History Main / ChooseAHandicap

* ''[[VideoGame/OrcsMustDie Orcs Must Die 3]]'' features this prominently in the Scramble Mode, wherein completion of each level lets the player pick one of two random handicaps and one of two random bonuses. By the time a player gets to the end of the mode the effects can radically change gameplay, from making all enemies immune to electrical damage but giving more money, to becoming immune to all slowdown and stunning effects but doubling the player's MP, to making traps far less effective but dramatically strengthening the player's attacks.

* ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'': In Civilization V, the Fall of Rome scenario turns Culture and Social Policies against you if you're playing as Rome. To simulate the many factors that led to the decline of the Roman empire, the Roman policy tree contains only unhelpful policies such as Barbarian Conscription (-10% combat strength), Neglected Infrastructure (less Gold from city connections), and Popular Ennui (Luxury Resources provide less happiness). Though you can still choose which social policies to adopt as usual, policy skipping is disabled, meaning you must choose one every time you generate enough Culture for one. Oh, and [[DevelopersForesight did we mention you can't sell your Culture-producing buildings in this mode?]]

* The DEATH node in ''[[VideoGame/{{Superhot}} SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE]]''. Instead of giving you hacks to choose from between levels, the game instead makes you choose a basic gameplay function to give up instead. At first they're relatively minor functions such as GIVE UP JUMPING or GIVE UP THROWING. However, you'll eventually be asked whether to give up things like shooting or punching. By the time you've given up moving and looking, you're totally helpless. The only option left... is to simply GIVE UP.

* ''VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty'': The campaign's penultimate mission essentially asks you whether you'd rather face hordes of Zerg fliers or be harassed by Nydus Worms popping up everywhere in the final mission. You can either do Shatter the Sky and destroy the orbital platforms where the Zerg air force resides, or do Belly of the Beast and flood the Nydus network with lava, but you can't do both.
* ''VideoGame/StarCraftI'': A similar choice is given to you in the Terran campaign for Brood War. The mission before the assault on Korhal tasks you with destroying either Mengsk's Nuclear Silos or Physics Labs to cripple his nuclear arsenal or Battlecruiser fleet instead. However, the player isn't given time to destroy both, so they're more or less being asked whether they'd rather let Mengsk start the next mission with a massive nuclear arsenal or a fleet of late-game ships.

* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': Normally, the gods will give Zagreus different boons to choose from, but should he end up in Chaos' realm, he'll have to choose one of their curses to hamper him for the next 3-5 rooms. However, if you manage to survive the handicap, it'll turn into a boon and the negative effect disappears.

* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'': The [[FinalBoss Final Boss's]] special attack, "Come Unto Your Maker", forces the player to choose who in the Player Party will suffer an instant, unavoidable OneHitKill.
* ''VideoGame/TheOuterWorlds'' does this optionally with flaws, which you can choose gain as a side effect of in-game actions (for example, taking a lot of a particular chem gives you the option to become addicted to that chem). You're never forced to take a flaw, but doing so enables you to take an extra perk.
* ''VideoGame/{{Daggerfall}}'': When creating a custom class in Daggerfall you may select from a list of advantages and disadvantages, such as critical weakness to disease, or a permanent ability to absorb magical attacks. How strong or weak the balance between advantages and disadvantages is will affect how quickly or slowly your character will level up. It is possible however to slightly cheat the system by choosing a race who is immune to one of the disadvantages in order to level up faster without the penalty affecting you.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'': The middle floors of [[EvilTowerOfOminousness The Pharos]] require the party to give up their ability to use physical attacks, magic, items, or the minimap in order to progress. The last option sounds the least crippling, until you realize that the upcoming area is a dimly-lit maze full of fake walls.

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* ''Videogame/Daggerfall''
When creating a custom class in Daggerfall you may select from a list of advantages and disadvantages, such as critical weakness to disease, or a permanent ability to absorb magical attacks. How strong or weak the balance between advantages and disadvantages is will affect how quickly or slowly your character will level up. It is possible however to slightly cheat the system by choosing a race who is immune to one of the disadvantages in order to level up faster without the penalty affecting you.

* ''VideoGame/DiceyDungeons'': In Episode 6, each time your character levels up, the game randomly selects a new rule from a hidden list, and the player may either take the rule shown, or a second random selection. Some of the rules handicap both the player and the enemy, and some appear balanced but are harsher than they look when you stop to think about their implications; but some are straightforward handicaps for the player or buffs for the enemy. And if you don't like the proposed rule and choose a random selection, you always risk running into one of the really nasty ones....

* ''VideoGame/{{Darkwood}}'': in addition to gaining a useful skill when you level up, you're also forced to acquire a new weakness every few times, as well. However, you could simply choose not to level up and avoid both the positives and negatives.

* ''VideoGame/ShotgunKingTheFinalCheckmate'': At the end of each level, you have to pick one of two sets cards, which come with a card that upgrades your King and another that upgrades all the White pieces. While picking a black card that's very synergistic to your build is tempting, getting a bad combination of white cards can ruin your run as well.

* ''VideoGame/{{Frostpunk}}'': In The Fall of Winterhome scenario, once you've fixed up the town and examine the generator that blew up and caused all the damage in the first place, your engineers tell you the generator is unfixable and won't last much longer until it completely shuts down, which kills your town's [[MoraleMechanic Hope]]. You have no choice but to set up a CitywideEvacuation, but you have two choices: tell the people you have no idea where you'll be going, which adds a permanent work efficiency penalty, or lie about another settlement you can go to and gain some Hope back. However, you'll later have to either [[HeKnowsTooMuch kill your engineers to uphold the lie]] or let the truth spill out and piss of the townspeople even more.

* ''TabletopGame/SavageWorlds'': During character creation, plays are expected to choose between various "edges" and flaws that round out their character. The flaws impact what the characters can adn cannot do, and are meant to actively interfere with their goals.

Whether this is more or less frustrating than simply being slapped in the face with a disadvantage can vary: on one hand, you may be able to find the option that impacts your strategy the least, or in some cases [[BlessedWithSuck even helps it.]] On the other hand... it's a SadisticChoice in gameplay form that can make you feel like you're being sat in front of a group of venomous insects and asking which one you'd rather have bite you. One particularly bleak usage of this trope is when [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption you're fighting a losing battle]] and all the game lets you do is [[MortonsFork decide how you're going to be gradually weakened before your inevitable defeat]].

* ''VideoGame/{{Hades}}'': Normally, the gods will give Zagreus different boons to choose from, but should he end up in Chaos' realm, he'll have to choose one of their curses to hamper him for the next 3-5 rooms. [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] if you manage to survive the handicap, in which it'll turn into a boon and the negative effect disappears.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Gloomhaven}}'': Before beginning most scenarios, players draw a road event card. The card describes a situation the mercenaries encounter on the road from the town to the location of the scenario, and provides two choices of how to deal with the situation. Frequently, both outcomes will be negative, though the catch is that players do not know exactly what way they will be impacted by each choice the first time they encounter a given road event. For example, if the road event is an encounter with a rampaging bear, players may fight it, which ends with the players starting the proper scenario with a wound that inflicts damage over time, or they may flee, tiring the mercenaries and forcing them to discard some ability cards, which also act as an indirect time limittop

* ''TabletopGame/{{Gloomhaven}}'': Before beginning most scenarios, players draw a road event card. The card describes a situation the mercenaries encounter on the road from the town to the location of the scenario, and provides two choices of how to deal with the situation. Frequently, both outcomes will be negative, though the catch is that players do not know exactly what way they will be impacted by each choice the first time they encounter a given road event. For example, if the road event is an encounter with a rampaging bear, players may fight it, which ends with the players starting the proper scenario with a wound that inflicts damage over time, or they may flee, tiring the mercenaries and forcing them to discard some ability cards, which also act as an indirect time limit.

* ''VideoGame/HonkaiImpact3rd'' has a special mode called Elysian Realm, where instead of the usual 3-character team you pick a single character with two special support skills. The difficulty level is increased by choosing a number of special handicaps, which also increases the enemies? resistance as the level goes up. On the flipside, though, you also pick up special buffs on each floor, wich compensate for those handicaps if you combine them cleverly. Of course, the higher the difficulty, the more you are rewarded for clearing it.
* ''VideoGame/PunishingGrayRaven'' occasionally has an event mode called "Babel Tower" where, like Honkai above, you have to pick a number of handicaps that make your enemies tougher (by increasing their defense, attack or aggressiveness) or more annoying to deal with (such as them attracting you with a blackhole or planting small time-bombs on you when they hit you). The catch is that there are several levels and that the rewards depend on your combine score on all levels (but you can?t use the same characters on two levels), meaning you can smooth out the difficulty by making each level only mildly difficult instead of making a single one super hard.

* Gloomhaven: Before beginning most scenarios, players draw a road event card. The card describes a situation the mercenaries encounter on the road from the town to the location of the scenario, and provides two choices of how to deal with the situation. Frequently, both outcomes will be negative, though the catch is that players do not know exactly what way they will be impacted by each choice the first time they encounter a given road event. For example, if the road event is an encounter with a rampaging bear, players may fight it, which ends with the players starting the proper scenario with a wound that inflicts damage over time, or they may flee, tiring the mercenaries and forcing them to discard some ability cards, which also act as an indirect time limit.