So you’ve got three stats in GURPS that determine how fast you can cover ground (or air or water): That’s all fine. But note the double round-down: first, a pruning of Basic Speed to get Basic Move, then a truncating of final Move after multipliers. There’s nothing shocking or game-wrecking about that. But here I opine that you’ll get more interesting results if you instead keep those fractions. Keep that fraction on Basic Move; don’t round down. And when you multiply that score for encumbrance or other factors to get final Move, again, keep any fraction. Drop that fraction from Move only once, at the end, if and when you finally need to apply that Move to discrete hexes on a combat map. “The Final Round-Down”, let’s call it (cue 80s synth intro). The benefits of this – in a nutshell, more benefit from a fractional Basic Speed score, and more interesting differences among characters’ final Move stats – are pretty obvious without long-winded text (which you’re going to get anyway; sorry). But there is an interesting question to look at: just how much difference does it actually make? Why keep fractions? Making a difference off the map When your PC attempts to flee as far as she can in long-distance movement, or any time when movement spans several seconds, it’s only fair that we not lop off that fraction. A non-truncated Move 5.25 should beat a plain 5.0 in a footrace. I don’t see where Basic Set explicitly says to retain the fraction in long-distance movement, though a couple of passages hint at it. I expect a lot of GMs do it so as a matter of course anyway, and if a GM doesn’t, players are pretty sure to suggest it: GM: “Okay… with 10 seconds before the bomb goes off, and Move 5, you’ll cover 50 yards, 60 with a sprint. That helps, even if you won’t quite reach the trench…”Player: “Aw, come on. My Basic Speed is 5.75, and I’m not encumbered or anything, so I’m quite a bit faster than Move 5. I should get a good 57 yards, almost 70 with the 20% bonus for sprinting.”GM: “Okay, that’s reasonable…” Again, I don’t think the GM is bound by printed rules to entertain this player request, but it certainly makes sense. It’s fair to the player who kept her PC’s Basic Speed at 5.75 instead of shaving it down to 5 to nab an easy -15 points (with no downside beyond effect on turn order). Similarly, if a party’s slowest member would have a Move of 4.5 before rounding down, it’s just as simple – and more sensible – to set the day’s hiking distance to a multiple of that 4.5, not a truncated 4. It makes miles of difference. Simple and agreeable stuff. But what about turn-by-turn movement on the hex map? Making a difference even on the map Combat maps don’t allow for marching one figure 5 hexes and another 5.75 hexes (unless you’re going hex-free). You’ll have to move both characters the same 5 hexes per turn. But even here, making that round-down at the end, after all multipliers, can make a difference. Quick Quentin has Basic Speed 6, while Speedier Sammy spends a bit more for Basic Speed 6.5. That means Sammy can outpace Quentin over a distance if the GM plays as discussed above. During combat time, though, the two unavoidably share the same Move 6 on the hex map. All right. But let’s give both Light encumbrance. Under standard rules, we get this result: Simple enough – but pretty uninteresting. Now we’ll save any rounding for the end: The upshot: By investing in higher Basic Speed, Sammy hangs on to higher long-distance Move – and even keeps a higher rounded-down Move than Quentin under this instance of encumbrance. That’s fair and more interesting! Other circumstances yield similar results for the pair. Take sprinting. By standard rules, the unencumbered runners start with the same truncated Move 6 and end up with the same sprint Move of 7.2, rounded down to Move 7. With Light encumbrance, they start with the same truncated Move 4, which rises to an identical Move of 4.8 for both, which… rounds back down to Move 4 for both. Again, there’s no difference between the two runners – and with encumbrance on a hex map, sprinting does nothing for either. Yawn. With The Final Round-Down, sprinting takes Quentin’s Basic Move of 6 to Move 7.2 and boosts Sammy’s Basic Move of 6.5 to 7.8. Sammy has a clear advantage in long-distance speed – though unfortunately, in this case, a final round-down for hex map combat leaves both runners sprinting at the same speed. But toss in Light encumbrance again, and Quentin’s sprint Move becomes 6 x 1.2 x 0.8 = 5.76, while Sammy’s is 6.5 x 1.2 x 0.8 = 6.24 – a difference that matters in both long-distance movement and per-turn hex movement. Other benefits Letting PCs keep fractional bits of Move also helps a bit with a common player complaint: “Moving serious distance in GURPS combat is too slow.” When a separated PC is racing to join the fray, keeping those fractions in play can make all the difference between arriving a moment too late or just in time. Needless tables! Okay, so The Final Round-Down matters to long-distance movement, and can even matter to rounded-down per-turn Move. But how often is it meaningful to the latter? Here’s a table showing un-rounded Move for any un-truncated Basic Move and encumbrance level. All right, pretty simple. (For clarity, I’ve bolded rows with integer Basic Move scores.) Now let’s do a final round-down on those Move scores, if you’d like a table ready for per-turn hex-map movement (while keeping a minimum Move of 1, per GURPS): All right. Useful enough. But it’s not clear at a glance how this differs from Move under standard rules. So check this: That’s a lot of info. A guide: So, using The Final Round-Down, here’s the munchkin’s guide to wringing the most from points spent on Basic Speed and Basic Move: If your goal is to optimize long-distance movement If the GM drops fractions from Basic Move, per standard rules, then integer Basic Move scores are what you want in order to maximize long-distance (or any) movement with no wasted points. But if the GM retains those fractions, per The Final Round-Down, then any Basic Move, whether integer or fractional, is valid for purposes of long-distance movement; there are no particularly optimal Basic Move scores for movement purposes. So set Basic Speed and/or Basic Move to whatever hits your goal for running speed. If your goal is to optimize per-turn hex map movement Here’s where things are more interesting. What encumbrance level do you expect you’ll most often be dealing with? Guess at that, then choose a Basic Move that nets you a boxed Move score at that encumbrance level. Example: If you expect to be running around with Medium encumbrance, then 5.00, 6.75, and 8.50 are the minimum Basic Move scores that net you a rounded-down hex map Move of 3, 4, and 5, respectively, with no wasted extra Basic Move. If you don’t have a typical encumbrance level, buy a black Basic Move, which will make a difference to per-turn Move at some encumbrance level. Don’t buy a grey Basic Move! A Basic Move in grey is fine for its value to long-distance speed, but it adds no rounded-down per-hex Move, at any encumbrance level, above the Basic Move in black that came before it. (Restated: If the goal is to maximize hex-map Move for the points spent on Basic Move, then grey Basic Move scores are for losers.) If your goal is to optimize Dodge and/or combat turn order Basic Speed, not Basic Move, matters to Dodge and to combat turn order – two things that aren’t the focus of this page. But, some short notes for completeness: Basic Speed drops its fraction to yield Dodge, so an integer Basic Speed is what gets you the most Dodge for your point spend. Any added fraction does nothing for Dodge. By contrast, if your interest is combat turn order, every level of Basic Speed, fractional or integer, is a meaningful improvement over the level immediately before it. So buy whatever Basic Speed hits your target – but while you’re at it, you might as well take optimal long-distance and hex-map Move into account as well, as above. A tactical shopping note: A lot of players are happy to pare down Basic Speed to an integer, paying no more points than is necessary for a given Dodge. But some tricky players will go for, say, a 6.25, giving up a handful of points to get the jump on those point-misers who settled for 6.00. (I haven’t done a count, but an awful lot of the foes in the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game‘s Monsters book have an integer Basic Speed score. Holding on to an extra +0.25 Basic Speed will let you pre-empt some number of those baddies.) So. Keeping a little fraction on your Basic Speed instead of sacrificing it for points is nice for its occasional turn order benefit – though it’s expensive. If you appreciate the extra Basic Move you also get under The Final Round Down, that extra fraction may be worth the points. Otherwise, if you really don’t care about the Basic Move and just want the turn order advantage, ask the GM about something like the Blinding Strike perk from Dungeon Fantasy Denizens: Swashbucklers. (This buys extra Basic Speed for turn order purposes only, for a mere 1 point per effective +0.25 Basic Speed.) More tables Here’s a cleaner version of the above table: Same deal, but with “first appearance” Move scores highlighted in bold black, and other Move scores in grey. As above, if you want to optimize Basic Move for combat-map Move, pick a Basic Move that yields a black Move score for your expected encumbrance level. All the numbers! And here’s a table with all the numbers: This is simply Table 1, with rounded-down Move included after unrounded Move. Useful, but busy! For a table showing unrounded Move, I’ll stick with Table 1 way above. (And someday, I’ll probably make and post an über-table that adds precise sprint moves to the above. And maybe swimming and flight movement. Each of those with and without a sprint bonus. But today is not that day.) Odds and ends Other enhancements Many actions and traits can modify speed of movement. Sprinting is a common action noted above; common traits include Enhanced Move and advantages built from it (see martial artists’ Tiger Sprint in DF and DFRPG) and spells that boost or hinder Move. Again, keeping fractions until that final round-down on the hex map can make for more interesting differences among characters. Other environments Move in water and air is a bit of a hodgepodge. Per p. B18, characters adjust land Move by buying Basic Move up or down. Move in water is based on Basic Move, but characters then adjust Move itself, not Basic Move, up or down. Meanwhile, Move in air is based on Basic Speed, not Basic Move; characters then adjust Move itself up or down, with Basic Move never entering the picture. That arrangement cries out for some cleaning up, but that’s a topic for elsewhere. (It’s not some glaring problem in play.) For our purposes here, let’s just note this: as with encumbrance multipliers above, if you hold on to the fractional part of Basic Move and even of Move after multiplications, you retain meaningful differences in long-term movement. (That includes the ability to game, say, a swimming race with subtle speed differences among contestants, as opposed to standard rules, which set Move for nearly all humans in water to a flat 1, 2, or 3, and that’s it.) And even when you round Move down for per-turn use, doing so after...

GLAIVE Mini is a “weapon builder system” that yields damage and ST stats for a hand weapon, whether existing favorites like 3-lb broadswords and 8-lb greataxes, your own variations on these, or even all-new creations. It’s single-page simple, asking merely that you take starting damage and ST based on weight, then adjust those stats up and down for mods like Two-handed and Long. The basics were reverse-engineered from existing weapon tables, so the tool does a fair job of recreating a lot of existing weapon stats right on the nose. But certainly not for all weapons! And so users wonder: If you’re building a weapon like a bastard sword, will the system yield good results for both one-handed and two-handed results? Are there any large classes of weapons (like – spoiler! – polearms) that it struggles with a bit? For those who like playing with the tool (you’re out there; I hear from you at times!), it’s now easier to answer such questions and churn out new creations. Some recent correspondence spurred me to replace an old (and little-shared) spreadsheet with a fancier model. Pretentiously named “GLAIVE MINI ANALYTICAL WEAPONIZER ENGINE”, it’ll generate your stats, let you easily compare those with published stats, and even list aspirational levels of show-off ST for tricks like using your greataxe with one hand. It handles GLAIVE Mini’s optional semi-balanced weapons and offers basic support for creating and applying your own custom mods. There aren’t any explicit instructions, but comments in spreadsheet cells should make things clear. The spreadsheet itself isn’t “live” and usable online; you’ll want to download a copy to use locally or in an online environment. (I recommend using the original Numbers format. See more on format and online sharing here.) To get the most (?) out of the tool, see the many example weapons already in the spreadsheet, and many more sample builds in the GLAIVE Mini page’s “mini armory”. Questions and comments are also welcome on the GLAIVE Mini page.

In minor site update news: First, there’s the first new post in a long time: GURPS/DFRPG resource: New disadvantages. This is the latest entry in the site’s growing lineup of “places to dump new traits and new weapons and stuff”. (A bunch of entrants in this erstwhile series can be found here.) Okay, but what’s with the mention of “tables” and “file downloads”? Well, GURPS resource: ST Monster Table gets a new v2 Table that goes even further (ST 100!) and now offers cost of ST, both classic cost and the alternate cost from Rules Bit (GURPS): A better cost for ST and HP. If you’re a fan of that latter cost progression, you’ll appreciate that ST Monster Table v2 gives you an instant cost for any ST score from 1 to 10. (You’ll also appreciate that the cost for further ST from 101 to 200 is the simplest cost conceivable: 1 point per +1 ST.) Elsewhere, several articles featuring tables now include not only links to image file downloads of the tables but also links to the spreadsheet originals online. These currently include GURPS resource: ST Monster Table, Rules Bit (GURPS): A better cost for ST and HP, STROLL: ST rolls that work in GURPS/DFRPG, and Game design musing: New Damage for ST (GURPS). Hit the link at the bottom of such a page and you’ll be whisked to an iCloud-hosted spreadsheet page revealing tables in all their original, colorful glory. No, you can’t edit those spreadsheets online, because if Internet strangers could do that, well, I imagine the sheets would quickly have their gaming content replaced with Very Weird and/or Very Bad Things. But you can easily download the sheets, in several formats, to modify or otherwise play with on your own. A short tangent on a useful digital tool Dork talk! Because people have asked: The creator app for all my spreadsheets and tables is Numbers. If you’re a user of this free app for Mac and iOS, enjoy this site’s .numbers-format downloads. If you’re not a user of the app, you can still edit the files online by creating a free iCloud account in any browser, uploading the downloaded files to your account, and playing with the files all you like in the iCloud’s browser-based Numbers app. It’s essentially the same deal as playing with spreadsheet files in a Google Drive account on a browser. So why not do what a lot of content-posting gamers do, and create and host files online with the more widely-used Google Sheets or even Excel? Well, I understand that one or both of those apps may impress when it’s time to do some pivot-table transformation and regression involving the application of obscure financial engineering formulas to actuarial statistics tables. With the polarity reversed, too. But for simple “Imma make some gaming sheets and charts” purposes, Numbers offers a game-changing difference. From the ground up, the app is a different beast. A sheet in Numbers is not a wall-to-wall grid of columns and rows, every row’s set height running across the entire sheet and every column’s set width extending down it. Instead, a sheet in the app is a blank canvas on which you can drop anything – including spreadsheet tables. Multiple spreadsheet tables. Each table as big or small as you like, each with layout and styling all its own. All placed to create whatever form or chart you’re looking to make, with none of the other apps’ awful business of “make rows and columns super skinny to create a grid of tiny, tiny cells, then merge cells until you get your layout”. The difference isn’t too stark in the tables I’ve shared so far; they’re simple things, and wouldn’t be particularly hard to make in Google Sheets or Excel. But when it comes to making, say, a bespoke character sheet, packed with individually styled sections hosting fields of every size… or, when stuffing a single sheet with a whole mess of uniquely styled tables and charts, arranged however you like, just to view them all in one place… the difference in ease is huge. When it comes to making this sort of gaming stuff, there’s just no contest. Sorry for the nerdy digression. But sometimes people ask why I use a lesser-known spreadsheet tool for stuff, and that’s my explanation. Anyway, the important thing is that, if you view this site’s iCloud-hosted Numbers files online, you can download them in native format or in PDF, CSV, and Excel formats. The latter might be most useful for a lot of people, though I can’t guarantee what the downloads will look like. You may get something less pretty – but it should be something you can easily edit and put to use. You? Any problems with downloading or using the files discussed above? Suggestions for doing things better? Any thoughts concerning my goofy digression on spreadsheet tools for making gaming stuff? Kindly leave a comment, if it please you! Header image: Once again, I ask AI (ChatGPT) create an old-timey town crier image, this time in medieval woodcut style. Gotta say, it delivered what I had in mind…

I’ve got pages for new talents, new techniques, new technique-based advantages, and new perks, all waiting to tie up your PC’s precious character points (or cash, in the case of new weapons). Now it’s time to help you claw back some of those points with new disadvantages. My collection of new disadvantages is small, but I’ll of course add to it if I create more. An all-important note: Naturally, these are purely fan blog house rules offered for your amusement. Please don’t mistake them for “official” stuff! Code of Honor variants For some general discussion on these codes and their use in the game, see this forum thread. For any fantasy game, you’ll also find many good examples of codes on Banestorm p. 185. As with any disadvantage, a code should be made a mere Quirk for a PC if the GM thinks it won’t likely have much impact on adventures. Code of Honor (Dwarven miner’s) “Only dwarves mine with respect,” say some representatives of dwarvendom. The Code of Honor below is perfect for individuals who embody that respect – including the bold wanderers who bring their ideals to all underground exploration and adventuring. (For a less restrictive code appropriate to any thoughtful subterranean explorer, see the Code of Honor (Caver) quirk in GURPS Underground Adventures.) Code of Honor (Dwarven miner’s) is of course perfect for proud miners in dwarven communities. It might also be found in a dwarven mystic, along with traits such as Disciplines of Faith (Ritualism) [-5], Sense of Duty (Places of importance to earth spirits) [-5], Higher Purpose (Protect places of importance to earth spirits) [5/level], and Hidden Lore (Nature Spirits or Elementals). Some combination of those traits will yield stumpy-legged boulder-huggers who gather at subterranean Stonehenges to beat iron drums and sing Khûmbaya. Code of Honor (Dwarven miner’s) -5 points Respect safety procedures, mining claims, tools, fellow miners, and whatever earth spirits or other rightful denizens dwell below. (The code need not recognize monstrous dwellers as “rightful”!) Always aid fellow miners in peril. Leave 10% of ores, jewels, or other natural finds behind as tribute for underground spirits. When unable to offer this tithe out of some necessity (or even just Greed), beautify the site with shrines or art of similar value. (This tithe gives the GM reason to stock abandoned dwarven mines with shrines, sculptures, and unspoiled bits of ore or gems to be taken – though at the risk of angering honor-bound dwarves or local spirits.) “Mining” and “miner” here are only typical contexts; this code applies to any underground resource extraction, exploration, or delving! Compulsive Lying variants Compulsive Lying is an oddity among other compulsive behaviors, with a high value that befits its outsized capacity for trouble-making. (DFRPG even issues a “the GM may wish to forbid it” warning.) To accommodate more varieties of fibber, such as a self-promoter whose sin is only exaggerating his own merits and accomplishments, I created some variants. The following assume no change in the mechanics of Compulsive Lying’s reaction penalty (which is determined solely by the self-control number). Even if you intend your tales as mere exaggeration, to your audience, a lie is a lie! The lesser-value variants below should spur reaction penalties less often, though, as the reduced scope or severity of the lies should get the fibber caught on fewer occasions. Compulsive Lying -15 points You happily lie about most anything, concocting stories and “facts” out of thin air. This is the disadvantage from GURPS Basic Set p. 128 and DFRPG Adventurers p. 59. Compulsive Lying (Boasting) -10 points As Compulsive Lying, but you’re only compelled to fib about yourself – almost certainly in a flattering way, of course! Listeners are sure to get an earful about your royal Elvish heritage, the orphanages you established with gold from dragons you’ve slain, and the armies of knights who come to you with tears in their eyes to say “Sir, no one’s ever saved the kingdom as bigly as you…” And who knows, you might even believe your tales! Compulsive Lying (Exaggeration) -10 points You lie like a rug, but at least with some floor of reality underneath. You did indeed have an audience with the King… well, okay, you were in the audience for his public address, but he totally waved at you. (Toward you. In your direction.) And to get there, you had to ride through the worst storm in history – look, it was definitely a bad storm, and if people still want to disbelieve you, maybe they can take it up with your traveling companions, who are the deadliest warriors in the kingdom, at least as dangerous as an obsidian ant swarm, which can turn a horse into a skeleton in two seconds… Compulsive Lying (Boastful Exaggeration) -5 points The intersection of Compulsive Lying (Boasting) and Compulsive Lying (Exaggeration). You limit your untruths to claims about yourself, and even then with some grounding in truth. Lies, lies, and more lies It’s possible to create a rough system for “building” variants of Compulsive Lying through specific components. See the Appendix for such as attempt. Vows Vows of poverty GURPS and DFRPG make references to the Vows “Own no more than your horse can carry” for -10 points, but DFRPG also prices “Own only what you can carry” at -10 points. While they’re both fine as vows, a horse can typically carry a lot more than an adventurer! So, I suggest a lesser value for the horse variant below. This is followed by some new anti-materialist vows: two versions of a vow to indulge in no luxuries, followed by two lesser (half-value) versions that eschew only owning such luxuries. (I welcome suggestions for better names for the disadvantages.) Vow (Own no more than your horse can carry) -5 points Although DFRPG Adventurers p. 25 prices this Vow at -10 points, I’m revising the cost to -5 points to distinguish it from the much stricter “Own only what you can carry” [-10]. In a dungeon adventuring environment, a horse-load of possessions is usually plenty! Vow (Own only what you can carry) -10 points This Vow appears on DFRPG Adventurers p. 67. Vow (Indulge in no luxuries) -5 points You limit your possessions to the simple and unadorned, seek mundane food and board, and avoid fancy comforts. You’ll allow yourself the ornate, ornamental, gilt, bejeweled, excessively high-quality, or otherwise fancier-than-normal only in cases of practical necessity, and even then only until you can find a less ostentatious replacement. Vow (Indulge in nothing of quality) -10 points This is Vow (Indulge in no luxuries) taken to the extreme: even normal goods and comforts offend your ideal of spartan impoverishment or humble self-denial. Anything you own or partake in must exhibit some combination of cheap-quality, shabby, ragged, cast-off, broken, uncomfortable, etc. Sackcloth and hard black bread are good enough! Vow (Own no luxuries) -2 points As Vow (Indulge in no luxuries), but your non-indulgence is limited to things you purchase yourself or otherwise own. You can put up with a short-term fancy room provided by a patron, a rich meal offered by friends, or a fancy gown temporarily borrowed for a heist. Vow (Own nothing of quality) -5 points As Vow (Indulge in nothing of quality), but your ascetic slumming is limited to things you purchase yourself or otherwise own. You can put up with fancy goods and comforts temporarily provided by others or borrowed out of short-term necessity. Appendix Build-a-Liar Pondering new variants of Compulsive Liar naturally leads to a dissection of the disadvantage to discover its components, followed by the building of new variants from those parts. What sort of parts would those be? I see the following four components, each of which I’ll suggest can be Strong (worth [-5]) or Weak (worth [0]): How would one build varieties of mythomania from the above? At least one component must be Strong to yield a valid disadvantage! If none are Strong, you’re not really much of a compulsive liar; you perhaps (as one example) only exaggerate truths, limited to stories involving yourself, and only toward higher-status people, to whom you’ll confess exaggerating if caught. That sounds like a fine Quirk (“Exaggerates own accomplishments and capabilities to higher-ups”). Built examples Let’s start with the standard Compulsive Lying disadvantage – which differs a bit between GURPS and DFRPG. Maybe. That is, the two may be intended as identical, with any perceived differences just artifacts of wording, not design. But for the fun of it, I’ll get annoyingly literal with wording differences in the two descriptions to build two distinct versions of the trait: Compulsive Lying, GURPS version: Strong components are Audience (you lie to anyone), Commitment (you cling to the lie when exposed), and Degree (you invent stories whole-cloth). But Breadth is arguably Weak: while the text doesn’t specify that you lie only about yourself, it suggests this by making it the only example described. [-15] Compulsive Lying, DFRPG version: Strong components are Audience (you lie to anyone), Breadth (you apparently lie about anything, as no limitations are noted in the text), and Degree (you presumably invent stories whole-cloth, as the text doesn’t suggest otherwise). Commitment can be assumed to be Weak, though, as the text doesn’t specify that you’ll cling to an exposed lie. [-15] Compulsive Lying (Boasting): Audience and Degree are Strong: you’ll boast to anyone, with or without any grounding in truth. Breadth and Commitment are Weak: you limit your lies to your own deeds and capabilities, and can ‘fess up when caught. [-10] Compulsive Lying (Exaggeration): Audience and Breadth are Strong: you’ll fib to anyone about anything. Commitment and Degree are Weak: you only exaggerate bits of truth, and can walk your tall tales back with “okay, maybe I misspoke, but still…”. [-10] Compulsive Lying (Boastful Exaggeration): Only Audience is Strong: you’ll tell falsehoods to anyone, but only to exaggerate truth and only about yourself, and can backtrack with a “just kidding lol” when caught. [-5] Advanced tweak for serious disad hackers The Commitment component brings in another self-control roll to back down when caught. Yes, this softens the disadvantage overall from the Basic Set writeup, but complete and utter insistence on exposed falsehoods makes Compulsive Lying exceptionally serious. I’m happy to soften it in this one regard. As an option, you could allow Commitment’s “walk it back” self-control roll its own unique self-control number, separate from that of the rest of the disadvantage, with appropriate modification to the cost of the Commitment component. Example: You take the GURPS version of Compulsive Lying with a self-control number of 12 (x1 value). But you set the self-control number for the roll given under Commitment to 6 (x2 value) – you hang onto an exposed lie like a bulldog on a bone! The value of the Commitment component is doubled to [-10], bringing the value of the entire disadvantage to [-20]. Call this a very optional tweak! Header image: Bro got all kinds of disads, but a lack of rizz ain’t one. (The real disad here: My inability to think of any header image that would fit the theme “new disadvantages”. Any suggestions?)