New Ethereal Discord: Epilepsy

[Rocket Man]

After a fun little experience with a gran mal seizure last week (fourth in my lifetime, plus a childhood of petit mal), I started wondering -- how would you represent epilespy as a Discord or Disadvantage in an In Nomine game, especially given the classical supernatural associations?

Here's a rough cut. Please feel free to suggest changes, additions, or other bits that would make it more playable or fun!

Epilepsy
The character's body and mind are only loosely tied together, and occasionally find themselves at cross-purposes. The player and GM must determine a "trigger situation" in advance -- stress is a common one, but other triggers are possible, such as a hard night's sleep, rapidly flashing lights, or even a certain type of smell! The cost of the Discord varies from 1-3 points per level, depending on how hard the trigger is to avoid. That said, epilepsy is an uncertain condition, and the GM is free to require an occasional roll "out of the blue" when it seems dramatically appropriate!

When the GM determines the character to be in a trigger situation, the character must make a Will roll minus the level of this Discord. On a failure, the character has (check digit) rounds before his seizure begins; once it starts, he must roll every (check digit) rounds to come out of it.

In real life, seizures can be quite varied. For game purposes, the effects can be narrowed as follows:

Petit mal: Also known as an "absence" seizure. In game terms, the person leaves their body and flies to the Marches, just as if evicted by a Kyriotate. A Kyrio or Shedite who attempts to possess the being during this time gets +2 to their Will roll and may not be resisted by the target.

Gran mal: The classic "drop and shake" seizure. Not only is the target incapacitated, he does the equivalent of punching damage to himself for every round that he is out of it. Armor does not protect -- this is straining, chewing, minor muscle tears, and so on. During this seizure, the target is at +5 to resist possession of any sort ... the mind and body connections are so junked up that even the puppet masters have trouble finding the strings! This applies to other attempts to manipulate his conscious mind or emotions as well -- a Habbalah could probably induce a seizure with the right clues, but might have a difficult time calming one down, even when using Emptiness.

A Divine Intervention on the initial "seizure roll" turns the victim into a visionary -- on coming out of the seizure, he returns with a prophecy! An Infernal Intervention means that an ethereal or celestial spirit was already waiting nearby when the seizure began and has already taken possession, even on a gran mal.

For humans, proper medication can often reduce or eliminate "trigger situations." For a celestial, of course, this is something much more deeply wrong, and is not an uncommon "scar" of ethereal combat.

[Jason]

Immediate thoughts:

1. I might call it "Seizures" rather than "Epilepsy" just because the latter sounds more clinical, less open to mystical interpretation. (Ironic, I know, considering that "epilepsy" just means "to seize" in Greek, but still.)

2. I'm fascinated to see it conceptualized more like a Dread than a Discord in that you get more points per level based on severity, rather than simply scaling severity with level. Considering that the level is directly relevant to the Will roll, though, I can see why it makes sense to keep it separate from the trigger.

3. The divine prophecy thing is a nice touch. In campaigns that allow for ethereal interventions, I wonder whether a seizure might invite some relatively benevolent spirit to use the Song of Exchange or Spirit Speech on a character, possessing or perhaps communicating with her temporarily?

4. This is much more interesting (and immune to accusations of insensitivity/offensiveness) for coming from someone who has suffered from it recently. Hope things are going okay for you personally in the wake of this.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Jason

Immediate thoughts:

1. I might call it "Seizures" rather than "Epilepsy" just because the latter sounds more clinical, less open to mystical interpretation. (Ironic, I know, considering that "epilepsy" just means "to seize" in Greek, but still.)

Reasonable.

2. I'm fascinated to see it conceptualized more like a Dread than a Discord in that you get more points per level based on severity, rather than simply scaling severity with level. Considering that the level is directly relevant to the Will roll, though, I can see why it makes sense to keep it separate from the trigger.

Thanks. The inspiraton actually came from the Fear Discord in the main rulebook -- but yes, as you point out, Dread works as a nice model to get the right effect as well.

3. The divine prophecy thing is a nice touch. In campaigns that allow for ethereal interventions, I wonder whether a seizure might invite some relatively benevolent spirit to use the Song of Exchange or Spirit Speech on a character, possessing or perhaps communicating with her temporarily?

Interesting approach, and it fits very well with the Interventions I've already included. I'd have no problem with building that effect in, though I wonder if some of our more ethereal-steeped players might have suggestions of their own?

4. This is much more interesting (and immune to accusations of insensitivity/offensiveness) for coming from someone who has suffered from it recently. Hope things are going okay for you personally in the wake of this.

Thanks for the good wishes. I'm still a bit sore in one arm from where I fell off the bed during the seizure, but otherwise, my recovery's going pretty well. Fingers crossed!

[Andygal]

I'd also agree that "seizures" is probably a better name then epilepsy, as in the case of the Discord version it's *not* epilepsy (which is a medical condition) and in the case of the human disadvantage, there are other causes for seizures besides proper epilepsy (when I was a very small child I had seizures due to "water on the brain" creating too much pressure in there).

And I also add my well-wishes to Rocket Man, and here's hoping that no more incidents occur!

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Andygal

I'd also agree that "seizures" is probably a better name then epilepsy, as in the case of the Discord version it's *not* epilepsy (which is a medical condition) and in the case of the human disadvantage, there are other causes for seizures besides proper epilepsy (when I was a very small child I had seizures due to "water on the brain" creating too much pressure in there).

And I also add my well-wishes to Rocket Man, and here's hoping that no more incidents occur!

Fairly reasoned, and thank you!

[Archangel Beth]

It is indeed an interesting take, and I also hope that your recovery goes well. O:>

[robkelk]

Likewise. And I think the discord would work well as written.

[ISNorden]

Best wishes for your recovery, Rocket Man! To bring this back on topic, though... The Discord does look all right as written, and Jason's suggestion for handling Ethereal Interventions would work reasonably well in my game. (In fact, it reminds me of stories about characters who get too deeply involved with the spirit world and end up "touched in the head" as a result.)

[tHEhERETIC]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

Interesting approach, and it fits very well with the Interventions I've already included. I'd have no problem with building that effect in, though I wonder if some of our more ethereal-steeped players might have suggestions of their own?

Originally Posted by ISNorden

The Discord does look all right as written, and Jason's suggestion for handling Ethereal Interventions would work reasonably well in my game. (In fact, it reminds me of stories about characters who get too deeply involved with the spirit world and end up "touched in the head" as a result.)

Don't have my books with me (goofing off at work, just been a brutal week here and it's only Thursday) but with a RL 'ethereal' background and a Led Zep cover in my headphones...

RocketMan, your description of Petit Mal (I typed "Malk"...Freudian slip?) seizures meshes very well with the idea of a god yanking someone into the Ethereal realm for a chat. Just a blank stare, nobody home, for just a little while. Will have to look at my books for Spirit Speech when I get home. But such gods would have favorites, and some people would have multiple seizures while most folk would never have them at all.

It leads my brain off into a tangent--schizophrenia. My brother has it, at least the variety with the voices telling you to do strange things. Growing up he was lucid, no nobody-home spells like the seizure, but he'd tell us about music that never shut off and voices telling him...well, some pretty weird stuff with some very religious overtones. Infernal would make more sense in the game setting, unless you allow for some very dark gods.

My hunch--again with the books at home--is that the seizure would be an ethereal wanting to have a chat, and the schizo being the more powerful demons with roughly the same agenda.

p.s. glad you're feeling okay now. I know one other person with seizure disorder--she gets so irritated when she has one, because it means she's not allowed to drive for six months. Hopefully you don't have to deal with that!

[BillionSix]

I like it overall, but must add that I never like attunements, discords, songs, etc. that give specific instructions as to Interventions.

There is an example in the Liber Canticorum of losing all accumulated de-aging on an unfavorable Intervention for the Corporeal Song of Entropy. It's like turning the hand of God (or Lucifer) into a common botch.

You should never know what you are getting with Interventions.