Ideas on making Taint and Sanity playable? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Ideas on making Taint and Sanity playable? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Sigfried
09-22-07, 01:36 PM What does everyone think about the Taint and Sanity rules?

I don't like sanity. I turns a D&D game into Call of Cthulhu where you're an idiot if you want to stand and fight half the monsters in the game. (The sanity hardness rules might change this a little, I don't know.) But I do like the Knowledge (Forbidden Lore) skill and the idea that certain dark knowledge corrupts you.

I have mixed feelings about the taint. I like how it is something that good/neutral characters need to fear, and is not entirely easy to get rid of. I also like the fact that an evil character can embrace the taint in exchange for some power.

What I DON'T like is that you have to take levels in those incredibly dull prestige classes (Tainted Sorcerer and Tainted Warrior [or some such]).

So here is the question I would like to pose: How can one make the taint rules more playable with the following constraints?
(1) Lose those two lame prestige classes.
(2) Good characters still suffer, bad characters benefit (at a cost)
(3) Incorporate Knowledge (Forbidden Lore) into the taint system.
(4) 1-3 done in an easy, streamlined sort of way that adds maximum flavor and minimal bookkeeping.

Any ideas?
Corvus_Obscurus
09-22-07, 03:11 PM Maybe Heroes of Horror is what you are looking for. It offers a very detailed ruleset for taint and is a great handbook for campaign and story writing as well.
Talisman
09-22-07, 06:41 PM I agree regarding sanity (despite being a huge Lovecraft fan). D&D is D&D, not CoC.

I love the taint rules (at least on paper...haven't gotten to run my "Gritty Dark Fantasy" campaign yet), but I get what you're saying.

I also really like the idea of making Forbidden Lore (Int) more mainstream and generally useable.

Enough agreement. I will be back when I have actual, useful ideas.
Sigfried
09-24-07, 03:12 PM Following Corvus's advice, I picked up HoH. I like the taint system in that book MUCH better than what's in OA and UA.

Thanks for the tip.

For the record, I too am a huge Lovecraft fan. I'd like to run a campaign that is Lovecraftian, but not like CoC. I want the party to be scared, but not too scared to stand and fight.
Zaranthan
09-26-07, 10:25 PM I haven't given sanity and taint a good playtesting yet, but after reading through the material several times, it seemed like the game would simply accentuate the demand for spells that remove taint. At low levels, some sort of allegiance to or sponsorship from a benevolent church would be important. Having a CoD along would be pretty much mandatory for any adventuring group that intended to accomplish anything in the war against evil.
ravenshrike
09-27-07, 01:13 AM *sniffs* the idea behind much of the follow-up lovecraftian lore is far removed from what Lovecraft's point was. In fact, a very simple cthuloidian entity would be a being that finds quantum mechanics logical. It's actually a running joke in our D&D games for characters to lose sanity from mundane stuff, simply because the idea of losing sanity just from looking at something is absurd. Lovecraft's point was not that the beings were actively malevolent, but that they were so far removed from our level of consciousness that they would no more consider our point of view as we would a bacterium's.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Sigfried 09-22-07, 01:36 PM	What does everyone think about the Taint and Sanity rules? I don't like sanity. I turns a D&D game into Call of Cthulhu where you're an idiot if you want to stand and fight half the monsters in the game. (The sanity hardness rules might change this a little, I don't know.) But I do like the Knowledge (Forbidden Lore) skill and the idea that certain dark knowledge corrupts you. I have mixed feelings about the taint. I like how it is something that good/neutral characters need to fear, and is not entirely easy to get rid of. I also like the fact that an evil character can embrace the taint in exchange for some power. What I DON'T like is that you have to take levels in those incredibly dull prestige classes (Tainted Sorcerer and Tainted Warrior [or some such]). So here is the question I would like to pose: How can one make the taint rules more playable with the following constraints? (1) Lose those two lame prestige classes. (2) Good characters still suffer, bad characters benefit (at a cost) (3) Incorporate Knowledge (Forbidden Lore) into the taint system. (4) 1-3 done in an easy, streamlined sort of way that adds maximum flavor and minimal bookkeeping. Any ideas?
Corvus_Obscurus 09-22-07, 03:11 PM	Maybe Heroes of Horror is what you are looking for. It offers a very detailed ruleset for taint and is a great handbook for campaign and story writing as well.
Talisman 09-22-07, 06:41 PM	I agree regarding sanity (despite being a huge Lovecraft fan). D&D is D&D, not CoC. I love the taint rules (at least on paper...haven't gotten to run my "Gritty Dark Fantasy" campaign yet), but I get what you're saying. I also really like the idea of making Forbidden Lore (Int) more mainstream and generally useable. Enough agreement. I will be back when I have actual, useful ideas.
Sigfried 09-24-07, 03:12 PM	Following Corvus's advice, I picked up HoH. I like the taint system in that book MUCH better than what's in OA and UA. Thanks for the tip. For the record, I too am a huge Lovecraft fan. I'd like to run a campaign that is Lovecraftian, but not like CoC. I want the party to be scared, but not too scared to stand and fight.
Zaranthan 09-26-07, 10:25 PM	I haven't given sanity and taint a good playtesting yet, but after reading through the material several times, it seemed like the game would simply accentuate the demand for spells that remove taint. At low levels, some sort of allegiance to or sponsorship from a benevolent church would be important. Having a CoD along would be pretty much mandatory for any adventuring group that intended to accomplish anything in the war against evil.
ravenshrike 09-27-07, 01:13 AM	sniffs the idea behind much of the follow-up lovecraftian lore is far removed from what Lovecraft's point was. In fact, a very simple cthuloidian entity would be a being that finds quantum mechanics logical. It's actually a running joke in our D&D games for characters to lose sanity from mundane stuff, simply because the idea of losing sanity just from looking at something is absurd. Lovecraft's point was not that the beings were actively malevolent, but that they were so far removed from our level of consciousness that they would no more consider our point of view as we would a bacterium's.