There is a player in my campaign who's characters defining trait is that they have a bad memory.
I like creating mechanical representations of character traits if it makes sense to do so.
I've given the player a Homebrew feat called "bad memory" that basically says "roll disadvantage on any memory based intelligence checks".
I selected a feat because it was the easiest way to get the effect I was after to appear in the D&D Beyond character sheet so that the disadvantage badge appears in an easy to find part of the character sheet. It was intended as a way to mechanically represent a character trait.
My reasoning being that a character with bad memory should not have the same statistical probability of rolling well on a memory based check as a character with a good memory.
This player is adamantly fighting me on this though.
This is his reasoning:
The game already has the scaffolding and complexity in the locations where it is required. There are reasons why things like forgetfulness are included in the traits and features yet don't have mechanics attached to them. If it was appropriate they would have been added by the devs. Mechanics which make it harder to use a character, and especially mechanics which remove abilities from players, are things which are only used in very rare cases and only ever for very short periods.
Note: This player is a very good role-player. It feels wrong to me to not represent the bad memory mechanically though.
How should I as a GM handle this situation?
Best Answer
Give them Inspiration for Role-playing their traits
Others have great answers, but fifth edition has a mechanic for rewarding good RP and it's probably the most forgotten mechanic in the game, as well as being basically the exact opposite of the feat you created. That said, if the PLAYER wanted, I'd totally allow them to CHOOSE to roll with disadvantage on any memory checks they made.