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View Full Version : Mommy witness child's death and goes nuts..



Kerilstrasz
2013-04-22, 08:58 AM
So.. i was thinking..
a mother (any mother, human or not, rich or not) as we all know (and those who don't may as well ask their mothers) react at extreme ways if they witness their child's death.
so i think to make a rule about this..
assume the mother (from now on "M") witness someone killing her child...
she enters a state of rage.. but the barbarian rage is kinda too low powered for the given situation.. so, im thinking...

+10 STR (+5 mod), +6 CoN (+3 mod), DR 20/-, SR 20 , +20 speed
(the above stack with anything else she might have)
also..
immediate proffesion with any thing she may find and use as weapon (or impr. unarmed if she has none)
Her ref save is doubled, her Fort is quadrappled and any spell that target her will is auto fail.. any spell that doesn't allow a save it now has a save against M.
While in this stage, the only way to stop M is to kill her or render her unconcsious.
This "rage effect" duration is until M is killed,get unconcsious or kill her child's murderer (whichever comes 1st). The rage effect is "on" every time she has eye contact or in immediate reach of the target.
M's alignment whatever it is will not turn to evil as result of the killing of the target, as the Gods (of family,motherhood,children etc etc) understand and demand such revenge actions.
While in this state , whatever the conditions, M ignores everything and her only purpose and focus is to kill her target.
While raging, M
cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except for Balance, Escape Artist, Intimidate, and Ride), the Concentration skill, or any abilities that require patience or concentration, nor can he cast spells or activate magic items that require a command word, a spell trigger (such as a wand), or spell completion (such as a scroll) to function.

Ofc, there always gonna be "mothers" of evil nature that would trick enemies to slay their children to earn this effect... at this point the Gods will retaliate immediately by strike down the fake mother.

What do you think?

Realms of Chaos
2013-04-22, 10:47 AM
I'd say that what you propose is incredibly unrealistic.


I don't see any reason to separate this particular instance of going nuts from any other example of having a psychotic break and going nuts. A rush of adrenaline is a rush of adrenaline, regardless of what triggers it.
You are effectively giving people a mechanical bonus for losing control of their actions, which doesn't really make all too much sense (and may risk coming across as borderline offensive to some as with "retard strength" in F.A.T.A.L.)
Those bonuses are too huge no matter how you look at it. Think of what you actually know people to do under the influence of adrenaline. Ignore maybe one or two attacks? Lift a car for a few seconds, maybe? +10 strength may well let an average Joe Jane pick up a car and use it as a weapon. That DR pretty much makes the character utterly invincible and capable of single-handedly destroying an entire community in pursuit of the killer, which is unrealistic.
Seriously, rage is enough. It makes the target stronger so they can fight harder and lift heavy objects. It makes the target more resilient so they can shake off a blow or two. It makes the target resilient to mind-affecting effects so they are harder to dissuade from their task and makes them reckless in the attempt.


In what way is reality more extreme than the rage ability?

Twilight Jack
2013-04-22, 01:36 PM
Without bothering to read your mechanics in any detail, I'd like to make two very quick points.


Over the last two years, I've had no less than 4 friends and/or family members lose infant children in tragedies of various kinds. I am the father of an very young child myself. To model game mechanics for some kind of HULK!smash shenanigans brought on by the grief and trauma of watching your child die is insensitive on the scale of F.A.T.A.L. mechanics for injuries sustained during sexual assault.
To take the time to develop actual mechanics for a given circumstance suggests that said circumstance is likely to come up more than once in the course of whatever game you're planning to run. Otherwise, why the heck are you wasting time codifying rules for it? If you only need it to happen once, you'd be better served to just handwave it and make our grieving mother as strong as she needs to be to achieve the narrative effect for which you're looking. Rules suggests the need for a baseline, reliable effect. So, how many children were you planning to narrate being murdered before the horrified eyes of their mothers, that you would need rules for the potential psychotic break of such a mother?

Kyuu Himura
2013-04-22, 01:38 PM
+10 strength may well let an average Joe Jane pick up a car and use it as a weapon

Average Jane has 10 Str; maybe 12 if she's athletic Jane.
Average Car weights 1.6 tons, app 3000 pounds.

There is just no way anyone will lift 3000 pounds with 22 Str; let alone use them as a weapon.

I do agree it is kinda unnecesary to do this. Rage is good for representing someone being so pissed off that they kill a guy.

Kerilstrasz
2013-04-22, 02:04 PM
To take the time to develop actual mechanics for a given circumstance suggests that said circumstance is likely to come up more than once in the course of whatever game you're planning to run. Otherwise, why the heck are you wasting time codifying rules for it? If you only need it to happen once, you'd be better served to just handwave it and make our grieving mother as strong as she needs to be to achieve the narrative effect for which you're looking. Rules suggests the need for a baseline, reliable effect. So, how many children were you planning to narrate being murdered before the horrified eyes of their mothers, that you would need rules for the potential psychotic break of such a mother?

Ok.. that makes a lot of sense... thank you :smallwink:

Twilight Jack
2013-04-22, 02:18 PM
Happy to help, I guess . . .

Sylthia
2013-04-29, 08:37 PM
Sorry if I'm missing the obvious, but what does F.A.T.A.L. mean?

Grod_The_Giant
2013-04-29, 08:45 PM
It's a famously-- or, more accurately, infamously-- terrible RPG system. Both in terms of mechanics, which are incredibly overcomplicated and dysfunctional, and in terms of content, which is racist, misogynistic, and otherwise in poor taste.

One example I've heard is that (hidden for those with low Sanity scores) During character creation, you roll for anus size. During a grapple, you can accidentally start raping your opponent. And kill them if your unit is too much larger than their anus. :smalleek:

Tanuki Tales
2013-04-29, 08:46 PM
Sorry if I'm missing the obvious, but what does F.A.T.A.L. mean?

It's probably the worst and most twisted game system ever "made".

Mind you, I think the reference was quite uncalled for, regardless how unbalanced and unnecessary the stat modifications presented are.

Pyromancer999
2013-04-29, 08:47 PM
Sorry if I'm missing the obvious, but what does F.A.T.A.L. mean?

Let's just say that it is a game system designed for people who are just the worst people at heart. An example of how horrible it can be is given along with the mention.

Leave it at that, and thank your lucky stars you do not have to know more than that.

Tanuki Tales
2013-04-29, 08:51 PM
I could see the concept of this "template" becoming a thing if some powerful evil entity was building a Bacchae like throng to cause widespread chaos and mayhem by creating an army of such women.

Or some metaphysical crisis is occurring and women turning into this is a symptom of it on the Material Plane.

Or what have you. Plenty of plot hooks for this.

LordErebus12
2013-04-29, 08:55 PM
killing a giant ant colony just got that much harder. so many babies killed to get to the queen.