Afflictions

Age : 30 Posts : 1012

~Fox~ wrote:

O-Zone wrote:: Why are Genin not allowed to begin with long term illnesses? Clearly this doesn't concern me, but god forbid the establishment decides to reject my generous proposal, I wish to make sure it is alright for me to create a character that has such an illness. Afflictions like albinism, dissociative identity disorder, color blindness, sickle cell anemia, hemophilia, and many more are all long term illnesses that one obtains at birth, yet the new special characteristic system clearly states that only B-rank and above afflictions are allowed to be long term. Such illnesses do not randomly appear when you're older, they are clearly evident throughout your life, even though most of them aren't lethal.

My professional pride compels me to point out that dissociative identity disorder is not something obtained at birth. That aside, I agree with the above...

An affliction system is a good idea. There is a lot of subjectivity in role-playing and so where things can be made more easily measurable, they should be. I also think that much of what has been put in place by the staff is sensible.

No, afflictions should not grant alternative perks. We'll have tons of people wandering round with varying degrees of illness just so they can get a certain ability. For the vast majority of these conditions, there is no upside. Not to say, of course, that a wheelchair-bound person (taking your example, Chris) doesn't study harder and learn more about Genjutsu. But we have SCs for that.

Look, take Autism Spectrum Disorder. I suppose that would qualify for an 'affliction' (the political correctness movement would have a heart attack but never mind that for now). Many people associate this with better-than-average mathematical ability and I can categorically refute this. Most are actually below-average. It, along with sensory disorders, genetic conditions and various other things are debilitating.

So why would anyone want one? Because it's interesting. Because it's challenging. Because it gives you great scope for character developments.

Well fine, I hear you say - but if it's just character-building stuff then why on earth do we need a framework for it? Because even if it is 'just a plot device', it can still have an effect on things like combat. So we need to have a standardized format through which everyone can understand the different afflictions their peers are role-playing with.

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In short, not a bad first attempt guys. I think four things need addressing:

1. Define 'affliction'. Secondary to that, possibly consider more politically correct terms...

2. Don't limit afflictions by rank. I think I understand where you're coming from, but it makes very little sense.

3. Please don't introduce a 'tradeoff' system to allow perks for those with afflictions.

4. For crying out loud, don't make people train afflictions. Unless there is some conceivable upside that cannot be accounted for with SCs. Then maybe do that on a case-by-case basis.

Love to all,

~Soph.

Age : 31 Posts : 1836

~Fox~ wrote:: Secondary to that, possibly consider more politically correct terms...

I laughed at this. Like what? "Impairments"? "Detrimental Uniqueness"?

Age : 32 Posts : 1912

Ulkira wrote:

~Fox~ wrote:: Secondary to that, possibly consider more politically correct terms...

I laughed at this. Like what? "Impairments"? "Detrimental Uniqueness"?

Lack of limbness D:

Age : 30 Posts : 1688

Tl;dr

+1 to Afflictions counter balancing Special Characteristics slots.

Posts : 1729

CleverYamanaka wrote:: Tl;dr

+1 to Afflictions counter balancing Special Characteristics slots.

Over my corpse.

Age : 33 Posts : 254

Afflictions should not provide benefits at all imo. ;x

Age : 30 Posts : 1012

I don't even understand why afflictions would provide benefits. I mean the definition is plainly stated as something that causes pain or suffering.

Posts : 1729

What in the hell are you going on about now? Stop wasting my time.

Alrighty! Got internet and time on my hands. Let's nip this in the bud, finally. Point by point.

Long Term Effects (As Contested by Ozone)
The point I was trying to make with this phrase is not simply "last for a very long time." Afflictions as a whole are meant to be something that debilitates a character for years, not just a little bout of flu they get over in a month. By long term effects, I meant to imply "Something that gets worse over time, or otherwise is not a disease you ever get 'used' to having; each day is just as bad as when it first surfaced."

To that end, I never really intended for the system to be applied to, well, actual real-world diseases. I was hoping for a bit more creativity than that, honestly.
The Point of Afflictions (As Contest by Chris-hole)
The "gain" here is simply a more involved, nuanced, and detailed RP experience. My character's affliction, for example, could be avoided entirely by simple expedient of "Not using bloody clones," but I still derive great joy in writing out his suffering from it.

And people are going to metagame. They see your jutsu, they know how it works, they're going to pull off the precise move that lets them escape unscathed. The only way to completely eliminate meta-gaming would be to lock everyone from ever viewing each other's apps, not make people post their jutsu and SCs and such, and force people to RP with one another with only their posts, and only their posts, for context. Which would be an objectively terrible experience.

And further more, as I put down there in big, bold red letters, it is entirely optional. Don't want to have an Affliction? Don't want people to metagame and exploit it? Then don't get one.
"Training" Afflictions (As Addressed by Chris-hole and Foxy Lady #1)
I wouldn't say you had to train them, persay, so much as just do a topic about them. Regardless, on this point, I have to insist; there needs to be some form of system for gaining Afflictions, and it's either doing a topic detailing your affliction, and your struggles with it, or else simply buying them, which just seems wrong.
Naming Afflictions a more PC Name (As Addressed by Foxy)
Disabilities? Special Needs? "Unique Affliction" is the precise term used on your app Sophie, and seeing as yours is basically the entire basis for my system, "Afflictions" they shall remain named.
Defining Affliction - noun (As Addressed by Vuples vulpes)
: something (such as a disease) that causes pain or suffering
: the state of being affected by something that causes suffering
Limiting Afflictions by Rank (As Addressed by Foxiness)
Necessary, otherwise everyone and their grandma is going to take one look at your affliction, see the part where you're effectively a death-trap the moment you die, and those little light bulbs will go off in their heads.
An Affliction Trade Off System (Suggested by Ozone, advocated by Cross, Chrishole, and Zackass, Mister E)

You will never meet enough people to generate enough corpses to go "over" to get this.

This is not ingoo. Afflictions are to be strictly for detrimental purposes, and most certainly NOT allowed as "trade offs" to access more beneficial SCs. And I'll not suffer anything otherwise while I'm still breathing.

Posts : 15

Id just like to point out that, for as long as Ive been here which is.... a week and half activity right now? Ive made Travis quit the chat at least 3 times, and the sheer scope of confusion about afflictions astounds me.

Instead of searching around for loopholes and ways around this and around that, why dont you just take the system at face value, and deal with issues as they come up? If you didnt want to try and cheat the system in some way to get more benefits, nothing in this topic would be of any concern or even posted, now would it?

Long term effects means exactly that. Its a long term ailing AFFLICTION aka ILLNESS. I dont see how you need any more clarification on that, its just mind boggling.

Now, say you have downs syndrome. How many downsides do the people that have that illness go through just to get ONE benefit of being really good at something? How many autistic people have multiple and severe downsides for the same thing? And you were proposing a bonus SC for taking on anywhere from color blindness to that? Im disappointed in those following that train of thought. At least make it bloody reasonable, because in life, you get shit on more than you receive help, and you should at least adhere to that. Hand outs arent coming around, so you want something extra, be prepared to lose a lot.

Everything else Travis got perfectly, to make. I fail to see how it DOESNT make sense, and if you say it doesnt, then stop nit picking and just accept it at face value for christs sake. If it doesnt say you can do something, then dont do it. Its really that easy.

Age : 35 Posts : 1113

BK-201 wrote:: Naming Afflictions a more PC Name (As Addressed by Foxy)
Disabilities? Special Needs? "Unique Affliction" is the precise term used on your app Sophie, and seeing as yours is basically the entire basis for my system, "Afflictions" they shall remain named.

Defining Affliction - noun (As Addressed by Vuples vulpes)
: something (such as a disease) that causes pain or suffering
: the state of being affected by something that causes suffering

Oh, you didn't take me seriously, did you? Pfft.

BK-201 wrote:: Limiting Afflictions by Rank (As Addressed by Foxiness)
Necessary, otherwise everyone and their grandma is going to take one look at your affliction, see the part where you're effectively a death-trap the moment you die, and those little light bulbs will go off in their heads.

I quite understand why you guys want it done like this - but surely this is something that staff could monitor? You're all sensible, rational human beings who could veto when someone tries this. And you must be able to see how ridiculous it would be to claim a sudden development of, say, a congenital disorder.

Perhaps it would be better to only allow 'present at birth' afflictions on the starting character application and only allow legitimately developmental ones to be added later on. This also solves the problem of training afflictions (as it makes more sense to train something that develops than to train something that should have always been inherent).

Everything else in your post, Travis, I agree with.

Posts : 1729

What in the hell are you going on about now? Stop wasting my time.

Frankly? I would much rather simply keep mere genin from applying for murderous S-rank afflictions than have to repeat "No, you can't have that" five times a week.

And I figure that's a problem what would solve itself anyway. "I wish to apply for (Insert congenital disease here." "Denied. That's something you have to be born with, not suddenly develop." Really, it just seems too common sense to have to explicitly state it in writing.

Age : 35 Posts : 1113

Ah, you underestimate the human ability to not read the terms and conditions. But fair enough. I only point these things out because even if common sense should dictate what happens, I've learned not to necessarily expect other people to act as such!

I still have slight reservations about the limit-by-rank, simply because no individual character should be (realistically) precluded from having particular conditions. Many 'afflictions' would not discriminate by age/level of training, regardless of how practical it is to have a framework that adopts this idea.

But on balance, I'll stop being a persnickety whoozit now.

Age : 32 Posts : 1912

~Fox~ wrote:: But on balance, I'll stop being a persnickety whoozit now.

A Persnickety what?

Age : 27 Posts : 260

Spectre wrote:

~Fox~ wrote:: But on balance, I'll stop being a persnickety whoozit now.

A Persnickety what?

No, not a What, a whoozit.

Posts : 24

For the record, I did not intend to "abuse the system" or "gain special benefits". The purpose of this topic was to clarify what "Long Term Effects" meant in the Affliction template, and to question why it's necessary to place the limit at B-rank afflictions. Currently, only the first question has been answered, but I've honestly lost all interest in the "why" for various reasons, though the most prominent being the clarifying of "Long Term Effects". And while my ego swells at the fact that I caused two pages worth of agony for the site, I'd prefer to keep my reputation untarnished until after I finish ass-kissing the Admins for permission to make my Uchiha. Therefore, I command one of you peons to solve this topic. First one to do it receives a hug from yours truly.*

* Side effects may include nausea, vomiting, explosive diarrhea, internal bleeding, cancer and/or death.

Age : 30 Posts : 1012

Quote :: I'd prefer to keep my reputation untarnished until after I finish ass-kissing the Admins for permission to make my Uchiha

Age : 31 Posts : 8965

Solved.