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role of mental health in Traveller

N

nerdygerdy

SOC-7
This is a continuation of where I left off about Lambert's character suffering from debilitating emotional distress that inhibits clear, focused action, making her ideal Alien fodder.

I'm guessing there's likely a really good post somewhere that explores the function of mental health in Traveller, but for now, I'll leave some comments here.

I've always wondered if folks who've played Traveller actually try to role-play real-life mental health issues such as addiction, depression, sociopathic behaviors, etc. -- how do those issues manifest themselves in-game? How do YOU role-play them, I guess I'm asking.

How does one role-play a character from a low-tech world who suffers from whatever a TL15-version of ADHD looks/feels/smells like and can't afford the cost of the off-world meds available to more affluent citizens? I would imagine even if a character didn't suffer from TL8or9 ADHD, but encountered TL15 society, that character might be overwhelmed by what they're seeing/experiencing (now, this HAS to have been discussed elsewhere...)

Isolated low-tech worlds wouldn't have the psychotic drugs to alleviate our modern issues; but high-tech worlds I imagine would have likely figured out how to eradicate addiction/depression/ADHD etc. with powerful psychotic medications, perhaps even genetically engineered folks to a point that the neural pathways simply are built to last.
 
Hah - I'm pretty sure one can find plenty of examples of Players roleplaying sociopaths! :devil:

Ah, but if you mean intentionally... well, I don't really see this as any different than imbibing a PC with eccentric character. You just roleplay emphasizing the irregular aspect... and get the cooperation of your Referee!

I think that last is important if you want your roleplay further backed by mechanics and story. Roleplaying dropping one's blaster to the deck when combat commences, doesn't require a task check, but a good GM will find ways to support a player's character RP. Balancing things like fumbling weapons with opponent's getting negative DMs due to unusual behavior and distraction (even to the point of NPCs laughing hysterically and under-estimating a party due to an observed handicap well RP'd).

I've played PCs and played with others whose PCs exhibited phobias, addictions, physical handicaps, memory lapses, debilitating flashbacks, depression, suicidal tendencies, sleep disorders, debilitating allergies, incontinence. Yes all of those have come up and probably several more I'm not recalling. I've encouraged and supported them in games I've run and usually have some quirk with my own characters in games. In PbP games (notably more story oriented) I've encountered at least one player per game who does the same.

Besides getting the buy-in of the Ref, its a good idea to make sure other Players are aware how you intend to RP your character and one is cognizant of who they respond to such notions. Just like over-the-top dramatic acting in movies is usually poorly received by critics - putting too much emphasis on character handicaps can be bad roleplaying...
 
nerdygerdy said:
but high-tech worlds I imagine would have likely figured out how to eradicate addiction/depression/ADHD etc. with powerful psychotic medications, perhaps even genetically engineered folks to a point that the neural pathways simply are built to last.
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If you can re-DNA a person, then perhaps. Stem cell therapy (adult) can handle some degenerative issues within organs (like parts of the brain, or the nervous system). But, powerful medications have a raft of their own problems. I would like to think a TL15 society would have figured out something other than psychotropic drugs to help with depression or ADHD.

As to character sociopathies? I have encountered folks who want to play addictions, and the occasional "no self-control". I also had a fellow player in a non-Traveller game playing a hormonal teenage girl - and playing her a bit too well. :nonono: Only for the sake of the game did we not kill her on a couple of occasions.
 
Fritz_Brown said:
If you can re-DNA a person, then perhaps. Stem cell therapy (adult) can handle some degenerative issues within organs (like parts of the brain, or the nervous system). But, powerful medications have a raft of their own problems. I would like to think a TL15 society would have figured out something other than psychotropic drugs to help with depression or ADHD.
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ADHD, unlikely. It's adaptive for a number of career fields. Not the least of which is actually education... ADHD teachers tend to be better early elementary teachers.

Clinical depression? Sure. It's maladaptive over all.
 
Don't forget, in addition to real-world disorders, a futuristic society will come up with new ones.

Jump phobia
holo-addiction
designer drugs
newly found drugs (both side-effects and withdrawl)
android/love-bot sex addiction
disorders developed from newly found diseases
disorders developed from newly created or found industrial chemical compositions
anagathics side-effects
anagathics vanity disorders

And if your character is acting strange, they may hear the phrase "he's snorting stardust" thrown in their direction.
 
Yeah, Aramis, I wasn't going to get into the merits of various diagnoses here. Figured it would rapidly spill over into PIT territory.
 
RPG a schizo? I hope not.

Seriously, I think there was an article in an issue of JTAS that actually addressed this, but I can't recall the issue.
 
Blue Ghost said:
RPG a schizo? I hope not.
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FYI, that contraction from Schizophrenic is generally considered derogatory.

Schizophrenia is easily roleplayed. Just willfully misinterpret setting descriptions in some consistent way. It's actually a fairly narrow disorder - and it means "not part of consensual reality"... Or play your Traveller character as if he thinks he's a wizard. (Even more fun - have your Psionic think he's a D&D wizard... And Vargr are Gnolls.)

Heck, most schizophrenics are non-functional, but fairly harmless. When combined with paranoia, however.... yowza!
 
In the old Ursula campaign...on their now dead website, but maybe the older posters remember Sushi?

From what I remember she was an engineer named Susan Ellis Cray Nicknamed Sushi...And also from what I could guess at...

Had four personalities...Susan...Ellis...Cray...Sushi all seemed to be separate and distinct personalities.

Search for Sushi on these boards and you might get some data.

Or maybe an older poster might remember something...hint...hint!
 
aramis said:
FYI, that contraction from Schizophrenic is generally considered derogatory.
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There are quite a few things in this thread that could be considered derogatory. Which is why I tried to change the subject to Traveller related disorders. hint hint
 
According to the MT Errata, mental illness is covered in Traveller's Digest #17.

I've played mentally ill (or "different") characters a lot in other games, but not in Traveller. Probably because I mostly get stuck running it instead of playing. So the closest I got there was a serial-killer Droyne anatagonist in one game. My PCs are not that bad, but I've played the gamut from minor things to almost non-functional characters. I find it really depends on the tone of the game, and making sure you match the seriousness of how you portray the problem to that tone. E.g. it's ok to be pretty silly in a comedy game, but a cyberpunk or WOD game is likely to be pretty dark and angsty, so I prefer to treat those more respectfully. I'm not sure if I'd do it in Traveller, given that it's kinda space-opera/adventure style, so I generally don't get into the more dramatic tropes personally. But Traveller being what it is, I suppose anything's possible.
 
For an interesting take on sanity rules, Chthonian Stars has some decent ones, and it was written to be a MgT book. The same company (they sell on Drivethru.com) also sells the CthulhuTech books which are a bit more detailed with respect to sanity.
 
aramis said:
...Heck, most schizophrenics are non-functional, but fairly harmless. When combined with paranoia, however.... yowza!
Click to expand...

Depends on your definition of both nonfunctional and harmless. The untreated guy who lives under a bridge and spends his day writing incomprehensibly in a scrounged notepad, when he's not feeding himself by digging through the garbage at McDonalds, can be considered functional in the sense that he's managing to keep himself alive despite the odds - or nonfunctional in the sense that he can't be made to stay in a shelter or hold down even the simplest of jobs for love nor money. He's harmless in the sense that he bothers no one by sitting and writing - until the police officer comes along to make him move and inadvertently provokes an unexpectedly violent defensive reaction. Paranoia's the more common root of agression, but where there are disconnects with reality, unexpected reactions - becoming violent because someone tries to take your precious notepad and its store of vital information, or because your thinking is so disorganized that you can't comprehend what the officer wants and you simply want to be left alone - are not uncommon.

Modern medications combined with effective support are reasonably effective in many cases nowadays, though not all. Assuming the person's willing to put up with the side effects and tolerates the mental changes that come with the medication, they can in some cases make it possible for a person to hold down a job and live something like a normal life, though the social skill deficits tend to be chronic. In more cases, they make it possible for the person to at least take care of himself/herself, though they may be unable to work. That would be considered functional to semi-functional, not nonfunctional.
 
Getting them to take the medication on their own is often a challenge, however. Which can lead to relapse when they are finally thought to be ready to live outside the care of others. It can be sad or it can be dangerous, or both. I'm not sure that playing a character like that would be very much fun for the player or the rest of the group.
 
aramis said:
FYI, that contraction from Schizophrenic is generally considered derogatory.

Schizophrenia is easily roleplayed. Just willfully misinterpret setting descriptions in some consistent way. It's actually a fairly narrow disorder - and it means "not part of consensual reality"... Or play your Traveller character as if he thinks he's a wizard. (Even more fun - have your Psionic think he's a D&D wizard... And Vargr are Gnolls.)

Heck, most schizophrenics are non-functional, but fairly harmless. When combined with paranoia, however.... yowza!
Click to expand...

I had no idea. How do come by your info, just out of curiosity?
 
I'm sorry, this one's bugging me too much. I spent several years early in my career working with the mentally ill in both hospital and outpatient settings. I've spend the last few years of my life dealing with the reality that someone I love dearly suffers from a chronic psychotic disorder. The idea of someone "roleplaying" schizophrenia's personally offensive to me. These folk didn't ask for what happened to them, and folk "roleplaying" them for fun sounds like a recipe for massive stereotyping.

I would like you to get a feel for what it's really like to be a schizophrenic. The vid is a glimpse of the world through the eyes of a schizophrenic. As the vid notes at the end, not all the symptoms described occur in all schizophrenics, but it's nonetheless revealing. Please watch this; tell me what you think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qb8wQjwVu2g

Thank you.
 
Very interesting, Carlobrand. A bit enlightening.

I would only disagree with your statement about folk roleplaying a schizophrenic "for fun". I have actually had a lot of folks who took their roleplaying seriously - in the sense that they were developing a real character, and were examining life in the RP setting through the eyes of that character. I wouldn't want someone who was going to spend the RP sessions preaching to us about the difficulties of being a [insert problem here], but someone who took it seriously could actually make the RP more meaningful for everyone.
 
after more consideration, I am finding this topic to be off-putting as well.

Given the stigma associated with mental health issues in our society, I think many of such attitudes would likely find their way into even 'serious' role-playing.
It makes me wonder if the game also considers the effects of such a stigma when dealing with the player's behaviour. Such often leads to feelings of isolation and acts such as substance abuse,cutting and suicide, and is a major reason for the suicide rates of active duty military personnel. Other effects might be negative social reactions, job loss, bullying upto and including physical attacks.

I don't have a specific issue with role-playing mental illness, but it should also fall on the GM to adequately see to it that the npc's/culture react to it in a setting consistent manner instead of just 'color' for personalities and sanity checks.

I seriously doubt that role-playing a mental health issue in a realistic manner would be much fun for anyone involved.
 
Ishmael said:
I seriously doubt that role-playing a mental health issue in a realistic manner would be much fun for anyone involved.
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I'm afraid that I have to disagree. While I can agree that it would be a topic that could be easily treated poorly if given no respect, I have done it seriously and I have enjoyed it. To explain, when I first started role-playing at age 10, of course I was interested in being super-characters, the best of the best, etc., all virtue and no weaknesses. As I grew up and matured however, that became boring and the fun in role-playing became something I wanted more challenging, more realism, less perfect characters. So I would play characters with average stats, or later with flaws (GURPS and White Wolf helped teach me about those, and the fun they can be). As time went on I wanted more challenging characters to play, with either more serious physical flaws, social ones, or even mental ones. And in doing so I not only had more fun trying to figure out how to play the game with such serious problems, but also learned a lot about them in the process, from research and trying to walk in their shoes, as it were. This has helped me both understand people with these problems as well as empathize with them as well, so I see this as a positive thing, at least in my case. Sure I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but for those serious role-players looking for a challenge, it might be a thing to try. Or not, whatever is fun for you. For me, learning and understanding people better is fun. I like using it as a kind of exploration of the human condition by trying to see the world through another's eyes.
 
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