Do your characters have phobias?

[sithramir]

I know this has been up before in similar fashions. But I came on to the boards today and saw more than half OT posts and 4 or so posts about "shipping of 3.5" which I know is the big discussion but i thought maybe a change of subject would be good.

Do your players ever have phobias?

I just remember that in my campaign my group went up against the blue dragon Kyracolides who was called "The master of snakes" who could call to him snakes to help him. The one player ended up in a grapple with a giant boa constrictor to finally get out and have a SECOND one fall on him and spent the whole session grappling a snake. For whatever reason, the other players didn't help him (they had a blue dragon to worry about) so he was forced to fail grappling himself with his 13 str.

When they later encountered some yuan-ti it was very interesting watching his character play his phobia of big snake things he didn't much like.

Any one else have similar happenings?

 

[scadgrad]

Yes, any module by Necromancer Games

Scares the bejeezus out of 'em.

2nd to that, the mere mention of a named NPC character in a module or ANY vampire.

 

[Kerrwyn]

I had something like that. We were running Night Below (3E conversion) and I was playing an fighter who was traveling with a halfling pyromancer. My character had so many fireballs, burning hands, etc. dropped on him, I started playing him as if he had developed pyrophobia. The halfling eventually got around to buying me a major ring of fire resistance and a ring of evasion, so that helped him. He no longer feared it, but it made him plenty nervous.

 

[dave_o]

I fink the Alienist PrC requires a phobia.

 

[Mouseferatu]

In a campaign I ran back in college, the wizard PC was dropped into a 6-ft-deep pit filled almost to the brim with roaches*, and had to be rescued before he "drowned."

The PC had a phobia of roaches from that point on. I don't remember if it was my idea or his that he develop such a thing, but he played it nicely.

Of course, the fact that I have borderline phobia of the things myself is probably what prompted me to include 'em...

(*Not the little ones either, but the really big, dark-colored wood roaches. *Shudder*)

 

[ergeheilalt]

I had a character who was deathly afraid of another character. She was a plane touched monk (the lawful kind, whose name escapes me ATM), but due to a failed Knowledge (the Planes) checks thought she was a lawful evil half-fiend. The fact that she threatened to kill him every time he said anything sarcastic or looked at her funny didn't help his fear. Fun character ... definitely want to run another gnomish tinkerer some time soon.

Erge

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

After being gored almost to death (-9) by an minotaur, one of the PCs in an old campaign became deathly afraid of cows. It was tragic, the poor guy couldn't go near a farming village. On the bright side, "boviphobia" is a fun word to say.

 

[Bloodstone Mage]

One of the players in my campaign has a fear of the dark. She simply refuses to go into dark crawlspaces and tunnels.

Another player in a campaign long since past had a fear/prejudice against orcs. Go figure.

That's just my two cents.
Cheers!

 

[Dark Jezter]

Well, my barbarian is absolutely terrified by sock puppets.

 

[Djeta Thernadier]

My character is afraid of heights. And my character's familiar (a bat) is horrified of water.

I should point out though, that thus far, this has not really come into play in the game.