Some games incorporate the concept of taking characters flaws as a way of gaining bonus XP including GURPS, HERO, Savage Worlds, and Shadowrun. This could be treated narratively on a character by character basis but a skinnable list of the same quasi-generic approach as talents may be useful round out characters more. What are your thoughts on this? Perhaps come up with a list of community created flaws ranked as Tier 1 or Tier 2 Flaws (but no higher) that would give -5 or -10 points to the character that would have the same mechanic akin a Talents of the same Tier. Restrict Flaws to something like max of 4 Tiers in flaws. Of course flaws have to relevant to the setting and require GM approval to make sure they fit.

Example:
Tier 1 Flaw
Diminished Sense: Character has a condition that reduces a specific sense resulting in a setback to all skill checks involving this sense. This may be purchased once for each major sense affected (sight, smell, hearing, touch)

Tier 2 Flaws
Phobia: Character has an overwhelming fear of a category of an animal , thing, or event. The type of phobia must be determine when this flaw is acquired. When interacting with events relating to the phobia, all Skill checks difficulties are upgraded once.

Thoughts?

Love the idea, always liked the hindrances in Savage Worlds

It's too high a price to pay for less XP than you're likely to be awarded in a single session. And then it's just something they'll regret thereafter since the XP gain will be long gone.

What if you instead allow flaws to influence the ongoing story in terms of story points? If you roleplay out a flaw to the detriment of what you're trying to accomplish on a round (not seeing well and therefore incurring multiple setback dice; cowering in fear instead of acting at all, etc) you flip a story point to the party's side. It would need to be a major effect to qualify.

This is analogous to being awarded a Fate Point in the Fate RPG, although anyone could use it. I know some GM's are allowing single use story points that are tied to a specific character.

20 minutes ago, Dragonshadow said:

It's too high a price to pay for less XP than you're likely to be awarded in a single session. And then it's just something they'll regret thereafter since the XP gain will be long gone.

Your right. If this approach is pursued then the XP bonus would have to be larger, maybe 10 and 15 or even a bit higher. Its not meant to be fair because the character will be burdened with this issue until it can be narratively overcome if not forever. Its meant to boost starting points a bit.

21 minutes ago, Dragonshadow said:

What if you instead allow flaws to influence the ongoing story in terms of story points? If you roleplay out a flaw to the detriment of what you're trying to accomplish on a round (not seeing well and therefore incurring multiple setback dice; cowering in fear instead of acting at all, etc) you flip a story point to the party's side. It would need to be a major effect to qualify.

I like this idea also. Maybe, instead an XP bonus at creation, there is a 5 point XP bonus for minor flaws when the flaw is well played to the determent of the character. Significant flaws that are well played can result in a character specific story point only available for the duration of the current game session.

We did something similar called Merits and Flaws for a Thule and Frontier conversion we made last year. I think we based it off of a Conan conversion, Edge of the Aquillonian Empire or something similar. This is the Frontier conversion document below.

Merits and Flaws

10 minutes ago, Khoram said:

We did something similar called Merits and Flaws for a Thule and Frontier conversion we made last year. I think we based it off of a Conan conversion, Edge of the Aquillonian Empire or something similar. This is the Frontier conversion document below.

Merits and Flaws

Your flaws are very much in line with what I was thinking. I didn't include the idea of merits in this proposal since I saw them as just being talents which are already covered in the rules though I can see having a list of defined Merits being a starting point for inspiration.

Cool idea, I wonder where your coming from though

Are these something that can only be brought at character creation?

Can you just choose to take one of these any time? Or is it only when specific events happen in the game?

Can Critical Injuries or Disease/mutation give you a flaw?

I would treat it like the Obligation system from Edge of the Empire. The flaw is a burden that you may look to remedy during the game but gives you a bonus of xp at the start. Any flaws you gain later on will presumably have reason from the story and probably give you bonuses outside of xp.

As an old GURPS hand, I like this idea. Rather than making the XP boost they give you higher, I'd instead suggest that flaws can be bought off with earned XP. One way to do this would be as Richard Buxton suggests, with a system something like Obligation in Edge of the Empire. Another way to do it would just be with a 1-for-1 buy off of the flaw. This is already in Age of Rebellion, where the Dressellian species has the "Primitive" species ability, which upgrades checks to use high tech items, but the player can buy it off for 10 XP. Likewise, in Force and Destiny, the Polis Massans can choose to start with vocal chords or not, with the no-voice ones getting 10 XP extra to play with.

In this schema, you could take a 10- or 15-point flaw at character creation to get some bonus XP to spend, and then buying it off becomes a narrative task in its own right. Are you partially deaf? Find a doctor and pay 10 XP: You can hear now! Do you have a phobia of cats? See a psychiatrist, pay some money and XP, and you're cured! Of course, it could be a lot more involved than that, but these are examples.

At least for now, I'm using narrative flaws derived from backgrounds (one character is on the run from his homeland for angering a vindictive sorceress, another is from a very isolated community and has little experience with "civilized" regions, another is the last survivor of a war that destroyed the noble house he served). Most of their backstory elements are reflected in their Motivations, and I intend to use those backstory elements from time to time.

I didn't want to go as far as using the Obligation mechanics, because I didn't want to throw off the balance of character creation too much. For most players experienced with the system, there are few Obligations so dire that they wouldn't take as much as possible to squeeze out an extra Characteristic point!

I made this for my setting (2300AD).

EDIT: Sorry about the typos, it's still a draft.

6 hours ago, lyinggod said:

Your right. If this approach is pursued then the XP bonus would have to be larger, maybe 10 and 15 or even a bit higher. Its not meant to be fair because the character will be burdened with this issue until it can be narratively overcome if not forever. Its meant to boost starting points a bit.

I like this idea also. Maybe, instead an XP bonus at creation, there is a 5 point XP bonus for minor flaws when the flaw is well played to the determent of the character. Significant flaws that are well played can result in a character specific story point only available for the duration of the current game session.

I would keep the XP bonus in the beginning, and have the reward being a free Story Point. It keeps the XP economy from going wonky and gives a player an immediate reward for good role-playing.

I would take a page from Nobilis, Fate, etc: a flaw does nothing for your XP total, but when it comes up in the story, it hampers what you're trying to do, and you get a story point. If it's appropriate to the situation, the player can invoke it himself.

Personally, I've been working on something similar for use with archetypes. I'm looking to make the archetypes in my setting more robust than they are in core. This includes more than the rough standard of 1 5XP Talent and 1 Skill. However, this also includes archetype flaws. As noted this was already done with "Primitive" trait from AoE Stay on Target Dressalian, so we're just expanding on the concept.

7 hours ago, Lorne said:

I would take a page from Nobilis, Fate, etc: a flaw does nothing for your XP total, but when it comes up in the story, it hampers what you're trying to do, and you get a story point. If it's appropriate to the situation, the player can invoke it himself.

The ability to spit in your own eye for a FATE point is my favorite part of that game. For that reason, I have been implementing it in other RPGs I play.

"This situation really plays to your flaw. I'll give you a(n) <Bennie/Inspiration/Story point/Destiny point> if you want to play it out. It's good spotlight fodder and gives the player a resource."

5 hours ago, kaosoe said:

The ability to spit in your own eye for a FATE point is my favorite part of that game. For that reason, I have been implementing it in other RPGs I play.

"This situation really plays to your flaw. I'll give you a(n) <Bennie/Inspiration/Story point/Destiny point> if you want to play it out. It's good spotlight fodder and gives the player a resource."

Also, avoids the Hero/Gurps problem where everyone has about 4 disadvantages, so for a party of 6, the GM has to keep track of a whopping 24 disadvantages and remember to bring them up, all the while the Players have every incentive to keep that from happening.