Game in the Brain

On of my current inspirations is “The Good Wife“, especially since it takes current events and current debates and weaves it into the narrative.

Given whats happening at work and in the world, I’ve noticed there has been a trend for “Competent Professional” dramas. In one anecdote, The Office with its professionally incompetent characters have been replaced by “Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn 99 which have a cast of competent and sometimes amazing professionals despite being quirky.

With whats happening with work, its inspiring to see Competent Professionals and my gamer mindset always invading my reality, I cannot help but stat and look at problems in work and stories told to me in a Gamer perspective – as though the GM posed the problem (without having any solution in mind and regardless of the powerlevel of the players).

So my current inspiration are stories about very competent professionals, whether they solve their problems, take the hit, deflect it, make a trade off, and various other courses of actions and consequences. In light of all the uncertainty, its nice to see even a fictional character shrug and carry on. Some real-world inspirations don’t actually apply because they themselves are living by a razors edge, and some are just lucky (which is not really inspiring; I can’t aspire to be Luckier lolz).

Personal Grooming

So I got to talking to the Google+ GURPS community and there is a consensus that Savoir-Faire covers personal grooming. Yeah, I’m one of those clueless guys who really don’t see it until someone points it out… then I can’t help but keep seeing it.

I’m often the target of my wife’s criticizm in my Lack of Professional appearance… and I personally try to compromise it by choosing clothes with a military theme that can be used for work. So you will see a bunch of work clothes that are OD and Khaki lolz.

But, other than my personal struggles with fashion and personal grooming It makes me think more about the double standards that exist with women and men when it comes to appearance. As a guy I have it easier, I can wear the same expensive thing over and over again. To a woman its worse, they have to update their wardrobe.

When players say they can’t finish their TL8 starting wealth in GURPS, the first response online is “80% settled lifestyle” check your work clothes for the year and you pretty much have a lot of “baggage” you may want to spend on.

So why a post about Personal Grooming?: well now that I’m aware about the double standard and got into learning more about it (and its quality time with the wife going with her in these things), I got to realize little details that are pretty funny – like how older men who are my boss’s age like manicures and pedicures. It can seem a bit funny, but in a room with these higher status people and their personal grooming the difference in status can be quite stark.

If I think thats pretty excessive, then I only need to think about what my wife has to go through to look professional and the judgement she is trying to dodge about her competence versus her appearance.

So yeah, its a silly detail that shouldn’t matter but MATTERS which makes sense if you remember your CAT or ROTC then magnify that to a REAL military dress code lolz. I remember spending an four hours a week just prepping my gear for airsoft, and back in ROTC and CAT spending about an hour for polishing and prepping gear for these not-so-military activities… I can just imagine the habits that must be gain and mindset adapted to make this investment in time less intrusive lolz (talk about trimming down habits).

So its part of Savoir-Faire and the name doesnt really capture “Personal Grooming” or the Attention to detail. Maybe a General Perk is needed to say that this character is meticulous, well groomed, well dressed, and has no detail out of place.

The fine habits for a good hit man or a hustler if you ask me lolz. Really, its the details that will end up killing you, so since you don’t want the GM to use those minor details to get you having such perks as “Plot  protection” only makes sense.

Reaction Rolls are made with Attribute Modifiers from Savoir Faire should suffice for Appearance and Presentation.

IQ+2 Savoir Faire 4cp adds to Attractive, Charisma etc… Fashion Sense add and
Sanitized Metabolism and Well Groomed and Dressed perk affect a variety of situations like Close Quarters and standing out of a crowd or subtle use of wealth.