Silly Character Drawbacks

[Grogg of the North]

With many RPG systems encouraging you to have a flaw/drawback for your character, I was wondering what the silliest drawback you've ever given a character was. I'm thinking things like "Terrified of bees" or "Severe nut allergy". Did your GM incorporate them into the game? What happened?

 

[MGibster]

I'm hard pressed to think of the worst because it's been a few years. When I ran Vampire 5th edition, one of the players wanted their character to be terrified of birds. i.e. A phobia. Unfortunately there were wasn't anything in the rules to support such a phobia at the time. So I talked to the player and explained the situation with the rules and went on to say that the campaign was set in San Francisco and since the PCs only go out at night running into birds just won't happen often enough to justify receiving extra points for it. Now they did run into an NPC who had a pet bird that sat on her shoulder, and the PC played it up that she was terrified of this animal so that was a lot of fun.

In general, it's a good idea to go over drawbacks with players to make sure they fit into the game. In GURPS, one of the possible drawbacks was Weirdness Magnet where weird things, such as the world's only talking dog finding you and telling you their problems, frequently happens to your character. That might work in some campaigns but wouldn't work in others. Best to talk to people and see if you can work out a drawback that fits in with the game and the character concept.

 

[CleverNickName]

A few years ago, I was rolling up a character and ended up with a 5 in Dexterity (I was rolling my stats in order). My DM asked me what that meant for my character and my backstory, and I drew inspiration from Skyrim. "I used to be an adventurer like you," I said, gesturing to one of the players at the table, "but then I took an arrow to the knee."

 

[Thunderfoot]

A few years ago, I was rolling up a character and ended up with a 5 in Dexterity (I was rolling my stats in order). My DM asked me what that meant for my character and my backstory, and I drew inspiration from Skyrim. "I used to be an adventurer like you," I said, gesturing to one of the players at the table, "but then I took an arrow to the knee."

Arrow to the Knee Mod Slap initiated

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’ve played characters with silly features, but haven’t had many silly drawbacks. At least, none that spring readily to mind. HOWEVER…

There was one character I had in a HERO campaign who was an alien gladiatrix who had won her freedom and had come to Earth to become a superhero. Certain elements had been yoinked from published heroes, of course: she was a bit like She Hulk or Wonder Woman in terms of her core powers; like Hercules (at one point), she liked testing herself against other super powerful opponents; her past as a gladiatrix meant she was highly trained, and might kill foes.

Her relevant drawbacks: to support her more esoteric powers, she needed to consume her body weight in food daily…and she was both tall and a heavyworlder. But her alien metabolism meant not everything available in our stores and restaurants was compatible with her biology, so every once in a while, she‘d get ill from her intake.

IOW, she spent a lot of time eating at buffets, etc., while risking severe allergic reactions.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another HERO PC with silly elements, but no silly drawbacks per se was Rōg Tus-karr.

Conceived as a version of pulp-era/Sci-Fi types like Adam Strange, Flash Gordon, Buck Rodgers and Commando Cody, he's a crash landed alien scout, a heavyworlder. He has some advanced sensory & survival tech in his uniform, plus some jump jets and a handy blaster pistol for a sidearm. Has a small, golden bird-like robot drone for recon, too. As a heavyworlder, he is physically stronger and more durable than humans. He looks like a bipedal, 7'8" tall pink elephant. Home world: Snuffleupagron 5. Because of looking like a giant pink elephant, winos hate him (potentially a minor but silly drawback).

*****

I was in a group that helped playtest GURPS Vampire the Masquerade. While there were no real drawbacks I can remember, the entire character concept I used was inherently a drawback- he was based on Blade…and NEC’s The Tick.

He was a private detective who had been turned by a powerful Brujah, and when he returned to unlife, the only way he could rationalize his new superhuman strength, toughness and speed was that he had become some kind of superhero, Major Mosquito. IOW, he went nuts. He also vaguely remembered something about vampires, and decided to kill the bad ones he encountered (along with some of the mortal villains). Because he was a Vampire Hunter, he kitted himself out with things like body armor, crossbows and such. And surgical steel “crime straws” to suck the blood of criminals.

So what you had was an insane, vampire-hunting vampire who was an extremely powerful melee combatant. His true clan felt he was too crazy to be of their kind, and foisted him off on the Malkavians. The Malkavian in the party manipulated him into NOT killing the other vampires in the group…while giving him PLENTY of other targets to take out.

IOW, every vampire encounter outside his core group of bloodsuckers was always on the verge of turning into a bloodbath. And not the kind that vampires enjoy.

 

[MGibster]

Steve Jackson Games used to give out a lot of advice for curtailing the abuse of disadvantages (character drawbacks) in GURPS back in the day. The basic advice was the the GM shouldn't allow any disadvantages that would disrupt the game. Sure, playing a brain in a jar carried around by a monkey might be amusing. But is it really going to work for the game?

 

[Thunderfoot]

Once played with a young lady that liked to game the system and requested that her character get a bonus if she took disadvantages. After badgering the DM she finally chose Arachnophobia... Amd she waa very annoying about it.
First time we encountered a giant spider, she states she's going to berserk attack since she was afraid of spiders. DM made her roll a Save vs Death Magic instead. She failed and crumpled in a ball. She's starts complaining that that's not how it was supposed to work; so the party left her.... She didn't play with us after that for some reason, not that we missed her munchkin antics.

 

[Scruffy nerf herder]

One of my favorite players in the past, a buddy from New Zealand, made a character that was a wizard's soul trapped in a piece of bread. He had to use Mage Hand to move, and well... had attributes like a piece of bread.

The ultimate bread... glass... canon?

Edit: lmao wtf it turns out he wasn't even being original.

 

[Thunderfoot]

In the age of internet memes ... everything new is old again.