Pregnancy and newborns...

[CapnZapp]

Yes, but she didn't have to literally kick ass. Adventurers aren't doing "normal stuff".



The tendency for the baby do die, for one thing. To be.. perhaps painfully blunt, magic-strewn action-adventure and miscarriage go together rather nicely :/

In a game where 80 pound little girls can kick the naughty word out of storm giants, and where fire-breathing dragons exist, I personally see exactly zero reasons why a heavily pregnant female hero should need to worry about her unborn offspring, or even get a Dexterity penalty... shrug

 

[Deset Gled]

In a game where 80 pound little girls can kick the XXXX out of storm giants, and where fire-breathing dragons exist, I personally see exactly zero reasons why a heavily pregnant female hero should need to worry about her unborn offspring, or even get a Dexterity penalty... shrug

I can think of one: experience points. I only expect to see a warrior, regardless of size or gender, fight a storm giant around level 13. An unborn child is somewhere around level -3. At what point does an unborn child start making their own saving throws?*

*And that's the real reason for not allowing pregnancy in a campaign; so you never have to discuss that question at the gaming table.

 

[Salthorae]

I've been in 3-4 games in 25+ years that had a pregnancy, etc. depending on how you count it.

In one the DM was very adversarial, so when the PC who was a DMG 3.0 Witch class cast a spell, he made the player roll for negative magical effects on the baby. Which didn't seem very fair to any of the players, but at least they could use their spells.

The others were fine and the kids were born and left with caregivers while the PC went out on adventures, etc. Until they died.

I also am playing the child of one of my previous PC's in a fun side game our group does right now when the main campaign is off for a week or so.

 

[generic]

I can think of one: experience points. I only expect to see a warrior, regardless of size or gender, fight a storm giant around level 13. An unborn child is somewhere around level -3. At what point does an unborn child start making their own saving throws?*

*And that's the real reason for not allowing pregnancy in a campaign; so you never have to discuss that question at the gaming table.

Ouch, that's getting into when an infant becomes a person. Very touchy stuff.

Important to consider, though.

 

[Celebrim]

In a game where 80 pound little girls can kick the naughty word out of storm giants, and where fire-breathing dragons exist, I personally see exactly zero reasons why a heavily pregnant female hero should need to worry about her unborn offspring, or even get a Dexterity penalty... shrug

Personally.

 

[generic]

Personally.

I mean, some of us like a bit more realism.

 

[uzirath]

I mean, some of us like a bit more realism.

Yeah, but it's fair to be a bit skeptical when a group happily ignores the square-cube law and other basic principles of physics but starts adding die rolls for pregnancy, miscarriage, birth defects, etc. I'm particularly skeptical when these sorts of things are decided at a mostly- or entirely-male table.

I'm not saying that each group shouldn't define their own parameters around the suspension of disbelief, but we shouldn't pretend that the idea of a pregnant superhero is somehow more of a stretch than the idea of a superhero in general.

 

[CleverNickName]

I've never had to deal with in-game pregnancy at all, in more than 30 years of playing this game...not with a player, not with an NPC, not with a story arc. Which is strange. I mean, you see pregnant people all the time in the real world; heck, you might even be a pregnant person.

If one of my players approached me and asked about playing a pregnant character, I'd probably allow it. But I'd have a lot of questions first to make sure I understand the player's expectations and the impact on the story and campaign. I'd never spring such a major event on a player, especially at random, and absolutely never as a consequence of action.

 

[Tonguez]

Hmmm I

I love generational games- that is to say, games in which enough time passes for pcs to have kids who themselves become the next generation of pcs.

My 5e campaign has featured a five-year downtime break. Before or during that period, a number of pcs had kids (including two pcs who got married and have had one, or 13, depending on how you count- there was some divine intervention shenanigans involved, resulting in 12 warforged 'children' coming to the two).

I actually have a "wooing" downtime activity written up for pcs who want to start families.

I've had pcs in my game have kids in 1e, 3e, and 5e so far.

yes this, I like the generation game too and have ‘new children’ as part of the ‘Faction/Domain/Kingdom‘ phase for the players, however pregnancy is usually a downtime activity rather then a factor in adventure - unless it becomes the rationale for the adventure eg getting the expectant mother back to civilisation, fetching rare herbs or stopping the unborn baby being transfered into the womb of a cow type thing
I also had one PCs baby be kidnapped by pixies so they had to chase them down to get the baby back (with a boon).


That said one of the stories in my family is that my grandmother was out hunting while pregnant one day, shot a pig and then went into labour. Apparently she refused to leave the pig, went down and hauled it up onto her horse and then rode back through the bush to the nearest house, where she gave birth to my uncle on the porch outside - so yeah, no reason why a PC couldnt adventure while pregnant

 

[Celebrim]

Yeah, but it's fair to be a bit skeptical when a group happily ignores the square-cube law and other basic principles of physics but starts adding die rolls for pregnancy, miscarriage, birth defects, etc. I'm particularly skeptical when these sorts of things are decided at a mostly- or entirely-male table.

I'm not saying that each group shouldn't define their own parameters around the suspension of disbelief, but we shouldn't pretend that the idea of a pregnant superhero is somehow more of a stretch than the idea of a superhero in general.

I think this is missing the point entirely.

The question is not whether a pregnant super hero is a stretch. The question is whether or not pregnancy should be consequential.

And since you are admitting to your skepticism here, allow me to confess that I'm highly skeptical of your post and motivations as well.