I was wondering if we could consider purchasing customizable defects. They would probably cost credits because they would require custom programming, but they could enhance RPing.

For instance. I might want to play a character who lost his sanity for some reason. Perhaps you could buy a permanent affliction or set of afflictions such as Dementia, Hallucinations, and another like Epilepsy and/or Confusion. Maybe healing can temporarilly remove them, but it would soon re-establish itself.

What about an amputee, maybe have a limb permanently severed, so he or she walks with a limp, goes slowly, and suffers in combat. How about permanent stupidity, for a really dumb Orclach. Or permanent shyness, for a tempermental furrikin. How about the permanently blind human who has others lead him around, or a dwarf with a permanent stutter.

Would this be possible, feasable, or desirable? I know this game tends to love leveling, but other RPGs have customizable disadvantages, etc.

Um..

I think its pretty neat.

Technically, you could do it yourself by simply not healing, though this would be awesome and make it much simpler.

Do you realise how spammy permanent epilepsy would be?

If you want afflictions, kill someone and have them karma curse you.

I'd love to see a permanently blind or deaf character.

The problem is that when you die all your afflictions are cured. Then you'd have to have people go casting afflictions on you OOC to end up playing IC, unless you want to be little more than "let's pretend".

In case anybody balks at paying credits to become weaker, maybe there could be some kind of tradeoff, like they do in GURPS. Maybe if a character paid 150 credits to be permanently lame in one leg, he could get that much credits worth of lessons (900), so he could be good at some things to make up for the disadvantage...the lame aquamancer who's transcendent in dreamweaving, for instance. Or the stupid orc who nevertheless is so charismatic in a clown-like way he's a really good influencer, when he can focus.

Of course, some afflictions shouldn't be permanent. No scabbies, for instance.

I love this idea! I always wanted to have Jasper become insane and just begin talking to the shadows and stuff.

I think for insanity, it would be better to rp it.

Which is better, when Jasper screams "THE VOICES! THE VOICES!" Or when he actually starts talking to the shadows, and having real conversations (kinda) with them?

That being said, cool idea.

Oh my god, I'm going to have to do that.

>_> Joli needs perm love potion status. That would be very very annoying after a while, but it would fit the whole bunny thing or at least how Joli was when I first started playing her.

I love it, but the credit cost would have to be rather low: I see 30 instead of 150 on average. Perhaps make it so that the fates offer you the affliction for free (with little/no gain) but only once. After that, you have to buy them.

Also the prices would vary. Blindness and deafness can be a benificial defense. Stupidity would be insane to have and would probably need a benificial balance to compensate.

Oh yes, I DO like this.

Jasper what do you mean, you want him to be insane, he comes across -very- insane to me!

Why on earth would I want to pay hundreds of dollars if not thousands to become overpowered, just so I can spend another few hundred dollars in order for people to call out "Run, Forrest. Run!"? You don't need hard code to play a blind/deaf/mute/limping/mentally challenged/ character.

You don't need it, but if some people want it and are willing to play it (or even put some cash into the system for it) then why stop them, other than the coding hassles?

Nice idea, I think it would be really cool if people RP'd these kinds of things.

I think selling afflictions for credits, however, is the absolute dumbest idea I've ever heard. There is virtually -nothing- on that list of ideas you posted that couldn't be scripted by you for your client using emotes.

IRE coders' time is a very valuable and limited resource. I would much rather they spend their time fixing problems, implementing new skillsets/communities, or other such things that players -can't- do themselves. Don't make the admin RP for you, do it yourself.

I've actually done something like this before. When I played Aetolia I had a character with a gimp arm. I had a couple problems with it, some of them were easy to overcome and others not so much.

The first issue was the fact that I kept wielding things with it. Since the arm was supposed to be twisted and completely useless, this made me sad. You can't/couldn't choose which arm to wield things on, so it automatically started with the arm that was lame (I can't remember which arm it was now, but it was apparently the one that you wield stuff on first). Basically what I did was buy a little glass bauble and hold it in that arm permanently. It didn't actually work with what I wanted to do, but it helped somewhat.

The other main thing was the fact that the game would still use the arm. If my useful arm was shriveled or broken, I could still do things with the remaining arm, which kind of defeated the whole purpose of not being able to do things.

I understand that you guys think it's dumb to have permanent afflictions, but some things truly are easier if there is a mechanical provision and you use it.

Would it make a difference to only be able to purchase physical afflictions? Broken or amputated limbs, blindness, or deafness? And although blindness and deafness are defences, if you're going to live with not be able to hear anything, or not being able to bash (I could be wrong about that part with blindess), then you deserve the odd chance of resisting a theft attempt from a Nihilist.

I love this idea.

Yes, many things can be RP'd. Insanity, amnisia, stupidity, etc. Even blindness and deafness really. But things like missing limbs...sometimes it's too difficult to RP that because the mechanics of the game overrule it. Like Requiem said, it's hard to have a missing limb if the game keeps trying to have you use it for stuff.

Blindness and Deafness aren't defences any more, they're afflictions. If you're blind you can't target anything, if you're deaf you don't hear anything. Tells, aethers, says, and possibly messages. *ponder* It was changed so you don't want Deafness and Blindness permanently up.