The Perfect Form, Marred

A beautiful person could be someone with most of their teeth still in their mouth, or fewer pox marks than their neighbors. So what can afflict the Old Worlder, PC and non-PC alike?

Blemishes - Patches of warts, pox marks, acne, scars (disease or violence), branding, boils, burn marks, lipomas, sarcomas, rashes, tumors, cysts, and countless other afflictions of the flesh.

Critters - Head and genital lice, scabbies, cooties, fleas, tapeworms, and whatever other little parasites can make the host a home.

Digits - Missing digits on account of accident or frostbite, missing parts of digits, missing fingernails, mangled and unusable fingers, webbed fingers, all can make the most casual of handshakes unpleasant.

Eyes - Cross eyed, lazy eyes, missing eyes, and ruptured vessels

Gangrene - Nothing like a festering, rotting wound or limb to turn the stomache. I would imagine the scars and disfigurement caused by this could be memorable as well.

Hair - A lack of hair, or too much hair, such as one eyebrow, a thick pelt, thick hair all over.

Hunchback - A classic disability: 'nuff said.

Limbs - Broken, twisted, mangled, and stunted limbs are not only appealing, but directly affect the person's ability at surviving. Badly mis-set limbs after being broken can add to an unsettling appearance as well.

Nose - Broken, mangled, smashed, or missing noses can create a truly disfigured face.

Stench - Not just unclean, but a generally unsavory scent, or constant bad breath. Digestive disorders resulting in excessive flatulence can make one unappealing to their peers as well.

Teeth - Green, brown, old and moldering. Chipped teeth, missing teeth. Impacted teeth, not only painful but unsightly, especially with the resulting sores and absesses that may cause an excessively bad odor emitting from the mouth.

Weathered Appearance - the skin can turn to leather. Hard and chaffed, more like treated animal skin than the flesh of a human. Probably spotted, freckled, with all manner of potential cancerous growths.

Integrating Appearance Into the Campaign

Insist that each character choose one if not more disfigurement or blemishes, they don't all need cleft palates, but once players shake the concept of an airbrushed hero with flowing golden locks you're that much closer to having a grittier campaign. When running a game, detail the imperfections of PCs. Granted, the characters living in the world might well overlook these things, but the players in the real world would not, this better conveys a sense of the hardship in the Old World. A GM could easily expand upon the deformities and flaws listed above and create a random table for those players who need their arms twisted or a bit of inspiration.

Pyetr was wet, tired and exhausted, yet he kept staring at the innkeep as he spoke. He became more and more angry - the stupid fat fool! Even his appearance irked Pyetr, especially that huge mole on the tip of the innkeep's nose. It seemed as if the innkeeps eyes kept crossing as if trying to focus on the brown and hairy obstruction on the tip of the nose. His stupid Imperial accent, with its effeminate lisp merely added to his foolish appearance. Pyetr, fed up, burst out yelling, berating the fool: "Why can't you just follow the simple instructions". In truth, it was not the stupidity of the man that fueled Pyetr's anger, but the appearance that the gods had chosen for him.

Beauty is rare while ugliness prevalent in the Old World. Granted, beauty is relative, and our standards of beauty in the real world would have little equivalent in the Old World. However, the players are of the real world, and as a consequence, they'll relate to our real world standards of beauty. Convey to them how unattractive and worn down most inhabitants of the world are, how oppressive their lives are and how it prematurely ages them, the young grey, backs bow and bend under labor, and the good die young (and ugly).

Pyetr laughed as he pursued his foe. The fool with the clubfoot! Some great chase this was! How far did he think he would go! Pyetr easily caught up with the fleeing subject, who turned in time, his horrid little face twisted in fear, pleading for his life… begging for the little he had. Pyetr barked a harsh cruel laugh - and ran the pitiful figure through with his blade.

Few in the Old World would come near the perfect beauty we easily conceive of in the real world, images that we see constantly - therefore people in the world are probably a bit more forgiving of imperfections of other - to a point. Deep in the human heart is prejudice and contempt however, and especially suspicion. And for the truly ugly and misshapen, the Old World is full of suspicion: Why would the gods curse them so? What have they (or their parents and kin) done wrong? Is the monster on the outside a reflection of the monster on the inside? As a consequence, the hideous of the people are the first accused of crimes - allowing players to intervene in defense of the innocent, or to take part in senseless scapegoating.

If there is beauty in the Old World, notions of beauty are probably derived from elven concepts - standards far and beyond the means of even the most extraordinary of humans. As a consequence, nearly everyone falls short of the idyllic beauty, one that is unattainable. Few have the exotic appearance, the intelligence, refinement, and grace that the average high elf has, and as a consequence humans are constantly struggling with a standard of beauty that is beyond them, that leaves them feeling all the more ugly and course.

Humans do have a recourse however. When humans feel themselves inferior they often resort to diminishing others - and here the humans have plenty of others to malign, to burden with traits of ugliness: halflings, dwarfs, gnomes, orcs, goblins, and other humans. This however brings us to a future chapter of Got Grit?: prejudice.

Rev. Garett Lepper