hi knightos,

I'm liking the less than 3 for a stat and your knight is bedridden rule. I'm only having one problem and that is what to say to any player if its the APP. The other stats I should be able to come up with something. But what to say with APP? You have a skin rash?

what have game masters done when this occurs?
ArmerdBear

"He is to ugly to be allowed outdoors?"

No, I would say (it hasn't come up yet) that APP is general aging, ie the character is blind, deaf, senile, mentally unbalanced, depressed and such things.

Watch the film Braveheart and note especially the portrayal of Robert The Elder. Too hideous to be seen in public. Watch Phantom Of The Opera for an idea of someone on the verge of having his APP drop below 3. Imagine this as the end result of any sufficiently disfiguring disease (http://crunkish.com/ten-most-disfiguring-diseases/) (syphilis, anyone?). APP loss means being shunned socially. Remember, this is a time when hideous affliction was believed to reveal congress with the Devil. It's as likely as not that anyone that ugly would simply be stoned to death in the street as some sort of monster than seen sympathetically.

I also recomment the pox or leprosy. Any of the two is a time-honoured choice for any knight wishing to retire due to a low APP score.

If i was 3 appearance in real life.. i would be an EMOTIONAL wreck! u can BET i wouldnt be causght dead in public! :)

Remember that appearance in Pendragon seems to be used at times as a 'charisma' aspect.

Low appearance could represent (minor) problems that result from strokes, age (dementia), parkinsons disease, but which haven't yet robbed you of strength or constitution...

From a personal perspective think of things like:
skin blemishes
stuttering or other speech problems
co-ordination or sheer strength problems (strokes will rob people of strength in affected limbs, and will affect speech)
facial tics
eyesight problems (lipids, retinopathy).
Mild dementia - or other short term memory loss problems caused say by heart problems.
Emphysema
Severe Asthma

I see low appearance problems below 3 (i.e 2 or less, since 3 could be rolled and you are just plain darn ugly...) as being a non life threatening (sometimes life threatening since the Balliol example is now presumed to be leprosy) manifestation of a problem that affects your ability to interact with the world at large. As with a dementia individual you may still have constitution and physical strength but cannot function independently. At 0 your in game career is over, although actual death might occur somewhat later. I think GM fiat is called into play as APP drops to 2 or less.

Chris

Either you keep the rules as is (where any stat under 3 means bed-ridden) or APP becomes meaningless as a stat. In which case those games where you spend your points, APP will always be low until such time as the game-master starts applying modifiers to courtly skills or such.

Because my game has a heavy influence of fey interaction, courtly activities, and less on mass combat (we still do the important battles), but my players really enjoy the role-playing aspect over the simple hack-&-slash. Appearance does matter more.

So, it is up the the game-master to decide how important this stat is, but this decision will have its own consequences.

Bob S.