How the 'Duty: Rescue Innocent Downtrodden' Disadvantage Works ============================================================== I made up a disadvantage called 'Rescue Innocent Downtrodden'. It's worth 10 points and could use a little explanation. This disadvantage is semi-officially part of the 'Heart of Gold' package, which includes 'Cannot Harm Innocents' and some reputation modifiers. Opening Disclaimers: This page refers to H. C. Dennison as an example of someone who has 'Rescue Innocent Downtrodden'. For starters, the name: The disadvantage could be called 'Cannot Stand to See Innocents Harmed'. The name obviously hearkens to the 'Cannot Harm Innocents' disadv. Another way of phrasing it would be 'Sense of Duty - Rescue the Downtroden'. In an attempt to come up with a name that brings together the terms "duty", "rescue", "innocent", and "downtroden", I have chosen to call it 'Duty: Rescue Innocent Downtrodden'. (Clever, eh?) Here are some example situations that show why I think the disadvantage is worth 10 points and give guidelines on how a player might role-play the disadvantage in various situations: #1) Things that ADD to the point value of the disadvantage (i.e. make it worth more): - If you saw an innocent/downtrodden person getting crushed by a wagon wheel or drowning in a mill pond, you would rush to save them, no questions asked. - If you saw an innocent/downtrodden person getting abused by mafia thugs or a police cop, you would rush in to save them. This is one of the biggest contributors to the point value of the disadvantge. Note that this doesn't mean that you would immediately resort to violence. The first recourse would probably be to try to talk your way through the situation. For H.C., he would probably first try using his Fast Talk skill to rescue the poor person. If that didn't work, he'd probably try to sweep-kick the cop / thug, then run off with the poor person. If, after doing that, H.C. learned that the poor person was caught stealing red-handed, he'd be pretty mad at the poor person (not innocent). Because of the potentially dangerous situations that a character with this disadv could get into, I feel it's worth _at_least_ 10 points. #2) Things that SUBTRACT from the point value of the disadvantage (i.e. make it worth less): - If you saw two thieves fighting in a back alley, you'd probaby just walk away. They may very well be downtrodden (poor, ostracized), but they're sure not innocent. - If you saw to rich folks having a pistol dule or duking it out, you'd probably just enjoy the show. Not downtroden, and who cares if they're innocent or not. Since H.C. has the 'Dislikes the upper-class' quirk, he definitely wouldn't feel inclined to intervene. Because of these exceptions, I think it's worth _no_more_than_ 10 points. #3) Things that neither add nor subtract from the point value of the disadvantage, but the way a player would role-play the situation is probably determined more by other disadvantages / quirks the character might have. - If you saw a beggar in the street, you'd probably just say "poor bugger" and keep walking, especially if you were poor yourself. Alternatively, you could give him some money (such as when H.C. pulled the money from the little Welsh girl's ear and gave it to her). This can be considered a mild form of the 'Charitable' disadvantage. You wouldn't feel compelled to take them into your house or put them up at an inn though; that's not how this disadvantage works. One of the ideas with this disadvantage is that the character possessing it is probably downtrodden himself. However, if the character had the 'Charitable' disadvantage, he would definitely want to give them some money. - If you saw two downtroden people in a scuffle (i.e. two street urchins fighting over some food), you might try to break up the fight. Again, you would probably try to talk your way through at first, probably with the Diplomacy skill. You'd also probably try to resolve the skirmish in a Solomon-like fashion. ("Here, you two split up the loaf of bread and I'll buy you some cider to go with it, ay?") On the other hand, if you had a disadv/quirk of "dislikes children" you probably wouldn't get involved. - If you saw a rich guy getting attacked by a theif, again, you probably wouldn't intervene. Heck, you probably think the rich guy is getting what he deserves and the theif is just trying to make a living for himself in an unfair world. In H.C.'s case, this would be a real judgement call. On the one hand, he's got the quirk "dislikes the upper-class", but on the other hand, he's got a 2.5 point bad reputation (-1 reaction) amongst the underclass, so he's got no great love for the theif. They way I'd role-play this situation would probaby be to use Fast Talk to convince the theif that I'm a cop so he'd get scared and run. Then I'd probably try to get some payment from the rich ponce for saving his life. :-) Because these are fringe cases, I don't feel that they should be reflected in the cost of the disadvantage. I hope that clarifies things a bit. Comments are welcome.