Ironpaw: Modeling and Practical Concerns

[Michael Hopcroft]

In the classic T&T module City of Terrors is an NPC whose name is not given whom I referred to as "Ironpaw". A brigand, he was caught and had his hand cut off. However, he evidently liked being a brigand so he kept on doing it, got caught, and got his other hand cut off.

So, when the PC encountered him, he had two roughly fist-shaped knives in place of his hands. Intimidating to be sure, but it raises some questions that can apply to other HERO camapigns (such as Pulp or Dark Champions enforcers siimilarly equipped):

1. How do you model the knives themselves.

2. How does a person live with that sort of "accesories"? As a subtitute for hands, blades have several weaknesses.

Michael Hopcroft

[Markdoc]

Model the knives? They're just attached knives (OIF). You could maybe give an extra DC if you wanted to give the benefit of the doubt in that he might be able to strike harder with them (probably not, IRL)

As for living with them - sheesh - in games like T&T or D&D, there are questions which simply are not asked. I suspect the designers never gave it a second thought.

Practically, he'd need someone to things for him - change his clothes, wipe his butt, pick his nose, etc. He might be able to do some rudimentary cooking/feeding, hold things between the knives (like a cup) and manipulate some things with his feet of mouth, but he'd be pretty helpless in many situations.

cheers, Mark

[Manic Typist]

Maybe he had another set of prosthetic hands made.. you know...... without the sharpness?

[Solomon]

A guy in my town had a dwarf character in a MERP campaign, who lost both his hands to a spell. He had them replaced by prosthetics that ended up in, respectively, an axe head and a warhammer head. They were firmly attached and he could not remove them alone. The other players' characters looked after his needs... from feeding to cleaning.
Once he got separarted from his group (they fell from a boat). He had to live for a week or so with his prostethics - and armor - on. Chewing on berries directly from the bush and the like. When at last they found him, of course he had soiled himself in his armor for a week.

Your Ironpaw guy might be a tad luckier (and smarter) though. He might be able to put on and remove the pawns on his own - handless people can develop a surprising degree of dexterity in coping with their disability. A regular patron at my cafe suffers from focomelia and I'm amazed by how much indipendent she is - she can eat on her own, take out her wallet and pay without external aid. I do think she still needs help in some delicate matters such as personal hygiene.

[Markdoc]

Your Ironpaw guy might be a tad luckier (and smarter) though. He might be able to put on and remove the pawns on his own - handless people can develop a surprising degree of dexterity in coping with their disability. A regular patron at my cafe suffers from focomelia and I'm amazed by how much indipendent she is - she can eat on her own, take out her wallet and pay without external aid. I do think she still needs help in some delicate matters such as personal hygiene.

Yeah I thought about that - but it's one thing not to have hands. It's another thing to have blades on the end of your arms! Like the pirate/seagull joke.

cheers, Mark

[Solomon]

Like the pirate/seagull joke.

cheers, Mark

Don't know it. Care to tell the story? :)

[Tornado]

Don't know it. Care to tell the story? :)This pirate has one eye, a pegleg, and a hook for a hand. Some guy asks him how he got the pegleg. And he goes on with this story of an epic fight with a barracuda, and the guy's like, "wow". Then the guy asks how he got the hook. And the pirate tells him about this duel with another pirate, and the guy's like, "wow". Then the guy asks asks how he lost his eye, so the pirate says "A seagull shat in it." So the guy goes, "but wouldn't you still be able to see?" And the pirate says "Yeah, but when I went to wipe away the poo, I forgot I had a hook for a hand."

As to the character, living with that would probably be something he'd adapt to. Maybe he'd use wooden spoons and forks and such, and then stab them with his knives, and furthermore manipulate them. As to wiping his bottom... well, I doubt he did that much. Pulling down his pants to go to the bathroom is probably possible. Maybe hooks on the sides of his pants that he could grab? I don't know. He'd probably have someone do a lot of things for him, though.