Insanity Varients [Archive] - Wizards Community

Insanity Varients [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Mr.Atheist
09-05-05, 03:53 PM I've always been a Cthulhu fan, and recently I read the 'insanity' section in Unearthed Arcana. The detail is amazing, so many possibilities with my players.
The problem is, the system seems a little steep and unforgiving. Recovering sanity points is pretty impossible in a party without a cleric or 6 months to spend in an institution.
Anyone dreamed up any good insanity varients?
My players are about to uncover the tomb of a once powerful alienist, and one will most likely be cursed with visions and madness (i know the rogue HAS to touch the ornament containing is soul). He will most likely lose a good bit of sanity, and i'd like some minor insanity effects upon him, but i don't want him forever damned to an asylumn or gibbering madness. I want some Lovecraft-esque fun, yet still solvable in the D&D fashion.
Hope I made sense...
CryoSilver
09-05-05, 04:34 PM I think the point is that Sanity is extremely hard to bounce back from.

I use Sanity in my game, subject to the following:

Initial Sanity = Wisdom * 10
Maximum Sanity = 200 or Wisdom * 10 (whichever higher)
Recovery of Sanity: 1 point per week between instances of Sanity loss, 1d6 Sanity regained at each level up, Restoration restores 1 point of Sanity, Greater Restoration restores 1d4 points. Institutionalizing (which means living at a temple or other place with skilled healers with good bedside manners) restores 2 points per week between losses (but see below).
Sanity loss is based on Will saves and varies based on the experience.

Institutionalizing: Each week, the healer must make a special Heal check with a DC equal to the difference between the characters maximum Sanity and current Sanity (yes, this Dc can become obscenely high very fast, but that's half the point). The healer uses his Cha modifier in place of his Wis modifier for this check. Furthermore, he may add half hid ranks in Diplomacy as a bonus on this check. if he knows what event contributed most to the patient'sinsanity, he gains a further +2 bonus on the check. if successful, the patient regains 2 Sanity points. If the check fails by less than 5, no progress is made, but no penalties are assessed. If the check fails by more than 5, the patient loses 1 point of Sanity. If the healer ever rolls a natural 1 on this check, the patient loses 1d4 Sanity and goes temporarily insane. The healer may not take 10 on this check.

Temporary Insanity: a character becomes temporarily insane if he loses a number Sanity points equal to his Wisdom score within 1 hour. Temporary insanity lasts 1d4 rounds, plus 1d6 hours of secondary insanity effects.
Possible effects include (but are not limited to): unconsciousness, random actions, fleeing, screaming and not taking any other actions, cowering, drooling like an idiot, oblivvous to the world around, etc.. Following 1d4 rounds of that, the character suffers 1d6 hours of related but less serious symptoms. These may include: twitchiness, paranoia, insomnia, deafness, muteness, babbling, etc. In general, these symptoms result in a -2 penalty on all checks, rolls, saves, etc, while they are in effect.

Indefinite Insanity: a character becomes indefinitely insane if he loses a number of Sanity points equal to %50 of his maximum Sanity in one day. The effects of indefinite insanity last 3d4 months, and may include any mental disorder the DM deems fitting. In general, these disorders impose a -2 penalty on Will saves and a -1 morale penalty on all other rolls while in effect (though these may change appropriate to the affliction).

Permanent Insanity: if a characeter ever loses all of his Sanity, he becomes permananently insane. The only way tor everse this is to cast Miracle, Greater Restoration and Heal on the chacater, in that order. Permanent insanity places the character under the DMs control, and imposes any number of other interesting effects at his discretion. If playing with CtC, the character gains the Cult Sorcerer template if he doesn't die or pass beyond the veil of meaningful interaction with the real world.
3doorsfan
09-05-05, 06:13 PM I use sanity in my campaign but run it a little different

Any player can read tomes (depending on your class it has different effects)
essentially any character knows what type of info the tome contains before he reads it. Spellcasters gains new spells and fighters gain fighting techniques

I dont penalize spellcasters for learning or casting spells (i feel this is unfairly restrictive to them, you dont cost a fighter sanity point for fighting so why should a wizard worry about such things)

there are only 3 ways to recover sanity points

1. 1d6 each level
2. 1d4 per month with use of drugs
3. wish or miracle restores 1d10 sanity, heal restores 8 sanity points

there is no recovery from permanent sanity loss (my players normally temporarilly "retire" thier adventurers when this is close to happening
Verelor
09-05-05, 07:19 PM I think insanity should be roleplayed.
CryoSilver
09-05-05, 08:57 PM All well and good to sy it's roleplyed (and it is, IMC) but it also has clearcut effects on how the characters interact with reality. You're not going to tell me that someone with a sever phobia isn't going to need a Will save to fight a creature that resembles what they're afraid of, etc.
cmrscorpio
09-05-05, 09:52 PM wish or miracle restores 1d10 sanity, heal restores 8 sanity points

so, 7 out of 10 times, a 9th level spell will recover less sanity than a 6th level spell? Or is it that the recovery of sanity is a seconday effect when you cast wish/miracle?
3doorsfan
09-05-05, 11:45 PM good point.

i think i'll make an adjustment

perhaps wish and miracle will recover 1d10 + 1/caster level

and heal should recover what then? any opinions
PearlJamaholic
09-18-05, 02:17 PM dont know if im over looking it but what happens during wisdom drain or damage to sanity points? nothing?

what would be a fair amount of sanity loss after being brought back from death? i was thinking 1d6 since thats what they get when they level up. ive re-read the sanity section many times for something about pcs that die.
Aurotuli
09-18-05, 03:37 PM I can't really help too much in this, as I use the Horror/Madness rules in Ravenloft. Their actually based on the d20 system, rather than the d% system.
NinjaE
09-18-05, 03:44 PM A little thing I thought up to make adventuring less maddening; I won't personally be using insanity for a while, as we're playing heroic urban fantasy and then a humour/action BESM D20 game, but it struck me as odd that a necromancers' apprentice would never manage to get used to the undead.
Thus; a character can only ever lose ten times the max sanity loss from seeing a specific thing. Example; Boffo the paladin sees a lemure. We'll say that seeing a lemure costs 1/1d6 sanity. Now, Boffo's not the most lucky of paladins, so he loses full sanity for that lemure. And the next one, and the next one, and so on. At the end of the day, Boffo's lost 53 sanity points from seeing a wagonload of lemures. If he loses a further seven points from seeing lemures, he'll get used to seeing the darn things, and he won't go into shock just cause a soul of the damned with no legs that looks kinda like melted wax is pulling itself towards him whilst screaming blasphemies towards the gods of darkness( seriously, you've gotta be some sorta wimp if that scares you).

Now, a few years later, Boffo is hugely successful, and runs into Evil God of Doom on the streets, as the god's just moved into the neighborhood. Now, over the next few years, Boffo spends quite some time in rehab from speaking with his new neighbor, but he eventually recovers from losing a grand total of 2000 sanity points. Then, the evil god marries the love of his life, a girl named Takhisis. He introduces her to Boffo, who again loses 200 sanity, as his DM rules Takhisis to be a whole different thing from Evil God of Doom. Poor, poor Boffo the paladin.

That make any sense?
weasel fierce
09-18-05, 05:07 PM One trick (if the rules dont cover it already) is to give back some sanity points, for defeating that which caused the loss. Confidence through reasserting oneself and reality.

Taken straight out of Call of Cthulhu (the BRP version of course)
Crystal Monk
09-18-05, 08:35 PM another option that I've seen in both Unearthed Arcana and D20 Call of Cthulhu is the concept of Sanity Hardness. basically, the idea is that the more seasoned an adventurer gets, the better their mind can deal with things that would horrify your average commoner. in CoC, Sanity Hardness was suggested to be 3+1 per level, so that a 5th-level PC would have Sanity Hardness 8. in Unearthed Arcana, I think it was suggested to be just 1 per level. basically, this means that no adventurer would ever lose sanity for seeing an Orc - according to CoC, seeing an Orc causes 1/1d3 sanity loss, so adventurers using the CoC version could shrug it off.

however, I'd suggest ruling that some things cause sanity loss no matter what the PC's Sanity Hardness is. having your best friend's head delivered to you in a box, for one. seeing Great Cthulhu, for another. being forced to participate in a cult's sacrificial ritual, for a third. eating seventeen-year-old fruitcake, for a fourth. :D you get the idea.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Mr.Atheist 09-05-05, 03:53 PM	I've always been a Cthulhu fan, and recently I read the 'insanity' section in Unearthed Arcana. The detail is amazing, so many possibilities with my players. The problem is, the system seems a little steep and unforgiving. Recovering sanity points is pretty impossible in a party without a cleric or 6 months to spend in an institution. Anyone dreamed up any good insanity varients? My players are about to uncover the tomb of a once powerful alienist, and one will most likely be cursed with visions and madness (i know the rogue HAS to touch the ornament containing is soul). He will most likely lose a good bit of sanity, and i'd like some minor insanity effects upon him, but i don't want him forever damned to an asylumn or gibbering madness. I want some Lovecraft-esque fun, yet still solvable in the D&D fashion. Hope I made sense...
CryoSilver 09-05-05, 04:34 PM	I think the point is that Sanity is extremely hard to bounce back from. I use Sanity in my game, subject to the following: Initial Sanity = Wisdom * 10 Maximum Sanity = 200 or Wisdom * 10 (whichever higher) Recovery of Sanity: 1 point per week between instances of Sanity loss, 1d6 Sanity regained at each level up, Restoration restores 1 point of Sanity, Greater Restoration restores 1d4 points. Institutionalizing (which means living at a temple or other place with skilled healers with good bedside manners) restores 2 points per week between losses (but see below). Sanity loss is based on Will saves and varies based on the experience. Institutionalizing: Each week, the healer must make a special Heal check with a DC equal to the difference between the characters maximum Sanity and current Sanity (yes, this Dc can become obscenely high very fast, but that's half the point). The healer uses his Cha modifier in place of his Wis modifier for this check. Furthermore, he may add half hid ranks in Diplomacy as a bonus on this check. if he knows what event contributed most to the patient'sinsanity, he gains a further +2 bonus on the check. if successful, the patient regains 2 Sanity points. If the check fails by less than 5, no progress is made, but no penalties are assessed. If the check fails by more than 5, the patient loses 1 point of Sanity. If the healer ever rolls a natural 1 on this check, the patient loses 1d4 Sanity and goes temporarily insane. The healer may not take 10 on this check. Temporary Insanity: a character becomes temporarily insane if he loses a number Sanity points equal to his Wisdom score within 1 hour. Temporary insanity lasts 1d4 rounds, plus 1d6 hours of secondary insanity effects. Possible effects include (but are not limited to): unconsciousness, random actions, fleeing, screaming and not taking any other actions, cowering, drooling like an idiot, oblivvous to the world around, etc.. Following 1d4 rounds of that, the character suffers 1d6 hours of related but less serious symptoms. These may include: twitchiness, paranoia, insomnia, deafness, muteness, babbling, etc. In general, these symptoms result in a -2 penalty on all checks, rolls, saves, etc, while they are in effect. Indefinite Insanity: a character becomes indefinitely insane if he loses a number of Sanity points equal to %50 of his maximum Sanity in one day. The effects of indefinite insanity last 3d4 months, and may include any mental disorder the DM deems fitting. In general, these disorders impose a -2 penalty on Will saves and a -1 morale penalty on all other rolls while in effect (though these may change appropriate to the affliction). Permanent Insanity: if a characeter ever loses all of his Sanity, he becomes permananently insane. The only way tor everse this is to cast Miracle, Greater Restoration and Heal on the chacater, in that order. Permanent insanity places the character under the DMs control, and imposes any number of other interesting effects at his discretion. If playing with CtC, the character gains the Cult Sorcerer template if he doesn't die or pass beyond the veil of meaningful interaction with the real world.
3doorsfan 09-05-05, 06:13 PM	I use sanity in my campaign but run it a little different Any player can read tomes (depending on your class it has different effects) essentially any character knows what type of info the tome contains before he reads it. Spellcasters gains new spells and fighters gain fighting techniques I dont penalize spellcasters for learning or casting spells (i feel this is unfairly restrictive to them, you dont cost a fighter sanity point for fighting so why should a wizard worry about such things) there are only 3 ways to recover sanity points 1. 1d6 each level 2. 1d4 per month with use of drugs 3. wish or miracle restores 1d10 sanity, heal restores 8 sanity points there is no recovery from permanent sanity loss (my players normally temporarilly "retire" thier adventurers when this is close to happening
Verelor 09-05-05, 07:19 PM	I think insanity should be roleplayed.
CryoSilver 09-05-05, 08:57 PM	All well and good to sy it's roleplyed (and it is, IMC) but it also has clearcut effects on how the characters interact with reality. You're not going to tell me that someone with a sever phobia isn't going to need a Will save to fight a creature that resembles what they're afraid of, etc.
cmrscorpio 09-05-05, 09:52 PM	wish or miracle restores 1d10 sanity, heal restores 8 sanity points so, 7 out of 10 times, a 9th level spell will recover less sanity than a 6th level spell? Or is it that the recovery of sanity is a seconday effect when you cast wish/miracle?
3doorsfan 09-05-05, 11:45 PM	good point. i think i'll make an adjustment perhaps wish and miracle will recover 1d10 + 1/caster level and heal should recover what then? any opinions
PearlJamaholic 09-18-05, 02:17 PM	dont know if im over looking it but what happens during wisdom drain or damage to sanity points? nothing? what would be a fair amount of sanity loss after being brought back from death? i was thinking 1d6 since thats what they get when they level up. ive re-read the sanity section many times for something about pcs that die.
Aurotuli 09-18-05, 03:37 PM	I can't really help too much in this, as I use the Horror/Madness rules in Ravenloft. Their actually based on the d20 system, rather than the d% system.
NinjaE 09-18-05, 03:44 PM	A little thing I thought up to make adventuring less maddening; I won't personally be using insanity for a while, as we're playing heroic urban fantasy and then a humour/action BESM D20 game, but it struck me as odd that a necromancers' apprentice would never manage to get used to the undead. Thus; a character can only ever lose ten times the max sanity loss from seeing a specific thing. Example; Boffo the paladin sees a lemure. We'll say that seeing a lemure costs 1/1d6 sanity. Now, Boffo's not the most lucky of paladins, so he loses full sanity for that lemure. And the next one, and the next one, and so on. At the end of the day, Boffo's lost 53 sanity points from seeing a wagonload of lemures. If he loses a further seven points from seeing lemures, he'll get used to seeing the darn things, and he won't go into shock just cause a soul of the damned with no legs that looks kinda like melted wax is pulling itself towards him whilst screaming blasphemies towards the gods of darkness( seriously, you've gotta be some sorta wimp if that scares you). Now, a few years later, Boffo is hugely successful, and runs into Evil God of Doom on the streets, as the god's just moved into the neighborhood. Now, over the next few years, Boffo spends quite some time in rehab from speaking with his new neighbor, but he eventually recovers from losing a grand total of 2000 sanity points. Then, the evil god marries the love of his life, a girl named Takhisis. He introduces her to Boffo, who again loses 200 sanity, as his DM rules Takhisis to be a whole different thing from Evil God of Doom. Poor, poor Boffo the paladin. That make any sense?
weasel fierce 09-18-05, 05:07 PM	One trick (if the rules dont cover it already) is to give back some sanity points, for defeating that which caused the loss. Confidence through reasserting oneself and reality. Taken straight out of Call of Cthulhu (the BRP version of course)
Crystal Monk 09-18-05, 08:35 PM	another option that I've seen in both Unearthed Arcana and D20 Call of Cthulhu is the concept of Sanity Hardness. basically, the idea is that the more seasoned an adventurer gets, the better their mind can deal with things that would horrify your average commoner. in CoC, Sanity Hardness was suggested to be 3+1 per level, so that a 5th-level PC would have Sanity Hardness 8. in Unearthed Arcana, I think it was suggested to be just 1 per level. basically, this means that no adventurer would ever lose sanity for seeing an Orc - according to CoC, seeing an Orc causes 1/1d3 sanity loss, so adventurers using the CoC version could shrug it off. however, I'd suggest ruling that some things cause sanity loss no matter what the PC's Sanity Hardness is. having your best friend's head delivered to you in a box, for one. seeing Great Cthulhu, for another. being forced to participate in a cult's sacrificial ritual, for a third. eating seventeen-year-old fruitcake, for a fourth. :D you get the idea.