Pregnant Face, One of my player's character concepts Options

[Biffles]

I'm fairly new to GMing shadowrun, and my group of runners are all completely new. That's not stopping them from creating ridiculous character concepts, though.

The player who opted to be the group's Face is considering playing a female magician who is about 7 months pregnant (obviously going by the name Preggers). The idea here is that no one will want to deal with a pregnant woman, so they'll just give her what she wants so they can move on with their lives, and she can remain an effective face for the group (unless she's feeling moody, the player is considering taking the Dark Goddess mentor spirit from Street Magic to simulate this).

I have a few questions for you, Dumpshockers.

Is there a Pregnant quality in any of the books? If not, what would it look like if you had to create it? We've been trying to mix a couple of existing qualities for this. Infirm to reduce her heavy-lifting, and bi-polar for her mood.

The character's a magician, and she'll be dealing with drain. Would this affect the child?

[Karoline]

There is no pregnant quality of any kind that I know of, but I agree, bi-polar for mood swings. I'm not sure about infirm though, because that just stops her getting physical skills, which is silly because she could have gotten those skills before getting pregnant. Instead perhaps give her a DP penalty equal to how many months pregnant she is on any physical skills linked to physical attributes (So perception is unaffected). Drain is unlikely to be good for the baby, and should likely restrict herself from overcasting, or even casting with a higher drain than she can buy the hits to bring it down to 0 drain for perhaps. Also consider throwing in distinctive style, because everyone is going to remember the group that had the pregnant woman, and passerbys are more likely to remember her as well. Oh, and of course she'll need custom clothing and armor.

The thing is though, I don't think you should do these things as disadvantages in the normal sense, because otherwise she'll have to use tons of karma to pay off all the qualities when the baby is born. Instead maybe lump them all into a 15-point disadvantage for being pregnant which will be replaced by a 15 point dependent quality when the baby is born.

[Dumori]

I would take some thing like bi-polar as a base for mood swings but I'd change how it works affect wise. As for the quality its basicly latent dependent its not like in 3 months the baby will be born and she'll leave it to die is it?

[Dr.Rockso]

I would take some thing like bi-polar as a base for mood swings but I'd change how it works affect wise. As for the quality its basicly latent dependent its not like in 3 months the baby will be born and she'll leave it to die is it?

Put it up for adoption and get knocked up again? The whole char concept is rather silly tho. I would think a pregnant runner gets an automatic Distinctive style with no bonus bp... Kinda limits one's mobility as well.

[Dumori]

Yes being pregnat would be distinctive style then replaced by dependent also your a shadowrunner ffs shooting people in the face for money is a core part of the job even for a face.

[brennanhawkwood]

Other possible ideas for simulating various possible side-effects of pregnancy:

* "Unhealable" Stun Damage based on how far into the pregnancy she is (maybe months/2). Early pregnancy isn't too big a deal but the further you get in, the more tiring it can get. Not only would this result in the mother not being able to put up with as much abuse, but also includes a small penalty to DP based on advanced pregnancy.

* Temporary Uncommon to Common Mild to Moderate Allergy to food. Some women can be VERY sensitive during pregnancy to different food types (kind of a built in protective mechanism). There were times during my wife's pregnancies that just being around food could make her slightly queasy all the way to sending her running to the bathroom to throw up.

I might have more ideas (having gone through this 3 times RL) ... but these will have to do for now, got a meeting to go to.

[SaintHax]

Also, noone would want to run w/ her-- and the Notority she'd get from endangering her child ShadowRunning. Constantly distracted, needs lots of sleep, clumsy. I'd personally have her wear a fake pregnancy apperatus instead-- much easier to deal with.

[Karoline]

have her wear a fake pregnancy apperatus

AKA a pillow (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[hermit]

Suggestions:

Treat pregnancy as 1 point of fatigue per month (for a maximum reduction to a DP of 2) for highly physical tests suzch as athletics, gymnastics, that kind of stuff.

Apply appropriate social modifiers. Certain NPC will behave different to Preggers than to other characters.

Also, every time the mother takes damage or is poisoned, roll for the baby (an all-1 of it's metatype) for damage too. baby may not use skills since baby obviously doesn't have skills yet. BBaby rolls are done by the mother. All damage done to the mother is transferred 1 on 1 to the baby, so if the mother has to soak 4 boxes, so dies baby. Baby also gets one bad mental quality for every failed addicition test instead of an addiction. This cumulares by 5 points with each fail. Alcohol and smoking give the baby one 5 pt negative physical and mental flaw each. Yeah, this is kinda harsh, but see, that's why pregnant women ought not to go to war.

[Biffles]

The thing is though, I don't think you should do these things as disadvantages in the normal sense, because otherwise she'll have to use tons of karma to pay off all the qualities when the baby is born. Instead maybe lump them all into a 15-point disadvantage for being pregnant which will be replaced by a 15 point dependent quality when the baby is born.

I like this idea a lot. The potential backstory is that the mother is running in order to provide for the child, college fund, etc. She cares for it, and wants to keep it.

Put it up for adoption and get knocked up again? The whole char concept is rather silly tho. I would think a pregnant runner gets an automatic Distinctive style with no bonus bp... Kinda limits one's mobility as well.

It is fairly silly, but that's kind of par for the course for our group. For the most part, characters like this tend to be a bit more fun for us to play. We're not going for ultra-realism here, just something we'll get a kick out of trying to role-play our way through it.

Another thought was a severe addiction to snack food, with a random ~3d6 table of cravings.

[Method]

For drain: give the baby attributes of 1 and make him resist any net drain mom sustains (fails to resist). All drain will be physical because baby is either mundane or has a Magic attribute of 1; either way any spell's force exceeds his Magic. Note also that baby will have fewer boxes on his condition monitor.

[Falanin]

Well, if she really wants to go by the name "preggers", than an apparatus is surely the way to go... unless she really wants to raise shadowrunner Jr. as well.

But why stop there? If it's going to be her schtick, make the apparatus a bulk-modded synthetic cybertorso with a/multiple? large smuggling compartment/s. Just the straight lines pulling stuff from there gives would be worth it...

[knasser]

I would be very unlikely to allow a pregnant PC in my game (at least as a beginning character) unless the player was a very good role-player. Reason being, this is Shadowrun, not the Happy Adventures Game. Being pregnant is going to severely impair a character's survivability once pregnancy reaches the later stages and harm done to the mother can result in the baby dying or being damaged. Neither scenario is one that is very pleasant to include in a game.

And if they think that most of the criminal denizens in Shadowrun they come across will "give her what they want" because she's pregnant, they're heavily mistaken. It's cannon that in this setting, some desperate girls actually rent themselves out as surrogate mothers to clone babies, used for compatible organs. Some of the nicer people they meet might abduct the baby to force the magician mother (a valuable commodity in the shadows) to do what they want.

No player should want to make their character pregnant to gain an advantage.

That aside, I wouldn't slap a quality of "bi-polar" on the character because of pregnancy. The media stereotype might be this, and some people might adopt it because they're expected to, but a lot of women are a great deal happier during their pregnancy.

Of course they're not worrying about delivering their child into the nightmare that is SR2072.

K.

[Method]

I agree with Khadim in that it seems like a bad idea to give a character lasting negative qualities because she's pregnant (but then I also think its silly to build an entire character around this concept unless you rotate PCs frequently and don't anticipate playing this one for more than a few months of game time).

If you want to simulate pregnancy more accurately I would design a "pregnancy" disease based on the rules in Augmentation with effects like Nausea, Stun Damage and Malaise (to simulate the physical limitations). Have the power = term (months of pregnancy) or [term/2] and make the Speed 24 hours or so. You could also extend the length of time needed to recoup from stun damage.

[knasser]

I agree with Khadim in that it seems like a bad idea to give a character lasting negative qualities because she's pregnant (but then I also think its silly to build an entire character around this concept unless you rotate PCs frequently and don't anticipate playing this one for more than a few months of game time).

If you want to simulate pregnancy more accurately I would design a "pregnancy" disease based on the rules in Augmentation with effects like Nausea, Stun Damage and Malaise (to simulate the physical limitations). Have the power = term (months of pregnancy) or [term/2] and make the Speed 24 hours or so. You could also extend the length of time needed to recoup from stun damage.

I think you need to add "Vector" there. Holding hands and kissing, apparently. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

K.

[Dr.Rockso]

I think you need to add "Vector" there. Holding hands and kissing, apparently. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

K.

At the risk of sounding lewd, I'd suggest Injection as a vector (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotate.gif)

[Method]

Or maybe; "thinking unclean thoughts", perhaps? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

[Karoline]

Or maybe; "thinking unclean thoughts", perhaps? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

Very glad that doesn't work (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

Don't forget that males can only be carriers, and women can't infect each other (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Biffles]

For drain: give the baby attributes of 1 and make him resist any net drain mom sustains (fails to resist). All drain will be physical because baby is either mundane or has a Magic attribute of 1; either way any spell's force exceeds his Magic. Note also that baby will have fewer boxes on his condition monitor.

This is actually what I had in mind, and what I'm probably leaning towards doing.

I would be very unlikely to allow a pregnant PC in my game (at least as a beginning character) unless the player was a very good role-player. Reason being, this is Shadowrun, not the Happy Adventures Game. Being pregnant is going to severely impair a character's survivability once pregnancy reaches the later stages and harm done to the mother can result in the baby dying or being damaged. Neither scenario is one that is very pleasant to include in a game.

And if they think that most of the criminal denizens in Shadowrun they come across will "give her what they want" because she's pregnant, they're heavily mistaken. It's cannon that in this setting, some desperate girls actually rent themselves out as surrogate mothers to clone babies, used for compatible organs. Some of the nicer people they meet might abduct the baby to force the magician mother (a valuable commodity in the shadows) to do what they want.

No player should want to make their character pregnant to gain an advantage.

I think it's important to note that I've only been pointing out negative qualities here. The idea that people will just give her what she wants is just fluff. Her social skills are still based on charisma, just like any other runner. The only thing different is how NPCs might respond to her in character.

This post has been edited by Biffles: May 6 2010, 06:35 PM

[Jame J]

Put it up for adoption and get knocked up again? The whole char concept is rather silly tho. I would think a pregnant runner gets an automatic Distinctive style with no bonus bp... Kinda limits one's mobility as well.

My question is why anyone who's pregnant - or at least that far along - would go on 'Runs (even if she is by career choice a Runner). Not sayin' that Runners wouldn't have kids, just wondering why the ones who are pregnant would go on runs.

[Yerameyahu]

Anything is possible. I think it'd be a very silly and distracting gimmick, but it all depends on your game, your group, your GM. If you really want to do it, some of the above ideas for massive penalties seem reasonable.

[Minchandre]

I'd agree that this sort of gimmick is probably better done with cosmetic surgery and pheromone modification. Plus, as was pointed out, you get a nifty smuggling compartment (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[Ol' Scratch]

No Johnosn would hire her and few runners would run with her. I don't see why it's even worth coming up with rules.

[ClemulusRex]

My question is why anyone who's pregnant - or at least that far along - would go on 'Runs (even if she is by career choice a Runner). Not sayin' that Runners wouldn't have kids, just wondering why the ones who are pregnant would go on runs.

Oh, c'mon. Has no one here seen "Series 7: The Contenders"? That's my homework for you and your player, Biffles.

[Biffles]

No Johnosn would hire her and few runners would run with her. I don't see why it's even worth coming up with rules.

I'm GMing the campaign, and I'm encouraging my player to do it because it will be fun for the player, myself, and the rest of the group. Who cares if it's not realistic?

Oh, c'mon. Has no one here seen "Series 7: The Contenders"? That's my homework for you and your player, Biffles.

I just read the IMDB page for this, and it sounds awesome. Adding it to my Netflix queue. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)