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

[I Hate All Life]

I'm sorry, I haven't read this thread, but just seeing the title, I thought, "Man, that's one nasty ectopic pregnancy!"

Dude. I wanna strangle you so bad right now.

Not for making a bad joke, mind you. That you thought to make it first... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/mad.gif)
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Glad to be here, and sure, send me a link. I'd be surprised if WoD fans were a rarity here, as I see it and SR as going together like peas and carrots. Different tone, sometimes, but they have a lot in common. In fact, I once speculated to a friend of mine that you could play SR as the future (soon to be the present) of the WoD, where the Awakening was the result of the reality wars ending in a stalemate.

Wow. That's a thought.

Anyway: http://www.thehowlingvoid.com/whitewolf-index.html

It's sad because I never really get to play either game. None of my friends currently in the area are really in to the WoD ennui and gravitas, and SR is a little too involved mechanics-wise for some of them (not to mention that I'd be stuck GMing.) *Sigh*

I feel you. I devote a huge amount of time, effort and love into the WoD setting, but don't ever get to actually play; when there's a WoD game, I'm almost always stuck with the Storyteller role. And most of the WoD games I played weren't good ones. But at least I get to play SR, right?

Well, I'm glad we're all friends, again! Another flame-war averted! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Not quite, you gibbering half-brained lackwit. That's to you and all that have the temerity to disagree with me on anything!

[Megu]

My team's shaman actually just pulled this off. Elven Latina woman carrying an ork child (her husband's) for six months. Teammates largely didn't figure it out till the tail end. For her, we didn't have any extra mechanical stuff going on. She just wanted to do it to add to the paranoia; she'd have one more thing to worry about. Her biggest fear was her teammates, whom she largely does not trust, using the information against her somehow, or her being identified because of it. Also, it made her have to be real careful about taking Physical damage. In the latter stages, she ran strictly astrally, for both reasons. They only found out on the last run before she gave birth, when she had to meet them in person to heal someone. But we dealt with it all through roleplay rather than mechanics. Perhaps it's a little unusual that she can run and cast and shoot while pregnant, but she's a fricking elf shaman, so she's already a little beyond what normal people can do.

Her character's reason for still running is precisely because she has a family. Devout Catholic woman from the Yucatan, doesn't use birth control, has a lot of SINless kids to feed, and her waitressing job and healing other SINless Mexicans isn't cutting it. She's essentially saving up for their college funds, and when she gets to a certain amount she's going to try and get out of the business, find a nation-state that'll offer her family SINs in exchange for a last run, preferably. Ultimately, she doesn't have a lot of options. And I mean, it's totally in genre for sheer desperation to be a primary motivation, you know?

[I Hate All Life]

My team's shaman actually just pulled this off. Elven Latina woman carrying an ork child (her husband's) for six months. Teammates largely didn't figure it out till the tail end. For her, we didn't have any extra mechanical stuff going on. She just wanted to do it to add to the paranoia; she'd have one more thing to worry about. Her biggest fear was her teammates, whom she largely does not trust, using the information against her somehow, or her being identified because of it. Also, it made her have to be real careful about taking Physical damage. In the latter stages, she ran strictly astrally, for both reasons. They only found out on the last run before she gave birth, when she had to meet them in person to heal someone. But we dealt with it all through roleplay rather than mechanics. Perhaps it's a little unusual that she can run and cast and shoot while pregnant, but she's a fricking elf shaman, so she's already a little beyond what normal people can do.

Her character's reason for still running is precisely because she has a family. Devout Catholic woman from the Yucatan, doesn't use birth control, has a lot of SINless kids to feed, and her waitressing job and healing other SINless Mexicans isn't cutting it. She's essentially saving up for their college funds, and when she gets to a certain amount she's going to try and get out of the business, find a nation-state that'll offer her family SINs in exchange for a last run, preferably. Ultimately, she doesn't have a lot of options. And I mean, it's totally in genre for sheer desperation to be a primary motivation, you know?

Take notes, folks. This is how it's done.

[Xahn Borealis]

If you want a really fucked-up idea, one word. Amnesia. Your last memory was driving away from a successful run in the back of a step van, then everything goes black. You wake up, it's six months later and you've got a bun in the oven.

[LurkerOutThere]

Chef's do that.

[ClemulusRex]

I feel you. I devote a huge amount of time, effort and love into the WoD setting, but don't ever get to actually play; when there's a WoD game, I'm almost always stuck with the Storyteller role. And most of the WoD games I played weren't good ones. But at least I get to play SR, right?

Lucky dog. It's crazy how much time and money I've spent on SR when I've really only played or run in a handful of games since I first discovered it back in, what? '90? I think I could count the number of sessions and still have a couple of toes left over.

Luckily, I was in college when WoD was at it's peak. I LARPed like a madman, and thankfully got a chance to play a fair amount of table-top as well. I once tried going back to a LARP about a year ago out of sheer withdrawal and...well...let's just say it wasn't the same.

Anyway, your site looks good so far. I'll try to take this conversation off of this thread and respond more thoroughly in a private message or something when I get a chance.

[Biffles]

Sorry everyone, I was away for the weekend. This thread is clearly wrapped up, but I wanted to thank everyone for their feedback. I've shared a lot of the stuff from this thread with my player, and both of the mechanics we've decided to go with were from Method (posts #11 and #14). We're not really viewing pregnancy as a disease, that's just how it will work mechanically (which I believe was Method's intention). Once the runner has the baby, it'll turn into a dependent quality. We're also giving the baby all stats at 1 (and it'll be awakened) for the purposes of drain.

Megu, thanks for telling us about your teammate. That helped flesh out this character a lot. The runner is restricting herself to Force 1 spells, taking extra care to erase astral signatures, and is planning on doing as much as possible astrally.

ClemulusRex, thanks for giving me a hand (for the majority of the thread (IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif) ). About the Logic at 1, my group and I come from That Other Game, and a low score like that isn't viewed as a big deal. The book only refers to a score of 1 as "weak", which didn't really give me the sense of character-breaking that your post did. The character's stats have gone up, and she's also seen a significant increase in Edge.

I Hate All Life, I apologize if I said anything to upset you. I will say that we have no intention of making this character into a "bimbo", and I don't think I had said anything about that. Our group feels comfortable with what we do have for this character, but if you were playing in my group and didn't, I wouldn't let the player run with it.

Thanks again, everyone!

[I Hate All Life]

I Hate All Life, I apologize if I said anything to upset you. I will say that we have no intention of making this character into a "bimbo", and I don't think I had said anything about that. Our group feels comfortable with what we do have for this character, but if you were playing in my group and didn't, I wouldn't let the player run with it.

I appreciate the fact that you care, but it's all good. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) You have a better perspective on it than I gave you credit for, so I'm sorry for that. I can be opinionated at times, and I'm probably too quick to get my panties in a bunch.

[Wounded Ronin]

How do wear ballistic armor while pregnant?

[pbangarth]

How do wear ballistic armor while pregnant?

You buy baskeballistic armor.

[Megu]

How do wear ballistic armor while pregnant?

I imagine it just fits kinda poorly, and you got some of the extended belly unprotected. That's why our shaman went for the lined trenchcoat.

Biffles, the thing to remember about the low Logic score is that the Street Ganger in the core book has a Logic of 2. So the guy who holds up 7-11s for a living is twice as smart as you if you've got Logic 1. That's pretty stupid.

[Yerameyahu]

Well, I don't think it's a linear scale, or that a ganger has to be stupid. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Megu]

Well, I don't think it's a linear scale, or that a ganger has to be stupid. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

That's true, the linear scale part, but I think the other half of your statement, we're talking about stats for a talented but otherwise typical street ganger. Yeah, Tupac woulda had Logic 3 or 4 at least, but there was how many of him compared to the numbers of people who try to rob a bank when the cops are in it, shit like that?

[Yerameyahu]

There's always variation in any population. I dunno about 2070, but lots of people join gangs today based entirely on where they live. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume they show a normal distribution of all stats. *shrug*

[Megu]

There's always variation in any population. I dunno about 2070, but lots of people join gangs today based entirely on where they live. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume they show a normal distribution of all stats. *shrug*

But there's something to be said for how you train your brain, you know? A life of low-level violent crime doesn't necessarily promote critical thinking the way a life of scholarly research would, you know?

[Yerameyahu]

I wouldn't want to get into that can of worms in this thread, but the simple answer is 'maybe, maybe not'. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I only meant that ganger != clinically retarded… necessarily.

[Nifft]

But there's something to be said for how you train your brain, you know? A life of low-level violent crime doesn't necessarily promote critical thinking the way a life of scholarly research would, you know?

First off, video games are becoming more complex by the minute, and given 60 years to mature, I'm sure we'll see games that genuinely do require (and thus provide training for) the highest kinds of critical thinking.

Second, I'll bet there's more than one university-educated brain out there whose fallen on hard enough times that he's currently living a life of low-level violent crime.

Cheers, -- N