Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[jpneok]

Hello everyone. I'm offering this for free, but being as it is a draft, I'd also like feedback, criticisms, advice, questions, any other comments on this.

This is a resource or supplement for use in any RPG, to figure out if a female PC or NPC is pregnant (with some minor GM deliberation) and then dice rolls and determining various factors and details. It is not directly geared toward any setting or genre or time period, and the only extra things that might be something to add would be a possibly random Health of the mother which could make things go better, as well as the level of medical care and/or general environment she is in, also improving chances.

I also at one time had bonuses for previous pregnancies and such but they had so little realistic impact on things from a game standpoint I just left them out.

Anyway, please feel free to leave comments if the mood strikes you. I appreciate any thoughts. Thanks for your time! -JP

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6bQD6P0YsOGdVFya3BxX1YxdFU/edit?usp=sharing
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[Cryonic]

Why???
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[Kevin]

[jpneok]

Well, that sort of reply was inevitable, and understandable, because I came across not a small number of references or accusations relating to some of the less well received games that have popped up over the years, as I was doing the research for this, even finding people who posted and asked questions to get proper info for their game needs, and had other people, gamers and non-gamers alike, make no bones about their feelings about such questions and how some things should be left un-supplemented, casting some pretty negative suspicions on the other people doing similar earlier research.

I have been running an online game of Solomon Kane weekly since Feb 2011 and one of my players makes it his character's mini-goal to repopulate the earth, and keeps track of when he is able to slip off with a fair maiden, and occasionally reminds me when so-and-so should be close to delivering, and so I thought since he was going to do that, I might as well put a little something together to do it properly.

It's always up to the GM how much or little of a supplement to use, and how to use it. I don't suggest people need to use all of even any of the information and rolls presented; I've created for anyone that does find it useful, and would like constructive feedback to improve it, if it's "too much" or not enough, etc. Thanks for the replies.
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[The One]

Anything like this shouldn't be left to chance, it should form part of the story. There's just no need to have rules covering this, particularly not in a system as rules lite as Savage Worlds.
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[Jounichi]

Seconded. Unless the birth of a new child is somehow relevant to the plot, it should be ignored.

Now, if the party had to protect a pregnant woman because the mother/child was mentioned in a prophecy or something...just make her an NPC and deliver the baby when it suit the story.

[Enno]

Definitely Thirded!

If it is not a relevant part of the story, such things are to be ignored, like you do with 99% of your daily "business". And even then you don't need overdetailed rules and tables for it. This is simple fluff, not crunch!

When procreation or "rebuilding a population" becomes an important part of your setting take games like Pendragon as an example or use the family and ressource rules from the Hellfrost setting as a guideline.
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[Zadmar]

If a player wants to turn a certain activity into a minigame, then I don't see a problem in adding some house rules to support it. It doesn't really matter whether that activity is fencing stolen goods, creating magic items through rituals, setting traps and designing special arrows, or anything else. If it's something the player wants to spend time on, and as long as it's not a subject that detracts from the campaign or makes the other players uncomfortable, then I don't see a problem with making it more interesting.

A campaign loosely styled on Game of Thrones, where the players represent members of a noble faction trying to tie themselves to the royal family - but the king's former wives have all died during childbirth? It has potential. A zombie apocalypse campaign where one of the NPCs (perhaps the wife or girlfriend of a PC) is heavily pregnant, and the players have to deliver the baby during a battle? Could be interesting (particularly if one PC has medical skills but no fighting skills, as it would give them something valuable to do).

That said, I would prefer to see something more interactive. TNs to identify problems at different stages, herbs to modify various outcomes, some rules for childbirth (perhaps a Dramatic Task, with the mother making a cooperative roll? Or would the mother make the main roll and the midwife make the cooperative roll?), and so on. Right now there's just one Vigor roll with a modifier, the rest is purely random.

[jpneok]

I would quote Zadmar's portion(s) but I'm sort of addressing all of it.

I had seen mentions of pregnant PCs adventuring, it is certainly nothing that prime time TV hasn't done, and if an hour episode to investigate a crime, go into labor, have a baby and find a killer isn't fast and lite, I don't know what is, so I'd say there is some precedent. As mentioned though, this was something a player had decided he wanted as part of his particular character's motivation - he didn't ask for the extreme level of detail, but there wasn't any compelling reason for me to not include it for for my resource for my game, and the result of that is what is being presented here.

I hadn't considered the idea of more interactive elements of the pregnancy issue, as my player had presented it as more of an absentee idea, of a trivial aspect of determining how well his progeny in a long ago village might be doing - a village which he might go back to after his adventuring days were over. I have a separate herbal pdf I've been working on for various conditions that could be used in this as well. And the idea of diagnosing issues is an interesting one, as is the cooperative one between the mother and midwife. I'll look more into the Dramatic Task idea, thanks for the input!


I think whether something is a "relevant part of the story" is a subjective concept, that is up to the GM and players. Making sure his line continues is one of this character's motivations, and as such, that player's narrative liberty and allowance to make that "part of the story", as anyone else's involvement with a thieves' guild or any other aspect - if it's relevant to the character, it's relevant to the story, because part of the GM's job is to reward and satisfy the players' narrative and roleplaying desires or needs, and without the characters, there is no story.

Lastly, like all RPG material, nothing requires or induces a GM or player to use the dice rolls instead of choosing any results from the charts. The random rolls are there for the sake of quick generation for the GM or players if they so choose, and to help give an idea of the general chances of something occurring, as well as to possibly help provide some inspirational ideas for those people who are adept or inclined to be able to produce some creative results or scenarios from sometimes potentially unusual randomly generated but still internally related elements.

Thanks for the replies. =)
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[MPHopcroft]

This is only somewhat related to the OP, but in some settings (like the anime Slayers) the female biological cycle has a direct effect on their ability to use magic. Female sorcerers and priestesses are most powerful at the peak and have only a very small fraction of their powers during "that time of the month".

It was never stated in Slayers what happens when a sorceress gets herself pregnant. Clearly it happens, though it didn't happen to anyone we saw, and it definitely would have some effect. Adventurers might settle down temporarily as the pregnancy advances, until about two months after childbirth (and healing magic would make labor a little more bearable than it is without magic).

[Kevin]

Hm.

I actually have two disagreements with this system. One, as others have already mentioned, there are some things that really ought to be left out of the game, or at most relegated to story concerns and not mechanics.

I flagrantly disagree with Zadmar's defence of it as a minigame, and that minigames should be unconditionally allowed. Just because you can do something, it doesn't mean you should. The links he provided fit some of the common themes of gaming, but I find this particular minigame in poor taste.

However, the OP managed to quash this particular concern of mine when he said the player has a story reason for wanting it—his character is trying to repopulate the world in a Solomon Kane story, and the way he's going about it actually does a great job of defining that character's personality, even if it is unconventional. So as a minigame unique to that game and that group, I think this works.


So my second disagreement, then, would be that it's just way too crunchy. It sort of reads like an obstetrics textbook—and I would know, I actually read one in paramedic school. There HAS to be a more elegant, more FFF way of doing this …

I have to go look at an apartment right now. I'll finish this in half an hour.
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[Zadmar]

[MPHopcroft]

What about childrearing, then? Few adventurers would deliberately take the kids along on their quests!

I can see characters taking a long break in game time to take care of family matters in a campaign that works on that sort of time scale. It would probably be best handled as a break for the entire campaign of several years game time, after which the PCs come back -- somewhat different for their experiences and with changed priorities.

Parenthood can also be part of a character's background. A large proportion of modern-day soldiers have families at home, whose protection is one reason they remain in the service. It can be a poignant moment when a PC in a military campaign receives letters or packages from home, which would renew their determination to fight back the enemy so that they can come home safe when the war is finally over.
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[Zadmar]

[Virgobrown72]

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[Kevin]

Here’s how I would do this system:


First, the “instigating event” is left entirely up to story and … ahem … roleplaying.

Fertility Rolls
Unless there’s a specific reason not to, it’s assumed that the plumbing works like the Great Game Designer In The Sky intended. This goes for mom AND dad. Fertility isn’t necessarily a function of health, and certainly not in the context that “health” is used in action-based RPGs, so Vigor isn’t really appropriate here. To keep it FFF, I’m using a twist of the Running/Catching Fire mechanic—roll a d6 for each “episode,” 4 or better means she’s knocked up.

New Minor Hindrance—Virile
You add +1 to your fertility rolls. This works for both men and women, so two Virile characters roll at +2.

New Minor Hindrance—Barren
You are infertile. Only GM fiat or divine intervention can change this. This also applies to men and women.

Young and Old Hindrances
At the GM’s discretion and based on character concept, these either make you totally infertile or grant you a -2 to your fertility rolls. A teenager with the Young Hindrance, for example, would get a -2, while a child would be both barren and ew. Common sense prevails.

So Now You’re Preggers …
By three months, your baby bump is probably visible. Roll a d6 at the end of the first trimester, and every month thereafter. On a 1, you’re still not showing yet. This way it’s possible (but rare) to reach full-term without knowing you were pregnant—which actually does happen, by the way.
The GM makes a Vigor roll for mom at the end of each trimester (or just once at delivery, if it’s an NPC and the pregnancy is happening off-camera). Modify this roll to a max of 3 points up or down, like so:

General living conditions since last roll:
Relatively normal for setting — 0
Exceptionally squalid — -1
Exceptionally opulent — +1

EACH major traumatic or stressful event since last roll (i.e. fall off a horse, death of a loved one, Incapacitated for any reason, etc.) — -1

A success means baby is developing normally. A raise means he or she is larger than normal, and gets one extra point to spend on Attribute dice when he’s born. A fail means he loses a point of Attribute dice (or takes a -2 to one Attribute if he has no dice to spare). A crit fail will be a stillbirth.

Delivery!
This is a Dramatic Task based largely on Vigor. Done and done. The GM is free to invent whatever complications he wishes, based on his knowledge of childbirth and the dice rolls for the Dramatic Task.
The baby gets one of his father’s Edges as a Starting Edge. Since the mother makes all the Vigor rolls during the pregnancy, the extra Attribute dice (or -2 penalties) are her genetic contribution. (“Aww! He has his mother’s Vigor, and his father’s Danger Sense!”) The baby also takes a Hindrance from one of his parents (player’s choice).
Once mom hits full-term, delivery happens at the worst possible moment in the story (GM discretion). Once a week, and any time she takes a Wound, she makes a Vigor check or goes into labor—Wound penalties apply. We’re not dealing with premies here—that’s a storytelling issue, not a mechanical one—so anything before full-term just doesn’t happen. (Technically, human gestation is ten months. We say it’s nine because it usually takes a month before you find out, so who’s to say what’s premie, anyway? This system starts the delivery countdown at nine, and by the time you hit ten, you’ve probably delivered.)

Multiple Births
If the technology is available, the players can find out at any time how many buns are in mom’s oven, and what their health is. If not, this information only becomes available at delivery. Roll a d6—on a 1, add a child and roll again. Keep rolling until you stop rolling ones. Anything more than twins, and the babies must make Vigor checks at birth at a cumulative -1 for EACH sibling (think Gang-Up Bonus, but in reverse). Failure means sick baby, gonna die if Healing is not received. Crit fails are stillbirths.
Remember, magic in a fantasy game can replicate many technological wonders of the modern world.

What About Mom?
Mom’s going to be out of commission after the delivery. She takes an automatic two levels of Fatigue, which can be healed normally at one Vigor check per week.
Large babies (who raised on Mom’s mid-term Vigor rolls), and multiple births beyond twins, are even harder on her. These cases apply a -2 to all Mom’s rolls during the delivery, and to her recovery rolls afterward.


Ergo, there are complications built into the dice. How they present themselves—gestational diabetes, placenta previa, etc.—are TRAPPINGS. And nobody has to get grossed out with real-life details unless they really want to.
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[jpneok]

Some interesting ideas in a thread I had zero expectation of there being any more posts on, so I appreciate the thoughts. I agree the parenthood aspect is definitely something worthy of at least consideration for its own set of play guidelines. I just happened to be specifically working on THIS particular aspect, because a player requested it.

While possibly for a general resource for any game, I might have created it for myself or my face to face group for anytime someone wished to use it, this never interested me enough to look into it for any significant work, as I'm not terribly keen on any of these aspects in what for me, is an escapist hobby and this topic, though I am doing a thing on diseases, if mostly pretty unpleasant in a lot of ways.

But the way I approach things is, it is best to create a very solid, accurate base representational mechanic of something to start, then you can filter it down into simpler, more essential aspects, which can be included with little to no extra effort, for quick reference, and still have the base more complex framework if you ever decide to redo it.

Kevin's last bit here is a perfect example, though possibly even more thought than I would have put into reinterpreting everything. I might incorporate a lot of that though, with his permission, and repost it here if/when I do make a revision. Thanks again for all the thoughts on this.
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[VonDan]

This is the basis for a whole new setting (that i would never want to write or play)


The Savage Tales of the land of Pregoria
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[Vinzent]

Okay I really wasn't going to come in here and say anything but then the goblins kicked my brain with...

Tabletop RPG Pregnancy Supplement - please wait 9 months for delivery.
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[Kevin]

Take it, dude. I don't want it anyway.

I'm kinda looking at this topic as more on the hypothetical end of game design than the playable end. So in that context, it was kind of a fun exercise. If you can actually get some use out of it, power to ya.
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