Mechanics for IC Self-Harm

[Dakhal]

Why can't I harm myself? I'd very much enjoy the ability to jab myself with all manner of blades.

I'd greatly like the ability to inflict such wounds on myself!

Edit: Changed the title since I was rather insensitive.

[Kothar]

As much as I disagree with self-mutilation to be fun, it could lead to some interesting RP if someone were to inflict wounds upon themselves and blame something else, say another person, or an attempt to glorify themselves by boasting of a battle they had no part in, or all sorts of subterfuge...

The downside I see is people continually carving themselves up just to practice bandaging themselves for hours on end in some kind of sick way of making yourself your own practice patient...or potentially murdering yourself in front of another person with no way for other players to determine if said other person actually ever used their own weapon against the corpse...

[Dakhal]

To be honest, most injuries to ones self are very distinguishable from wounds that would be otherwise caused. But yes, that could present a problem and I do very much feel a concern for people being able to bandage themselves repeatedly for training. But there are a lot of RP things, as said, that could come as a result from this.

[Jirato]

There's few things in this world that I find as sick and disturbing as self-mutilation. I'd really rather not have to think about it at all.

There's some obvious mechanical exploits that could be abused with a system like this, so we'd have to code up a bunch of checks and restrictions against it. It'd be a bit messy when everything was said and done.

I'm not saying it'll never happen, but it's more complex than a simple verb that creates a wound if you have a weapon in hand. We'd have to modify bandaging and healing magic so that no skill gains could be gained from self-inflicted wounds, and all that stuff too, plus there's no telling what something like that could do to your mental state, so I'd want to see some sort of mental state system added along with it. It's a bit of a big project.

[Dakhal]

That's a fair enough point, I didn't believe it would be simplistic as soon as the fact it could be abused for skill gain. And I don't mean to say that I'm a fan of it either, I just feel that it has some RP value in the world and I was curious what was stopping me from shoving a blade through my hand.

I will say that I'm happy to hear that it very much is a possibility in the future, because I can see a lot of things coming from the ability to do such actions.

[Skjotur]

I was going to say, there's some psychology behind it too. I'd find it hard to just hurt myself whenever I wanted to, there's that instinctive resistance I think most people have to physically harming themselves. If it does go on maybe it should have some restrictions.

[vidor]

I don't see what's stopping you from emoting such -- saves all the other components and problems.
My biggest issue is like what was said above: self-harm and the like is a super real issue. Outside of emoting things, I really don't see how coding it in can better the game as a whole. In fact, especially since we do have some younger players, I can see it actually becoming very problematic.

[Sneaky]

I know that some tribes and like ancient warriors use to paint themselves with their blood before battle, so it's possible that this could be turned from rather self mutilation to more of a ritual type thing for people. Like what was said previously though there's nothing stopping you from emoting it, and I'd much rather see a lot of other things than this be put in currently.

[Vaylon]

I'd want to see some sort of mental state system added along with it.

I am not okay with this at all. Outside of supernatural effects -- i.e., a ghost's fear effect -- I should be the one to determine my character's mental state.

[Fayne]

I would like this simply because I do like to RP getting injured sometimes, such as getting mad and punching something, which results in a broken hand. Or perhaps you cut yourself while skinning or butchering an animal. I'd like to be able to add these injuries to myself without the need of a GM. Another player could, in theory, inflict these wounds, but aim osn't accurate enough for that, so you could end up RPing breaking your hand, have someone else attack you, and end up with a dozen other injuries instead. Plus, not to mention other mechanical drawbacks.

[Jirato]

I'd want to see some sort of mental state system added along with it.

I am not okay with this at all. Outside of supernatural effects -- i.e., a ghost's fear effect -- I should be the one to determine my character's mental state.

Which is why this is probably not ever going to be a thing.

[merin]

Just rp you've got an injury.

[Vaylon]

I'd want to see some sort of mental state system added along with it.

I am not okay with this at all. Outside of supernatural effects -- i.e., a ghost's fear effect -- I should be the one to determine my character's mental state.

Which is why this is probably not ever going to be a thing.

I figured you were being facetious, but I just wanted to be ultra-double-mega-super-vehement about my opinion on games with mental state systems.

No, sir, I don't like 'em.

[Jirato]

I did not mean to come across as flippant. I actually considered it, then your comment made me come to my senses.

I've played MUDs with mental state systems before. I think they were poorly done and resulted in forced character actions. We take that kinda stuff very seriously. Notice how you've never seen a room description in CLOK that describes what you, the character, are doing or feeling.

While I think it IS possible to have minor nudges and mental state effects without forcing IC interaction, I think it'd be far too close to one of those DIKU-based hack and slash MUDs. This is a roleplay-enforced environment. Non-supernatural mental states just wouldn't be appropriate. Being influenced by infestation, nether, or some unknown blood god is one thing, but when we start deciding how you, the player, should think, that's just wrong.

So no, I wasn't attmepting to be facetious, I just had a momentary lapse of judgement and you opened my eyes. I get excited about new ideas and mechanics easily and sometimes I need someone to help keep me in check. :-D

[Vinz]

As far as RPing injuries and the likes, sometimes it ranges away from "this is whats going on" and needs to both fool the character and the player. There is always a metagaming aspect to any game. Showing true to a real wound instead of an RP one will make some rouses infinitely more affective. I am remind of when a few of us GMs had to hurt each others npcs in order to garner trust, part of it was people seeing a real to mud arrow sticking out of the npcs leg to prove "they really did plug this guy pretty bad...and hes bleeding so he is either completely insane or they did try to do him in" i think that has a lot of value to it in and of itself.

This being said, we have a lot of adult themes in our games, violence, cannablism and other true horrors await in our game. I truly understand the plight of those who know or knew cutters (i knew one very well) but in the end, those acts are very different and done for different reasons. Its awful and i hope any who know them can get them help, but to me, this idea is very far from what those poor souls are attempting to accomplish.

Finally, i believe that should this mechanic be put into place, there should be a degree of uncertainity. That i think will add what skjotar was speaking about. People should always have to think about the chances of this going wrong and is the plan worth accidentally dying or leaving one self open to being attacked easily. Make the wounds random in their severity.

It remind me of the scene in the first scream movie. The two villians attempting to get off scott free because they were going to wound each other to make it appear that they were attacked as well, unfortunately, they cut themselves too deeply and died. Nice and dramatic!