These are not characters I’ve been saving for a rainy day, but a look at how player characters can feel all the more real when coping with real life conditions that affect a lot of us. While often these types of issues are not included in gaming because some things aren’t as interesting for storytelling–which is why Jack Bauer never poops–they can become a vehicle for character building and even personal understanding.
First, A Disclaimer
Role playing games are first and foremost about escapism. Many gamers may suffer from issues and this is not an article about making light of them or their issues. From any gamer who does deal with disabilities and would like to comment about characters having similar issues or any critique or comments on my approach, I welcome your feedback.
Because these are real topics that affect real people, make sure your own table is comfortable with these issues being brought into game. While the ideal is to create more realistic characters and gain more empathy, some may not be comfortable with bringing topics of depression, sickness, and disabilities into game. As always, the goal is for everyone at the table to feel comfortable and have fun.
Sadness and Depression
In most of the tabletop gaming I’ve been part of, there have been moments of sadness for the characters. This is typically treated as a somber mood for a scene before returning to the action. However, in real life events can weigh on people for days. And, for others, melancholy can be a struggle without a specific triggering event. Having a character deal with sadness or depression shouldn’t be a case of “make a roll or sit out the game while your character wallows,” this should be about characters rising and dealing with their struggle and sometimes making the “easy” choice in a difficult situation simply because they don’t have the personal energy to make a decision with longer-lasting impact. Other characters may mock or make snarky jibes at every opportunity as a coping mechanism. In these ways, despondency or unhappiness isn’t a weight that drags down a game, but a way to show the depth of character and those around them.
Colds and Flues
Only a handful of games discuss sickness and when they do it’s treated like a curse or a simple negative against rolls without considering how the character feels and responds. When a character is dealing with a cold or similar sickness, players can choose to inject a little more flavor into the scene with their character. Perhaps a shot was missed because of an ill-timed sneeze or a social interaction was fumbled because the character was too busy looking for a facial tissue to blow their nose. In games without sickness, I would often reward players for temporarily saddling their characters with negative modifiers because their character caught a cold when crossing a cold river or after facing similar obstacles. Characters sick to their stomach from particularly gruesome scenes would also often earn RP or XP points.
Sleeping Issues
Games often offer traits like “light sleeper” or “heavy sleeper” with immediate pros and cons but forget to mention how this might affect the personality of the character. Many heavy sleepers tend to be in a rush most of their day as they try to make up for hours they accidentally slept through. Light sleepers may be irritable or in some way cranky if they were woken too much in their sleep. This needn’t be shown via an impact on rolls but in adopting personality in their characters. Characters with sleeping disorders don’t suffer for a single night, but often nights on end either struggling to get enough sleep or continually going to bed too early or too late for their schedules to sync with the rest of the group.
Financial Woes
In RPGs finances are often expressed simply by not being able to purchase a desired piece of equipment. Shadowrun introduced a “lifestyle” metric indicating how much a player character would be expected to make in order to maintain a specific standard of living, but this often went ignored outside of character creation. In real life, finances cannot be ignored. Characters “down on their luck,” may eat less healthily than their counterparts and some may choose not to accept the aid of others, due to pride or not wanting to take advantage when they are in a hole they may not escape. Currency is used in many games, but so often the consequences of not having enough money to live are ignored. These situations can present a number of role-play opportunities or lead characters into taking a “job” they might not normally. And, of course, a period of poor finances could also lead to any of the above situations.
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