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Jun 7, 2012 -- 3:44PM, Centauri wrote:

I think this thread has a high chance of swinging into really inappropriate territory.

Jun 8, 2012 -- 10:22AM, iserith wrote:

While we're at it, how about we come up with some house rules to differentiate male and female character ability score modifiers? What other stereotypes can we come up with to offend anyone reading this thread?

Or am I right in remembering the gaming community decided this sort of gender stuff was a bad idea a long time ago?

My thoughts exactly... the skeptic in me always kicks in the moment anyone brings up "mature" gaming, storytelling, movies, lyrics, and so on.  It's not that the subject matter can't be handled maturely, it's that handling "mature" content in a mature way is rarely interesting to anyone who wants to push those boundaries.

Jun 9, 2012 -- 12:28PM, Mad_Jack wrote:

 Considering I recently read an article about a marathon runner who not only ran a marathon while pregnant but ran it the week she was due, I'm pretty damn sure any discussion about "realism" involving huge mechanical penalties to the drow's character is pointless.

Particularly since it's a freaking elf who in no way is restricted to "realistic" human biological norms.

 From a "realism" standpoint...

 - Morning sickness : First, this is under the assumption that elves even get morning sickness... The word "morning" may be a clue that this isn't an all-the-time thing. While the cleric is praying and the wizard reading his spellbook, the drow is puking. If it comes up at all during the day, this is a roleplaying opportunity, full stop. Problem solved.

 - Movement/Ability penalties : See above mention of professional athlete. Not to mention, unless the character is a frontline melee combatant, most of those physical penalties would be almost irrelevant anyway.

 - Mood swings : Seriously? Last I checked, pregnancy wasn't classified as a mental illness. And again, who says elves have mood swings? ROLEPLAYING OPPORTUNITY

 The one thing that actually does need to be adressed from the "realism" point of view is the fact that the character's previous armor and clothing probably won't fit her through the entire pregnancy.

Magic armor has traditionally changed size to fit the wearer, or can be handwaved by a simple use of 4E's Enchant Magic Item spell.
Unless the character wants to roleplay the fact that her clothes no longer fit and she needs to buy new ones, she's either of sufficient level that buying anything short of the queen's coronation gown rarely involves much more than looking under the couch cushions for spare change or a simple spell could be written for the purpose if one doesn't already exist - in fact, I think there actually was a minor spell back in 3.5 that could do that, if it wasn't just covered under the text of the Mending spell.

  As Grimli said, try asking the player how they'd like to handle the situation.

Excellent post, Mad_Jack!

And furthermore, in a world where adventurers guzzle healing potions like soda-pop, I think it's safe to hand-wave a lot of the (real or unfairly stereotyped)  physical awkwardness of pregnancy as something that can easily be relieved by magical potions behind the scenes... unless the Player really wants to inflict role-playing restrictions and penalties on his/her own character, in which case the player should be welcome to do so through role-playing on his/her own initiative, no DM-applied mechanical penalties required.  (This is, after all, supposed to be a "mature" group - if that is the case, they can be trusted to handle the dramatic elements through mature role-playing, without DMs micro-managing the situation with artificial modifiers and so on!)

I'll add a +1 to Grimli and Mad_Jack:  the Player who wants to role-play a pregnant character should be the first person you go to to ask about how to handle the situation.  This is, after all, his character's story.  And maybe this player WANTS to play every dated sit-com stereotype of pregnancy to the hilt, up to and maybe including rolling against willpower to resist the urge to demand bowls of ice-cream with pickles... in which case it is partly your job as DM to try to encourage the player to aim a little higher, or handwave it out of the way as quickly as possible to get the game back onto a mature track, unless (Lord help us) that's what you and your group want, too, in which case you don't need any help from anyone else, you and your group have things covered.

Jun 8, 2012 -- 2:33PM, Centauri wrote:

Jun 8, 2012 -- 12:50PM, Mastercliff wrote:

Mood swings(Daily)  Choose one of the following:
Crying swing - The character gains a bonus to diplomacy in sympathy(may not work in evil society).
Anger swing - An effect similar to a barbarian rage that lasts as long as the effect it's emulating.
Happy swing - Moral bonus to resist mind altering effects.

This is where it starts to get offensive. Can we back off on the supposed mental and emotional effects? The supposed physical effects are bad enough.

Hmm, I read this as an attempt at humor....

In that line of thinking, I offer you this; 
Cravings!  And depending upon what a drow craves, that could be a real quest!

To the drow:  "You want what??  Where/how am I suppossed to get you that?"  "Oh."
Depending upon how this gets answered?  Then you get the mood swings.  Of wich I imagine "angry drow" would be the worst.

Jun 8, 2012 -- 3:54PM, Mastercliff wrote:

Supposed?  Mood swings are a documented fact of pregnancy.  Please keep your facts straight and stick to the topic of conversation.  The op is not asking for your opinion on what is offensive and what isn't.  This is about helping a dm run a pregnancy in game.

Thank you very much,
I didn't intend for this post to spark such a heated debate. It was just a question for how I should handle what the dice rolled