Random thought.
What if you only allow Debilities to heal during a Recover (and with special effecs like Healing potion and some rare moves) ?
Debilities kinda suck but at least if they stick around for longer, it might worth it?
It would work well with Jeremy Strandberg ‘s variant of having only 3 debilities that affects 2 stats each.
So far, I’ve been “giving” debilities to players left and right but I allow them to heal “when it makes sense” which is usually whithin the same scene or right after, essentially making them kinda pointless (barely a nuisance).
Alternatively, I had a player who roleplay especially well his debility, should I award him an XP? In my head it is REQUIRED to put your debility into play but most my players seems to either forget about it or “forget about it” until they’re gone.
I’m not sure if I see the need for modifying the rule. I think you can describe the fiction such that the debility requires longer to heal. For example, in the We Hunt The Keepers podcast, at one point a player “has his face melted” by a very hot magic attack, and is given minus 1 to his CHA. As far as I’m concerned, that debility is only ever going to be removed by magic, or maybe a very capable surgeon in a well-equipped facility that can only be found in a major city. Or in the Discern Realities podcast during the Actual Play, a player his hamstrung, and given minus 1 DEX. You don’t recover from a sliced hamstring without months of time going by, or else magical healing– there’s no way it’s going to heal at the end of the scene, or with a single night’s rest.
Note that the rules as written say debilities are harder to heal than injuries and usually require a few nights rest in comfort, so if you’re describing debilities that can be dealt with immediately (without magic), you’re not GMing according to the rules (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it makes the case for modifying the rule less compelling).
I’ll recheck the wording in the book, it’s very probable I don’t exactly follow the concept as designed.
But your right I’m probably not using something punchy enough in the fiction. So far I’ve been handling stuff like you’re weak from a day’s travel in the jungle and you’re hallucinating from a plants spores and stuff like that, all of which are easily recovered from.