Severe disadvantage + very easy mitigator?

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by cosmicfish

Just as an observation, the few times I have had something like this (a severe disadvantage with a "very easy" mitigator) proposed by a player I have told them some version of this:

Every game I run has at least some smart bad guys. The bigger the disadvantage, the more they will want to exploit it. You, as the player, have to expect that at some point any disadvantage will kick in, no matter the mitigation - there is no secret so deep, no mitigation so foolproof, that eventually it will not be exploited. So before you commit to this, are you going to be okay when some bad guy finally keeps you from your prayers and the demon takes you?

This is a very good point. I used to allow heaps of disads during CharGen, figuring it made "cool" characters. Then we found that we could actually roleplay all of those crippling disads at one time, and I got tired of it. So now, I just cap Disads at 40, and if I want more powerful characters, I allow more points

[Captain Joy]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

Yes, of course. However, in this case, the penalty is so severe that the player may well say the character is no longer playable, and insist on having a new character in the interim while the first recovers. As such, since the penalty probably won't be played, it is in effect free points.

That being the case, I'd argue the character is effectively Terminally Ill. The fact that the character is actually being rendered no longer playable due to insanity is mere color—no longer playable is equivalent to dead.

You may believe that Terminally Ill should not be worth any character points, since it never impacts a character you're currently playing. I'd say your reasoning is compelling, but I don't think it's RAW.

[Bruno]

The point value of Terminally Ill is largely being unable to control when your character gets retired. There's no "Oh, never mind I like this one, I'll keep playing him" option without a miracle cure; it's just *poof*, expiry date, and you CAN'T play them any more.

This situation could be regarded as Terminally Ill, Less Than A Month, with the mitigator. If written up like that, I'd point out that your lunatic PC WILL be taken away from you and made an NPC when made "dead". The character being an unplayable NPC is, to the players perspective, like being dead, except possibly quite a bit worse for the other PCs. Like incurable lycanthropy :)

At which point yes, you CAN do something about it thanks to the mitigator, but you still have the "Eventually and unavoidably, your character sheet goes in the shredder" thing hanging over your head.

What do you see this playing out like?
You'll have to mention every session or two that you're breaking for your prayer session, and find some place suitable.
The character may be considered to have a Delusion by NPCs (and thus qualify for the disad - Delusion is really two disads hiding under one name). If he never talks about it, it's a Secret instead of the social Delusion.
Does the character hear the demon normally, he just isn't totally loopy most of the time? He has Voices.

Otherwise, there's limited roleplaying potential here - the whole point is to STOP the NPC demon from interacting with the character, and the only way it can is in a way that's invisible, inaudible, and intangible to other PCs. So any RP time involving it is one-on-one with the GM, leaving out the rest of the party. The classic Netrunner problem.
Short of making the entire campaign revolve around the cursed PC's attempt to get permanently rid of his tormentor (which is certainly a viable campaign mode) I'm not sure I'd let that into my own game. It just has such a potential to distort gameplay.

[beevr]

I'd like to thank everyone who answered. Your suggestions have been most helpful.

So far I'm inclined to treat the disad as 15pt Dependency (Very Common, Daily) + 5pt Delusion. Only, instead of losing 1 HP per hour, the player will be getting temporary mental disads of equal point worth.