[Question] Maiming a PG
Hasimir0:
Thanks for the answers, they were very helpful :)
THIS is the JoJo stand I was talking about : http://jjba.wikia.com/wiki/The_Hand
shadowcourt:
This interestingly flushes with some of the philosophy that has developed for me around dealing with physical disability issues in the Solar System mechanic in general. Often when I've encountered players who want to do things like this, they talk about building flaws for their characters as some sort of Secret. My philosophy on this is almost always that Secrets should be overwhelmingly positive--they can contain quirks and drawbacks, but they have to be a net gain to a character. As such, there are lots of flavorful ways to consider how this can be an asset, and thereby a Secret. Players who want to play deaf characters who can communicate via sign language that they can teach others, or read lips even at a distance, have benefits that are Secret-worthy. Someone who wants to play Zatoichi, the Blind Swordsman, should have a Secret which reflects just how capable he is despite his blindness--how he can hear amazing levels of detail, and fight by hearing alone--rather than just some sort of "negative Secret" which focuses only on his blindness.
I've sometimes tinkered with a Key of the Disability, which would work something like this:
Key of the Disability
You have some sort of impairment, which marks you as different and makes certain tasks harder for you. This might be difficulty moving, the loss of a sense, a missing limb, a psychological disorder, or anything else the player and StoryGuide can agree upon. In certain game settings, this might impose social difficulties as much as physical ones, as intolerant societies are not always forgiving of those who are marked as different. The responsibility for invoking this disability is purely on the player, NOT the StoryGuide, who can invoke this Key in situations where he deliberately fails ability checks or requests penalty dice for actions.
1 XP: Any time your disability comes up in a scene, marking you as different or making your everyday life more complex.
3 XP: Any time your disability gets in the way of something you really want.
Buyoff: Overcome your disability, so that it no longer negatively impacts your life.
We've had a blind pirate queen in one game, and a Stone Age hunter who was mauled in a mammoth hunt in another. I feel like it's been moderately effective, though I sometimes feel that the "responsibility for invoking on the Player side" aspect can be hard. Players don't always know when to invoke this, and there are times when I've set up scenes expecting the disability to be a major issue and found that the player hadn't even considered invoking it, as they were wrapped up in the drama of what they wanted rather than what might be stopping them. So often, players aren't responsible for creating their own antagonists or environmental impediments, so it's easy to let it slide in a scene.
-shadowcourt (aka Josh)
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