[YA BoEF thread] Usefulness of BoEF in your campaign?

[ArielManx]

With all due consideration to Eric's Grandma, bullhockey! What the little [ehem] said was that such a rule was needed for all female characters and indicated that one could expect psychotic behavior from any female "having her period". Which is just sexist drivel no matter who tries to back him up.

I think you're finding things in the post in question that aren't there, due to things that poster may have said in other threads. (I haven't been here long and haven't read everything, so I don't know for sure.) I saw nothing sexist in that post.

I'll say this once per thread, ok? yes, for many women, hormone influenced mood changes are a fact of life. And for many people food allergies and stomache problems are a fact of life. For many people recovering from injuries, physical and emotional problems are a fact of life. All of these are what we would call DISADVANTAGES. And guess what? D20 doesn't have a disadvantage system. So just like no one has to go worrying about what their character is allergic to, just because they know many people with food sensitivities, no one has to worry about medically noteworthy PMS for their characters just because they or someone they knows suffers from it.

While experiencing mood swings and other effects of pregnancy, my wizard was under no more actual game mechanics penalties than a fatigued character under the guidelines set in the PHB and DMG. Hmmm, fatigue. That sounds like a disadvantage. There are actually plenty of disadvantages in the game: penalties for fighting two-handed without certain feats, for trying things you have no skill ranks in, for fighting with weapons/using armor you are not proficient with, etc. If D20 were truely without a disadvantage system, any character could do anything they wanted regardless of class or skills.

Once people grow up and realize that many women have no problems whatsoever of that nature, and HEY LOOKIE, the better overall shape a woman is in the less problems she is likely to have, such considerations can be safely relegated to the domain of trollish teenagers with problems with women.

I'm perplexed by the fact that you find an adult woman who isn't ashamed or embarrassed or afraid to admit one of her faults is in need of "growing up".

Now if you really like giving your characters disadvantages, and for whatever reason YOU want to play a character with that problem, have a blast. But don't do it with a fighter type character or a monk cause thet would be unrealistic... and really a druid or cleric you could just lose one orison four days a month and cover the disadvantage completely... probably the same for a wizard... or for a bard or rogue, toss two skill points in profession herbalist and alocate a silver or two a month... ok, so what I'm saying is, if YOU want to play a character with a physical disadvantage, and YOU want it to be PMS, and YOU happen to be playing a sorcerer, I guess that rule MIGHT be useful... or you could just roleplay.

Kahuna Burger

I really don't see how playing a character realistically is a problem. Nor do I consider PMS a physical disadvantage.

The thought behind this thread in the first place was whether the BoEF would be useful in a campaign. My feeling is that it can, and running with something another poster alluded to, I elaborated. Never did I say that everyone - or anyone! - should adopt my method of play. Several people have said that they can't think of any way possible that anything in the BoEF would work in their campaign. I've given an example of something that did work in our campaign. Will it work in everyone else's? No. I never said that it would.

But it could.

Ariel

 

[Kahuna Burger]

I'm perplexed by the fact that you find an adult woman who isn't ashamed or embarrassed or afraid to admit one of her faults is in need of "growing up".

this of course isn't what I said in the slightest, but you can pretend that if you like. If you are unaware that one of your "faults" (can't imagine why you would call it that) is a problem shared by some, but not all, or even a majority of women (to the extent claimed), then you do perhaps need to expand your horizons. If you continue to treat it as a universal after having been informed otherwise, you may need some maturing.

I really don't see how playing a character realistically is a problem. Nor do I consider PMS a physical disadvantage.

Er, you consider it an advantage? A mental disadvantage? I'm a bit lost. You consider it "realistic" perhaps... realistic that a fantasy warrior woman who never gets sick unless infected by a near deadly disease, never gets food poisoning, never gets infected wounds unless they are inflicted by a supernatural creature, etc should have a level of PMS symptoms that deserve to be modeled by a ruleset, when many normal, vaguely in shape women (myself included) have only the slightest physical or emotional effects which pale in comparison to those caused by daily diet.

A sorceress with notable PMS is about as "realistic" as a rogue with migraines. (hey, I know a lot of people with migraines, including myself. Therefore its only realistic to role a d10 and on a 1 my character is at -4 to all checks and wimpers at bright lights...)

Ah, why do I bother? If you want to spread myths about women, have fun. Perhaps anyone taken in deserved it anyway...

Kahuna burger

 

[hunter1828]

You consider it "realistic" perhaps... realistic that a fantasy warrior woman who never gets sick unless infected by a near deadly disease, never gets food poisoning, never gets infected wounds unless they are inflicted by a supernatural creature [/B]

I'm not going to defend my wife (she is perfectly capable of doing that herself), but I am going to say that you are assuming a LOT about the type of game that I run. Characters in my games have suffered from colds, plueresy, non-combat related broken bones, infections caused by wounds not being treated with Cure spells, bad food, bad alchohol, hangovers, etc. Nine times out of ten I just tell the player "your character has/is suffering from (insert malady/afliction)" and let them run with it. Please don't assume something about someone's campaign unless you know about it. My wife's character having mood swings (and it was due to being pregnant, not from PMS...I don't think PMS has ever come up in the game) was just one more in a long list of everyday, typical, real-world related ailments/maladys/afflictions/imbalances that show up in my games and have for the last 20-odd years. That's the type of game I run and always have.

 

[jdavis]

Ah, why do I bother? If you want to spread myths about women, have fun. Perhaps anyone taken in deserved it anyway...

Kahuna burger [/B]

??????????????

What myth about women was she spreading? That Pregnant women have mood swings, that's actually a fact. It really sounds like you are carrying this as a personal issue, but I'm just not sure what myth you are railing against here, are you saying that PMS is a myth, or that it's importance is overblown by society, or that it doesn't belong in the game. Your example of unrealistic being a thief with a migraine, well that's actually very realistic, not unrealistic. It's not about it being realistic or not it's about how much realism people want in their games, and it is their game to decide that about. I'm not sure where the great attack on the myth of PMS came from but it is sort of illogical and it sounds like you are taking a personal emotional stance (gee like they type of role they are talking about). I won't even try to figure out the meaning in Angcuru's post but I think the point other people are trying to get across is that people do have mood swings for various reasons and sometimes act irrational, you know sort of like arguing about PMS on a D&D message board and taking it personally.

 

[Piratecat]

Well, I think we're done here. Wave goodbye to the off-topic discussion, folks!