Most Feared Disadvantage

[MisterBaldy]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I would have to agree with most of you, UNLUCK is the "most feared" Disadvantage...HANDS DOWN!!!

 

UNLUCK has the biggest opportunity to just screw a character over in the worst way possible...by making him/her a total slave to the fate of die rolls, and not from the fate of any consequence of the player character's actions.

 

It lessens the Role-Playing aspect of the game, buy turning into "ROLL Playing".

[Guest Black Lotus]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I would have to agree with most of you' date=' [b']UNLUCK[/b] is the "most feared" Disadvantage...HANDS DOWN!!!

 

UNLUCK has the biggest opportunity to just screw a character over in the worst way possible...by making him/her a total slave to the fate of die rolls, and not from the fate of any consequence of the player character's actions.

 

It lessens the Role-Playing aspect of the game, buy turning into "ROLL Playing".

 

So... what did you THINK luck meant?

 

It's like they say: s--- happens, sometimes for no reason at all. (Especially if you have Unluck).

[MisterBaldy]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

Actually...

 

As a player...the fact that your GM is going to give you at least one mystery HUNTED that your character is never going to receive points for!!!

[AliceTheOwl]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

Poor' date=' Unlucky, and sadly, Code vs. Killing seem to be pretty unpopular in my games.[/quote']

And what does it say that the last 3 characters I played in FtF games with you had 2 of those 3?

[Mike W]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

Unluck is not very popular with players, in my experience either. I think that the "license for GM to screw you over" is part of it, especially since you don't know how bad it will be. (Personally, I don't roll unluck, I just use it as an excuse to occasionally add a bizarre and unfortunate plot element.)

 

But also, I think part of it is because Unluck is not the kind of disadvantage that you normally think about when building a character. When you build a character, you have a history and personality in mind so you start taking disads with things like Psych Lims to define personality, hunted and reputation for history, and usually either Secret ID or Public ID. Off hand, I can't think of many established characters who have Unluck as a disadvantage - though Spidey sure seems to have it and you could probably make a case for Tim Drake's Robin as well. But that's about all I can think of off the top of my head.

 

I've also noticed that few players will take "undefined" disads, things like Amnesia or Secret(other than Secret ID). And they don't like taking Susceptiblity or Vulnerability unless it is part of a classic shtick(i.e. - Werewolves and silver) but even then, they generally want to buy it off.

People generally aren't fans of Povety either.

[Guzalot]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

Definitely Unluck in my group. Berserk and Vulnerability are close behind.

[Cancer]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

We take Unluck, but buy it off quickly, for a strange reason ... our GMs don't take advantage of it often enough. To me, that means you're just "storing up trouble" and when it comes home to roost, the screws will be applied in a long, slow, powerful way.

 

We have one guy playing a really weird character whose main power is a variable-effect Aid, bought with a Berserk disad. It's a really low-threshold Berserk, too, so it is common for him to wig out and keep buffing up the same friendly character in the same way for big chunks of a fight.

 

With our GMs, for me, it's Vulnerability. Guaranteed, it'll show up every time it matters, and when it does, forget it. You might as well turn your back on the table and play Minesweeper, or do a run up to Canada to buy more good hard cider. Or deliberately try to get your character killed so you can create a new one that won't get turned into a boat anchor every adventure.

[zornwil]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I see Unluck as fairly rare and the one more people have an absolute averse reaction to. I think this is simply gamer superstition, the feeling that Unluck is sure to run against you while Luck is rarely going to go your way.

 

Berserks aren't bought, either, and I think that is probably really the worst deal as written - even villains don't want that one if they're PCs.

 

Though from what I hear the most feared is simply the "Wilson disadvantage" for whatever I'll bring into the game!

[Dust Raven]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I would have to agree with most of you' date=' [b']UNLUCK[/b] is the "most feared" Disadvantage...HANDS DOWN!!!

 

UNLUCK has the biggest opportunity to just screw a character over in the worst way possible...by making him/her a total slave to the fate of die rolls, and not from the fate of any consequence of the player character's actions.

 

It lessens the Role-Playing aspect of the game, buy turning into "ROLL Playing".

 

Um... what do you do when someone wants to attack some one?

 

GM: Look Bob, I just rolled some dice, and they tell you got hit, then I rolled some more dice, and they told me you take 19 BODY and 46 STUN...

 

Bob: But I don't have Unluck!

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

Huh? I don't get it. Are all your GM's just stupid or completely unfair? I take Unluck all the time! How else do you create a Peter Parker type? Either you're being paranoid or your GM's are irrationally cruel. If I take, say 2d6 of Unluck, it shouldn't hurt me any more than any other 10-point disadvantage, i.e., not very much. Just what are these GM's doing to you when a one-pip unlucky situation comes up? What about two pips? Three? Does the Earth explode once every six game sessions?

 

IMX, no one ever takes Berserk for a PC (Enraged, yes). I also agree that Dependence give you far too few points to be worth taking in most cases, and I almost never see it taken.

 

But there's one that I've never seen at all: Age: 10-. It should probably be at least twice the points to reflect the limitation.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

Huh? I don't get it. Are all your GM's just stupid or completely unfair? I take Unluck all the time! How else do you create a Peter Parker type? Either you're being paranoid or your GM's are irrationally cruel. If I take' date=' say 2d6 of Unluck, it shouldn't hurt me any more than any other 10-point disadvantage, i.e., not very much. Just what are these GM's doing to you when a one-pip unlucky situation comes up? What about two pips? Three? Does the Earth explode once every six game sessions?[/quote']

I agree. I've taken Unluck myself and have no horror stories to tell, and as a GM the only players who've taken it haven't complained or said it's the first thing they're buying off. Granted, I did have a mine explode into a character's face once, but he was the one that went looking for bombs hidden in the park. (Which were there, leftover booby traps from a fight they just had, and had a chance of going off due to proximity... I just decided that since he had unluck, it'd go off automatically if he went near it... of course, it was just a 2d6 NND).

 

IMX, no one ever takes Berserk for a PC (Enraged, yes). I also agree that Dependence give you far too few points to be worth taking in most cases, and I almost never see it taken.

I rarely take Dependence myself, and can't recall any player that's taken it in a game I was running (I'm sure someone has, I just don't remember). I'm not sure if it has anything to do with how much you get for it though. Personally, I think it's fairly balance. After you get past the once-a-day mark, it's hardly limiting or restricting... at least not any more than needing food or sleep, which are hardly brought up in most games.

 

But there's one that I've never seen at all: Age: 10-. It should probably be at least twice the points to reflect the limitation.

I've seen it... though not as an Age disad. It was a Social Limitation for a supersmart 13 year old girl, taken to represent the social stigma of trying to save the city on a curfew and not being to follow the bad guys when they duck into strip clubs.

[Kyle A.]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

In the campaigns I've GM'ed players have taken every single Disadvantage. The one they feared the most was a specific Hunted.

Hunted by the Overseer, more powerful, NCI, 14-.

Nobody could take it at a lesser level and the Overseer was designed when my players kept saying how the wished they could face a villian who didn't have any of the classic flaws.

 

They don't wish that anymore.

[prestidigitator]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I've seen it... though not as an Age disad. It was a Social Limitation for a supersmart 13 year old girl' date=' taken to represent the social stigma of trying to save the city on a curfew and not being to follow the bad guys when they duck into strip clubs. [/quote']

Well, technically that all stands to reason, but practically...come on! They'd let a 13-year-old girl into a strip club. It's the 13-year-old boys they'd turn back.

[Roy_The_Ruthles]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

In the campaigns I've GM'ed players have taken every single Disadvantage. The one they feared the most was a specific Hunted.

Hunted by the Overseer, more powerful, NCI, 14-.

Nobody could take it at a lesser level and the Overseer was designed when my players kept saying how the wished they could face a villian who didn't have any of the classic flaws.

 

They don't wish that anymore.

 

bad ass

[Dust Raven]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

Well' date=' technically that all stands to reason, but practically...come on! They'd let a 13-year-old girl into a strip club. It's the 13-year-old [i']boys[/i] they'd turn back.

 

Well, realistically, I've never been a 13 year old girl, nor known any who tried to chase a supervillain into a strip club. I have known a few who kept getting busted for curfew though.

[Statikk HDM]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I'd glady take the ten-point disadvantage "Can't get a break" before a comparable ten point susceptibility or vulnerability. Once the villian comes around who wields banana slug slime or mind controls you to wear polyester you'll be praying that you had unluck. It reminds me of the classic of the whole group taking the -1/4 disad. "Doesn't work in magnetic fields" and having their GM own them with a character who specializes in magnetic fields. Except with the 2 disadvantages your GM is obligated to thrash you once or else he is just giving out free points.

[Edsel]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I agree with PhilFleischmann on this. I have heard it claimed many times that a true hero should have 2 or 3 dice of Unluck and 2 or 3 dice of Luck. The Peter Parker example is a good one. Most comic book superheroes are always getting themselves in unlucky situations from which they then "heroically" extract themselves.

[incrdbil]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

Im my experience, the Most avoided

 

#1 Unluck

#2 Beserk (not enraged)

#3 Susceptibilities to common substances on anythign less than an 8 hour exposure period (I had someone try suceptible--lack of sleep on a daily basis)

 

vulnerabilities are pretty common in the groups I've played with..well, at least certain types--but certain levesl are ranges no one will take. I'll see 1.5 stun and body to fire, electricity, even magic occasionally, but never 4 and 5 below

 

#4 Vulnerable to any Common attack (like all energy, or all hand to hand damage)

#5 x2 Vulnerability to anything that shows up with any regualrity

#6 Normal Characteristic maxima (in any game where such a rule isn't already in place)

#7 Physical Limitations of any significant degree. I've had a few p[layers try to--but what they were claiming in points, and the actual disadvantage were nowhere near close. (Color Blind is not a 20 point disadvantage! Deaf in one ear is not a 15 point disadvantage, especially if you buy levels in hearing, active sonar, and claim there's no reason to penalize your PER rolls!)

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I've seen it... though not as an Age disad. It was a Social Limitation for a supersmart 13 year old girl' date=' taken to represent the social stigma of trying to save the city on a curfew and not being to follow the bad guys when they duck into strip clubs. [/quote']

I'm not talking about child characters. I'm talking specifically about the Age: 10- Disad. Age: 40+ gives 5 points and causes 35 points worth of reduced characteristic maximums. Age: 60+ gives 10 points and causes 69 points worth of reduced maximums - almost exactly twice as much for twice the points. All's fair so far. But Age: 10- causes 237 points worth of decreased maximums, but is only a 15-point Disad. To keep it consistant with the other two Age Disads, it ought to be a 30 or even 35-point Disad.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Most Feared Disadvantage

 

I'm not talking about child characters. I'm talking specifically about the Age: 10- Disad. Age: 40+ gives 5 points and causes 35 points worth of reduced characteristic maximums. Age: 60+ gives 10 points and causes 69 points worth of reduced maximums - almost exactly twice as much for twice the points. All's fair so far. But Age: 10- causes 237 points worth of decreased maximums' date=' but is only a 15-point Disad. To keep it consistant with the other two Age Disads, it ought to be a 30 or even 35-point Disad.[/quote']

 

Ah. I've got a different beef with the various Characteristic Maxima disads. Technically, they are my most hated Disad, rather then feared. I disallow them to be taken at all in any campaign, and if I use a maxima in a game I run, it applies equally to all characters and cannot be changed. Why should anyone get a point break just because they did or didn't take a certain Disad. But I suppose I should save this for a different thread.