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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    WolfInSheepsClothing

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    Default Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Essentially, in our upcoming campaign (3.5e) every player must have a mental illness or phobia of some sort. Most player really like the idea but I am not confident in my ability to roleplay something like that at all and unlike most I barely know any applicable mental illnesses. Has anyone got any ideas for how to roleplay things like this?

    For reference, I'm playing a Rogue Tiefling with the stats str 13, dex 17, con 14, int 16, wis 13, cha 14

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    Titan in the Playground
     
    Nifft's Avatar

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by superstrijder15 View Post
    Essentially, in our upcoming campaign (3.5e) every player must have a mental illness or phobia of some sort. Most player really like the idea but I am not confident in my ability to roleplay something like that at all and unlike most I barely know any applicable mental illnesses. Has anyone got any ideas for how to roleplay things like this?

    For reference, I'm playing a Rogue Tiefling with the stats str 13, dex 17, con 14, int 16, wis 13, cha 14
    Put yourself in the role of Director rather than Actor, then act out what you (as Director) decide the character should do.

    Do some google work and read up on mental illnesses so you can pick one to portray.

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    Knaight's Avatar

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Just pick a phobia and make your life easy. You have presumably been afraid at some point in your life, and having some sort of phobia is fairly likely. You just need to switch the fear trigger to something else and you're pretty much good.
    I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.

    I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that.
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    Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    WhiteWizardGirl

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Addiction counts as a mental illness, just so you know. It's also the one most people are familiar with - just have your character develop a drinking problem. Otherwise, a phobia is a fairly relatable and understandable mental illness for most people, as Knaight suggests

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    Eldritch Horror in the Playground Moderator
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Also very easy to cheese, if you're the sort of person who would do it. A phobia of left-handed half-Merfolk paladins named Slartibartifast is highly unlikely to impact your character with any frequency.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    WolfInSheepsClothing

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by The Glyphstone View Post
    Also very easy to cheese, if you're the sort of person who would do it. A phobia of left-handed half-Merfolk paladins named Slartibartifast is highly unlikely to impact your character with any frequency.
    Backstory hook: Sudden invasion of left-handed half-Merfolk paladins named after the great merman hero Slartibartifast!

    The other suggestions were good too. One interesting roleplaying idea: Athazagoraphobia, the Fear of forgetting. Basically, someone who is afraid of becoming amnesic. Makes a crapton of notes to make sure he doesn't forget anything. And when he finally starts getting better, he starts finding notes he doesn't remember writing...

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    SamuraiGuy

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Prosopagnosia could be fun, but an inability to recognize individuals would get rapidly very dangerous in an adventurer.

    You presumably don't want something completely crippling like Korsakaff's syndrome.

    A Phobia is probably the most playable mental disorder, but also predictable.

    You have a couple of ways to approach this. Is your character driven by his condition, or does he strive to overcome it? Is it something that interferes with his chosen occupation, or supports it?

    Examples:
    Scopophobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by a morbid fear of being seen or stared at by others. Scopophobia can also be associated with a pathological fear of drawing attention to oneself. This could drive your character to become a master of stealth or a cat burglar, or you could try to overcome this fear with brash behavior. (Cue "I'm shy" from Once upon a mattress.)

    Sedatephobia (fear of silence) would pretty much limit a rogues options in a lot of circumstances, whereas Sadism or Sociopathy might be a big boon in combat.

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    Griffon

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    I play all my characters as suffering from crippling social anxiety. Wait, no, that's just the player behind them.

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    AssassinGuy

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Is there a name for a fear of low ceilings? That one seems like it could be fun without being utterly crippling.
    “Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all.”

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    Ettin in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Delusions of grandeur, just don't play the rest of the condition that these are often symptoms of. Make it clear to all players before you begin that it's character, not you, who believes literally that they are Kord's avatar in the world, and for bonus points, make sure it's an avatar of whoever the cleric in the party worships.

  11. - Top - End - #11
    Dwarf in the Playground
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    You could have some fun if your alignment is significantly different from the group and gain Stockholm syndrome. OCD could be an interesting one to RP as well. As the others have said you can’t go wrong with a phobia or irrational fear. The only problem with a fear is that you can effectively eliminate it from the game if you pick something too rare and it seems this is intended to be a major part of the story.

    I’d ask the GM just how frequently this is supposed to impact a character if you want some guidance on the level of problem to take. Something severe like paranoia should be avoided no matter what in my opinion, anti party things are rarely fun.

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    Titan in the Playground
     
    Spore's Avatar

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Andor13 View Post
    Prosopagnosia could be fun, but an inability to recognize individuals would get rapidly very dangerous in an adventurer.
    Didn't we meet someone like you already? I think there was a NPC with just your stat block down the road, two miles at most.

    Quote Originally Posted by Saintheart View Post
    Delusions of grandeur, just don't play the rest of the condition that these are often symptoms of. Make it clear to all players before you begin that it's character, not you, who believes literally that they are Kord's avatar in the world, and for bonus points, make sure it's an avatar of whoever the cleric in the party worships.
    Maybe just a standard psychopath. Adventuring lends yourself to manipulative behavior anyway. Delusions of grandeur (I'm the hero this land needs!) and extremely focussed actions (I need to get that dragon's hoard!) are part of the package.

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    BardGuy

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Dyslexia might also be relatively easy to roleplay.
    I consider myself an author first, a GM second and a player third.

    The three skill-sets are only tangentially related.

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    Orc in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    What alignment are you?

    There's always Yandere:

    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Yandere

    Pick a senpai to love. Havoc ensues if senpai doesn't notice you.

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    Ogre in the Playground
     
    OldWizardGuy

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    An irrational fear of slime, mold and fungus. Make it interesting.
    "Movement speed is the most important statistic in this game."

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    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Pyromania, because lighting fires makes any situation more interesting.

    Split-personality disorder could be fun, invent a personality of the week, change every episode. Silver age superhero heroic one week, Marvin the Paranoid Android the next, then Roger Irrelevant, then Pennywise the Clown...plan half a dozen in advance.

    I feel like a lot of murderhobos are basically serial killers anyway so that's a surprisingly dull choice. So are things like sociopathy and narcissism, many characters have low empathy and selfishness dialled in.
    Last edited by Mr Beer; 2018-06-25 at 06:55 PM.
    Re: 100 Things to Beware of that Every DM Should Know

    Quote Originally Posted by Jay R View Post
    93. No matter what the character sheet say, there are only 3 PC alignments: Lawful Snotty, Neutral Greedy, and Chaotic Backstabbing.

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Personification's Avatar

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Beer View Post
    Pyromania, because lighting fires makes any situation more interesting.

    Split-personality disorder could be fun, invent a personality of the week, change every episode. Silver age superhero heroic one week, Marvin the Paranoid Android the next, then Roger Irrelevant, then Pennywise the Clown...plan half a dozen in advance.

    I feel like a lot of murderhobos are basically serial killers anyway so that's a surprisingly dull choice. So are things like sociopathy and narcissism, many characters have low empathy and selfishness dialled in.
    I would like to point out that while this might be fun, it could get annoying, and is also completely unrelated to the actual dissociative identity disorder (the medical term for "split-personality disorder"), and while it makes for an interesting concept, this kind of misunderstanding of real psychological disorders in fiction and creates stigmas and ignorance in the real world. (Sorry for the mini-PSA, I just dislike misinformation generally, but it is especially a problem when it can effect how people perceive others, and even if this wouldn't have any actual effect on anyone's perceptions, better safe than sorry.)

    But to the OP, I liked your idea of the fear of forgetting, especially because it can be abused really creepily by the DM, but not in such a way that it completely cripples your character (for how this could be done see the Silence (or possibly Silents, I'm not sure) from Doctor Who). I also liked Andor13's idea of Scopophobia, as it fits the character (rogues are sneaky, and it could have been caused by past trauma relating to anti-tiefling bigotry).
    Stop using good evidence and logic that makes sense to refute points, that's my job
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  18. - Top - End - #18
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Personification View Post
    I would like to point out that while this might be fun, it could get annoying, and is also completely unrelated to the actual dissociative identity disorder (the medical term for "split-personality disorder"), and while it makes for an interesting concept, this kind of misunderstanding of real psychological disorders in fiction and creates stigmas and ignorance in the real world. (Sorry for the mini-PSA, I just dislike misinformation generally, but it is especially a problem when it can effect how people perceive others, and even if this wouldn't have any actual effect on anyone's perceptions, better safe than sorry.)
    Yeah, this is all campaign dependant. My guess is that a D&D game where everyone has a mental illness isn't intended to be an accurate portrayal of what it looks like when a bunch of people with mental illnesses get together in one place and interact.

    From my brief experiences of visiting my father in various institutions, I think that would be a tragically sad and unhappy game. He suffered from bipolar disorder, now if someone was going to play a 'bipolar' character in an RPG, that might typically be depicted as someone who is inappropriately bouncy one minute and much like Eeyore the next.

    They'd probably skip over the issues of 'how is the mother going to cope with 3 kids on her own?' and 'how does it affect an 8 year old to see their father raving insanely while literally foaming at the mouth?'.

    So what I'm saying is that it's very challenging, probably not possible with most groups and unlikely to make an enjoyable game to shoot for a realistic depiction of mental illness.

    I'd recommend the fun Hollywood versions.
    Last edited by Mr Beer; 2018-06-25 at 09:22 PM.
    Re: 100 Things to Beware of that Every DM Should Know

    Quote Originally Posted by Jay R View Post
    93. No matter what the character sheet say, there are only 3 PC alignments: Lawful Snotty, Neutral Greedy, and Chaotic Backstabbing.

  19. - Top - End - #19
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    Knaight's Avatar

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Mr Beer View Post
    Yeah, this is all campaign dependant. My guess is that a D&D game where everyone has a mental illness isn't intended to be an accurate portrayal of what it looks like when a bunch of people with mental illnesses get together in one place and interact.

    From my brief experiences of visiting my father in various institutions, I think that would be a tragically sad and unhappy game. He suffered from bipolar disorder, now if someone was going to play a 'bipolar' character in an RPG, that might typically be depicted as someone who is inappropriately bouncy one minute and much like Eeyore the next.
    This isn't the only accurate portrayal though - severity varies highly, and anyone who's been in and out of multiple institutions has pretty severe mental illness. A bunch of people with mental illness getting together in one place an interacting can also look just like a bunch of people without mental illness socializing.
    I would really like to see a game made by Obryn, Kurald Galain, and Knaight from these forums.

    I'm not joking one bit. I would buy the hell out of that.
    -- ChubbyRain

    Current Design Project: Legacy, a game of masters and apprentices for two players and a GM.

  20. - Top - End - #20
    Bugbear in the Playground
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Knaight View Post
    This isn't the only accurate portrayal though - severity varies highly, and anyone who's been in and out of multiple institutions has pretty severe mental illness. A bunch of people with mental illness getting together in one place an interacting can also look just like a bunch of people without mental illness socializing.
    OK that's true. I mean you could, for example, accurately roleplay some forms of depression by behaving like a completely normal person who doesn't talk about how much it sucks be down a lot of the time. I guess I was assuming that most players would go for something obvious and colourful. I agree that plenty of mentally ill people can 'pass', even ones who are actually in an institution right now can often seem normal for extended periods of time.
    Last edited by Mr Beer; 2018-06-25 at 11:31 PM.
    Re: 100 Things to Beware of that Every DM Should Know

    Quote Originally Posted by Jay R View Post
    93. No matter what the character sheet say, there are only 3 PC alignments: Lawful Snotty, Neutral Greedy, and Chaotic Backstabbing.

  21. - Top - End - #21
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    GnomePirate

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Are all the player characters going to meet in an insane asylum or something?

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    Orc in the Playground
     
    RedWizardGuy

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by superstrijder15 View Post
    Backstory hook: Sudden invasion of left-handed half-Merfolk paladins named after the great merman hero Slartibartifast!
    In our teenage years, one of my players created his own character class, using the rules in the 2nd ed. AD&D DMG. He had some points left over that he didn't know what to do with, and ended up spending them on "+2 Save vs being hit by flowerpot on rainy Thursday". Naturally, their arch nemesis for that campaign became an insane horticulturalist, with the specialty of summoning animated construct: (flowerpot), a penchant for weather control, and some religious justification for conducting his evil plans for world conquest on Thursdays.

    @subject of thread
    This page has some nice phobias:
    https://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/...ional-phobias/

    I particularly like Luposlipahobia; the fear of being poursued by Timber Wolves around a kitchen table, while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.
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  23. - Top - End - #23
    Ettin in the Playground
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Misereor View Post
    I particularly like Luposlipahobia; the fear of being poursued by Timber Wolves around a kitchen table, while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor.
    That does sound pretty frightening. Those wolves could have fleas.
    My D&D 5th ed. Druid Handbook

  24. - Top - End - #24
    Halfling in the Playground
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    I'm writing up a backup character who talks to himself, and then answers himself. Pretty much ripped off from Barry, on Archer.
    The most important thing in being an adult is learning exactly what to give a <expletive> about, and exactly how many of those to give.

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    Titan in the Playground
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Fear of strangers for a rogue. Fear of magic for a fighter, etc.

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    Troll in the Playground
     
    Friv's Avatar

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    I'm going to say that subtle is the way to go here.

    What about Geshwind Syndrome, especially manifested through hyperreligiousity? Choose a god for whom stealing is a holy sacrament, and be obsessively devout. Spend time very carefully documenting your adventures every night, while the spellcasters are meditating, and be good at paying close attention in long conversations. Get really edgy and itchy when you can't write things down at night, and get mad at people who insult your religious choices.

    It's something that is a mental illness, but won't substantially interfere with adventuring, and it's not something other players are likely to have thought of?

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    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    Planetar

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia Is a good choice, just hope no one asks you what your phobia is called.
    Quote Originally Posted by Rynjin View Post

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    Necromance if you want to

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    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Personification's Avatar

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by NecroDancer View Post
    Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia Is a good choice, just hope no one asks you what your phobia is called.
    You have a fear of 1 and a half foot monster river horses?
    Stop using good evidence and logic that makes sense to refute points, that's my job
    Lots of people seem to use blue for sarcasm, I decided I should too
    Quote Originally Posted by nabcif View Post
    Nitpick: I believe you'll find that only our heads explode. Page 43 of Book of Pedantic Forumites, if memory serves.
    I have joined the ranks of the FFRPeople Here is my character.

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  29. - Top - End - #29
    Barbarian in the Playground
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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Play a kenku they come with them.
    Kenku's lack of creativity and speech.
    Lizardfolk comes with sociopathy (inability to empathize)

    Or play an outlander raised by wolf type.

    Or play a werewolf with anger management issues (path of Lycan blood hunter)

    Or play a merfolk whos afraid of drowning / the water. He's adopted.

  30. - Top - End - #30
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    DruidGuy

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    Default Re: Must have mental illness/phobia, Ideas?

    Quote Originally Posted by Personification View Post
    You have a fear of 1 and a half foot monster river horses?
    Nope, it's fear of long words.

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