Alibear Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Hunted by your past, perhaps? Anyway I've been watching the irrepressable Jack Bauer recently and he seems to have had a long and varied life. Too much to go into a back story, just right in fact to be thrown at the player as and when the GM needs it. Other characters from fiction also have it. Nick Nolte's character in Mullholland falls has it, I'm sure he wasn't expecting the GM to kill off an ex gf of his and then send a compromising film to his wife. Hunted: You past could be a lash of enemies, like Jack. It could be that you took a bribe to get your kids through college one week. The next week your old buddy from Sand Wars 1 calls in a debt, maybe you got a girl pregnant when you were younger and the kid shows up the week after. Maybe you killed a guy years ago, in self defence but didn't report it. Maybe it wasn't self defence? The beauty is that the player doesn't need to have it all worked out before hand. For the GM, the beauty is that he can introduce lots of plot lines and have the character intimately involved from the get go! The frequency of the Hunted would dictate how often your past life would reverberate into your present life. What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. What you're suggesting (generally) requires several factors: 1) some inimical fiend to take advantage of it, and 2) if they aren't physically attacking the character - a social milieu that causes the character and those around them to care about it. Its a social limitation, psychological limitation, and (sometimes) hunteds all rolled into one. I think the people sending the tape to the wife or leaning on the character for having taken a bribe are the hunted, though they could just be the antagonist of the current arc and not a disadvantage. The past is the thing the hunted/villian is using against the character. Thus, I'm iffy on using hunted. I'm probably splitting hairs. You certainly could use it as a hunted, but I think there may be cleaner methods that leave the use of other hunteds in tandem with it. I would model it as social limitation: dark/checkered/embarrasing/inconvenient past (frequency in play, severity of consequences). In general the player should treat this like a (most) real person(s) would and be and be concered that their past will come to light, but generous GMs, or those who feel their characters are sticklers for what's on the sheet might also allow Psychological Limitation: Wants Past Kept Secret, though I would probably require the past be tailored to be inconvenient for the characters extant psychological lims, living circumstances, profession, instead. Neat idea, btw. Its one that requires more work up front in terms of character design and plotting, but it would definately pay off during play. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. I've always used hunted (at the harshly punish level) like this: to me it simply means that there is someone out there who really doesn't like you and wants to do you ill: not that they are necessarily physically chasing you around (although it could be that, too). So it covers - for example - the obsessive stalker ex, who freaks out your current romantic interest and sends nasty letters to reporters making up shady deals so you look dishonest. The newspaper editor who just hates your guts for some reason and is always trying to get photos that cast your character in a bad light. The noble who feels you slighted him and is always whispering about you at court, or the guy you owe a really, really big favour to and who calls you up for "jobs" - or he'll spill what he knows to the cops, or... It doesn't have to be petty spite - such a character might actually *want* you dead but simply lacks the resources to make it happen - so they do what they can to plague you. Then when a hunted pops up, it simply means one of these schemes has borne fruit of some kind. Actually, I'd rather a player have several of these sorts of hunted than one larger hunted of the type where (for example) the king wants your head on a pike for seducing his wife and youngest daughter simultaneously. The latter is far harder to work into a game on a regular basis. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alibear Posted November 23, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. That's the whole point I'm trying to make there isn't one bad guy controlling all this. It just happens on it's own. The wheels of fate turn without the hand of an über-puppeteer controlling them. Everybody in the world has a story and a job, some of those interact with the characters past in unforseen ways. What it requires is a player willing to get in the sh1t now and again and a level of trust between the player and rthe GM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 New Disadvantage: Past. I can see a disadvantage (pardon the expression) to this. While it would be appropriate for player as well as character to be surprised at an unexpected "blast from the past" what happens if the player's response to some revalation is "my character would NEVER have done THAT!?" Lucius Alexander LA: She matches the description, and she glares as if she hates you. P: Sounds like she's the one who shot the crab cannon at me. I ask why. LA: "The withdrawals almost killed me, but I got away from him and got over the addiction. Then I went back and killed him for all the things he forced me to do. But after five years I still can't forget the worst thing, the porn movie with you.." P: Uh, Lucius? That doesn't make sense. LA: Not for you now, but this is your dark past coming back to haunt you.... P: Anatomy. I'm not equipped to have sex with this woman are anyone else. I'm a palindromedary, remember? LA: (thinking fast) She says she's over whatever addiction she had, but she looks to you like she's still under the influence of something.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. Other characters from fiction also have it. Nick Nolte's character in Mullholland falls has it' date=' I'm sure he wasn't expecting the GM to kill off an ex gf of his and then send a compromising film to his wife.[/quote'] Sounds like a Hunted and/or a Social Limitation/Secret. It could be that you took a bribe to get your kids through college one week. Another Secret The next week your old buddy from Sand Wars 1 calls in a debt' date='[/quote'] DNPC? maybe you got a girl pregnant when you were younger and the kid shows up the week after. DNPC and/or Secret - maybe Secret evolving into DNPC. Maybe you killed a guy years ago' date=' in self defence but didn't report it. Maybe it wasn't self defence?[/quote'] Secret. The beauty is that the player doesn't need to have it all worked out before hand. For the GM' date=' the beauty is that he can introduce lots of plot lines and have the character intimately involved from the get go![/quote'] Mystery Disadvantages (let the GM set your points). What I'm seeing here is a combination of rotational disadvantages, much like the large group of DNPC characters purchased as a single DNPC, or a Hunted: Rogues' Gallery, one could add in a "Many Secrets" to reflect numerous secrets that come up and are resolved, rather than a single one that carries through the whole campaign. The only difference here is that the GM sets them, rather than the player, so they're also mystery disadvantages. Most, or at least many, disadvantages can be looked upon as your past coming back to haunt you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manic Typist Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. Many Mystery Disadvantages would cover this. Regardless, I like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. I can see this being handy for the GM. Can be an unspecified hunted or a social limitation (reputation) as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted November 23, 2006 Report Share Posted November 23, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. LA: She matches the description, and she glares as if she hates you. P: Sounds like she's the one who shot the crab cannon at me. I ask why. LA: "The withdrawals almost killed me, but I got away from him and got over the addiction. Then I went back and killed him for all the things he forced me to do. But after five years I still can't forget the worst thing, the porn movie with you.." P: Uh, Lucius? That doesn't make sense. LA: Not for you now, but this is your dark past coming back to haunt you.... P: Anatomy. I'm not equipped to have sex with this woman are anyone else. I'm a palindromedary, remember? Palindromedaries don't have tongues? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alibear Posted November 24, 2006 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. I can see this being handy for the GM. Can be an unspecified hunted or a social limitation (reputation) as needed. Exactly. The player would have to be okay with this, be okay with the GM giving him a different disad every 3rd week or so. I've been thinking about this for a while and would offer it only to players who I think like getting shat upon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. Palindromedaries don't have tongues? Yes, but they don't use them that way. Lucius Alexander The palindromedary is laughing at both ends and won't stop Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hugh Neilson Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. Yes' date=' but they don't use them that way.[/quote'] The video says otherwise... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaft Posted November 24, 2006 Report Share Posted November 24, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. "Past" seems to fall squarely under the Social Limitation. It's effectively Secret Identity: ex-drug addict, ex-porn actor, ex-criminal, or whatever. It occurs infrequently, and has an effect based on how bad your past actions were. When it does come up, there is either someone asking questions about your past- digging through medical records/criminal records etc... Perhaps you're being blackamiled. In other games, I have seen the suggestion that if a secret is ever outed, the points are swapped for double the value in an appropriate combination of Hunted, Reputation, and other Social Limitations that involve wider knoweledge of the past offense. Needless to say, you don't get points for the new disads, though the extra xp you might make for dealing with the outing might help offset the cost in the long run... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robyn Posted December 11, 2006 Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. I can see this being handy for the GM. Can be an unspecified hunted or a social limitation (reputation) as needed. Exactly. The player would have to be okay with this, be okay with the GM giving him a different disad every 3rd week or so. Isn't this essentially just Floating? Usually a type would be specified (Hunted, etcetera), but this could be handwaved or a higher value assigned to the Disadvantage for its expanded scope. __________________ I want Floating Reputation: "They're always saying bad things about me!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstarfire Posted December 11, 2006 Report Share Posted December 11, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. Actually, this sounds more like a wierd form of Unluck than anything to me. Based on a roll one of many things could happen: an old enemy/rival shows up (Hunted), you visit a club/bank/etc. only to discover you're persona-non-grata there because of some past incident (Social), you get sucked into a sidequest about an unresolved debt (Psych), or many others. This is one of those many cases in Hero where no single power/modifier/disadvantage really fits the bill. If you tried to use a single, or even a set of, disadvantages, you'd end up with a significantly higher appearance rate than you desire (more rolls = greater likelihood of appearance), and the importance/inconvenience (and hence the pt value) of any given appearance is likely to vary from the others. Unluck is a simple "bad things happen", "really bad things happen", "you and all your friends get totally screwed", depending on the roll. There's nothing that explicitly defines what the bad thing is, or even why it's bad. That's all part of the sfx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted December 12, 2006 Report Share Posted December 12, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. Exactly. The player would have to be okay with this' date=' be okay with the GM giving him a different disad every 3rd week or so. I've been thinking about this for a while and would offer it only to players who I think like getting shat upon.[/quote'] I think McCoy nailed it. I like your idea though of actually coming up with a name for this thing. Past The character has a long and varied past. Each adventure, the GM should select some disadvantages for the character. These can be almost any disadvantages at all, but should be related to something that happened to the character in the past. The PC must role-play each disadvantage. The GM should inform the player what the Disadvantage is so that he or she can role-play it correctly. This can be done at the start of the adventure, but can also be held back and revealed "in play." Some ideas for a Past include: Hunted: an enemy appears from the past to harass or kill the player. Enraged/Berserk: a situation appears which triggers an Enraged or Berserk response in the player. Perhaps it's related to a given location which the PC finds himself in, or a returned enemy. Maybe the PC was subject to "programming" which is now reactivated. Psychological Limitation: Vengeful. The PC finds himself filled with thoughts of vengeance when a certain situation from his past returns. Psychological Limitation: Hunting Enemy. The PC must pursue some old foe from his past. Psychological Limitation: Pacifism. The situation from the past requires that the PC refrain from killing for duration the adventure. Reputation: a previous act the PC has committed returns the haunt the PC. DNPC: an old friend whom the PC must protect re-appears. Vulnerability: an old enemy or situation has an attack or power that the PC is vulnerable to. Psychological Limitation: Fear. The PC is very afraid of a given thing or situation from his past. Destitute: A situation from the PC's past temporarily wipes out the PC's material resources. Unluck: Things just aren't going well for the PC, which is some how related to the situation from the PC's past. This usually represents an old Hunted who also "has the PC's number." The GM should choose two or three Disadvantages for the adventure. These are chosen at a "high" level (very common, always occurs, or equivalent) since they will feature prominently in the adventure. Usually this means a Disadvantage chosen at the 20 point level. The player should select how he wants the PC's past to affect him or her: Past, 60 points The GM will choose three Disadvantages for the PC Past, 40 points The GM will choose two Disadvantages for the PC The player must also choose how often the PC's past occurs: All the time, 14- Past is worth full points. Fairly often, 11- Past is worth two-thirds (divide by 1.5, or -1/2 lim) Occurs rarely, 8- Past is worth half points (divide by 2, or -1 lim) Ok that was way more typing than I intended but I got on a roll. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alibear Posted December 13, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. Great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted December 13, 2006 Report Share Posted December 13, 2006 Re: New Disadvantage: Past. Thanks! I should plug the Champions genre book here. That list of disadvantage I posted I basically got by going through the list of disadvantages in the Random Characters section, and asking myself "How could this apply to a past situation?" I'd really like to see that Random Characters section expanded by the way. It's really an amazing resource. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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