Hrm. How would fa/tg/uys handle a PC that the player wants to play as a former war criminal? So according to my player his character did a lot of heinous shit during the war that ended about 10 years ago, but is now haunted by these terrible memories.The player is asking me for game mechanics to apply to this and I'm a little stumped. Some advice from you guys would be most welcome. On my own bat I figured since this is a fantasy world getting actually attacked by the ghosts of his victims would be appropriate, but I do I really want to give him the opportunity to kill them twice?
Don't be silly anon. Level 1 characters aren't strong or important enough to be war criminals.
I would start by knowing what game I was playing, because otherwise thinking about game mechanics would be meaningless.
>>97189959you gotta ask yourself this>can i make this important in the campaign i intend to playif yes then sure. if no, then you're locked out by the module
>>97189959So what this player just shouted, "I want game mechanics! Game mechanics for war criminals!" and just ran off before you could ask them what they had in mind or what kind of war crimes?
>>97189959What level are you starting from? Ghosts haunting him and NPCs recognizing the PC are the way to go.
>>97189959PTSD1. Intrusion Symptoms (Re-experiencing)These are unwanted, distressing memories that repeatedly intrude into the person's present life. Recurrent, Involuntary, and Intrusive Distressing Memories: Unwanted memories of the traumatic event.Memory Flashbacks: Feeling or acting as if the traumatic event is happening again (can include physical symptoms like a racing heart or sweating).Emotional Flashback: A sudden flooding of intense, overwhelming feelings (fear, terror, shame, grief) from the past trauma into the present moment, without a visual memory of the event. The emotion itself is the "flashback."Distressing Dreams/Nightmares: Recurring frightening dreams or nightmares related to the event.Intense Distress/Physical Reactions to Traumatic Reminders: Experiencing severe emotional or physical reactions (like panic, sweating, or heart racing) when exposed to cues that symbolize or resemble the traumatic event.2. Avoidance SymptomsEfforts to avoid anything that reminds the person of the trauma.Avoidance of Thoughts/Feelings: Trying to avoid distressing thoughts, memories, or feelings associated with the trauma.Avoidance of External Reminders: Staying away from places, people, activities, objects, or situations that trigger distressing recollections.3. Negative Alterations in Cognitions and MoodNegative changes in thoughts and feelings that began or worsened after the trauma.Inability to Recall Key Features: Difficulty remembering important aspects of the traumatic event (not due to injury, drugs, or alcohol).Persistent Negative Beliefs: Overly negative thoughts about oneself, others, or the world (e.g., "I am bad," "No one can be trusted," "The world is completely dangerous").Distorted Blame: Exaggerated blame of self or others for causing the trauma or its consequences.
>>97190015Persistent Negative Emotions: Ongoing states like fear, horror, anger, guilt, or shame.Diminished Interest: Loss of interest or participation in previously significant activities.Feeling Detached/Isolated: Feeling cut off or estranged from others.Inability to Experience Positive Emotions: Persistent difficulty feeling happiness, satisfaction, or loving feelings.4. Alterations in Arousal and Reactivity (Hyperarousal)Feeling "on edge" or keyed up, with increased reactivity.Irritable Behavior/Angry Outbursts: Expressing verbal or physical aggression with little or no provocation.Reckless or Self-Destructive Behavior: Engaging in risky activities.HYPERVIGILANCE: Being overly watchful of surroundings and constantly on guard for danger.Exaggerated Startle Response: Being easily startled or "jumpy."Problems with Concentration: Difficulty focusing.Sleep Disturbance: Trouble falling or staying asleep, or restless sleep.
>>97190018Dissociation is very common in PTSD. 1. Dissociation as an Adaptive DefensePsychic Escape: When a person is confronted with a traumatic experience from which there is no physical escape (such as during childhood abuse, combat, or severe accidents), the mind employs dissociation as a psychic escape. It allows the individual to mentally detach from the fear, pain, and helplessness, often leading to a feeling of "this isn't happening to me" or watching the event from the outside.The Continuum: Dissociation exists on a continuum.Mild forms are normal and common (like daydreaming or "highway hypnosis").Severe or chronic forms, particularly those developed in response to repeated or complex trauma (often in childhood), can become entrenched and impair daily functioning, leading to a Dissociative Disorder.Prevalence in PTSDCommonality: While a large majority of trauma survivors will experience some degree of dissociation during or immediately after the event, research suggests that 15% to 30% of people who meet the full criteria for PTSD experience the persistent, distinct dissociative symptoms that qualify for the "dissociative subtype.This subtype is more strongly associated with: A history of repeated trauma or early childhood adversity. More severe and chronic symptoms overall.Types of Dissociation in PTSDDepersonalization: Feeling detached from one's own self, body, or mental processes. Feeling like you are observing your life from the outside, or that your body feels foreign or unreal.Derealization: Feeling detached from one's surroundings. The world feels unreal, foggy, dreamlike, distant, or distorted.Dissociative Amnesia: Inability to recall important personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature, that is too extensive to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness. Having "blank spots" or large gaps in memory about the traumatic event or periods of time.
>>97189966I mean, he could have been strangling babies the whole war.Could actually be fun to play a short story with a character Jimbo The Baby Strangler who speaks constatantly about how he loves to strangle babies and is sad that war is over and he cant just strangle babies anymore
Personality fragmentation: Personality fragmentation in the context of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) refers to a disruption in the integrated functions of consciousness, memory, identity, and perception, which is often understood as a form of dissociation. This fragmentation is generally considered a survival mechanism where the mind separates overwhelming traumatic experiences from the rest of the personality to allow the individual to cope.the personality splits into different parts:Apparently Normal Part (ANP): The part that tries to carry on with daily life and avoid trauma-related memories and emotions.Emotional Part (EP): The part(s) that remain fixed in the traumatic experience, holding the associated fear, pain, and defensive responses.In individuals with PTSD or C-PTSD, personality fragmentation can show up as:Detachment: Experiencing depersonalization (feeling disconnected from one's body or self) or derealization (feeling that the surrounding world is unreal or distorted).Emotional Dysregulation: Rapid and confusing shifts in emotions, where one moment an individual is functioning normally and the next, they are overwhelmed by a "part" that holds intense trauma-related feelings.Internal Conflict: Feeling like there are different "modes" or "parts" inside that have conflicting needs, beliefs, or behaviors (e.g., a vulnerable, fearful part versus a competent, detached part).Memory Gaps: Difficulty recalling significant periods of time or events, particularly the traumatic ones (dissociative amnesia).Identity Instability: Struggling to maintain a consistent, authentic sense of self or presenting different versions of themselves in different situations.NOTE: This is not multiple personalities, but more like distinct fragmented egos sharing the same memories although these are often fragmented as well.
>>97189959.....Anon, are you playing a roleplaying game or a game mechanics game? Character is a war criminal? All the city guards in a radius of 30 miles recognise The Butcher's face and either attack him on sight or flee and bring reinforcements, on the other hand The Butcher is an honoured guest in the local camps of Orcs or Hobgoblins (they're warlike species. It doesn't matter who fights whom as long as the blood is spilled. And The Butcher spilled lots of blood.)
>>97190015>>97190018>>97190029>>97190036Hey, stupid nigger, if he wanted to ask an LLM, he would've done that instead of making this thread.
>>97190015I want to strangle Sam Altman. ChatGPT and it's consequences have been a disaster for online discussion.
>>97189959Depends on what system. Which is?
>>97189959>I want to play a character who's haunted by terrible things he did in a war!Okay, good, there's a lot of hooks there.>And I need game mechanics for it!What? Why?
OP sucks a million dicks. Don't start a new thread begging for solutions unless you can monitor it for at least half an hour.
>>97189959Ah, an outright attack would be boring. Hallucinations when in stressful scenarios like combat (or whatevs could remind the character of the atrocities ... could be something like a mundane object, say a bright red bottle, that was present at a place where something particularily bad happened, you get the idea). Ghosts "attacking" him from the shadows, only to prove immaterial and such. Game mechanics depend on the rules you use. One little surprise here for later: one day another "ghost" approaches our war criminal, dagger in hand (when the player is used to the hallucinations already) ... someone he had killed. Or thought he had killed, this one is an actual flesh and blood survivor out for revenge (say for his family or whatevs). Depending on the player this could either be simply a mean trap by the GM or a very great roleplaying opportunity!
>>97189959>The player is asking me for game mechanics to apply to thisReally helps to know what you're running here.
>>97190913>>97190262>>97189988>>97189994>>971899725e D&D with a lot of homebrew rules to bring the game to a fantasy Napoleonic era and make it more interesting. So I've completely overhauled the skill system with a percentile system based on call of Cthulu, with a lot more skills for example. I know people on /tg/ hate it, but it's what my players want, what they're comfortable with.>>97190603I do indeed suck a million dicks, sorry my daughter's nursery had an emergency so I had to go and get her, then spend the day looking after her
>>97189966couldve been a penal squad leader that did some serious banditry during service but not a lot of real fighting
>>97190953>5e>mechanics Going to take a pass on that one. So instead of fucking with that mess, figure out a variety of every-day items and tasks that can be ptsd triggers. >ransaked a house, kid hiding behind a dresser knocked over a tea cup, made noise, shot at the noise, dead kid. >mass burial detail, horses stuck in mud, CO killed horses, everyone has to lug the carts by hand now >3 years later retreating over same field, blue flowers growing over mass grave, feels weird Don't think about them too much just get half a dozen bits that fit and have everyday things that will come up like Tea, Horses, Blue Flowers. When something like that comes up in player or player character conversation, gameplay, etc. get them to make a will save. Do disadvantage or advantage or whatever if its also a stressful time ontop of it. Failure will have to lead to contextual bad times but it'll give you prompts.
>>971909535e has no mechanical framework to simulate PTSD. I suppose the quick and dirty way would be saves during high stress trigger moments with failure resulting in disadvantage, action economy tax, or both.
>>97189966OP said nothing about level 1.
>>97189966I hate you D&D fags that always use this excuse to shoot down backstories. It's been ten years, the guy would have absolutely "lost levels" from not fighting durring that time period.
>>97191198If you don't start at level 1 you are playing the game wrong. I mean you are free to do that, I am just clarifying. >>97191210>HateHey retard, it's 2025, people literally live off of hate.Give me more.And you can't lose levels from inactivity. Certain undead can do the trick though.
>>97191278Oh, you're a troll, pardon me, I thought you were merely mistaken.
>>97191292I don't know, I actually had a DM that was this fucking autistic. But of course only used that autism to screw over players while ignoring said rulings for the teachers pet.
>>97191292>Oh, you're a trollI love how people have reached a level of intolerance of different opinions that they just default to the notion that anyone holding one is doing so ironically or in order to troll them. Carry on being a retard I guess.
>>97189966Most war criminals are L0 or L1 warriors. Its not hard to kill civilians, don't even get any xp for it.
>>97191321Was it helpful_comrade?
>>97191337>>97191278>>97189966What a story, mark
>>97189959why does he even need game mechanics for this? can't he just roleplay it himself?
>>97189959>PC war criminalsGet on my level, I had PLAYER war criminals in my games. Those were also the ones who showed regret for their actions and hated the medals they've got for it. They usually started to tearfully share the details in the middle of 3rd bottle of vodka.I also met several more unrepentant war criminals, some of them even drunkenly bragged about their deeds. I remember one army captain who laughed that "children are still blowing up on my mines!".The worst one of them I've ever met was infamous Milchakov, though admittedly it was long before his atrocities, when he was just a teenaged fellow skinhead back in mid-late 00s. He was already a murderous psychopath, though.
>>97191210That's retarded and so are you.
>>97189959former and future
>>97189959Backstories are gay.
