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SINselectedDescribing how hurt someone is is always a tricky business. Begin with what happened. Are they shot? Is it necessary for the character to continue on? Let the shot be a flesh wound. Have it hit a meaty part of the body, they feel the pain, it’s intense, the adrenaline kicks in, and they see the injury, it’s a constant burning that flares up when moved, but the limb still can function. If you want it to be more serious, or more damaging a shot, have it bleed heavily, that makes most people aware of the severity of a wound, if you look down and see red pumping out of you, it’s time for a tight belt in a hurry. You can then describe the pain as just the tightness of the tourniquet, and a cold numb after that. If you are a kind GM, let them continue to use the limb, saying, “Your leg still supports your weight.”
If it’s a serious shot, break a bone. use onomanopias (sp?), the cereal elves are great for describing how much it could hurt, Snap, Crackle, Pop, goes your femur.
Shock is a great and wonderful tool to use when they PC’s take a massive amount of damage and you still need the players to think rationally out of the situation they are in. Shock happens right after the injury, and it leaves you vaguely interested in your surroundings, and only mildly concerned with whatever the player was doing before hand. If a player of mine gets hammered by something that takes his body way way low in a hurry, I stop the narration, get a soda pop (or a smoke) something that stops all the action for a minute or two, I don’t answer any of the players questions, wait till they get quite again, and then begin the narration again with a very trivial detail about the room i.e., “you open your eyes and stare at the ceiling. Why do they have holes in the titles on a ceiling anyway?” If the player immediately asks how hurt they are, tell them they are fine. Nothing hurts, you’re doing O.K. Use a very slow dreamlike voice. Try to imagine the wound and how it would hinder someone’s actions in every other way possible but pain wise. Shoulder blade smashed? “You try to get up, but your left arm just doesn’t respond to what you tell it, you look at your hand and forearm and it looks fine, so why doesn’t your arm work?” Guts spilled out over the floor? Have them trip on em.
Hope it helps.
SINselectedTerrorists are the ultimate form of Violent political reform. I don’t have a codified “game mechanic “, but I would think that getting media distribution for a terrorist act would be easy as pie. So for every avatar terrorist action they attempt, National media is just drawn to it, perhaps faster than police or government officials.
SINselectedThank you both for the response. This thread has spawned from a character I’ve been playing for about 3 years. Recently I’ve been stuck in sort of a slump for how best to express the avatar in a new a unique way and I am sort of hard-pressed for a unique ascension catalyst. The concepts of masculinity and femininity while expressed are not the central focus of this avatar. I have been trying to portray conflict in every aspect of this characters life, from his inner conflicts that have risen from background, story, and plot, to trying to portray his maddens meters accurately, to dealing with protagonists. My big sticking point is trying to come up with a dedicated avatar path (read: character motivation) to follow that focuses on conflict and paradox without using traditional images of cross-dressing or transexuality. The example the book gives about chemotherapy (doctors poisoning to heal) and the vengeful lover are more what I’m going for. Since a MH can’t dedicate themselves to one cause for too long (save for their avatar) it’s been pretty rough going.