A Character Prone to Seizures when at High Levels of Energy

[CptPatriot]

I read the following backstory from a site that apparently deals with Damsel in Distress superheroine video, so to avoid sending any non-adults to the site, I'll attempt to be responsible and only quote the backstory here.

 

Backstory:

Rachel Stark was brought up by her Aunt and Uncle after her parents were killed in a car accident. Her childhood was difficult due to her Aunts resentment at having to pay to bring up a child that was not her own. As Rachel grew she formed the opinion that families and friends were ‘over-rated’ and struck out on her own as soon as she could. Her life was changed in her late teens when she came to the aid of a woman being mugged. With one simple punch she floored the mugger, knocking him unconscious. She found that she possessed an amazing energy in her fists, and being the enterprising sort she formulated a plan to bring down a drugs organisation, posing as debt collector to gain trust before destroying the drugs stash and taking all of their money. All the while her strength was increasing, and she seemed to have a need to expel her energy. She had suffered from epileptic seizures since childhood, but they had ceased when she began using her fists on muggers and punching bags. Regularly however she could feel energy building in her and needed to exercise heavily to quell it. Next she took up gymnastics. Her powers were becoming so acute that she rose to Olympic standards in just a few months. The drawback being that this created a buzz and led journalists to her gymnastic club. She was very reluctant to appear on camera because of her previous brushes with drugs gangs, however one viewer would change her life…

 

His name was Michael Sampson, and it was his job to assemble people with special abilities for a new internationally backed anti-terrorism unit to be called ‘Elite Force’. Michael personally oversaw Rachel’s training and was astonished by her abilities. She was by far the most powerful person they had found to that point, and would only ever be surpassed by Miss Freedom several years later. Rachel was given the moniker ‘Powerstar’ and set about fighting crime at home and abroad with gusto. In truth the build up of energy in her body was becoming a menace, forcing her to work all day and most of the night. It denied her any hope of a meaningful relationship. She kept this situation under wraps for as long as possible.

 

Now, the idea of being subject to seizures if your energy levels are too high seemed like an interesting angle to try to use but besides a simple Physical Complication, how would you write it up?

[McCoy]

Re: A Character Prone to Seizures when at High Levels of Energy

 

From the description, I would say she has the seizures under control. She can feel the energy building, knows it must be released. This could be a dependency, must use powers every few days; enrage if hasn't been in combat recently; physical limitation; etc.

 

When would she not be able to use her powers and actually trigger a seizure? Entangled? Twelve hour plane flight?

 

What happens during the seizures? She's unaware of her surroundings for a few seconds/minutes? Or gran mal with thrashing about? Or unintended discharge of her power?

[psyber624]

Re: A Character Prone to Seizures when at High Levels of Energy

 

I agree that this sounds like a dependence to me, something she HAS to do or suffer some consequences. How exactly you would simulate a seizure in HERO I don't know (honestly I would just say that's the effect of the dependence and not worry about it.)

 

I'd Write It up as:

Dependence: Physical Exertion/Power Use. Very Common (5 pts), KO'd (+20 pts), 1 Day (-15 pts): Total Cost 10 pts

 

If she fails to use her powers or strenuously exert herself for 1 day she seizes (in game effect is similar to KO, GM rules how long till she can start taking recoveries. If appropriate medical assistance is available (pharmaceuticals, another character with paramedics, etc) She should be able to start taking recoveries after 1 Turn, otherwise the GM may rule that she cannot take recoveries till she receives some form of outside help (depending on the severity of the seizure.)

 

She might also take a social complication to reflect the fact that she cannot form lasting relationships, but that would be 5 pts max.

 

 

The only other way i could see handling this would be some form of side effect for her power, but I am not sure how to get a side effect to go off when she DOESN'T use her powers....

[Asperion]

Re: A Character Prone to Seizures when at High Levels of Energy

 

As a person who has suffered seizures in the past i know that there are some questions that need to be answered:

 

petite/grand: grand mal totally incapacitates a person both physically and mentally. These people tend to loose track of everything (time, location, people, etc) for a min of thirty minutes after and are worn out for the remainder of the day both physically and mentally. Think of this as having run 1.5 marathons in the time of the seizure. Petite mal is similar, just not as severe (they only ran 0.5 marathons).

 

Trigger: most people think that flashing light triggers seizures, but these are only the most common trigger. Others could be triggered by tiredness, or stress, or time, or environmental factor. Basically work with the gm to determine some trigger that will work for this char.

 

Frequency: Just because someone's trigger has been tripped does not mean that they will have the seizure. If they just had a seizure, then they will be siezure-free for a time. However, as time passes if they are not doing something that releases the stress in the mind, eventually another seizure will occur. Frequently doctors prescribe meds that do this job, but the have problems of their own.

 

These are some points to think about when dealing with seizures, each one can receive its own complication. Hope that it helps you.