Lend a Hand

Lend a Hand
by Tobie Abad

Sometimes in a game, a hand isn't just a hand.  Sometimes the digits mean more than fingers.  Sometimes the palm does more than just rest there.  Here are some ideas to throw into your games for a little twist.

1. Maybe the hand is a hand...
Someone must have cut if off for a reason.  Was there a bracelet that couldn't be removed?  A suitcase handcuffed to it's wrist?  A ring that granted immense powers to its owner?  A weapon that was far too deadly it had to be disarmed?

There is also the matter of asking who did the cutting.  If the owner was the victim, then clearly we can imagine the perpetrators being desperate enough to amputate the limb.  But what if the owner was the one who did the severing?  What would drive a man to slice away one's own hand?  And using what?

2. Maybe the hand is a glove...
Crafted from materials not of this earth?  Or perhaps of materials that are from this planet, but in no way meant to be capable of being sewn into a glove?  Remember Hellboy's stone gauntlet?  What about a glove sewn from flesh?   What if the glove was an impossible one - crafted from light?  Molded from sound?

3.  Maybe the hand is weapon...
Claws are a common trope, but what about hands that wove new memories?  Or hands that stripped things of friction?  Or hands that excited those touched to dance... even if they were inanimate things (that would explain why the winds always blow in her vicinity)?  What if the hand was a black hole that consumed anything it touched?  Or a matter whirlpool that twisted touched objects counterclockwise into impossible spiral shapes that still lived and breathed and loved?

4. Maybe the hand is a key...
And it opened any locks it touched.  Or worse, could slide into anything as if it were water, whether it was wood, stone or flesh and bone.   Maybe it translated any text it was slid over into something one could read?Maybe when laid upon a dead body revealed who did the terrible deed?

5. Maybe the hand can lend a hand...
The hand can be sentient with its own ability to move, act and think.  Perhaps it is all that remains of a close friend the character once had.  Or perhaps it is the remnant of the character's rival that seeks to destroy him some day.  Maybe it can transform into a miniature figure with its own weapons and armor?  Or perhaps its can manipulate reality with a wave of its digits.