Temporary Handicaps Part 1

[JohnPaulB]

I enjoyed the Handicaps in Space Gamer, but would never play them as they were too harsh…forever. Also I felt that things happen to characters in games that are not always an attribute reduction or wound. So I’ve adapted Handicaps into temporary situations and often reducing the rolls or affects. These should be the equivalent of ½ point handicaps. Sorry, you get no Attribute compensation for these.
These are ephemeral nuisances and handicaps that might be cured and in any event are of temporary time duration, longer than one encounter, usually less than a week. They come about by gameplay, either illness, infection, or whatever. Causes and when to come into play are determined by GameMaster or Player. Some of these may be healed or prevented.

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Acrophobia - Mild, Temporary (Fear of Heights): (“It’s just too high for me.”) The character must add one die to any roll against climbing a long way (a cliff, into a deep hole, or out of a tree), since even being near an edge makes him a bit dizzy. Subtract 1 from DX any time he’s doing anything within one clear MH of such a long fall. He must roll to try climbing anything steeper than a flight of stairs unless he’s being chased by something nasty, or unless it’s the only way out. (Even so, he’d much prefer to look some more for another exit.)
This is caused by a dizzying blow, unsteadiness or certain illnesses. It lasts 1d6 days.
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Apathy, Temporary: (“I just don’t care.”) Someone with this handicap will not take an interest in anything long term and doesn’t care what happens at the moment; or can’t do anything that requires sustained effort. Things that had filled him with joy are now dull. They will do things if forced to, but not well. Apathetic people lose experience points for unneeded actions.
Caused by emotional or physical trauma, illness, extreme exertion or loss of will. Lasts 1d6 days. Character can roll 4d6 vs IQ to overcome the apathy. Priests and physickers can help give +2 to the roll. Certain types of Master Physickers can cure this instantly. Note: Drill Sergeants don’t cure this, they just offset it.
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Asthma, Temporary: (“Gasp, gasp . . .”) The afflicted runs out of breath after about one minute (12 rounds) of fighting, climbing, or other strenuous exercise or inhaling smoke, and must rest for five minutes to recover. If the victim has to fight for over a minute, reduce DX by one points per full minute. Someone with asthma can only spend one hour a day trying anything strenuous; since so much resting must go with the exercise, this hour cannot be combined with any other learning, no matter how sedentary. An asthmatic can swim.
Cause: Smoke inhalation, toxic, old lung wound. Lasts 1d6 days.
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Bleeder: (“You bruise easily, I see.”) A Bleeder takes an extra hit from any Critical Hit attack which penetrates his armor. Nosebleeds are common.
Caused by illness or toxins. Lasts until inflicting cause is removed.
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Blinded, Temporarily: (“You’ll get your sight back, I’m sure.”) A Temporarily blinded character is in darkness all the time. He has no chance of noticing anything which requires vision. He hasn’t had blindness long enough to gain Acute Hearing free. Even so, he is at -4 to hit, or perform any other task that requires hand-eye coordination, like walking more than 4 MA safely. A blind wizard cannot benefit from Dark Vision, Mage Sight, or other vision-oriented spells, though he can cast them on others. He cannot use any creation spells except Fire, Rope, and Shadow, and obviously, he gains no benefit from scrolls or magic books. However, he is at no DX minus for the creation spells he can use, for self-targeted spells, special spells, and spells cast on something he can touch. (You usually cannot touch an enemy in a combat situation; he won’t let you.) Also, blind characters are in no way inhibited by Blur, Darkness, Dazzle, Shadow, or Invisibility.
Temporary Blindness, can be caused by blows to the head, drinking bad alcohol, Snow blindness or Flash bomb type bursts. Temporarily Blinded lasts 1d6 hours.
Temporary Butterfingers: (“It just slipped through his fingers!”) For purposes of holding, grabbing or catching something, DX is temporarily lowered DX 8. Dex for other things is normal. Therefore, a butterfingers must roll two dice against base DX 8 to avoid dropping anything he’s picked up or just been handed.
Cause: Blow to head, arm or hand trauma, illness, nerves. Lasts 1d6 days. Can be temporarily handled by splinting items to arms/hands.
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Claustrophobia – Mild, Temporary: (“I can’t stay inside.”) Being in confined space for this character creates stress. Before entering confined space (including dungeons), character must first make a two-die roll against IQ to enter. Once in, anytime he enters a long (over 4 MH) or crooked (end not in sight) corridor, he must roll one die against the width of the corridor in hexes (one MH = three hexes measure at the widest point); failure to make the roll means he runs back out of the tunnel. Finally, these claustrophobic victims must make three-die roll against IQ to sleep or even relax underground, failure means they stay awake, so failed wizards cannot recover ST. (A Sleep spell will solve this problem.)
Cause is panic attack. Lasts for 1d6 days.
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Cowardice: (“Crave Pardon, Mi Lord, I’m gone!”) This character will not willingly put his body in jeopardy. Roll 3d6 vs IQ to overcome fear and do an action. He must roll 3 dice vs. IQ at the beginning of every round of combat to avoid choosing the option “disengage” if engaged and “run like hell” if not. A roll of 17 means he drops his weapons in addition; 18 means he has also soiled his britches. A roll of 4 means he is not a coward this encounter. A roll of 3 means his temporary Cowardice is eliminated.
Cause: Decimation of his platoon; thoughts of torture or grisly death. Lasts 1d6 days.
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Drink: (“Gimme a Drink!”) This character feels a need for a drink to take his mind off things. When he gets in this mood, he must roll 2 dice vs. IQ to abstain any time the opportunity for drinking presents itself. Once he starts drinking, he must roll 3 dice vs. IQ to stop. He may roll once after each drink he takes; it is assumed that these are hefty drinks. After consuming a number of drinks equal to his ST divided by 4 (drop any fractions) he will be sufficiently pickled that his resolve will evaporate entirely; he will continue drinking until thoroughly soused. Thus, a human with a ST of 11 or less would get two chances to quit once he started drinking; a character with ST 12-15 would get three chances, and so on. Once drunk, he will be no good to anyone for 8 hours, and will have a hangover (-2 to all rolls) for 8 hours after that.
Cause: Worries; boredom. Lasts 1d6 days.
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Dyslexia, Temporary: (“It says he prays to doG?”) This is a strain on the basic eye-to-brain coordination needed for reading. A character with temporary dyslexia rolls 3d6 vs IQ to see if he can overcome it on this particular reading. A missed roll means he can’t read this item. A 17 means he misinterprets what it says. An 18 means he gets a headache. It takes three times as long to read the item than normal. He also can’t read music or do basic map-reading. He can write.
This is caused by a blow to the head. It lasts 2d6 hours.
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Gullible, Temporary: (“Hey, mister! Look behind you!”) It matters not how outrageous the lie, this character must roll 3 dice vs. IQ or believe it. A similar roll is required if he wants to avoid taking the first offer in bargaining. However, this handicap will have little effect on his combat ability, since few monsters will know about his little problem, or be bright enough to take advantage of it.
Caused by side-affects of physicker medication; head trauma; Newbie. This lasts 1d6 days.
Hard of Hearing, Temporary: (“Eh, what did you say?”) This character must roll an extra die to notice a sound. He will not hear what is going on if the other characters whisper.
This is usually caused by an explosion near his ear or certain illnesses. This lasts 1/2d6 days.
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Irritable (“Don’t talk to Joe right now. He’ll rip your head off.”) The slightest thing might set this character off. What sets this off is up to the player/gamemaster, but the character has no idea why. This rarely leads to more than being ill-tempered, but might elevate if Critfail. Roll 3d6 vs IQ: On a success, don’t worry about this the rest of the encounter. On Crit Success, the character regains his ‘sunny disposition’ and the temporary Irritabless is gone. On a failed roll, the character is grouchy to everyone, likely to kick the cat, or bark even at thems that does kindness. On a 17, character gets into an argument with victim. On a roll of 18, character takes a swing at victim.
Cause: subtle aches; toothaches; lack of rest, hunger; worry. Hot meal or sleep, alcohol; might take irritability away. Lasts 1d6 days.
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[JohnPaulB]

Here are some more.


Limp: (“I’m movin’ fast as I can.”) This character suffers a modifier of -1 to his movement allowance, after other modifiers. Round down if charge attacking.
Caused by leg injury or cramp. Lasts 1d6 days. Crutch will eliminate Limp Affect.
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Migraines – Mild, Temporary: (“Not tonight, dear, I have a headache.”) This is not as debilitating nor permanent like a full migraine. Roll one die. If it comes up 1, the migraines usually strike in the morning; if 2-4, in the afternoon; and if 5 or 6, in the evening. Each day the GM rolls one die. For afternoon migraines, this gives the hour the headache strikes that day. For morning migraines, add 6 to get the hour, and for evening migraines divide by 2, round up and add 6.
The migraine will go away if the character lies down and rests for two hours; it will go away after four hours even if he doesn’t rest. (Time spent resting with a migraine headache does not also restore ST lost due to fatigue or spellcasting – he can only rest up from one thing at a time.)
During a migraine attack, characters operate at DX -1, movement allowance is reduced by 1, and any Alertness or related ability he may have (Detect Traps, the Naturalist’s ability to spot ambushes, etc. – anything requiring careful concentration) are at -3 for the duration.
Cause can be toxic, trauma or certain foods. This temporary occurrence lasts 1d6 days. Physickers/Master Physickers can help heal this: Physicker makes an IQ roll to see if they do the right thing.
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Nearsighted, Temporary: (“It looks blurry out there.”) A temporary nearsighted character must roll an extra die to notice anything what requires vision. He is -2 with missile weapons and spells. He can only read things 4 hexes away. This is not the permanent Handicap Nearsighted.
This can be caused by blow to head, eye irritants like smoke or tears, or illness. Lasts 1d6 hours for eye irritants, 1d6 days for serius blows.
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Neurotic: (“Why did it have to be snakes?”) There are many kinds of neuroses, but phobias are the easiest to handle.
Mild phobia (fear of snakes, technology, perfume…) A phobic character must roll 3 dice vs. IQ upon encountering the Terrible Whatever. A miss means he is agitated and must continue rolling every minute he is around the Terrible.
If he rolls a 5, he has calmed himself this encounter and will carry on normally. A 4 means he has controlled his phobia for 2d6 encounters. A 3 means he has overcome his fear of the Terrible, and it will never bother him again. A roll of 16 means he is paralyzed with fear (and may roll 4 dice vs. IQ per round to recover).A roll of 17 means flees in panic (and may roll 4 dice vs. IQ per round to recover). An 18 means that he does not flee, but attacks with berserk fury! With the paralyzed and panic, friends may raise his Savings Roll +4 by yelling, shaking or grabbing the victim. He is at +2 on IQ roll if he has prepared for the encounter 10 minutes before by meditating.
Caused by heavy trauma, toxic poisoning, etc. This phobia of Terrible lasts 1d6 days. The identical Neruosis attack might come back unless Crit Success eradicates it or Master Physicker helps remove it.
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Numbed-Arm: (“I can’t move my arm!”) If he is a hero, he can only use one-handed weapons in his good arm. Hope its not his favored hand or he will have a penalty swinging. A one-armed wizard is effectively limited to spells at least two points lower than his IQ. (Higher ones require gestures with two hands.) Note that a one-armed wizard can use a staff in combat, but does not benefit from the Quarterstaff talent.
Causes could be injury or illness. Numbness lasts for 1d6 hours.
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Odorous: (“Man, take a bath!”) This character has a foul odor about him. It either emanates from him directly or he has flatulence. He gets a -1 to all reaction rolls from humans, elves, dwarves and the like (Most orcs don’t care.)
Cause is poor nutrition, illness or uncleanliness. Two weeks eating meals made by someone with Cook talent or Herb talent or treatment by physician will eliminate this problem. Perfume will cover this up until perfume wears off. This lasts 1d6 weeks.
Snoring: (“He’s like a buzzsaw at night!”) This character snores so loudly that others get a poor night’s sleep. Stealth sleeping is an impossibility - It will be obvious for multi-megahexes around that someone is there. This version is not a permanent disadvantage.
Caused by exhaustion or diet. Lasts 2d6 days.
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Squeamish, Temporary: (“No more blood, PLEASE!”) This character just can’t stand the sight of blood. Every time he sees freshly-spilled blood, he must roll against IQ to avoid fainting: two dice if it’s just a scratch (1 point damage), three if it’s a minor wound (2-5 points), and four if it’s a major wound.
Add one die if it’s his own blood. If some fool revives him from the faint in a position where he can still see the gore, he must immediately roll again -–and add one more die because he’s already feeling woozy from the first faint.
Cause is heavy emotional trauma involving gore. Lasts 1d6 days.
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Stammering: (“W-w-what!”) A character who stammers must roll 3 dice vs. IQ every time he tries to communicate through speech. This applies to bargaining, Diplomacy, etc. He is at -1 when using Courtly Graces; his fine manners will seem clownish. Surpisingly, singing is unaffected. A wizard who stammers is at -2 with any spell that requires speech.
Caused by blow to head or Fright; This lasts for 1d6 hours. If it is caused by Stroke, then it lasts for 1d6 weeks.
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Temperance: (“Smash all those bottles and kegs!”) If anyone is around, he will forcefully voice his opinion about alcohol. A Temperencer must roll 3 dice vs. IQ to abstain any time the opportunity for destruction of alcohol presents itself. Once he succumbs, he must roll 4 dice vs. IQ to stop the destruction. He may roll once after each destruction he delivers.
Cause: Death of loved on due to alcohol or too many hangovers. Lasts 1d6 days.
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Thick: (“Don’t you understand a simple instruction?”) This fellow is slow on the uptake and is temporarily reduces IQ to 8. Any talents he possesses above 8IQ are now done at penalties. The character may realize that he is dull or may be oblivious that he is currently moronic.
Cause: Head blow, shock, toxins. Physician with physkit might be able to raise it IQ 9 & MP with physkit to IQ 10. Lasts 1d6 hours.