Reproduction

[BNakagawa]

Re: Reproduction

 

In the real world' date=' it's an advantage to be right handed...[/quote']

 

Unless you play baseball.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Reproduction

 

Unless you play baseball.

Or fence, or your a member of the mafia or yakuza....

 

Then again, this is all balanced out by those poor unfortunate Islamic south paws.

[Steve]

Re: Reproduction

 

Then you missed my agruements (or else this post wasn't in regards to them). It doesn't matter how common it is, or what the default assumptions is, or even what the setting is. It matters what's actually useful in game. Is the ability to have kids useful, or is being treated like royalty useful? Sure, you may be treated like royalty because you can have kids, but you should only pay for the part is is useful, and that's the treated like royalty part, not the having kids part.

 

As to the rest of your post, charge whatever you think is fair. But if I were in your game, I'd be very upset if I had to pay points to be a slave.

 

I wasn't referring to your posts at all, just a general sense I was getting from posts put forth by everyone. I find it interesting that a number of posters don't find the ability to have kids useful at all, simply on its own merits as an ability. I do, and I think that's where there's a difference in opinion showing up. I keep coming back to the Life Support vs. Aging question. Is it really useful in the context of a game to be able to live 200 years as opposed to 100? How long do campaigns last? For example, why be an elf and buy 4 or 5 points worth of Life Support vs. Aging at all?

 

Your last paragraph misinterprets what I said, so maybe that's my fault in how I presented it. In the shattered post-holocaust landscape I was picturing, the characters would not be coming from regions that would treat breeders as slaves, but they could encounter them in their travels across the world. There are other places where breeders are treated as special, sometimes even revered. What I meant was that, on balance, taking both ends of the spectrum and all points in between into account, I think having the ability to reproduce is a 1 point ability. The default is that you can't. If you never care to have kids, then don't pay the point in this campaign. If you're born into a society that treats breeders as slaves, the campaign won't be starting there, but it gives (I feel) an interesting hook for a PC to have come from one of them, have the ability, and somehow escaped. I could imagine a pretty interesting write-up could be created from that origin.

 

I just find it surprising that the ability to have kids is dismissed as being an utter waste of a point by some posters, if the only benefit it gives you is just the ability to have kids when most people can't.

[OddHat]

Re: Reproduction

 

Haven't read the other posts, but I'd do it the other way around from the first post. "Infertile" is (imo) a 0 point Physical Limitation and in some settings anywhere from a 5-10 point Social Limitation. If by default all characters start with Infertile for 0 points, figure out how much it costs to buy off that disadvantage in your campaign (0-15 points probably). That's how much it should cost to be Fertile. Additionally, if fertility gives social advantages, you might price it as a perk (1-5 points, depending). If fertile characters risk being kidnapped and locked up in breeding farms, throw in a Secret and maybe a Hunted.

 

Point costs are there to reflect how important a game element is in play; mechanics are there to help adjudicate events in the game. Beyond those needs, I don't see much point in stating things out.

[zornwil]

Re: Reproduction

 

I wasn't referring to your posts at all, just a general sense I was getting from posts put forth by everyone. I find it interesting that a number of posters don't find the ability to have kids useful at all, simply on its own merits as an ability. I do, and I think that's where there's a difference in opinion showing up. I keep coming back to the Life Support vs. Aging question. Is it really useful in the context of a game to be able to live 200 years as opposed to 100? How long do campaigns last? For example, why be an elf and buy 4 or 5 points worth of Life Support vs. Aging at all?

 

Your last paragraph misinterprets what I said, so maybe that's my fault in how I presented it. In the shattered post-holocaust landscape I was picturing, the characters would not be coming from regions that would treat breeders as slaves, but they could encounter them in their travels across the world. There are other places where breeders are treated as special, sometimes even revered. What I meant was that, on balance, taking both ends of the spectrum and all points in between into account, I think having the ability to reproduce is a 1 point ability. The default is that you can't. If you never care to have kids, then don't pay the point in this campaign. If you're born into a society that treats breeders as slaves, the campaign won't be starting there, but it gives (I feel) an interesting hook for a PC to have come from one of them, have the ability, and somehow escaped. I could imagine a pretty interesting write-up could be created from that origin.

 

I just find it surprising that the ability to have kids is dismissed as being an utter waste of a point by some posters, if the only benefit it gives you is just the ability to have kids when most people can't.

I'm not sure why it's surprising - bear in mind how little that is covered in typical action-adventure gaming in a way that's disadvantageous or advantageous, I've always seen it relegated to a color issue and only once in a while a plot issue, and even as the latter not something that really has a clear points/balance relationship. Even less in my experience than long lifespans or immortality, which I have seen come up.

 

PS - not to say your query shouldn't be answered, but just going to the point of why - and why people are asking what you see as the advantage or disadvantage socially or otherwise that affects play.

[Dust Raven]

Re: Reproduction

 

I wasn't referring to your posts at all, just a general sense I was getting from posts put forth by everyone. I find it interesting that a number of posters don't find the ability to have kids useful at all, simply on its own merits as an ability. I do, and I think that's where there's a difference in opinion showing up. I keep coming back to the Life Support vs. Aging question. Is it really useful in the context of a game to be able to live 200 years as opposed to 100? How long do campaigns last? For example, why be an elf and buy 4 or 5 points worth of Life Support vs. Aging at all?

 

Your last paragraph misinterprets what I said, so maybe that's my fault in how I presented it. In the shattered post-holocaust landscape I was picturing, the characters would not be coming from regions that would treat breeders as slaves, but they could encounter them in their travels across the world. There are other places where breeders are treated as special, sometimes even revered. What I meant was that, on balance, taking both ends of the spectrum and all points in between into account, I think having the ability to reproduce is a 1 point ability. The default is that you can't. If you never care to have kids, then don't pay the point in this campaign. If you're born into a society that treats breeders as slaves, the campaign won't be starting there, but it gives (I feel) an interesting hook for a PC to have come from one of them, have the ability, and somehow escaped. I could imagine a pretty interesting write-up could be created from that origin.

 

I just find it surprising that the ability to have kids is dismissed as being an utter waste of a point by some posters, if the only benefit it gives you is just the ability to have kids when most people can't.

 

I can see where you are coming from now at least. Thank you for the clarification. A "waste of points" is a stronger term than I'd like to use, but accurate. It's unnecessary, at least to me. As you say, it's like buying LS: Longevity. If it never does anything benificial for the character in game, it's free. For me, I can't see how having a child does anything benificial for the character. I just can't see it. What does it do? If you're male, abolutely nothing. It has no effect on the character at all. If you're female, it actually weakens you for around 9 months, at the end of which you become more or less completely incompacitated for a day or more. That's not benificial by any definition of the term. Once the child is brought into the world, it doesn't provide any kind of benifit to either parent. Well, if the parents are poor, and keep the child, they'll get a tax credit... but that's not even enought to offset the expense of caring for him. Is there something I'm missing about fathering or mothering a child into existance?

 

Being a parent myself, I can certainly say that if my son appears on my character sheet at all, it's as a DNPC. If I'm lucky and he earns enough XP and I'm a good enough father to him, he'll turn into a Follower, but that's anything but guarenteed.

 

I should probably stop ranting. I don't think it's helping either of us. My bottom line is that you should buy the benifit, not the SFX. Reason from effect. If the character has respect/reverence/whatever, then buy that; it's all there under Perks (Fringe Benifits and maybe Reputation). The SFX is "fertile", and in this case, at least to me, "fertile" is no different than saying "fire blast" or "magnetic field".