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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