It's a word. Words don't magically have hurtfulness or evil stapled to them, they're just words. Some people may get upset if you use some words, but if you're not being malicious that's entirely their business. It's up to you to decide how much you care about those people's feelings and how much you care about your freedom of expression.
How did you come up with your 'handle' (forum name)?
It's the name of one of my D&D characters.
What was the first tabletop RPG you played?
AD&D 1st edition.
What was the first tabletop RPG you GMed?
AD&D 1st Edition, then Gamma World.
What are you currently playing/GMing?
I run my current group with AD&D 2nd edition. We've been doing it for over 20 years. A few players looked at 3rd edition, but never made the jump.
When did you start to play Hero?
With the first Champions boxed set. I was talking with a friend at DunDraCon last year and it got me interested in Hero again. For the past year I've been grabbing the books and soaking up the expertise here.
3) It should average out. I expect he can drop a backpack faster than anyone you know. And the swing grab is easy enough: he let's go of the rope, just like anyone else.
And I'm fifty-eight and can't remember the last time I tied a shoelace. Seriously. I've worn boots my whole life, except for PE in kiddie school.
The other side of the coin:
Are your dwarves required to move half as fast as the rest of the party because of their tiny legs? Or do they run while other march, spending more endurance and building up more fatigue? Are your elves required to make at least one toy for Santa? Do your wizards hurl tennis balls and yell "Fireball! Fireball!" because there is no realistic way for a person to actually summon fire and hurl it at someone else? It's not about realism. It's about fantasy (no pun intended). Part of this player's fantasy is a character who has overcome something that would set lesser men back forever, and to continue to strive toward his goals.
Of course, we're overlooking something still, even though it's been mentioned a couple of times already:
If your player doesn't take it as a Limitation, then it's not something that limits him. Demanding that it be one anyone violates both the rules that we come here every day to discuss, and the spirit of the game itself. Why don't you just make a character for him, tell him his hopes, dreams, motivations, personality, and spending habits? It would solve a lot of things, and you could require that he have two arms. Or maybe four, because only having two limits you since you can't do what an octopus do. If only having two isn't a limitation, why is only having one? T-rex had two arms, and we see how that worked out for him. Okay, I confess: unfair comparison: he had no brain to put behind using them, and there was that meteor thing.
I don't see the difference between forcing a player to take personal (not campaign or at least party-wide) limitation is any different from simply handing him his character in this case. It's not like he wants a personal exemption from the AP cap. He doesn't want any forbidden Powers. He just wants a guy who is not handicapped by a missing limb. No biggie. Honestly, in pure game terms, "two arms" is nothing more than SFX for using your STR. That's it. It's just SFX. His preferred SFX is both a bit less spectacular and far more spectacular than everyone else's.
At any rate:
When I was a kid, when we first got a television, I'd watch TV shows now and again. I really liked Gunsmoke. I watched a bit of Star Trek, too. I used to wonder about all the things that happened to this one particular US Marshall, and this one particular spaceship crew, and I used to think "Why does all this stuff happen to this one guy? To this one crew? It doesn't make sense! It's not believable. It's just an attempt to make the characters look like some kind of special heroes.
Then one day, it hit me. This wasn't a story about all these events, and these events were forced into this little town or crammed into the path of this space ship. No. This was the story of the people-- the heroes-- and all the things they endured that _made_ them heroes. At that point, it made a lot more sense: each of these characters was a new take on Odysseus, heroes who overcame insurmountable odds because, like Odysseus, they were a cut above everyone else. They could overcome anything, and always had. They were heroes.
Just like the one-armed warrior. It didn't slow him down a bit. He overcame it, and never looked back. He has a destiny, he's the hero of the story, and it's his destiny to become greater and more powerful and overcome greater and greater challenges. What sort of hero would he be if he hadn't already adapted to the loss of his arm?
mallachain got a reaction from drunkonduty in Welcome to Hero Forum - Please Introduce yourself (especially Lurkers)
