Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2
It depends. Certainly some Disads could hardly help but be known to the character. It would be hard to have a severe Phobia and not know it (unless you have never been exposed to the stimulus for it, or everyone has it...but in the latter case it would not exactly be a Disad anymore).
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I disagree. There's a 1st season episode of the caper TV show "Leverage", in which the female thief character is revealed to be very phobic of horses.
But as far as she's concerned, it isn't a phobia: Horses
are dangerous.
She'd compare her phobia of horses with my "phobia" of starving tigers with a history of man-eating. As far as she is concerned, her avoidance of horses is perfectly
rational (that episode also uses cinematographic techniques to show how frightening and large the horse is from her point of view - a GM can use somewhat verbal techniques to help the player roleplay her character's phobia, e.g. "The horse is looking at you. As you move around the room, its eye keeps following you. Clearly it's just waiting for the right opportunity to strike").
Characters will be aware of their fears, yes, but a crucial element of a phobia is the
irrationality, and characters will rationalize their fears.