RPGs and "Bodily Functions"

[Weregrognard]

The Dungeon adventure, Is There An Elf In The House?, had a fancy, magical privvy that turned any solid material to stone when dropped in.

In a Serenity RPG game, our characters were prisoners in our own ship. I requested to use the bathroom and had to be escorted by one of the guards. While on the urinal, my character exclaimed: "Well, that's not good!" When the guard came over to look, he got an elbow in the face

 

[steeldragons]

Many many moons ago this came up in play in a way I totally did not expect (as players always are want to do, I suppose).

A player had to use the bathroom and excused herself. There was something going on...a discussion of the party's next move or tactics for an impending battle or some such...

One of the players said "and then so-and-so can" or "what does so-and-so want to do" or something like that, referring to the excused player's character.

Just, on a lark (and attempt at humor), I [Dming] said "so-and-so has excused themselves into the bushes, she'll be right back." I thought it made perfect sense since we were in one of those "If you say it, you're character does too/it happens" mode of playing.

The party thief immediately jumped on this and said "I dive into her backpack and see/grab whatever I can manage to take!" *rolling pickpockets*

Much time spent/wasted on argument and inter-party conflict ensued with the player's return to the "table" [we were all sprawled out on a living room floor, but you get the picture].

I never brought up "going into the bushes" again.

Before and after, it was never a "trackable" issue and was a neatly unspoken/understood affair.

--SD

 

[Stoat]

Several years ago, I toyed with the idea of running a one-shot with either d20 Modern or d20 Call of Cthulhu. The PC's would be teenagers in an old house being stalked by a Michael Meyers/Jason Vorhees-type psycho killer. I intended to have some sort of "call of nature" rule to help split up the party for genre-appropriate murdering.

Alas, I never got past the brainstorming stage.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Several years ago, I toyed with the idea of running a one-shot with either d20 Modern or d20 Call of Cthulhu. The PC's would be teenagers in an old house being stalked by a Michael Meyers/Jason Vorhees-type psycho killer. I intended to have some sort of "call of nature" rule to help split up the party for genre-appropriate murdering.

Alas, I never got past the brainstorming stage.

That is a cool idea. You shoukd definitely give it a try.

I never understood why this doesn't come up more in games and novels. They deal with it all the time in movies. Like stoat points out it is a horror staple. But the call of nature features prominently in flicks like pulp fiction too.

 

[The Shaman]

How about you and your DMs and Players?

No, I don't ever recall an agreement that potty time was off-limits for ambushes.

 

[Storminator]

I've seen the outhouse ambush. It made sense and worked at the time. No biggie.

Once I was running a Dungeon mag adventure for my son (14 at the time) and two of his friends. Their PCs are wandering all over a mountain exploring. One of the players realizes no one has mentioned using the bathroom in any D&D game he's ever played - and won't let it go. "We've been all over this mountain for days! I have to go right now!" While the other players look on in horror, he decides he's hanging over the side of the mountain right then and there.

I look at the adventure key and at the bottom of that particular cliff is the entry for the direbat which specifically says "the bat ignores adventurers unless they do something specifically to anger it" ... so the direbat attacked him with his drawers down.

PS

 

[the Jester]

Well....

Back in the 1e days, the pcs surprised my version of Kyuss while he was poopin'. Awkward!

During the 2e days, a pc out hunting was surprised by giant spiders. I flavored the surprise as happening while he took a pee.

During the 3e days, I declared that the absent players' characters were down with "the buzzing bowels," a horrific intestinal disease. This actually became vitally important to their defense at trial later.

So, no, it isn't off limits in my campaign.

EDIT: Forgot to add- in 4e, I would rule that if you're pooping you grant combat advantage.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

In my current game that I'm playing a Dwarf Cleric in, part of his schtick is to urinate in his flask then cast the "Enhance Water" spell. He's a follower of a god of drink. He also believes in recycling.

Anyhow, this did come back to bite me in the arse a bit as I tried to "get back at" and pull a practical joke on a fellow party member by urinating in his flask, the party member stabbed me with a javelin in the process of tinkling and a big fight erupted where the other party member was almost killed by our party's paladin. Needless to say, I don't think I'll be using that kind of joke again any time soon

 

[Griego]

One memorable exchange went thusly:

GM: You open the door to find a small bathroom.

Me: I take a dump.

GM: There's no paper.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Usually in D&D it's handled the same way it's handled in books and movies.

Which is to say it isn't.

Same here.