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No face feutures


illaden

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As indicated above, the same way you build a character with beady little rat eyes (or blood-red eyes), a sharp, hawklike nose (or a pig snout), full crimson lips (or a mouth that looks like a slit on the face), cauliflower ears (or sharp, pointy ears) and a strong jaw (or more chins than the Peking phone book) - write a physical description and consider Distinctive Features.

 

In many games, there would be a "Faceless Horror" ability somewhere that might say "Your character lacks any facial features. He gets a +4 bonus on any disguise skill involving changing his facial features, and a +4 Intimidate bonus and -4 Diplomacy bonus when his lack of features is undisguised." In Hero, it's MY character, so I decide what an absence of facial features means in game mechanic terms.

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You might want to read the Wikipedia Entry for the "Uncanny Valley". There is a strange psychological effect: We like human faces and we can accept things that are obviously non-human. But if a being looks "a little bit human" (the uncanny valley between) we get a creepy, eerie feeling of alienness.
Think about the current "Terror clown" wave. Think about V for Vendetta and the Anonymous masks. Think about the Joker, Hannibal Lecter's mask, Darth Vader and Dr. Doom. Samurai masks, ancient greek tragedy masks, voodoo and juju masks.
I see a clear Social Complication (very frequently, major): people feel uneasy and revulsive. They never know how the character reacts and feels, have to guess, expect the worst, and try to break and avoid social interaction.
 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley

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Oh, and Rorschach is a prime example of course.

I would buy back PRE for positive effects and especially for most PRE skills. You dont want to have Conversation, High Society, and Trading with a guy whose countenance you cannot read.

Persuasion and Oratory always will be more Paranoia then feeling convinced.
The character is almost unable to do Acting. And of course Seduction is out of question.
All these things, even Bribery, need trust - and you cannot trust someone who does not smile, does not show (with pupillary dilation) what excites him, does not frown, does not flex or relax his cheeks and lips to give you clues if he likes or dislikes what you do.

But he can have additional PRE limited to threats and ominous anouncements, and for Interrogation. Interrogation works terribly good if you have no clue how to react except telling the whole truth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupillary_response

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Reason from effect.  No eyes: how do they see?  No ears?  How do they hear?

 

So, example: no eyes - can they be blinded by a bright flash of light?  Maybe some sort of flash defence.

 

Any limitations on their senses?  For example if they 'borrow' the senses of others around them then mental defence may block their senses.

 

How noticeable is their lack of features?  Complications.

 

You COULD build a character with no senses then build specific senses back which simulate (but are different from) normal senses.

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