New Disadvantage for Gurps 5E:

Trump Derrangement Syndrome (TDS)

Cost: -45 or -47 points

TDS  is mundane mental Disadvantage where you believe something that  is not true. Examples include: Trump is Hitler, Trump is literally Hitler, Trump will turn America into The Handmaids Tale, Trump will overturn the Constitution, etc.

See related Disadvantages "I Can't Even" and "REEEEEEE!"

Quote from: Aglondir on November 19, 2024, 08:12:00 PMNew Disadvantage for Gurps 5E:

Trump Derrangement Syndrome (TDS) Cost: -45 or -47 points

TDS  is mundane mental Disadvantage where you believe something that  is not true. Examples include: Trump is Hitler, Trump is literally Hitler, Trump will turn America into The Handmaids Tale, Trump will overturn the Constitution, etc.

For sheer whimsy here is a crack at a non-jokey version:

Electoral Derangement Syndrome (-5, -10 or -15 points depending on severity)

This is a form of Delusion (with elements of Fanaticism) only available to people living under some form of vote-affected government. The sufferer believes that a current political leader or candidate presents a radical threat to the current order of society, although the sufferer can regard this as either a positive or negative thing depending on the rest of his political opinions. Whenever an opportunity to expound on this opinion comes up in conversation (the greater the Disadvantage, the less excuse the sufferer needs), the sufferer must make a Will roll (at -2, -4 or -6 by level) to avoid launching into a rant about the topic, usually with the intent of either convincing the listener of the supposed danger (for haters) or encouraging the listener to welcome the supposed changes (for fans). The reaction penalty this earns will vary from -2 to -6 depending on how much the listener agrees with the sufferer or not, but only fellow EDS sufferers of the same stance take no penalty. (If a listener also has EDS about the same politician, but in the opposite direction, both react at -10 to each other!) This Disadvantage very often goes along with Paranoia or Obsessions.

Everyone who takes those disadvantages takes them only at the maximum level.  Minmax or go home! 

I'd like to know when the problems really started where Jackson, Reed and SJG went from friendly publisher... to problem and internet bullies.

There were hints of it in the 90s thats for sure.
Then the attack on the Star Frontiers site.
Then the whole Ogre fiasco on BGG where they threatened people for making a fan version of a game they had abandoned for something like a decade.
Thinly veiled threats towards Dark City for making their own TFT games
and so on.

What Star Frontiers attack was this? Google shows nothing

Quote from: Koltar on November 16, 2024, 09:39:28 PM

Quote from: THE_Leopold on November 04, 2024, 04:54:57 PMThe saying "Never meet your heroes" is so applicable to the case of Steve Jackson that it's a shame he is that unhinged in his ranting, raving, hatred toward Trump and nearly all of us customer base.

I have met him - at least two or three times at Gen Con, maybe once at ORIGINS. He was a Nice Guy. But that was years ago before the recent elections.
He autographed my GURPS books, so did Sean Punch one year.

Over the years I just had to get used to my 'Heroes' having the proverbial feet of clay or faults - like Gene Roddenberry. (He had some good ideas, but others contributed a lot).

 I will however continue to play and run GURPS 4/e when I can Sadly, the current campaign is eding abruptly and I am very sad about that.

- Ed C.

(Hey Pundit, I got back on her. Yay!)

Glad you worked it out!

Quote from: Omega on November 19, 2024, 10:34:51 PMI'd like to know when the problems really started where Jackson, Reed and SJG went from friendly publisher... to problem and internet bullies.

There were hints of it in the 90s thats for sure.
Then the attack on the Star Frontiers site.

Please elaborate on Star Frontiers.  I have no idea what this is about.

Also, don't forget this tid bit from SJ's web log last week:

Quote" We are back from Big Bad Con in San Francisco. It was fun! Lots of nice people, playing games. What's not to like?
...they required vaccination proof, tests, and masks. This isn't popular with conventions these days, and it should be. Yeah, it's a little hassle. SO WORTH IT."

Quote from: Cathode Ray on November 20, 2024, 10:49:37 AM

Quote from: Omega on November 19, 2024, 10:34:51 PMI'd like to know when the problems really started where Jackson, Reed and SJG went from friendly publisher... to problem and internet bullies.

There were hints of it in the 90s thats for sure.
Then the attack on the Star Frontiers site.

Please elaborate on Star Frontiers.  I have no idea what this is about.

Also, don't forget this tid bit from SJ's web log last week:

Quote" We are back from Big Bad Con in San Francisco. It was fun! Lots of nice people, playing games. What's not to like?
...they required vaccination proof, tests, and masks. This isn't popular with conventions these days, and it should be. Yeah, it's a little hassle. SO WORTH IT."

In 2001 sjg, namely Phil Reed, went after the old Star Frontiers fansite that had up PDFs of the game with permission from TSR staff. Threatening them with legal action by siccing wotc on the site, and calling them pirates essentially. This forced the takedown of all the material and re-writes of at least one fanzine.

For a game sjg doesnt even own or have anything to do with.

Site had to then go to wotc and get the 1993 permissions redone in writing. Which wotc of course partially or fully revoked a few years ago in 2018.

Thanks for explaining that.  I knew of the the WOTC removal part of the story only.

Star Frontiers is the RPG I'm currently playing, so I was interested in knowing.  I'm buying the original modules, but since I don't play off of PDFs, or buy WOTC products, I've been buying the originals on eBay.

Quote from: Omega on November 20, 2024, 01:43:55 PM

Quote from: Cathode Ray on November 20, 2024, 10:49:37 AM

Quote from: Omega on November 19, 2024, 10:34:51 PMI'd like to know when the problems really started where Jackson, Reed and SJG went from friendly publisher... to problem and internet bullies.

There were hints of it in the 90s thats for sure.
Then the attack on the Star Frontiers site.

Please elaborate on Star Frontiers.  I have no idea what this is about.

Also, don't forget this tid bit from SJ's web log last week:

Quote" We are back from Big Bad Con in San Francisco. It was fun! Lots of nice people, playing games. What's not to like?
...they required vaccination proof, tests, and masks. This isn't popular with conventions these days, and it should be. Yeah, it's a little hassle. SO WORTH IT."

In 2001 sjg, namely Phil Reed, went after the old Star Frontiers fansite that had up PDFs of the game with permission from TSR staff. Threatening them with legal action by siccing wotc on the site, and calling them pirates essentially. This forced the takedown of all the material and re-writes of at least one fanzine.

For a game sjg doesnt even own or have anything to do with.

Site had to then go to wotc and get the 1993 permissions redone in writing. Which wotc of course partially or fully revoked a few years ago in 2018.

Is there some record of this? It seems like I would have heard about it at the time

Quote from: strollofturtle on November 20, 2024, 07:12:51 PM

Quote from: Omega on November 20, 2024, 01:43:55 PM

Quote from: Cathode Ray on November 20, 2024, 10:49:37 AM

Quote from: Omega on November 19, 2024, 10:34:51 PMI'd like to know when the problems really started where Jackson, Reed and SJG went from friendly publisher... to problem and internet bullies.

There were hints of it in the 90s thats for sure.
Then the attack on the Star Frontiers site.

Please elaborate on Star Frontiers.  I have no idea what this is about.

Also, don't forget this tid bit from SJ's web log last week:

Quote" We are back from Big Bad Con in San Francisco. It was fun! Lots of nice people, playing games. What's not to like?
...they required vaccination proof, tests, and masks. This isn't popular with conventions these days, and it should be. Yeah, it's a little hassle. SO WORTH IT."

In 2001 sjg, namely Phil Reed, went after the old Star Frontiers fansite that had up PDFs of the game with permission from TSR staff. Threatening them with legal action by siccing wotc on the site, and calling them pirates essentially. This forced the takedown of all the material and re-writes of at least one fanzine.

For a game sjg doesnt even own or have anything to do with.

Site had to then go to wotc and get the 1993 permissions redone in writing. Which wotc of course partially or fully revoked a few years ago in 2018.

Is there some record of this? It seems like I would have heard about it at the time

It was up on the SF web site for a time on the front page.

Theres some discussion on the SF forum. But alot of the talk was on the SF mailing list that was on E-Groups/YahooGroups and all of that Yahoo deleted years ago.

Quote from: Cathode Ray on November 20, 2024, 03:46:25 PMThanks for explaining that.  I knew of the the WOTC removal part of the story only.

Star Frontiers is the RPG I'm currently playing, so I was interested in knowing.  I'm buying the original modules, but since I don't play off of PDFs, or buy WOTC products, I've been buying the originals on eBay.

I have all the modules except maybe 2. And have the TSR playtest version before they gave it that weird purple border. Still have all my SF d10!

Omega, that's awesome!
You might know I don't play RPGs a lot, but I played Star Frontiers a bit as a teenager, with a local game master.   My go-to game recently was The Fantasy Trip, and although I have no problem playing it even after Steve Jackson's famous meltdown and financial support of The Lillith Fund, (after all, we already purchased everything from the legacy edition before that point, so why not?) my wife and I just haven't been feeling it in the past 2 years, and I was interested in returning to S.F.

I have the two box sets and about half the modules, now, and one set of original dice (in Knight Hawks).  I added another set of classic era original Gamescience d10s and a modern set to my Alpha Dawn, and have two sets of modern d10s that I added to the originals in  Knight Hawks box.  Only thing I'm missing in these box sets are the crayons.  But the Knight Hawks box has unpunched counters, which I scanned and am almost complete making nice, clean reproductions.  I just won on eBay a boxless copy of the original first set, before "Alpha Dawn" was added, for the uncut counter sheet.  Did your playtest version go on eBay this summer?  I saw a proto for sale there and am now wondering if that is you.

Quote from: Cathode Ray on November 21, 2024, 06:34:52 AMDid your playtest version go on eBay this summer?  I saw a proto for sale there and am now wondering if that is you.

Nope. Still have mine. There were, far as I know, at least two playtest sets. It was pretty popular with the TSR staff. Much like Warhammer Quest was popular with the GW staff.