Cheap Geasa, What have you seen? Options

[Moonstone Spider]

Just a place to list the odd and really cheap geasa players have come up with to try to get free build points.

A physical adept I saw had the following:

Improved Ability (Pistols)
Geasa: Only when holding a pistol.

[toturi]

Boring.

Pain Resistance. Only when hurt.

Improved Reflexes. Only in combat.

Combat Sense. Only when awake.

[Austere Emancipa...]

[Gorath]

I thought in roughly 50% of your time a geased power should not work (i.e. at night, at day).

So, some of this don't qualify as a geasa.

EDIT: You still are hurt but you are not affected by the wound modifier. So no turning on/off. But as i said, those geasa does not qualify as per MitS rules, but its your GM decision :D

[Austere Emancipa...]

I don't think it has to be exactly ~50%. If the power doesn't work for much more than 50% of the time, then I think that's fine. The problem, of course, is that it should be unusable at least 50% of the time when the Power could potentially be used.

The only one mentioned that wouldn't make the Power unusable at least 50% of the actual lifetime of such a character (unless the character is a complete psycho) is the Only When Awake Geasa, because most people are awake more than 50% of their time.

[Edit]Only When Awake would also "duplicate a limitation the character already has" as mentioned in MitS, so it wouldn't count. Unless the particular character is known to do a lot of runs while asleep...[/Edit]

This post has been edited by Austere Emancipator: Mar 17 2004, 01:00 PM

[Austere Emancipa...]

If one of my players gave me such a moronic suggestion for a Geasa, I'd interpret it in any way possible to make him suffer -- only until he sees the error of his ways, of course. In this case, I'd take a literal interpretation of the name of the Adept Power and the word "hurt" (as in "in physical pain").

[A Clockwork Lime]

The 50% guideline is precisely that, a guideline. Several of the example geasa ignore it completely, such as Talisman, Incantation, and Gesture.

That aside, I simply wouldn't accept some of the geasa mentioned above. I prefer to work with players during the character creation phase instead of waiting to be surprised and then feeling obligated to accept and then bastardize what they turned in, or just telling them no and to create another character. The former is simply petty and immature in my eyes, and the latter is just a waste of time. Both only lead to disgruntled feelings most of the time.

Regardless, if a player wanted to do something like Pain Resistance (only when hurt), I'd ask him to focus that geas a bit as long as it fit his overall concept. Sort of like Pain Resistance (only when shot).

[Austere Emancipa...]

I've never had a SR character in my games not created either in the same room as me with discussion all the way through or completely by me, so you can consider my example above theoretical at best, only to be used if I met a complete prick of a player.

To suggest a Pain Resistance - Only When Hurt (unless using my interpretation) Power - Geas either shows that the player is a complete prick, or just unsure about the rules. There are ways to deal with both.

[Aidley]

I have to admit to being a bit lazy with geasa - my troll shaman chick had 'has to wear passion pink nail polish' for everything, and my male oni phys ad 'has to wear his treasured marijuana leaf pendant' for everything.

made it easier for me to remember.

plus the thought of a prissy-bum princess troll shaman running about having to have immaculate nails all the time kind of made me giggle.

[Fahr]

I have Okd Pcs who's Phhys Adept powers were linked t a specifc weapon, not type, but like "My fathers sword holds special powers"... and that worked pretty good, cause you can't go wandering around with a no-dachi everywhere! :)

-Mike R.

[Cain]

Those are excellent examples of Talisman geasa. Those aren't cheap at all.

The 50% guideline is flexible, but it should cover enough situations that the power can be taken away from you. Talisman, Incantation, and Gesture are all examples of geasa that won't affect you under careful circumstances, but that can change on you really fast. (Incantation and Gesture have a few unique drawbacks all their own, as they make you bloody obvious.)

[krishcane]

Whether a geas is cheap sorta depends on circumstances. A geas like "Must be on planet Earth" seems really stupid... until you're playing an orbital campaign using T:WL rules.

--K

[Kagetenshi]

Must be touching the earth would be interesting, especially tied to a special Regeneration power.
Kudos to the people who get the reference.

~J

[spotlite]

Gesture is actually my favorite geas. Its not cheap, but it sure makes you look cool. If you're tied up, you're screwed, but that's one reason to get the escape artist specialisation...

the Talisman geas described are ok, but I'd prefer it wasn't the one item for everything. Just ones that make sense. Eg, for reflexes and combat sense to work, you must be holding your father sword, or whatever. The leaf might make his various perception powers work :D and the nail polish might be for any manual powers like improved physical skills, killing hands and so on - maybe the pink moving back and forth acts as a focus for her or something weird. I'd be inclined to go with a number of talismans because as a gamesmaster it means I can't accidentally completely wreck a player's character by destroying his one and only irreplaceable means to access any of his powers, and as a player because the gamesmaster can't accidentally completely wreck my character by destroying his one and only irreplaceable means to access any of his powers...

[Thistledown]

I have one that I'm not sure if it'd be considered cheap or not. He's a phys-ad gunner (pistols), but his geas on all his powers is that he's had to have smelled gunpowder in the last few minutes. He has little ziplocks of gunpowder that he uses sometimes, but that can get annoying in a long run or an unexpected fight. Once the fighting starts of course, he has no trouble in a big fight, but he's not great until a few shots have been fired.

Another character that I've seen used (not mine though) was Spam. He had managed to get the very first can of Spam ever made and had to pray to it in the morning to use his powers. Then he also had to eat some spam before the run for his powers to work.

[snowRaven]

On the geas 'only when holding a pistol' for Improved Pistols...

I'd ask the player if he really wanted it, then rule that by 'holding a pistol' he meant in actual physical contact with it - thus not when wearing a glove. Unless he takes real care in putting on a glove after each firefight, and never losing the gun or touching something else with that hand, he'll leave fingerprints everywhere.

After a few messy runs he'll have the Star jumping as soon as he uses a credstick (thumbprint scan) to gather security cam tapes, interrogate people, etc.

[Zazen]

One of my players did try to use "Only when holding a pistol" for his Improved Pistols! He also tried "only when uninjured" Quick Strike on another character.

Same guy who tried brain-in-jar riggers with armored drone bodies and zero-essense VCRs in fake tits. It's more work making his characters reasonable than helping the rest of the group combined.

[simonw2000]

What a nutter!

[simonw2000]

[Kagetenshi]

I do believe you do.

~J

[A Clockwork Lime]

[Kagetenshi]

The problem is that that's a built-in restriction of the power, so the geas restricts nothing.

~J

[A Clockwork Lime]

It is? I never realized that. I thought it was just self-limiting in that it only allowed you to go first each round instead of giving an actual speed bonus. My mistake.

[BitBasher]

and Quick Stike only wouks if you are completely unwounded.

[Luke Hardison]