The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.
Acquiescence
Code of Honour: Cargan
Code of Honour: Clansman's
Code of Honour: Courtly Love
Code of Honour: Gentleman's
Code of Honour: Gentleman Cargan
Idle
Impious
Indolent
Nameless
Reputation: Dishonoured
Secret: Cross-Dressed
Secret: Ibrahim Man
Social Stigma: Barbarian
Social Stigma: Blackguard
Social Stigma: Foreigner
Social Stigma: Fool
Social Stigma: Mercenary
Social Stigma: Strange Foreigner
Social Stigma: Third Gender
Social Stigma: Woman
You tend to yield to others, shying away from social conflict and confrontation. You will not stand up for your rights nor your beliefs. Whether you also change your mind privately is a different matter, but you will not argue for your case, this way or that. An acquiescent individual is likely to be taken advantage of, socially, economically and emotionally.
It is quite common for Acquiescent individuals suffer from Cowardice as well. The disadvantage is incompatible with Stubborn and Bully. A person both Acquiescent and Jealous would tend to be very passive-aggressive.
Auctoritas: The ability to maintain authority and discipline
in others through one’s personal reputation and public position
Dignitas: Holding worthwhile public position deserving respect, willingness
to defend that position against anyone who would diminish its worth.
Gravitas: Dignified and noble conduct of actions,
governed by prudence, discipline, strictness and rigid self-control
Pietas: Unflinching determination to perform one’s duty, whether
to family, friends, state or the gods.
A follower of the Cargan code of honour
is disgraced if he loses control over himself or others, or if he fails to
do his utmost to furfil his duty. He must strive to remain in control of himself.
The Charisma and Strong Will advantages, and Bard, Writing and many social
skills go well with this disadvantage. This disadvantage effectively includes
the Sense of Duty: Nation.
Code of Honour - Clansman's [-10]
- Insults to oneself, one's clan, one's friends and other things held in regard must atoned for by the perpetrator, or avenged.
- No truce must be violated.
- Must try to be the first into combat.
- May not lie to an ally.
- Prefers to issue challenges and establish identity before attacks.
You believe in the art of fine amor, love for love's sake. You must search for your true love - your amor; When you find your amor, you must pine for him or her incessantly. Courtly love stands apart from marriage, and one party (or even both) may already be married, in an (arranged) marriage without true amor.
For a man, this means you must be utterly devoted to your chosen lady, called your amor. You must worship her and protest your love, wooing her no matter ho cruel and rejecting she might seem. You will perform deeds of valor to prove your courage and the sincerity of your affections, believing yourself to be inspired and improved by your passion for your lady. You may take winning your lady's hand as a Higher Purpose.
A lady must present herself as an object of adoration. She should be virtuous and reject her lover, and should not hesitate to be cruel nor to test his love by any task or trial she can devise. A lady may have several suitors, and may after a suitable courtship accept one of them. The other suitors need not be rebuffed by this, if their amor is true.
Acceptance of a lover need not lead to a carnal commensuation of the love, if it does, it may have severe consequences. If marriage is impossible then the affair, chaste or not, should be conducted in deepest secrecy.
Auctoritas: The ability to maintain authority and discipline
in others through one’s personal reputation and public position
Caritas: Aid worthy causes, give to those in need. Be generous with
your peers, kind to your inferiors and treat even your opponents with respect,
and do not take undue advantage of their mistfortune.
Dignitas: Holding worthwhile public position
deserving respect, willingness to defend that position against anyone who
would diminish its worth. Uphold the honour of your family and ancestors.
Valor: Never falter in courage or resolve. Scorn retreat, never flee.
Always behave in a manly fashion.
Veritas: Abide by your word, when given. Serve
your liege faithfully. Pay your debts honourably, whether monetary or spiritual.
Code of Honour - Gentleman Cargan (-15 pts)
Auctoritas: The ability to maintain authority and discipline
in others through one’s personal reputation and public position
Caritas: Aid worthy causes, give to those in need. Be generous with
your peers, kind to your inferiors and treat even your opponents with respect,
and do not take undue advantage of their mistfortune.
Dignitas: Holding worthwhile public position
deserving respect, willingness to defend that position against anyone who
would diminish its worth.
Gravitas: Dignified and noble conduct of actions,
governed by prudence, discipline, strictness and rigid self-control
Pietas: Unflinching determination to perform one’s duty, whether
to family, friends, state or the gods.
Valor: Never falter in courage or resolve. Scorn retreat,
never flee. Always behave in a manly fashion.
Veritas: Abide by your word, when given. Serve
your liege faithfully. Pay your debts honourably, whether monetary or spiritual.
You dislike working, and physical labour in particular. You have -3 to Job Success rolls. You suffer a -1 to reactions when your idle nature is apparent, except from other idle people (unless they depend on your efforts to be able to loaf).
You do, for some reason, refuse to give proper attention to gods and spirits, regardless of what ill effects this may bring down on you. The deities disinterest or even scorn, makes you unlucky. Other people react poorly to you, as they question your wits and find it unfortunate to be around a person scorned by gods and spirits. On the up side, you an subtract 10% from your living costs, as you do not tithe to any temple.
This disadvantage can be acquired through roleplaying.
At the -20 level ("somewhat impious) you often fail to toast the gods, ancestors and spirits, and to give proper attention to lesser spirits such as your lares and the local genus. Your character is Unlucky as per B37 (included in this disadvantage). You suffer a -1 to reactions from those who perceive your ungodliness, -2 from pious people and from spirits.
At the -30 level (truly impious"), you utterly disregard gods and spirits. You are Unlucky, as above, and suffer a -2 reaction penalty from all people, -3 from pious folk and spirits. Furthermore, you may be treated as delusional. People will be reluctant to travel or fight alongside someone who does not sacrifice to bring good fortune to the enterprise.
You have no belief in the idea that you should work. You cannot earn a living while self-employed except in jobs depending mainly on Status and wealth. In such jobs, your income is half normal. In a regular job, you will never get a raise or a promotion through your own efforts, and you have a -10 to job rolls if they involve skill or effort in any way. Usually, only Status or a Patron can keep you from being fired at the end of the month.
You cannot learn skills on the job, and skills learned through study are learned at half normal rate. This is an extreme form of Laziness. When your indolence is apparent, Other lazy people react to you at -1, most people react to you at -3, and hard working people react to you at -4.
You have no name. You do not recognize any name as your own, and will not pay attention to any particular name. You may have lost your name as an attendant result of total (anterograde) Amnesia (p. Bxx), or you may never have been baptized or otherwise named.
Being Nameless means that no-one can use your name to help enspell you. Also, various kinds of long-range spells become difficult or impossible to cast at you. However, being without a name decreases your ability to resist magic, giving you a -2 to all rolls made to do so.
A creature with a Hive Mind or otherwise lacking in individuality, may recognize its group name as its own name, and resist magic normally.If you accept a name as your own (whether given to you or of your own invention) you must buy off this disadvantage.
You have committed a dishonourable act, and people know it. This act is not bad enough for you to have been stripped of your honour. People react to you at -1, and you may not marry an honourable person, challenge anyone to a duel (a person offended by you may either duel or take you to court, as he sees fit), nor take part in a tournament. This disadvantage may only be taken by bellatore characters of Status 1 or greater. Compare Social Stigma - Blackguard.
You pretend to be a member of the opposite sex (the skills Acting and Disguise will be neccessary in most cases). Cross-dressing is most common with third gender people, but may also be an effective ploy to hide one's identity. If one is revealed as a crossdresser, one will most likely suffer the social stigma of a third gendered person, other possible consequences may be a bad reputation or the attention of an Enemy.
Cross-dressing is made easier by two social facts. Firstly that the clothes of the two accepted genders are so strongly associated with the corresponding sex that most people will blithely assume that skirts conceal a female form, hoses a male one. Secondly, most people assume a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude regarding a person's actual sex, and thus third gendered people are generally accepted as the gender they profess to be, unless someone forces the issue.
Pretends to be a madman to enjoy the benefits of Fool's Sanctity. If discovered, this could lead to severe punishment.
Cimmerians and Vetanic Fraegings are considered barbarians in all lands save their own, and suffer a –3 on all reaction rolls from all except their own kind.
You have been formally stripped of your honour. Anybody who recognizes you will react to you at -3. You retain the reaction modifier of your status. This disadvantage should not be confused with a reputation for dishonourable conduct. This disadvantage may only be taken by bellatore characters of Status 2 or greater, a bellatore of Status 1 will usually be outlawed, rather than stripped of his honour.
Your accent, manner of behaviour and dress marks you as foreign. People tend to distrust you somewhat.
Fools cannot legally own property (low starting wealth is a separate disadvantage), cannot marry, and their testimony is unacceptable in court. They suffer a -2 reaction if they try to interact with others as equals.
You are a mercenary (dog of war, soldier of fortune, etc), a (prospective) member of a free company. People generally dislike and distrust mercenaries, whom are considered (usually rightly) to be shifty, rowdy, bawdy and greedy opportunists. You receive -1 to reactions from all who know you to be a mercenary. This means that most mercenaries are dealt with as commoners (Status 0) despite being bellatores (Status 1). Any bellatore not clearly in the employment of some lord or another will be assumed to be a mercenary, this will include stereotypical adventurers.
Stigma - Third Gender (-0 pts in Bôth, -5 pts in Fraeging realms, -10 pts in most other places, -15 pts in Clemencia)
A third gendered person is a person assuming a gender persona opposed to that associated with her or his biological sex, or an androgynous person. Given that in most of Ymirea's human societies, social roles are strongly associated with gender, doing work associated with the opposite gender means that one will be assumed to be third gender, regardless of other social behaviour.
In most lands, third gendered people are disliked, but tolerated. They may be found in any of the professions, though many priestly hierarchies may very firm on biological sex, and guilds often make initiations particularily hard for third gendered applicants. A shield maiden is a female bellatore (member of the warrior class). Shield maidens are uncommon outside Bôth and the Fraeging lands. Nonetheless, it is one of the easier roles to assume, as the bellatore class have a loose structure, and when warriors are in demand, most social mores are disregarded.
Third gendered people are regarded as having latent mystic powers, and are often shamen, witches or even sorcerers. This is sometimes beneficial, as people are reluctant to give outright offense to those in league with the supernatural, but also leads to third gendered people being common scapegoats when malign supernatural activity is suspected.
In Clemencia, third gendered people are considered monstrous and unholy, and zealously persecuted. In the Principalities of Bôth, on the other hand, the third gender is considered equal to the two others.
To avoid the stigma of the third gender, people of either sex often prefer to cross-dress instead.
The stigma for third gender replaces a woman's stigma as a second-class citizen, do not take both.
Stigma - Strange Foreigner (-10)
You are not only foreign, but your culture is radically different from the one you are living in now, and you have not changed your ways.
Women (human females) are effectively second-class citizens in most of Ymirea. Generally speaking, this has less to do with any obsession with the perceived inferiority of women, and more to do with labour division, and patterns of child bearing.
The societies of the Fraegings, and (more recently) the principalities of the Confederacy of Sorcerers, have a less rigid conception of labour division, and do permit women to
, more like valuable property, in most of Ymiria. The exceptions
are the Fraeging realms and the Magocracy (where they are treated more like
second-class citizens) and Both, which has full equality of the sexes. Dwarves,
elves and gnomes have equal rights (more or less) for both sexes. The points
gained from taking this disadvantage do not count against the disadvantage
limit (so it is possible for a woman to have 155 positive points and 55 points
of disadvantages and quirks).