Pregnant Adventurers

[Jeff]

14 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

This would follow the regular childbirth rules, surely? Although there are indeed no rules for the physical effects of pregnancy.

However, I've moved to rolling in advance - while in Pendragon it worked to have a roll to see if your spouse gave birth during the year, it would be super weird to roll at the end of the year for a PC, to discover in retrospect that yes indeed, this year you were pregnant and gave birth...

That's exactly how we do it for my wife's very active Earth priestess ("she never misses a temple orgy!"). She's had three children I believe already - all give to her temple to raise. We've never let pregnancy interfere with what a character wants to do - and rolling it after the fact makes that a lot easier.

[Stormkhan Cogg of Pavis]

On 7/10/2018 at 6:04 PM, Gryphaea said:

I absolutely think that this is a topic were someone who has actually been pregnant should get to have their say on the matter and anyone who hasn't hold their council.

However... since no one has brought it up yet it may be worth mentioning the Xiola Umbar Speciality Rune spell Couvade (It can be found in Troll Pack and Troll Gods).  It would certainly help out any pregnant adventuring lady.

I would guess the RQG conversion would be:
Couvade 2pts Fertility or Harmony; Touch, Duration (Pregnancy) Non-Stackable. Cast upon a pregnant woman and the father and transfers all of the pains and sickness of pregnancy to the father.  Both must be present and consent. Father may be incapacitated with pain, but suffer no lasting injury. Must be cast during the first trimester of pregnancy.

Re-reading the spell after all these years an evil GM thoughts occurs... the wording is father not 'husband' or 'partner', so I could imagine a few awkward moments if the spell fails for some reason. A whole world of plot hooks and plot twists opens up.

I think it also goes some way to explain why Trolls are so accepted in the Holy Country. In a society were the most powerful people have all given birth, anyone who can cast this spell is going to have a lot of influence.

This sounds to me, from personal, real experience to be fair. IN REAL LIFE  I've experienced huge physical pain but i haven't - and cannot - experience the pain of childbirth.  I can sympathise but I cannot experience. I LOVE the concept of 'cuvade'.

[styopa]

On 12/2/2019 at 6:54 AM, Jeff said:

my wife's very active Earth priestess ("she never misses a temple orgy!"). 

That'll certainly sell more copies in Des Moines.

[Minion1stClass]

Our Ernaldan had a kid off camera before the game began. Handed off to be raised and was free when the game started.

Honestly, I wouldn't leave kids to a random roll for male or female characters or those in-between or outside of those designations. Tell players it is an option. If they decide they want that option, work it out. For many reasons it can be a touchy topic, or just not one someone wants to RP. Which is why I avoid Earth cults.  

Edited December 4, 2019 by Minion1stClass
Missing letter! GASP!

[gochie]

If you ask my wife (who is currently pregnant, and absolutely hating it), she would not adventure at all. She wouldn't farm either… or hunt… or pick berries. She would sleep. All day.

[Monty Lovering]

On 7/11/2018 at 6:54 PM, styopa said:

I'd imagine there's a host of prosaic spirit magic (and divine) that aren't laid out in a set of game rules that tends to focus on combat- or adventuring-utility spells, or at least those applications.

Hell yeah! Remove Nausea, 1 pt; Tear Not 2 pt; Soothe Colic 1 pt. I also think Comfort Song should be a spirit magic spell; you can reattach severed limbs with Heal, but not soothe labour pains? Clean (var), Dry (var), Deflect (2pt) (a screen good for midges, snow, sand and rain), Heat (var), Hear (1pt), Scent (1pt) and Tune (1pt) are just some other handy 'missing' ones.

[Monty Lovering]

On 12/4/2019 at 6:46 PM, Minion1stClass said:

Our Ernaldan had a kid off camera before the game began. Handed off to be raised and was free when the game started.

Honestly, I wouldn't leave kids to a random roll for male or female characters or those in-between or outside of those designations. Tell players it is an option. If they decide they want that option, work it out. For many reasons it can be a touchy topic, or just not one someone wants to RP. Which is why I avoid Earth cults.  

This is actually a very good and sensitive point. Asking a woman who has had nine miscarriages and three failed rounds of IVF is her character is going to have children would be awfully painful for them. I say this as the husband of such a woman.

[soltakss]

On 12/5/2019 at 1:43 PM, gochie said:

If you ask my wife (who is currently pregnant, and absolutely hating it), she would not adventure at all. She wouldn't farm either… or hunt… or pick berries. She would sleep. All day.

A friend of a friend had a baby without knowing she was pregnant. She was having a bath, go these terrible cramps and ended giving birth within a few minutes. She didn;t know she was pregnant, her family didn't know she was pregnant and nobody else knew.

A couple of years later, she did much the same again. She didn't know she was pregnant the second time, either.

I told a couple of pregnant friends about the friend of a friend and they looked at me as though I was insane. 

So, pregnancy can affect different people in different ways.

[gochie]

48 minutes ago, soltakss said:

A friend of a friend had a baby without knowing she was pregnant. She was having a bath, go these terrible cramps and ended giving birth within a few minutes. She didn;t know she was pregnant, her family didn't know she was pregnant and nobody else knew.

A couple of years later, she did much the same again. She didn't know she was pregnant the second time, either.

I told a couple of pregnant friends about the friend of a friend and they looked at me as though I was insane. 

So, pregnancy can affect different people in different ways.

Oh I know this very well. But most women I know have a pretty bad time. Bad enough that they wouldn't go looking for a fight at least. 

[Lordabdul]

6 hours ago, soltakss said:

I told a couple of pregnant friends about the friend of a friend and they looked at me as though I was insane. 

Well I probably would, too -- I've got so many obvious questions that probably everybody would be asking already, but I'm really mostly wondering what happens in the head of someone having an unexpected childbirth. Between the pain and the unknown thing coming out of you, that must be fucking terrifying.

13 hours ago, Monty Lovering said:

This is actually a very good and sensitive point.

Yeah like many other sensitive topics involved in RPGs. Gotta add it to the list of things to ask players at the beginning of the campaign...

On 12/2/2019 at 5:45 PM, Rodney Dangerduck said:

Rolling for pregnancy after the fact does simplify life, but it's, IMO, weird.  I agree that most "facts of life" are best glossed over for playability, but, IMHO, pregnancy should not be just ignored.

If the year-end roll comes positive, I would probably first figure out if there was any way the PC could have been pregnant at any point during the year. If nothing fits (e.g. if it was, indeed, all crazy adventuring and Tusk-Rider-slaying with absolutely no way to fit a pregnancy), or if the player wants to, it could mean that the pregnancy started recently, and the next adventure could involve an X-month pregnant PC (and then you might waive next year's roll). If, after giving a sneak preview of the next adventure to the player, you both realize it won't work, then either change the next adventure, move it further down the timeline, make the player play a different character for a couple sessions, or whatever sounds the most fun to them... although I would assume that if the player is OK rolling for pregnancy, they should be OK playing a pregnant character once or twice.

[Joerg]

Not all adventures need to invoke the combat rules or agility skills. Sure, your players of Humakt and Yelmalio initiates will cry "foul play", but they do hog quite a lot of spotlight in a normal session with combat. Ok, let them have a duel.

[Akhôrahil]

I also wouldn't be the least bit surprised if a pregnant Ernaldan got a bunch of magic bonuses. 

[galafrone]

my wife played an ernaldan initiate and in the process of becoming a priestess found a way to get pregnant. Then she got bless pregnancy on her "belly" and kept adventuring.

After giving Birth to a gorgeous female baby she was inducted as priestess. Now she plays her role (priestess) and adventure less, but still she go, with the baby at her back when the prospect isnt of a not-so-Dangerous adventure or she Leaves the baby at the temple to be nursed by her initiates if she thinks the dangers are too much to bear.

We have also another PC pregnant and an npc. We think that RQG is Handling this topic very well

[PhilHibbs]

On 12/6/2019 at 9:09 PM, soltakss said:

A friend of a friend had a baby without knowing she was pregnant. She was having a bath, go these terrible cramps and ended giving birth within a few minutes. She didn;t know she was pregnant, her family didn't know she was pregnant and nobody else knew.

I know someone that happened to as well. She was a work colleague and a really good friend, we'd been on a project and staying at the same hotel some time earlier... eyebrows were raised, but I had nothing to do with it I swear!

On 12/6/2019 at 3:02 PM, Monty Lovering said:

This is actually a very good and sensitive point. Asking a woman who has had nine miscarriages and three failed rounds of IVF is her character is going to have children would be awfully painful for them. I say this as the husband of such a woman.

There are a lot of sensitive points, and a game like RuneQuest can't take account of them all. I know someone who was robbed at gunpoint while working in a post office, and when I talked about playing Payday he got really upset. I knew someone who was raped as a teenager, so when we played RuneQuest we glossed over the nastier side of Broo behaviour. Diseases, disability, gender roles - any of these could be an issue. The important thing is that your gaming group knows the hot button issues that anyone has, and can handle them appropriately.

[Sir_Godspeed]

On 7/10/2018 at 7:04 PM, Gryphaea said:

Re-reading the spell after all these years an evil GM thoughts occurs... the wording is father not 'husband' or 'partner', so I could imagine a few awkward moments if the spell fails for some reason. A whole world of plot hooks and plot twists opens up.

 

This is quite late, so I apologize for quoting something from nearly half a year ago - but "father" is as much a legal or social status as it is a biological one. 

In sociology and anthropology, the usages are differentiated by using the terms "genitor" (supplier of the sperm) and "pater" (the male person with the legal and social responsibility for and connection to the child). 

In most legal codes around the world until less than a century ago (and possibly only a few decades ago), a man who was married to a woman was automatically legally recognized as the child's father. One might call this a legal fiction for lack of viable paternity tests, but also on a fundamental level, it recognized also that whoever is going to care for a child and raise it has a legal privilege* over others in this regard. This is not to underplay issues of infidelity, more of a recognition of actual social relations. 

(*Kids being more of an investment in those days, of course.)

Anyway, long point is that I see no reason why this spell can't just affect the "pater" instead of the "genitor". 

And, if I were a DM, I'd extend the effect to any male with a culturally ingrained caring/fostering role. In an Esrolian marriage, that might be the woman's brother, for example. Or whatever else people come up with if the father is not available (for example for an Otherworld pregnancy). Unorthodox, I understand, but hey, why not.

Edited December 10, 2019 by Sir_Godspeed