Game (1) - weakness

[radiantfracture]

Thinking about a thing and looking for some quasi-randomized ideas, if you need a distraction.

What's an interesting weakness for a character in an RPG to have -- interesting for you to play?

Say a mostly-mundane-world RPG like Ten Candles, where the threat may be numinous or chthonic but the people are solidly midgardian.*



Weakness we can define in the 10C way as "a quality that harms your life more than it helps it," which doesn't mean it couldn't prove useful in a sudden surge of dramatic irony.

{rf}**

*That said, I can also see how supernatural and/or divine powers and flaws could be fun in such a setting, especially if concealed at first, so, you know, fill your boots.

**You can tell I'm posting from work because I have easy access to curly brackets.

Comments

[sabotabby]

My favourite weakness that I ever gave a character was that I did a supervillain character who would act against the interests of the party at least once per game (or help them out but in a way that they found morally reprehensible). But before he tortured or killed anyone, he was compelled to give a monologue explaining exactly how he was going to kill them, which meant that they had a chance to escape.

Which is probably not useful for your setting, but I like weaknesses in terms of "they can do this cool thing but here is a catch."

[radiantfracture]

Ha, I love it. Especially being a part of the party but then still being a villain. A+.

I'm also considering a more absurdist setting, so this idea is also useful in its raw form. Like if each character is somehow compelled to act out a narrative trope that's against their own interests.

[sabotabby]

Yeah, that's what I was going with there. He was also OP'd in a bunch of ways, but sticking to narrative conventions balanced it out.

He was really fun to play. The whole concept (based in 1930s pulp fiction) was that there was a brotherhood of evil supervillains that he was part of, but they refused to put him in charge, so he allied with the heroes to take them out with the theory that it would be easier to pick off the heroes after he'd eliminated the competition. It was also set in 1930s Europe, and he was half-Jewish and had standards, even for evil, so not a fan of Nazis.

[radiantfracture]

This sounds like a fantastic story.

[the_broken_tower]

Maybe not quite what you had in mind, but Pratchett had an interesting condition in Discworld where magic and music are a one-or-the-other kind of thing when it comes to talent.

A talented potential could have a thing for music and a latent magical ability... and throw her whole self into music. Excel in it. And she will be an incredible musician, but not a witch, because all that magic went into the music instead of spellwork. (Although music is its own kind of magic.)

- Mike L (he/him)

[radiantfracture]

That's cool, like the zero-sum criminal vs. bear stats in Honey Heist.

[yhlee]

I find moral weakness the most interesting because it gives both the possibility of redemption and total corruption/fall. I especially find moral weakness interesting if it's an exaggerated version of a virtue, or is a virtue but used in the wrong context.

[radiantfracture]

Yesss that's at once so lyrical and so painful

[yhlee]

It's terrible, perhaps, since I left the faith, but my characterization aesthetic IS Christianity central. :]

[elusis]

Lack of direction and a desire to be liked.

[radiantfracture]

I feel perrrrsonallly attacked

[juushika]

Longing. Cribbing this also from the self insert character I mentioned in my other comment, who wants [not safe for life content with tragic consequences, but all participants are consenting].

Longing, I think, is one of those universal emotions which feels very unique and isolating for the specific individual; I like heightening that desire in a fictional setting to the point of: the desire is larger than life (ex. more stylized than, but still representational of, daily forms of longing, like love, touch, sex, wanderlust, etc.) and potentially achievable (because the fictional narrative allows for the fulfillment of things that probably shouldn't be fulfilled/realistically wouldn't be fulfilled), but the consequences of that fulfillment would still be devastating (in my particular narrative, everything going as planned ends in grief and the permanent threat of legal repercussions).

That tension keeps me really engaged. Contrapoints recently did a video essay on Twilight that talked a lot about longing's role within desire, both within the romance genre and in real life, arguing that longing effectively cannot be fulfilled because as soon as it is it becomes a different emotion, not lust but love: probably also good, but it doesn't yearn. And I think that's true, that the appeal and fundamental nature is of longing is that it is unfulfilled, but...

But I think there's an equally powerful narrative tension not in "you can't actually get what you want, because wanting is part of the act of wanting" but "you can absolutely get it, but fulfillment is devastating." Narratives about longing generally end at the point of "consummation," see: the romance genre, because again, fulfillment fundamentally changes the emotion. I hate that; it always feels like a cop out somehow. I like the idea of moving the point of tension. Having written all that, I'm not sure it makes any sense! But even if my thoughts on it, and altering it, aren't revolutionary, clearly being fueled by desire for something which could possibly be fulfilled is something that motivates me a lot.

And I absolutely think could be effective in a more fantasy/gods and monsters setting. The idea of a character who desperately wants a divine connection/to understand the lovecraftian unknowable/etc. in a world where those things exist but average people are still just trying to survive day to day could be SO tasty; reverse horror movie tropes and Control (video game) and Piranesi (book) vibes to be like, "sure, maybe something is fundamentally wrong here, but I keep being distracted by how beautiful it is."

[radiantfracture]

Thanks for these rich thoughts!

This sounds like a captivating game-story-thingy.

you can absolutely get it, but fulfillment is devastating

For a smaller example thereof, do you know the game Star Crossed?

https://bullypulpitgames.com/products/star-crossed

I absolutely think could be effective in a more fantasy/gods and monsters setting

I like these examples, and also I immediately of course think of Gilgamesh and his quest for immortality.

[smokingboot]

Lack of awareness is one of my favourite RPG weaknesses. Arrogance too.

One character I found interesting to play was a widow ('the widder')who owned a ranch in a Wild West Occult setting. She had considerable powers of telepathic command and knew that the local preacher was on to her. On one particularly hairy encounter they were discussing things by the fireside and she watched him pick up a poker, thrust it into the flames and rest it there while prattling on about not suffering a witch to live. His intent was obvious, but it never occurred to her that she might die, that he actually had the power to hurt her right there and then, and that even if his nerve failed him, he could rally the townsfolk to finish her off. She was supremely dismissive of his powers of agency and his god.

[radiantfracture]

DID SHE DIE

[smokingboot]

The campaign was curtailed before it could all play out. I have always wanted to revisit that character.