent some of the "programming" that everybody would get while going through school. Overconfidence is a good example, especially if the characters are usually above the norm in most of their stats. They've never been really challenged, until NOW! As to Beserk and Enraged, well those are usually problems in most campaigns anyway, so not having to deal with them isn't so bad. But once again, you can get around that if you think about it.

 

When you talk about the social limitations that are common to people working for an organisation, I wonder on the style of the GMs. Do you guys ever use that fact that you work for a large (faceless?) organisation, that probably doesn't directly care about your personal views? If the GM doesn't use background items like who you work for as a plot device to sometimes hinder the player, well yes, those common limitations on characters probably will be superfluous, but he is letting a great many roleplaying possibilties just slip away!

 

I mean, a good example is "Subject to Orders". If the PCs are on a case and suddenly they get an order from on high that they are being reasigned to another case, they generally should just go to the new case, but players (at least the ones I know) don't usually work that way! If they are a little paranoid they probably think SOMETHING is up.

 

It really depends on the type of campaign that is being run, and what the GM is willing to use to hinder the PCs (but only to promote roleplaying, of course). I can't really make more comments without knowing the setting better, or getting to know the people in the game, so I could know their style(s).

[AlHazred]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

A couple of comments:

 

First of all, there is absolutely nothing wrong with a campaign with 150-point characters built on 125+25 or whatever. As long as this accurately reflects the genre, setting, style, group predilections, or whatever, it's fine.

 

Second, just because everyone is "fixed" doesn't mean everyone is perfectly fit, mentally and physically. There could easily be incredibly minor physical ailments that either aren't major enough to qualify for government treatment (mild color-blindness, birthmarks, etc.) or can't because technology just hasn't reached that far yet (easily gets colds, unexplained nervous tics). These could be worth a 5-point Physical Limitation or Distinctive Feature. Alternatively, depending on how advanced medical technology is, there could still be problems that haven't been fixed yet, either because society does not regard them as "real problems" (Overconfidence, Obeys Orders, certain Prejudices) or, again, because technology has not advanced to the point of being able to fix them; the thing about mental problems is, some of them are really well-hidden by their victims, and can't easily be discovered by even the people they live with, their intimates.

 

Third, there're all sorts of disadvantages associated with being a member of an organization. Usually a Watched, Subject to Orders, sometimes a uniform (Distinctive Feature), whatever. These can easily add to points.

 

If your GM is giving you points for things like Subject to Orders Social Limitation, then he's probably doing it for a reason (i.e., you're not always going to like what those orders require you to do).

 

Maybe you need to tell us more about your character's personality and background, so we can help you pick out the Disads. It helps to have more experienced eyes looking, sometimes.

[Agemegos]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

Alternatively' date=' depending on how advanced medical technology is, there could still be problems that haven't been fixed yet, either because society does not regard them as "real problems" (Overconfidence, Obeys Orders, certain Prejudices)[/quote']

 

These, I think, are the vein of pure gold. The psychological limitations that society doesn't 'correct' because it sees them as good.

 

For example, in my setting the Empire thinks that a general reputation for truthfulness among its officers is much more valuable than the advantage it would get from their being able to lie like diplomats. So children in Imperial schools are brought up as habitual truth-tellers, word-keepers, and despisers of the untruthful, deceptive, and unreliable. I didn't feel out of line asking for 15 points for the disad that my character is like that.

 

For another example, the Empire in my setting is obsessed with preventing mass murder (it is derived from the descendants of a people whose planet was blown up with a catalytic fusion weapon (gadget that turns a planet's atmosphere into a fusion bomb)). It brings children up prepared to dedicate themselves and to be prepared to lay down their lives, their property, and even their sacred honour, even where necessary to kill, to prevent anything like it or approaching it from happening again. I made my character one in whom the training had taken very strongly, an Imperial idealist fanatic who would unhesitatingly risk (or even lay down) his life, and unhesitatingly disregard civil rights, basic justice, or whatever got in the way of saving lots of lives. But I felt bad about claiming ten points for that, because fear and moral qualms are usually counted disadvantages, so it is a bit cheeky to count their absence as a disad. On the other hand, this acted as a significant social disad in at least two important conversations with NPCs, and induced me to charge an emplaced autolasercannon (which very nearly got me killed). So I don't feel too bad.

 

the thing about mental problems is, some of them are really well-hidden by their victims, and can't easily be discovered by even the people they live with, their intimates.

 

True, but when adventures are your work, anything that frequently significantly hinders you in adventures is going to show up on performance review.

 

Third, there're all sorts of disadvantages associated with being a member of an organization. Usually a Watched, Subject to Orders, sometimes a uniform (Distinctive Feature), whatever. These can easily add to points.

 

If the orders are very unlikely to require that I do anything other than do my best on the adventure, how does that hinder my character? And if it doesn't hinder my character I shouldn't have points.

 

If the superiors and Secret Service watching my character are only looking out for incompetence, goofing off, misfeasance, malfeasance, and corruption that he isn't going to do that isn't a real disadvantage either.

 

If your GM is giving you points for things like Subject to Orders Social Limitation, then he's probably doing it for a reason (i.e., you're not always going to like what those orders require you to do).[/i]

 

Fair enough. Working for the Empire in Flat Black is all about doing rough things in the hopeful pursuit of an estimated higher cause. I guess it might as well appear on the blance sheet.

 

Maybe you need to tell us more about your character's personality and background, so we can help you pick out the Disads. It helps to have more experienced eyes looking, sometimes.

 

Well, the character is already in play, and I'm not sure that either (i) the GM would be happy about my redesigning him at this point or (ii) that the adventure we played the other night is going to continue into a campaign. (Problem one: I live 750 km from the GM and other players. Problem two: an issue I had over a sudden discovery that an autolasercannon was being treated as an area-of-effect attack has turned unintendedly acrimonious.) But just as an exercise:

 

PROBATIONARY AGENT JACOB ARMAN

 

Jake Arman is a recent graduate of the Justice Department Academy, aged 22, and in his probationary year as a field investigation agent with the Imperial Justice Department. He grew up in an orbital facility (therefore in Imperial Direct Jurisdiction), and apart from a few fortnight-long excursions while he was at school, a couple of field trips while he was at teh Academy, and a few holidays on such congenial planets as Gogmagog and Reykjarvik, he has never lived on a planet in his life.

 

Like all people raised in Imperial boarding schools, Jake was raised to be truthful and reliable, and to judge untruthful, unreliable, deceptive people harshly. He won't lie (or will do so badly), will feel compelled to keep his commitments however lightly he made them.

 

Like all people raised in Imperial boarding schools, Jake was raised to abhor mass killing, and to feel it the duty of every person to do their possible to prevent it. This teaching took especially strongly in Jake, and he is a fanatic even by Imperial standards. Jake will condone or do anything necessary to forestall a possible mass murder.

 

Like many Imperials, Jake does not understand why many colonials resent the Empire and dislike its officials. And if he did, he would have precious little sympathy. He tends to despise colonials, who, as he sees it, pursue their own interests instead of doing the decent thing and joining the Imperial Service. However, he has absolutely no problem with people from colonial backgrounds who do join the Service.

 

Although well-trained, Jake is as yet quite inexperienced. He still carries a standard-issue stun-pistol, while most experienced field investigators consider them perfectly useless.

 

As a field investigator with the Imperial Justice Department, Jake has the legal right to wear armour and carry arms in any jurisdiction, to go into any colony or province as his duties require, without hindrance or let, and without requiring a visa or any form of approval. He has the power to arrest on his own authority anyone except the Emperor, an Imperial Senator, the Independent Commissioner For Justice, a deputy commissioner for Justice, if he has a reasonable belief that they have committed an offence under the Imperial Crimes Act (as amended) or any act outlawed by the Treaty of Luna (Imperial Constitution, basically). He has limited powers of search and seizure relating to crime scenes, hot pursuit, and imminent destruction of evidence. He has access to an Assistant Imperial Prosecutor who can get him arrest and search warrants on merely probable cause. However, the use of these powers is subject to various civil liberties protections. To obstruct Jake in the course of his duties is an Imperial offence, punishable by psychological reconstruction (a.k.a. mindwipe). But, since Jake is only on probation, he is only allowed to exerecise these powers under the supervision of a permanent agent, and he is not empowered to delegate any part of his authority to temporary deputies.

 

When at work (and unless there is any special call for mufti) Jake wears a Colonial Office uniform with an Imperial Marshal's badge. But since he is on probation there is no distinction lace in Justice Department red, and rather than having the Justice Department sword-and-scales logo embroidered on his cuff it is merely embossed on gold buttons securing white tabs to his cuffs. He does, however, carry a warrant card identifying his as a Justice Department Officer. Jake is not yet experienced enough to wear armour as a matter of habit, and he carries a standard-issue stun pistol in his belt-holster (and a light, quality DEXAX needle-pistol in a shoulder holster, as a backup). Tath may, however, change dramatically as soon as he is shot, or after the first time he plugs three ineffective stun-shots into an armoured, drugged, or painkiller-equipped perpetrator.

 

Jake is very young-looking: slim, smooth-faced, and boyish. Most people will take him for about sixteen years old, and many will have trouble believing that his is capable, resolute, and vested with authority.

 

Like all Imperial servants whose duties put them in the way of being shot, Jake has a ''military and police" grade "reinforcement" modification (+10 BDY, does not count towards CHAR maxima). This is invisible to external appearances, but would show up on any security screening or medical imaging.

 

Imperial penal theory does not hold with punishing criminals, least of all by imprisonment. There are fines and even non-injuring corporal punishment for misdemeanours and for other offences in which the judge finds an absence of felonious intent. Anyone who commits a felony with felonious intent is treated as psychologically defective, and is cured (by psychological technicians of the Corrections Division of the Imperial Justice Department). This works. But it has problems as a deterrent. Some perpetrators consider that the only problem with getting caught would be losing the gains of their crimes. Others consider psychological reconstruction to be tantamount to death. Either way there is no disincentive to resisting arrest, and the only disincentive to doing so with lethal force, by murder etc. is the danger of being shot dead while resisting. But the policy of the Justice Department is against teaching field investigations agents to carry lethal weapons and shoot to kill: Jake will only have been told about this by surreptitious intimations from experienced field agents on the Academy staff.

 

Jake has an Imperial accent and Imperial manners. A lot of colonials resent the Empire and dislike its officers and nationals, whom they consider to be high-handed, supercilious, domineering, meddling, inflexible, hard-nosed fanatics, who completely disregard everybody's interests and consider only their own duty.

 

Since Jake works in the Justice Department he is subject to the lawful orders of: the Independent Commissioner for Justice, any deputy commisioner for justice, the Assistant Commissioner (field investigations), the Justice Department Chief of Bureau in whose bailiwick he finds himself (ie. the JD chief for the system he is posted to), the lead investigating agent of any case he works on, his field team leader, and (as he is on probation) the most senior JD officer present where-ever he is on duty. Like anyone, he is subject to the court orders of any Imperial judge in whose jurisdiction he finds himself. Of course, this becomes relevant more often for a JD investigator. {Note: Imperial judges are appointed by the government of the colony in which they exercise jurisdiction (or by Parliament if there is no government). Their role is to protect colonial liberties. They are Imperial officials, but not responsible to or loyal to the Empire or its cause. Political appointees, they often act out of political motives.)

 

The Justice Department (in the persons of Jake's superiors and various persons charged with keeping an eye on internal affairs) monitor Jake's conduct and affairs to make sure that he is not corrupt or acting under any form of duress, coeercion, or undue or inappropriate influence. Somewhere in the background is the Secret Service, whose brief is to see that no Imperial Servant commits any act of misfeasance or malfeasance, or acts corruptly or under undue or inappropriate influence, coercion, or duress. The Secret Service is aware that the Justice Department investigates malfeasnace, misfeasnace, and corruption inthe Imperial Service, and that its people thererfore sometimes come into conflict with corrupt, peculating, and rogue Imperial officials.

 

Imperial Service recruiting and promotion processes rely on a science of psychology that is as far ahead of Freud and Jung as the Du Pont Chemical Company is of Dalton. So although Imperial servants are not incorruptible, they are at least very rarely corrupt. Nor incompetent. On the other hand, they

 

That's all i can think of at the moment.

[Tom Carman]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

PROBATIONARY AGENT JACOB ARMAN

 

Jake Arman is a recent graduate of the Justice Department Academy, aged 22, and in his probationary year as a field investigation agent with the Imperial Justice Department. He grew up in an orbital facility (therefore in Imperial Direct Jurisdiction), and apart from a few fortnight-long excursions while he was at school, a couple of field trips while he was at teh Academy, and a few holidays on such congenial planets as Gogmagog and Reykjarvik, he has never lived on a planet in his life.

 

Physical Limitation: Not used to planetary living; Infrequent, Slight (5)

Will occasionally misjudge weather and similar things because he "knows" that the "environmental systems of the 'habitat' wouldn't do that".

[Agemegos]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

Physical Limitation: Not used to planetary living; Infrequent, Slight (5)

Will occasionally misjudge weather and similar things because he "knows" that the "environmental systems of the 'habitat' wouldn't do that".

 

There is a certain problem with taking a temporary and transient aspect of a character as a disadvantage and collecting points for it. If the campaign is resumed, Jake will soon have accumulated a year or two of experience of living and working on Refuge (the planet where we ended up stationed) and in JD field investigations. Then I will have little choice but to buy off these disads. Now the theory of HERO System is that an 80+45 character ought to be just as capable and fun to play as an 80+50 point character, because the five extra points of disads ought to balance out the five extra points worth of characeristics, skills, and perks. But I find in practice that (1) the power of five more points of abilities is well worth the inconvenience of 5 points worth of disads, and (2) well-chosen disads often make a character more fun, not less. In any case, I rarely want to buy off disads (especially if they are hard to replace), and like to remain up hard against the disad caps.

[Tom Carman]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

There is a certain problem with taking a temporary and transient aspect of a character as a disadvantage and collecting points for it. If the campaign is resumed' date=' Jake will soon have accumulated a year or two of experience of living and working on Refuge (the planet where we ended up stationed) and in JD field investigations. Then I will have little choice but to buy off these disads. Now the theory of HERO System is that an 80+45 character ought to be just as capable and fun to play as an 80+50 point character, because the five extra points of disads ought to balance out the five extra points worth of characeristics, skills, and perks. But I find in practice that (1) the power of five more points of abilities is well worth the inconvenience of 5 points worth of disads, and (2) well-chosen disads often make a character [i']more[/i] fun, not less. In any case, I rarely want to buy off disads (especially if they are hard to replace), and like to remain up hard against the disad caps.

This is the sort of Disad that I would probably never buy off. First because it isn't worth spending points to remove and second because I wouldn't consider it as transient. Yes, the character has years of experience living on planets; that's why it is Infrequent and Slight. But he spent his formative years in space habitats so certain habits will be buried in his subconscious.

 

This may be a difference in GMing philosophy. The GMs I play with don't tend to beat you over the head with your choice of Disads. Oh, if the Disad was worth a lot of points it will come up, but things that just give the character some distinctiveness and personality quirks don't get played up.

[Agemegos]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

This is the sort of Disad that I would probably never buy off. First because it isn't worth spending points to remove and second because I wouldn't consider it as transient. Yes' date=' the character has years of experience living on planets; that's why it is Infrequent and Slight. But he spent his formative years in space habitats so certain habits will be buried in his subconscious.[/quote']

 

If it isn't worth spending points to remove, then I figure that it isn't really a disadvantage, and isn't worth points to begin with.

 

As for it not being transient, by that argument everybody has a disadvantage like this: they never have the same familiarity with other physical and social environments as they have with their homes. People from high-gee planets never really get used to low-gee planets, people from the dusty plains of Landfall never really get used to the rainforests of Gogmagog, the fetid streets of Blunderbore, of the snows of the Reyjarvik up-country. Implicitly, HERO System handles this by giving everyone one free AK, not a plethora of disads.

 

This may be a difference in GMing philosophy. The GMs I play with don't tend to beat you over the head with your choice of Disads. Oh, if the Disad was worth a lot of points it will come up, but things that just give the character some distinctiveness and personality quirks don't get played up.

 

Well, I have often thought that it was a (minor) problem with the HERO System that its disads system gives points to balance out weaknesses, and not to encourage players to give their characters heroic qualities, defining quirks, and ringlets designed to catch plot hooks. But things stand as they stand: unless my GM tells me about a house rule to some different effect, I feel inhibited from asking for points for a disadvantage that doesn't significantly hamper my character.

[Tom Carman]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

Well, I have often thought that it was a (minor) problem with the HERO System that its disads system gives points to balance out weaknesses, and not to encourage players to give their characters heroic qualities, defining quirks, and ringlets designed to catch plot hooks. But things stand as they stand: unless my GM tells me about a house rule to some different effect, I feel inhibited from asking for points for a disadvantage that doesn't significantly hamper my character.

 

Umm, it's always been my understanding that Disads are a major source of plot hooks, and not just for balancing weaknesses. As to not taking disadvantages that don't significantly hamper a character, notice that the bottom rung of the Disad ladder is "Infrequent, Slight" or "Uncommon, Moderate" or something similar. If characters are supposed to be "perfect", and you are not getting more base points to build them, then low-end Disads are a good place to mine for personality and behavior quirks.

[Agemegos]

Re: high medical tech, physicals & psych exams

 

Umm' date=' it's always been [i']my[/i] understanding that Disads are a major source of plot hooks, and not just for balancing weaknesses.

 

Mine too. Which is why I think that the point rewards for taking on various disadvantages ought ideally to be adjusted so as to encourage character-players to take diasads that provide prominent, robust, re-useable grommets for the GM's plot hooks, and to discourage character-players from taking disads that make their charcters (for example) uninterested in NPCs, sullen, inert, and trammelled around with annoying inabilities. I once had a player who wanted points for his character being so suspicious that he refused to co-operate with the other PCs. I forbade it of course. He went on to play it without collecting the points. I sacked him. So the problem is not insuperable.

 

Anyway, let's just say that I don't mind at all that GMs customarily give codes of honour more points than they are really worth as limitations, and don't charge for the way they empower a character.