*The imms are very much like the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences. If you gain a lot of weight, lose a lot of weight, play a physically or mentally challenged person, or significantly make yourself look horrible, you are rewarded. That's how cf works, too, to a large extent. Eriwal didn't practice parry and got the wolverine. You don't practice anything at all, virtually, and get more immteraction and fun perks than anyone else I can think of. Not that there's anything wrong with it, and you certainly weren't getting anything even nearly so powerful, but it's something to keep in mind for the rest of us. My next character will be blind, deaf, no arms, no legs, but with the overpowered ability to generate tons of bellybutton lint!

I think you're looking at a symptom, not necessarily a reason. Characters on CF who willingly handicap themselves, do so because it fits with an indepth role. Their handicap constantly serves to keep them in their role... it's really hard to fall back on your past characters experiences and/or your personal mannerisms when the only skill you've practiced is staff. If your character can't talk at all, or can't hear or see or whatever other idiosyncrasies you can think of, it constantly makes you think about your role and your character. Hence, your roleplay ends up going up a couple notches, you get noticed, and you tend to get rewards.

We as imms also appreciate characters who leave themselves with significant handicaps in the name of roleplay. Notice the emphasis... it doesn't mean if your warrior doesn't practice bash you'll get noticed. If you're not roleplaying some good reason for it constantly, we're likely to just think you're not very experienced. Ghuljun was a good example, a lich that refused to raise zombies. Or that shifter that didn't pick a major foci until hero because of his roleplaying. I should also point out, that if you do something permanant to your character to make them un-powerful, such as not practicing all your skills, you may get some neat questy stuff and interaction, but we're likely not going to do anything to make you all powerful in a different manner.

Aarn