Was running a game where one of my characters got inflicted with the extremely unlucky permanent wound "severed leg".

He had been hanging onto a critical wound with severity "5" for a while now (being a pain to get rid of), and in a recent combat he picked up crippled leg (severity 2) and then followed up with drawing the severed leg critical (severity 4 - permanent at 10).

The result was amusing - but I'm worried it is a bit crushing to the spirit. That's Warhammer I suppose.

I've given him the option of retiring him and trying a new character. Optionally they could try to look for some miraculous way to reattach/regrow the leg, or perhaps find a creative prosthetic. There's a lot of cool ways to go with it, but I'm afraid the demoralizing effect may be too much.

Thoughts?

Go for a peg and make it a roleplaying effect. Prosthetics in prior editions were common items and the world should probably be expressed that way.

I suppose there would be specific roleplaying effects: extra maneuver on long range or something and not very quite to walk, but it should allow for a creative roleplay circumstance and NOT a punishment for playing hard :_)

jh

Yeah, some players don't like that sort of thing happening to their character. I guess you should ask him what he thinks. I know some of my players didn't want the permanents added to the wound deck. But some players see it more as an opportunity. I think keeping alive a guy with one leg is cool setting colour.

One thing you could do is have the peg leg bring certain advantages. Maybe if the character can get hold of a master craftsman he can get a virtually undetectable smuggling niche made inside it. Or a peg leg that opens to reveal all the pieces for a hochland long rifle (using the actual leg as the butt) would be cool/corny in the style of 60s spy movies.

Indeed. Every challenge is simply an opportunity in disguise. Yeah, some folks may not like the idea of their character losing a leg but rather than focus on the loss, they should be considering the new directions that they can take the character as a result.

I handed out my first disease card to one of the PCs during the first session of my new campaign (Giddy Haunts). It's pretty bad, counting as 1 permanent point of Stress, causing delirium and being a real bugger to heal at Severity 4. But guess what...the player has really played the disease up to the tee, has had some great fun role playing it, has introduced several complications (life is boring without complications) and the party has even managed to use it to drum up sympathy from various NPCs. Long story short, it's a big penalty, sure, but it's also been a heck of a lot of fun! I'm so glad that my players saw the "glass is half-full" angle and ran with it rather than sink into woe and dispair thinking the "glass is half-empty".

And if/when his character finally manages to kick the Haunts, he'll have some fantastic stories to look back on and a whole new respect for diseases!

In Omens of war there are plenty of examples of creative ways you can replace your missing appendage, some are weapons, some are hooks peg legs and everything else. I think a retired character with only one missing limb is the lazy way out, who wants to play a dashing hero anyways.

Keep the character going!!! Have the player embrace the limitation and get that fake leg! Or travel to the see the Dwarves and use the inventions!!!

To further expand Limelight's suggestion.

We know that the dwarves have some form of powered exoskeleton and etc. It is not too far out of the realm of possibility to get him a "cybernetic" leg (in a steampunk functionality and fashion).

Going in a more low-fantasy direction than dwarven cybernetic legs...

I would talk not just to the player, but to all of the players. It might have been better to do this in advance, but that can't be helped first. Tell them outright that one of their number might be about to lose his leg, but that the game intends / expects this. The game, and the campaign take into account the fact that the player characters are likely to get mauled while going through it. Emphasise that this is part of the game: the (soon to be one-legged) player isn't just 'unlucky'; his situation is typical. And warn all of the other players that you fully expect several others to be mutilated / insane / corrupted / diseased or outright dead before they get to the end. Remind them again that the game takes this into account; so they should relax, and try to enjoy playing the game as it is: a cruel, hard world, where the heroes really do have to make sacrifices.

I wouldn't try to give them false hope (there's a chance you'll find a regeneration potion), as they'll just get more frustrated and disappointed. I agree with Emrikol too: don't give the player too many mechanistic disadvantages. Allow the player leeway to roleplay the disadvantage, rather than penalising the player every time they pick up the dice. Remember to award fortune points for the time the character hobbles up the stairs and gets the sympathy (and attention) of the palace guards, allowing his companion to pocket the lord's personal seal; describe in great details the crunching noise as the player rams his peg leg through the eye socket of a skeleton that's been pushed to the floor, etc., etc.

But make clear to the whole group that not only is this (in part) what the game is about, but that they can all expect to have something equally horrible happen to them sooner or later, and they'd better get used to it - and to enjoying playing the grim darkness of it.

Everything the Despot above said ... I was going to elaborate on this myself, but I'd just be repeating most of what he already posted. This IS a great opportunity for some rp and to get into the darker, bleaker feel of the game - encourage the player to embrace it, rather than punish him. (which does mean, you should feel fully within your power as GM to ignore the stat negative so long as he rps the handicap - and feel free to let him know that the negative is only there for people who have trouble rping the effect. Make it a fun and rewarding part of the game ... and everything Despot said)

Peg-leg booze flask.

-Thorvid

Thanks for the insightful comments everyone.

I spoke with the player with the "severed leg" this weekend. Without any encouragement, he decided he's going to continue on with the same character. His life was spared (he was within a threads width of death) - so now he feels as if his life has some sort of purpose. He is currently in the scribe career - but he plans to spend future advances on becoming a soldier - feeling hardened by the harshness of the world and circumstances.

There seems to be three stages to the injury, (1) Legless, but not dying, (2) Prosthesis/Crutch, but awkward, and (3) Adjusted to Prosthetic/Crutch. I'll inflict the most mechanical penalties during stage (1), but these will decrease as the character reaches stage (3).

The other characters have reacted: "Screw these chaos cultists and their demons and corruption! Let's go get (character's name) a new leg!"

And a plot hook is born.

I have to agree with just about everyone above.

Certainly, there are a variety of prosthetics that can be acquired. Anything from a simple wooden peg, to a specially crafted dwarven metal one, are available for the 'right price'.

Additionally... this is a fantasy game. There is such a thing as miracles and magical healing. You could leverage it into a long quest. Whether it is rumors of a magical item/fountain that heals all wounds, or doing some important favors for a high rank priest of shallya for their services, etc. It can depend on the rank of the PCs, for example, as well as the group's reputation and their Party Sheet what you throw to them.

Depending on the enemies that the PCs have made, you could also potentially have enemies begin to whisper ways to overcome the leg loss.

"Tzeentch is the Lord and master of Change ... so he could most easily provide you with a replacement leg, should you pledge your allegience to Him ..."

dvang said:

Considering 40k is kind of a low magic, dark fantasy setting, however, I would not be inclined to have players running into magical healing devices that replace lost limbs - what you're talking about really is a "Miracle" and miracles are big news. As for "healing fountains" or something similar, if such a thing does exist, expect that if the players find out about it, so have other powerful groups and such a thing would be contested over brutally. In a low magic setting something like this is a major asset to whomever controls it; or for some once-men, corrupts it. (Not to mention the churches would want such a thing either controlled by them, or destroyed)

Jack of Tears said:

Agreed. Such a thing is somewhat out-of-character for the Warhammer setting but if one did exists, it would likely have something far more sinister at its core. That's assuming that you are interesting in maintaining the "grim and perilous" integrity of the setting though. You can play Warhammer as much "higher" fantasy if you desire.

Bloody Sun Boy said:

Sounds like you need a draft of lizard limbs. One of the brewable potions from the Tome of Sorcery. Aside from the issue of not knowing whether the batch is good or not, and possibly having some major side affects, the potion itself has a 50% chance of regrowing the wrong limb. So, collecting ingredients, getting someone to brew the stuff and having someone handy with a meat cleaver close by... Sounds like an interesting side quest.