Player request, Ramna 1/2? Looking for ideas and suggestions

[Nebrok]

In my group I am most often the DM, and in preparation for my latest campaign I had a player come to me with an unusual character request. She (yes I said she) want to play a male character that is curse with a "Ramna 1/2" type curse.

For those who don't know Ramna 1/2 is an anime in which the main character, Ramna, is cursed to turn into a girl every time he is drenched in cold water... then back again with hot water. Her idea (the player that is) is to impose a -4 to Str and add +4 to Dex when turning into a girl, aparently to mark the differance of male and female. (And yes we all know that gender in dnd dosn't impose such differances, but this is just the way this curse is suppose to be.)

This would be a curse that can not be removed, or at least is near imposible outside of ordinary means, and would serve as the characters motivation for adventuring. (In other words it is to be more or less pernament)

Now here comes my question...

Since I want this to be unique and unlike the show, I want to make the curse trigger differant. So I am lookinh for ideas for generic trigger to the curse that couls crop up in a normal adventure, or some sort of condition for the changing of form that is differant from cold/hot water.

Any ideas or suggestion would be appreciated.

 

[Agamon]

Man, there was a recent post about Hammerspace, too...weird.

Night/day or something more random? You want something you can control as a DM? Maybe when he gets blood on him instead of water? Something he can control? Maybe every time he eats something? Hmmm, that's actually pretty tough....

 

[Akaiku]

Her idea (the player that is) is to impose a -4 to Str and add +4 to Dex when turning into a girl, aparently to mark the differance of male and female.

First. Lul@-4 str.

Secondly! How common a situation? Sneezing is a standby for the genre.

You could try whenever tripped. Or, if changing constantly isn't necessary, whenever made unconscious.

Though really, the water thing was used as cold water is in abundance and hot water requires contrivances to find.

Depending on the makeup of the party... How bout changing to the opposite gender of whoever last touched her/him?

 

[Nebrok]

Lul@-4 str.

Sorry if i seem dense, but what does that mean?

 

[Nebrok]

Oh, wait... probably 'lol'... nm

 

[Tewligan]

Sorry if i seem dense, but what does that mean?

I believe that "lul" is an irritating version of the already irritating "lol".

 

[Umbran]

Sorry if i seem dense, but what does that mean?

He's laughing at the idea of -4 strength.

D&D, on the whole, doesn't have any rules-based gender bias. Males and females are the same, statistically speaking.

And, honestly, having watched far too much Ranma back in the day - the character there didn't change stats upon changing forms. And definitely not by a whopping 4. In the show, the issues that made it a curse were social and gender-roles based, not mechanical. As a general precept, you don't balance mechanical benefits with role-playing detriments.

The problem with a "curse" like that is it becomes a mechanical element to use for min/max play. Need to cross a chasm? Quick, turn into a girl! Need to fight a strong monster? Quick, turn into a boy! Bascially, it gives the player access to a choice to flex her statistics that the other players don't have.

I would not allow that in my game, without some other hefty element to the curse to balance that flexibility. I'd ask the player if they really cared about the stat-change. Gender change alone I'd have no problem with.

 

[Nebrok]

I would not allow that in my game, without some other hefty element to the curse to balance that flexibility.

This is not a thing that the character of the player is suppose to have power over and therefore cannot change at will. It is suppose to be an inconvenance.

 

[Relique du Madde]

I really hope your game isn't 4e cause then that'll open up an old tired thread crap.

Depending on the game you are using you are using, I think she should make two different character sheets that redistributes her physical atributes depending on which "form" she is in instead of doing a +/-X to Strength/Dexterity.

And, honestly, having watched far too much Ranma back in the day - the character there didn't change stats upon changing forms. And definitely not by a whopping 4. In the show, the issues that made it a curse were social and gender-roles based, not mechanical. As a general precept, you don't balance mechanical benefits with role-playing detriments.

TECHNICALLY, there were some differences. It was generally excepted (in some Ranma 1/2 based games, OAVs, and Movies) that Ranma was faster and more agile in his female form then he was in his male form. This often lead to him changing forms during the beginning of some fights when he was wearing down his opponent. Of course, the strengths/weaknesses didn't really matter in the end once special attacks were thrown into the mix.

 

[Nebrok]

I'm using 3e.

And there are other differances, like subtracting 5 inches and 35 pounds from hieght and weight. But this would be more of apperance rather than any mechanics.