Mano a Mano:Disabilities

Disabilities

While other Abilities have a positive effect on a character, disabilities have a negative effect. Disabilities affect a broad range of success rolls. One disability can interfere with the use of several Abilities.

Farsighted

Farsightedness affects close range actions such as hand to hand and craftsmanship.

Nearsighted

Nearsightedness affects long range actions such as navigation and marksmanship.

Deaf

Deafness affects sound-dependent actions such as detection and communication.

Lame

Lameness affects movement abilities such as acrobatics, running, swimming, and climbing.

Ignorant

Ignorance affects any action for which a character does not have a specific ability modifier.

Disability modifiers are similar to normal ability modifiers, but disability modifiers are subtracted instead of added to success rolls. Disability modifiers are cumulative: If a character has a Deaf modifier of 3 and a Nearsighted modifier of 4, then he has a total of -7 to detect a target at a distance (-3 for not being able to hear well and -4 for poor distance vision.) Unless otherwise specified, disabilities have a maximum modifier of 4 (a modifier of -4/negative four.)

Game designers should consider limitations on disabilities, to prevent characters with severe disabilities or multiple disabilities from getting huge advantages with the extra CP, and to prevent players from creating characters who are too difficult to play. A game could limit which disabilities are allowed, maximum disability modifiers, how many disabilities a character can have, or the combined CP value of a character's disabilities.