Insanity or genius?

So, last night I joined Richi and Andrey to record an episode of Hobby Sofa (due out sometime in the next week) and due to reasons unknown (*cough* *cough* booze) I may have released a bit more about my game than originally intended.  One of the things revealed was that there is at least one handicapable character in the game which prompted a question about whether there were any characters with mental health issues.  Although I am a doctor of psychology, I’m not one for putting things in to meet a quota and had no intention of creating a character like that but, the question did make me think.

Although I do have a keen interest in mental health issues (many conditions carry an undeserved stigma born of ignorance), it is a tough one to tackle.  It exists in this world so I’d quite like it to have some presence in my world, the issue then is how to tackle it in a way that won’t cause offense.  I had another similar internal debate over inclusion of the KKK as they were heavily involved in the prohibition movement.  The outcome of that was that I wouldn’t touch the klan with a shitty stick, that boil on the arse of history should be left in the past!

Thankfully the answers was presented to me in the form of a cartoon, if He-Man can tackle schizophrenia, so can I.  Granted, the character of Man-E-Faces was never openly portrayed as having mental health issues but he did have multiple personalities and that’s as near as children’s TV from the 1980s is likely to get.

I have now come up with a character concept that is a little bit darker than I had originally intended but, given the subject matter, hopefully the tone is about right.  I ended up going down the route of an issue that developed later in life, triggered by a traumatic event.  I’m not sure whether or not he’ll make the final game but here’s the concept so far (please bear in mind I pretty much got this far while eating breakfast this morning!)

William Jenkins.  Hitman.

Growing up in a broken home, William Jenkins had little hope for a bright future.  Domestic violence was a daily occurrence in the Jenkins house and little Billy took his fair share of beatings.  The only ray of hope came in the form of Billy’s grandma who always told him that he could be anything he wanted if he worked hard enough.  When he became old enough, William took that lesson with him as he waved goodbye to his childhood.  He quickly rose through the ranks of a local mob, making a name for himself as one of the finest hitmen around.  By the age of 30, William was second only to the boss and had more money and women than he knew what to do with, the only thing he wanted for was the respect of the grandma that always believed in him.

By the time he had decided it was the right time to go home, his grandma was on her death bed.  William spent what little time he had with his grandma explaining all that he had achieved with his life.  The last words of this once proud woman were telling her grandson how ashamed she was of the man that he had become.

His grandma’s disappointment was more than William could take, in that moment his mind snapped and he was taken back to his childhood.  In the body of a fully grown killer, the mind of a small child tried to come to terms with the shame of disappointing his grandma.

Years later, William has still not fully come to terms with what occurred that day.  His mind may be his own once again but it may not stay that way for long.

Special rules

Deadly accuracy

Prepared

Fractured psyche – at the start of the turn, roll a dice.  On a roll of 1-6, this character’s personality is Billy, on a roll of 7-12 this character’s personality is William.  If this character is William, he may act as normal.  If he is Billy, he may only take move and duck actions, gains the Feeble special rule and loses all other special rules.

The intention was to make a character of average cost that has a 50/50 chance of either being awesome or useless each turn.  I like the idea that if you can position him to do an action, you’re gambling on being able to act normally the next turn.  Like real life, you never know when an issue may arise.

Over the next couple of weeks I’m going to start releasing a bit more about the game mechanics and some more on some the characters and the factions they belong to.