How would you simulate senility with the D&D rules?

[JacktheRabbit]

This is actually for an NPC in Of Sound Mind 2.

The int check idea makes sense, but that surely is a lot of die rolling. The max mental age might be the best technique; it's a one-time check, and then penalties can be added from there. Hrmmm.

Any other ideas?

If this is an NPC for the character then dont make any rules at all. Just stat out what things the character will and will not know. The problem with making it some sort of check is the whole adventure could get screwed if the NPC has a string of bad rolls.

Is this NPC one that the party is going to need to get crucial information from to complete the adventure?

 

[Shallown]

Remember also part of senility, as young people see it, is not knowing something. According to some studies I have read about the fact is older (possibly senile) people can process information as accurately as younger people just slower. They can solve puzzles, use logic it is just a slower process.

Alzheimer's is something you don't want to get into since it is a much more complex issue than it appears. A lot of the side affects are seen as old age but are actual just human responses to the situation. Irritablity, burst of anger come from the frustration and inability to do something you know you can do as it is from physical loss of emotional control.

If you want info on Alzheimer's I know some and have experience as well. Most of it from the layman's point of veiw.

Also senility is a pretty broad term it could mean several things to me. but here are a few ideas.

Person can't take 10 for anything. You know longer operate at a standard. You can assume they still can perform some task without risking major failure but it is possible to fail even at the most mundane task.

Failure sometimes triggers extreme emotional responses. Maybe a will save when they fail at something that should have been a success or lose it. Losing it as defined by the person; be it rage, crying, sobbing, giggle fit etc.

It is such a role playing guided thing that it is hard to present cold hard rules for it. I mean you can certainly decrease stats and such but that doesn't reflect the true affects anymore than they do for stats for a child. I think this is more the area of role playing notes than mechanics.

later

 

[Drawmack]

I know that my way is a lot of die roling. At venerable it is basically double the rolls of standard. However I think it is the best modle. The reason is you never know how a senile person will react in any goven moment. I have already seen senile people forget how to tie their shoes one second and play beautiful jazz piano ten minutes later. You just never know if they will be coherent or not. It is not constant until the very last stages and even then they have fits of lucidity. Hence my system of rolling with every challenge because you never know.


Hmmm, rules like this could be the reason every one of my players has a tripple set of dice though.

 

[fba827]

I seem to recall a Dungeon Mag adventure where one of the characters was senile. And the way it was repsented was with a Wis of 5 (or 3 or something really low).

Maybe once every aged year, there is a senile check (DC inversly related to age)... if failed, wis (and maybe int) go down by 1 point each... culmulative ...

(note, given the rate of increase of mental stats with age, it is possible to have the natural increase be cancelled out by the decrease for that year)...

 

[Piratecat]

I know that my way is a lot of die roling. At venerable it is basically double the rolls of standard. However I think it is the best model.

Ah, but I'm looking for an abstraction, not a simulation.

Basically, if I have a senile NPC in an adventure, I want a background rationale I can live with that explains low mental ability scores. You guys have given me some good ideas. Thanks!

 

[fba827]

Ah, but I'm looking for an abstraction, not a simulation.

Basically, if I have a senile NPC in an adventure, I want a background rationale I can live with that explains low mental ability scores. You guys have given me some good ideas. Thanks!

So if and when you decide what to do, can you let us generally know what you did? And, just as important, how well it seemed to work for your situation?

(yes, yes, i know you mentioned it's just an npc's background thing, etc. etc.)..

just wondering, that's all