Adventuring while pregnant

[Laurel]

The Book of Erotic Fantasy spares a small sidebar for dealing with pregnancy.

First Trimester: nothing
Second Trimester: Movement reduced by 1/4 (round down), -2 penalty to Dex
Third Trimester: Movement reduced bu 1/2, -4 penalty to Dex, -2 Penalty to Str.

This looks as good as anything, though as someone else mentioned there should be some penalty or save that the parent or child has to make when too much damage or certain damage is taken.

Keep picturing the scene of scarlett falling town the stairs bye-bye baby (GWTW).... though others have survived worse. Hence why there probably should be something about it.


Are there any species metioned that are parasites? Any mention of reaction when something happens, damages the host?

 

[The_Universe]

If you look around, there are a couple of places on the internet that have such things ready-made. If you're of a conservative religious bent, there are several sects that do not condone the use of any sort of birth control other than celibacy.

As such, many of these sects have then produced charts that reveal on what days of a normal cycle a woman is least (or most) likely to get pregnant, based on where she is in her...uh...cycle. Conveniently, the chance of pregnancy was presented as a percent chance on a day-to-day basis. I just googled around until I found a chart, picked a day, and rolled.

I used that for the NPC/PC relationship that's already happened, and plan to do the same should another player choose to do the deed.

There are contraceptives available, should they be desired - however, they're hardly as reliable as modern methods, and even those are far from perfect.

As for dealing with the pregnancy - the 2E haste thing was a great idea! A very interesting way of making a pregnancy go quickly....I wonder what other magical effects in 3.5E could have a serious affect on such things?

 

[SinisterMinister]

OK,

As the father of a 2 year-old and a 4 month old, I can tell you that pregnancy is just the beginning.

Without the aid of magic, you're looking at being completely out of commission for a couple of weeks after birth.

DM should also make you roll for post-partum depression - potential penalties on all social encounters.
Sleep deprivation will also be a factor -- major negatives to all activities, physical AND mental until baby isn't breast feeding.

Also, I hope the fate of the universe dosen't require you to be quiet, because a wailing infant will certainly hinder your ability to sneak around inconspicuously.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Ovulation charts? Whoa. I'd just assign a fixed percentile chance of pregnancy (that's what the BoEF does, depending on species). A chart would only be needed if a PC has some mean of finding out before having sex; otherwise, a percentile roll is exactly as accurate.

The chance of getting pregnant changes depending on where a woman is in the cycle- the ovulation chart says what that chance is depending on the day of the sex.

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Also, I hope the fate of the universe dosen't require you to be quiet, because a wailing infant will certainly hinder your ability to sneak around inconspicuously.

I don't think there's any way that any female member of our party would attempt to adventure with their baby... at least, my character wouldn't... and I think that the only sexually active female character in the party would either plan to stay home or find a nanny...

However, the aspect of adventuring while with child still remains an option for at least the first few months without too much penalty... or at least, that is the way it seems.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Hunter-gatherers remain pretty active throughout the whole course of child rearing and they don't wean children till they're a couple of years old.

Given the physical requirements and lifestyle of many adventuring parties I would certainly do some research into the accomodations they provide.

A sedentary agricultural lifestyle has a major impact on the effects and nature of child rearing, when you change that up it tends to have some pretty unforseen consequences.

I don't know that much of our contemporary experience of fertility and child rearing would be relevant to what someone who spends most of their time walking, in the saddle, stressed from fighting, and living off the land experiences.

Those ovulation charts, for instance, assume a lot when it comes to the lifestyle of the women involved.

Given the athleticism, stress, injury, and diet involved in adventuring I imagine that any women involved are fertile at far far less frequent and predictable intervals then we commonly experience.

And then the actual experience of pregnancy and having a child nearby is going to be....

....hooo, Dr. Spock's just not gonna have anything to say about it.

 

[SinisterMinister]

I don't think there's any way that any female member of our party would attempt to adventure with their baby... at least, my character wouldn't... and I think that the only sexually active female character in the party would either plan to stay home or find a nanny...

However, the aspect of adventuring while with child still remains an option for at least the first few months without too much penalty... or at least, that is the way it seems.

Perhaps my tongue wasn't planted as firmly in my cheek as I thought.

 

[Xath]

Also, are we assuming that all humanoid species reproduce at the same rate? If elves had as many kids as humans, the world would be overrun by them.

 

[alleynbard]

I ran a series of campaigns that dealt with three generations of adventurers. Whenever the women got pregnant there was usually downtime. Not always though, I sort of glossed over the dangers of adventuring pregnant for the sake of the narrative. I kinda needed to keep the unborn children alive for future campaigns.

 

[Three_Haligonians]

...If you're of an extraordinarily conservative religious bent, there are several sects that do not condone the use of any sort of birth control other than celibacy...

I am not attempting to condone or disagree with this religious belief, but your remarks are a bit out of line. I can say with certainty that the Roman Catholic religion does not condone birth control and thier population has been estimated, worldwide, at 1,092,853,000 (in 2003). Hardly what you would call a "extraordinarily conservative religious bent", rather, the world's second largest religion to date. Other religions that have similar views to that of the Catholic church on this topic include (and please correct me if I'm wrong here): Islam (1,254,222,000), Judaism (14,551,000), and Christian Orthodox (217,030,000).

Over 2 billion people worldwide hardly qualify as "extraordinarily conservative".

T from Three Haligonians