Homemade Negative Qualities, Yours, mine, ours? Options

[lorechaser]

So here are a couple new negative qualities I'm thinking of introducing (once I manage to actually get people to, you know, show up to the game). Any thoughts on the balance or appropriateness? Or better names? Or better wording?

Human Throwback (10 pts): This quality may only be taken by a metahuman. Choose a starting attribute that has a racial bonus, and reduce that attributes by one. Your augmented maximum for that attribute is now the same as your racial maximum. In certain circumstances, you may suffer a charisma penalty dealing with members of your own metatype.

The intent is that you get a smaller bonus than a normal member of your race, and you can never be as good as a normal member. The 10 pts is conveniently enough to raise another attribute, but since just shuffling felt cheesy, this also penalizes the attribute you weakened. The pseudo-science is a partially expressed UGE - you didn't get the full benefits of your goblinization.


Dain Bramage (15 pts): Whether you used too many BTL's, burned your brain out on Black IC, or just never quite kept up with the kids, you just aren't as quick as the average bear. You take a -1 penalty on all reaction based checks, and can never spend Edge to go first in a round, or gain extra init passes.


I considered a -2 penalty, but then it seemed like no one would ever take it. I also considered 10 points, but again, for 10 points, you basically get -1 reaction, plus other penalties.


Thoughts? Anyone else have neg. quals to share?

Edit:

Here's the current list, stolen from later in the thread.

Page 1:

Human Throwback (10 pts): Penalty to a racial bonus
Dain Bramage (15 pts): Slow to react.
Grandstander (20 pts): Must be the center of attention.
Enemy(Variable): Enemies.
Flashbacks(Variable,5 to 20)
Whore Hound (5 pt): You want to make sexy time?
Groupies (5/10/15/20 pt): Eeek! There he is!
Temper (10 pts): You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
Glass Jaw (5 pts): Uppercut! He's down!

Page 2:
Haunted(5/10/15/20): Spoooooky ghosts!
Mean as a Rattler (10pts): Kick em when they're up, kick 'em when they're down.
Grim Servant O Death (20pts): And he was the only one that lived...
Big Britches (5pts): Our fearless leader
Gambling Freak (5/10/15/20): Just one more roll....
Distinctive Style(5): It's all retro SR3!
Swimming with Sharks (0 BP): A pound of flesh.
Stepped on Toes (10 BP): You made someone real big real mad.

[emo samurai]

Grandstander (20 pts)

The grandstander has to make a Willpower + Charisma (4) check to avoid taking center stage whenever there is a lot of people. It is recommended that the grandstander has a lot of charisma.

[ElFenrir]

I like the Dain Bramage and the Grandstander flaws a lot. Heck, i like all of them.

We used the Enemy negative quality; you gain BP as if you were buying Contacts. If your enemy has Power 3 Motivation 3, for example, youd gain 6 BP. Youd gain a whopping 12 with 6 and 6, but would you want that on your tail? :grinbig:

Also, the Flashback flaw can be reinstated, at variable points....Composure roll is taken when 'trigger' is encountered. Flaw points are rated on Trigger and Severity, like an allergy....(or could be flat 5 and 10.) Like, Common is 8 points, Uncommon 3. Mild is 2, Moderate is 7, Severe is 12. Either one could work.


Distinctive Style can be reinstated easily as a 5 point Negative quality, with opponents getting +2 dice to remember/notice character. The opposite Positive quality of Blandness can cost 5 and give opposite benefit.

[Butterblume]

Dain Bramage :rotfl:. Cool name, reminds me of the munchkin card game.
But I think 15 BP is to much.

For Grandstander, just think what might happen if you hear Surrender, you are surrounded during a run :D.

[Kyoto Kid]

...Dain Bramage would have been a good one for KK 4.1. It actually would have fit with her character story better than Uneducated [Severe Learning Disability] since she was repeatedly beaten by her father.

The original Pre SR4 Kyoto Kid also had Distinctive Style. Man, the fashion police were always on her butt. Gives her better reason to have learned the Facial Sculpt and Melanin Control powers.

GM? You out there?

[ChicagosFinest]

Grandstander. LOL thats a good one I recomend that to be official. (it totaly describes the way I play my characters)

[Grinder]

I would love to see some Deadlands-based flaws like
- mean as a rattler
- grim servant o' death
- big britches

There are tons more, but I don't have my Deadlands-books handy, neither do I have the time to think about BP values for it now.

[SL James]

[Eleazar]

[lorechaser]

[lorechaser]

[ElFenrir]

Hmm...perhaps we should catalogue some of these up in this thread. Use it to post any and all of the qualities(Negative AND Positive) that we can. Let's face it, the reason why folks are taking 'Moderate Allergy: Hamsters' 'Incompetent: Badger Wrangling' and 'Ambidexterity' is the lack of qualities overall. When there are only, say, 30 qualities and thousands of characters that get made, of course they are going to have similar qualities.

While there are a lot, i think they should be a broader range. Bring back the Phobias, they could work well. I dunno, but the way the negative qualities are...about 80% of them get complaints for being 'cheap and twinky', and 10% are 'unnecessary'.

BUT, thats all you have to choose from, so people are stuck taking these 'cheap and twinky' qualities because their Technomancer must pull points out of their asses for the Complex Forms(i wont even get into a drone technomancer who must buy vehicle skills.)

So, lets gather up all the qualities! Maybe we can get a good range of them together that wont get accused of being twinky.

[Butterblume]

And the last 10% are just to crippling, like infirm or gremlins.

I agree that they are not enough flaws.

[ElFenrir]

Yeah, I mean, Flaws SHOULD be a disadvantage, but there is a difference between 'pain in the ass' 'disadvantage' or 'im now useless'.

I mean, its all well and good to have Situational flaws....in a pirate campaign, Allergy: Seawater is a tough flaw, in Severe cases it could be deadly. But its balanced, the person that takes Severe Allergy to Seawater in a sealubbing campaign is asking for it.

Allergy: Seawater in a campaign that takes place in Kuopio, Finland would be utterly useless.

I think thats one problem...the flaws can be twinky because they are very situational. A balanced flaw in once campaign could be twinky in another, as said above.

What we need are some good, general purpose, flaws(and positive qualities...come on, not EVERY shadowrunner can be ambidexterous ) that are balanced any way you look at them.

Well, i mean, supposedly, based on that, a campaign based around protecting some crazy rich old Hamster Lady who collects them, Allergy: Hamsters would become balanced. :grinbig:

[SL James]

[ChicagosFinest]

Here are some other suggestions:

Whore Hound, Groupies, Temper, Social Retard, Glass Jaw

Just some off the top of my head. If someone could make some BP blueprints and a description to go along with it that would be cool. I can't do it because my boss is paying attention to what I doing for a little bit

BTW SL James.... LOL! I wish I could feel your pain.

[lorechaser]

Whore Hound, Groupies, Temper, Social Retard, Glass Jaw

Whore Hound (5 pt): Your passions not only rule you, they override your better judgement. You take a -2 penalty on seduction tests and negotiation tests involving your preferred gender, and must make a composure test (3) to avoid pursuing any sort of sexual gratification when it presents itself.

Groupies (5/10/15/20 pt): You are easily recognizable to a certain group. Whether you're a well-known simsense star, a retired Urban Brawl star, or simply have the misfortune to look like the Biff and Buffy love interest of the week, people recognize you, and will actively seek you out, point you out to their friends, etc. This makes it particularly difficult to be subtle. If you take this quality, you may not take Blandness.

The number of points for this flaw depends on the group of people that recognize you.

5 pts: Known to a small niche group (you look like the brother of an actor on a 2nd rate network) or a local area (you are the kid that faced down the Star when they came to arrest Tommy Two Tusks).
10 pts: Known to a reasonbly large group (Your Urban Brawl team never won the Crunch Bowl, but most people can name you as member) or a large area (You are the mayor of Seattle)
15 pts: Known to most of the population ("Hey! Aren't you the 'Can you hear me now' guy?") or to a significant amount of area ("Oh, sure, everyone in the UCAS knows Daniel Boone!")
20 pts: Known to almost everyone on the planet ("Look! Hitler!")

Temper (10 pts): When the going gets tough, you get smashing. Whenever you are insulted, provoked, or wounded, you must make a Willpower + Charisma
Test (3) (wound modifiers apply). If you fail, you must immediately attack your assailant (although non-lethal means are permitted).

Note: The GM is free to request a Temper check whenever he feels it is appropriate. The temper flaw grants the character a point of Notoriety.

Glass Jaw (5 pts): If you take a number of boxes of damage (Stun or Physical) from a single attack that equals or exceeds half your Body (Rounded down), you are automatically knocked down.

[ElFenrir]

[Fortune]

[emo samurai]

[ChicagosFinest]

[Jack Kain]

I think whore hound would be covered under addiction. In most cases. I don't see a burn out sex addict losing essence then dying out.
Maybe creating its own table for it.


When it comes to allergies remember there is common and uncommon.
During the campaign the guy has a moderate allergy to an uncommon substance. Then they talk with the DM about what would be uncommon. The DM is supposed to approve allergies.

Every runner can actually be ambidextrous, its highly unlikly.
FACT: You don't have to be born ambidextrous, anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.
You can train yourself to be ambidextrous, A friend of mine trained to be ambidextrous.
Being ambiddextrous is not like being double jointed or having the ability to wiggle your ears.
(It really annoys me when people ask me how they can wiggle there ears like I do)


The groupies quality reminds me of the chick magnet quality from the Tenchu RPG game.

[GWCarver]

I like these, especialy glass jaw, keep'em coming.

[Kyoto Kid]

[Digital Heroin]