Giving Birth

[roguerouge]

Okay, next session a PC's cohort is giving birth. I'd like to make it dramatic and interesting for my player. What do you recommend?

Info to work with:

• PC is a bard
• her cohort and BFF is a sorceress
• the hubby is the PC's brother
• there might be a cleric nearby, but he's a first level cleric of the knowledge god
• it is the first birth for the cohort
• they've fought against the forces of Lamashtu and Dagon

.

Any ideas?

 

[Nifft]

IMHO, if you don't have parents, doctors or midwives in your group, birth itself may not be all that interesting.

If you need it to be a point of drama, you could have someone trying to kill them while the birth is going on, and this means the party has to stay put instead of being able to run. (Basically, turn the combat into "defend this location" instead of the usual "kill things, take stuff". Video games seem to do this a lot, so it must be popular.)

If you need the birth itself to be problematic, I dunno, maybe a Skill Challenge? (Key skills: Heal and Endurance.)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Ourph]

Have the cohort reveal that the father is actually.... the female PC!!! DUHN Duhn duhn!

 

[Shroomy]

Have you ever seen Farscape: Peacekeeper Wars? There's an action-packed birth!

 

[Alzrius]

IMHO, if you don't have parents, doctors or midwives in your group, birth itself may not be all that interesting.

If you need it to be a point of drama, you could have someone trying to kill them while the birth is going on, and this means the party has to stay put instead of being able to run. (Basically, turn the combat into "defend this location" instead of the usual "kill things, take stuff". Video games seem to do this a lot, so it must be popular.)

That's pretty much all I can think of also. The only other way to make an adventure out of it is that the PCs are racing the clock to find something or someone - like perhaps an experienced midwife - that's needed to make it so the mother and child can survive.

The other thing might be that some evil force kidnaps the baby after it's born, and the PCs need to go on a rescue mission. Or, since Lamashtu is an enemy of theirs, perhaps she does something that makes the child into something monstrous, and they need to go on a quest to somehow change it back into a human (presuming that's even possible).

 

[roguerouge]

I should point out that there's just the one PC and that this need not take up the full session. But something worth RPing should happen... What do films and TV do during these events?

 

[Nifft]

I should point out that there's just the one PC and that this need not take up the full session. But something worth RPing should happen... What do films and TV do during these events?

Womenfolk go into clean, well-lit room without main character.

"Main Character, bring towels! And hot water!"

Camera focuses on mostly closed door. Sound of baby crying begins. Music plays. Scene.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Innocent Bystander]

Aside from birthing being dramatically exciting for the parents themselves, there isn't a whole lot you can do to make it exciting for outsiders other than what's been mentioned. If the baby is going to be a part of the story arc, you could as other's have said, have an attempted kidnapping (manual or magical, maybe just as the head crowns it vanishes), or the baby turn out to be not quite human (or whatever), ranging anywhere from what the heck is that thing to when the light hits it a certain way you catch a glimpse of something that's not quite right.

If they're in a politically unstable area, you could have a massive battle happening where anyone and everyone is being slaughtered. This will pull at the PC to be in a defend the mother/child vs. also helping innocents in the immediate area.

 

[coyote6]

Womenfolk go into clean, well-lit room without main character.

"Main Character, bring towels! And hot water!"

Camera focuses on mostly closed door. Sound of baby crying begins. Music plays. Scene.

Circa 1985 and before, yeah. Nowadays, someone will have a camcorder, and be generally underfoot while attempting to "preserve the moment"; someone (other than the mother) gets all hysterical, hyperventilates, and/or faints; impending-mom occasionally gets hysterical and demands drugs; someone shouts "Breathe" a lot; lots of exaggerated breathing goes on; general (attempted) hilarity ensues; someone will usually shout "push!"; and finally, a baby crying, and the doctor/nurse/midwife/firefighter/etc will hand the baby to the mother and significant other -- and scene.

In a serious scene, something medically unfortunate happens, and much medical babble commences -- same as any other medical emergency. Eventually, baby cries, infant handed to mom & SO, and scene.

For a game, if you wanted it to be exciting, then maybe a skill challenge -- either focusing on Heal & the like, or put the mother-to-be in a wagon, and either bad guys give chase, or maybe the horses run off, and PC(s) have to catch the wagon before it runs off the cliff/into the dragon/into danger.

 

[roguerouge]

How long do non-hospital births take?

What effect would cure light wounds and maybe lesser restoration have on the process?

What crazy beliefs might a book-knowledge cleric have about the safest way for a woman to give birth?

How incapacitated would the woman be after the birth and for how long? (I'm thinking of a dramatic scene sometime AFTER the birth.)

In home births, is it necessary to watch the child at all times or is it plausible that it might be left in a crib at some point?