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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AeroDm" data-source="post: 6034638" data-attributes="member: 13650">I think the problem with negative rules are two fold. (1) If the rule is static (i.e. a -2 penalty to dexterity or bad at social skills) then you end up with self selection. The only people who will take it are those for whom the penalty is not that big of a deal and you've just shut out an area of the game to that race or class or whatever.(2) If the rule is dynamic (i.e. you RP the penalty and get some bonus) we have the benefit that it can't be ignored, but we still have a perverse self-selection. The player that enjoys having a jerk of a character takes "bad in social settings" and now has an excuse to RP being a jerk. The player that likes being the center of attention takes "clumsy" and suddenly wants to go into every china shop. For these players, they are still abusing the rule.The only time it works really well are for the players who wanted to take it seriously and have their weakness come up only at appropriate and interesting times. The problem is, they would probably have taken it seriously without the rules, and so adding the rules really only invites exploitation.</blockquote>