Player characters with "Conditions"

[Sindal]

Hi all.

This is just a random though:

Q: have you ever played a character that has a physiological or mental condition (such as ptsd)? Has any mechanics been affected?

I ask because:
My ranger kosh, has sea sickness. He doesn't know it because he's never veen on a boat before, but he does. I gave my dm permission to interpret it as he sees fit but it hasn't come up yet.

Has anyone else played or role played that out? What was it like

[MoiMagnus]

There is a difference between "predetermined conditions" and "improvised conditions".
Taking your example:
+ Predetermined: your character has sea sickness and doesn't know it. At the first boat travel, you RP-it.
+ Improvised: at your first boat travel, there is a tempest, the DM ask for constitution saving throws. Natural 1! You just find out that your character had sea sickness. (Assuming that's not in direct contradiction with your background). This is now part of your character and taken in account in the RP.

We do the second one all the time. One "boss fight" at 1/3 of the campaign had each of us go through different madness (paranoia, masochism, pure destructive madness, and depression), and those remained through all the campaign as "our dark side we fight against". And it is very interesting to play, because it works similarly to an inside-joke: everybody knows which character has what kind of dark or funny problem, and refers to it.

Predetermined conditions is more difficult to handle, because the risk is that the other players don't feel interested into it, and that it slow down the pacing of the session without any good reason. But as long as you don't try to take too much of the spotlight ("Hey, look at me! I have sea sickness! My character is unique and interesting!") it can works pretty well and be very fun to play and to play with.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I think it should be a player responsibility.

Let take claustrophobia as an easy example:
The party need to go into a small cave.
Jana the halfling says: "No, I am not going in there"
Tor tell Jana: "we have to go this way, the basilisk is coming"
Jana says: I don't care, I will be stoned before I will go in there willingly"

Jim the monk know they can wait and stun Jana, Tor use his rope to make shore she can't move and they go into the small cave.
Jana wake up and start to scream, Jim hit her untill she lose consciousness.

Tim heal Jana when they are out of the cave.
The party learned that Jana is claustrophobic the hard way.
Next time they will lie to Jana, take her out and move her through a small space without her knowing about the small space. Or find a nicer way to do it.

[MoiMagnus]

I think it should be a player responsibility.

Let take claustrophobia as an easy example:
The party need to go into a small cave.
Jana the halfling says: "No, I am not going in there"
Tor tell Jana: "we have to go this way, the basilisk is coming"
Jana says: I don't care, I will be stoned before I will go in there willingly"

Jim the monk know they can wait and stun Jana, Tor use his rope to make shore she can't move and they go into the small cave.
Jana wake up and start to scream, Jim hit her untill she lose consciousness.

Tim heal Jana when they are out of the cave.
The party learned that Jana is claustrophobic the hard way.
Next time they will lie to Jana, take her out and move her through a small space without her knowing about the small space. Or find a nicer way to do it.

You have to be cautious with things like that, otherwise some players might resent you (the player) for giving to your character an annoying trait.
I guess that "know your table" is always a good advise when talking about what kind of RP is acceptable.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

You have to be cautious with things like that, otherwise some players might resent you (the player) for giving to your character an annoying trait.
I guess that "know your table" is always a good advise when talking about what kind of RP is acceptable.

Knowing your table is required in order to play a game with people that are not yourself.

You don't bring a character that will hurt the other players because it will hurt them(or you just switch characters if you already brought one).

I remember that in my first game I played my character got addiction and the party tied her to her ridding dog, they also tied her down when we went into a dwarven city that killed my character beat friend.

In the start I didn't know that table limit of enjoyment they got from those interactions but we talked and I learned when I need to push the addiction/hate to the dwarfs and when to stop and submit. We all had our fun because we checked our limits and acted in the limited space.

The thing is that it have nothing to do with a "condition" it is just how games with people work.

[Scripten]

My players love getting flaws, "conditions", and phobias. I sometimes have to say, "Hey, so this would actually make the game teeter into unfun territory for you. Are you sure?" And even then, they'll often still take them.

[Demonslayer666]

Phobias are good, but I prefer manias and delusions.

I like to give my characters at least one, but I make sure it doesn't stop them from adventuring.

[Sindal]

There is a difference between "predetermined conditions" and "improvised conditions".
Taking your example:
+ Predetermined: your character has sea sickness and doesn't know it. At the first boat travel, you RP-it.
+ Improvised: at your first boat travel, there is a tempest, the DM ask for constitution saving throws. Natural 1! You just find out that your character had sea sickness. (Assuming that's not in direct contradiction with your background). This is now part of your character and taken in account in the RP.

We do the second one all the time. One "boss fight" at 1/3 of the campaign had each of us go through different madness (paranoia, masochism, pure destructive madness, and depression), and those remained through all the campaign as "our dark side we fight against". And it is very interesting to play, because it works similarly to an inside-joke: everybody knows which character has what kind of dark or funny problem, and refers to it.

Predetermined conditions is more difficult to handle, because the risk is that the other players don't feel interested into it, and that it slow down the pacing of the session without any good reason. But as long as you don't try to take too much of the spotlight ("Hey, look at me! I have sea sickness! My character is unique and interesting!") it can works pretty well and be very fun to play and to play with.

I didnt give him sea sickness to hog any attention. I just thought it would be funny quirk if it every showed up. I wanted something that was minuscule and unhindeing in his normal adventuring life but still able to get to him a bit.