Is there a system for your Insanity? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Is there a system for your Insanity? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Big_Pharaoh
11-24-06, 01:24 AM Since I had no luck here, (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=743654) I thought asking what systems everyone else uses might help me out!

So, do you use a Insanity system? If so what books do you use? Do you also use Taint from Heroes of Horror or Unearthed Arcana? How have insane characters worked out in your games?
CryoSilver
11-24-06, 04:14 AM Sanity

Sanity is a system by which a character’s mental health is gauged in-game. It represents both the character’s mental stability and overall health and resistance to insanity. In many ways, this system was derived from that of Call to Cthulu, but adjusted heavily to fit the more heroic world of Dungeons and Dragons.

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. For DMs: typical Sanity loss should be such that average damage id equal to the EL of the encounter, or the party’s level, whichever higher or more relevant, with a save DC equal to 10+1/2 the party’s level.

Initial Sanity: A character has this much Sanity upon creation.
Maximum Sanity: A character can never have more than this many Sanity points.

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 his ranks in Diplomacy as a bonus on this check. If he knows what event contributed most to the patient's insanity, 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, oblivious 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 character ever loses all of his Sanity, he becomes permanently insane. The only way to reverse this is to cast Miracle, Greater Restoration and Heal on the character, in that order. Permanent insanity places the character under the DM’s control, and imposes any number of other interesting effects at his discretion. If playing with Call to Cthulu as a supplement, the character gains the Cult Sorcerer template if he doesn't die or pass beyond the veil of meaningful interaction with the real world.

..
High Octane
11-24-06, 07:15 PM In the campaigns I play in, we dont need to have insanity scores to act like we have one.
CryoSilver
11-24-06, 08:25 PM My newer campaigns don't have alignments, so this substitutes.
Big_Pharaoh
11-24-06, 11:01 PM Cryo
How often do you have characters go permanently insane? It seems like a Will save at DC 10+party level is fairly low, making serious sanity lose rare, am I off?
I like your system. The fact that you have a Will save connected to it instead of a percentile roll seems to mesh better then UA. It gives me ideas... ideas... thanks

Octane
I would love to trust my players enough that they would act the part without me making a system, in fact I am integrating a race just for those players. Unfortunetly not everyone is as enthusiastic about their characters acting bonkers, oh well.
High Octane
11-25-06, 12:48 PM Octane
I would love to trust my players enough that they would act the part without me making a system, in fact I am integrating a race just for those players. Unfortunetly not everyone is as enthusiastic about their characters acting bonkers, oh well.
I meant they act it even when I dont want them to.
CryoSilver
11-26-06, 03:53 AM Permanent insanity is no fun for the players unless its fitting; once a character has gone off the deep end, they are essentially an NPC.

And the saves actually get harder as the levels rise, because saves are based on the formulas (Level*1/2) + 2 for good saves and level/3 for bad saves, so the difference between level and save bonus becomes more pronounced. FUnny how that is :P.

However, Sanity points themselves tend to be lost faster than gained, ginving players that sense of slow decline into insanity. The 1d6 back at level gained is really a pittance. The players can roleplay this really well, using their starting sanity as a base point and slowly getting worse and worse.

When playing under this system with a friend DMing, my character started out fairly normal (if a but neurotic). After losing about 10 Sanity points, he started becoming slightly obsessive and paranoid. He insisted that the group was being stalked, and had a compulsion to lock doors.

After 20 points lost, he began seeing things out of the corner of his eye.

After 40 points lost, he started hearing voices and having more pronounced hallucinations. He now believed that everyone was working for the enemy and (being a spellcaster) crafted an aumlet that allowed him to use Detect Evil at will, and Zone of Truth 3 times per day.

After 60 points lost (out of an initial 120), he became totally paranoid. He refused to talk to anyone outside his Zone of Truth, and used Detect Evil on the other PCs any time they left his sight and returned, fearing they'd been replaced.

After 80 points lost, the hallucinations became full-blown, manifesting as a Frank the Bunny-like imaginary NPC that told him not to listen to the lies everyone told, and that everyone secretly wanted to kill him. My sorcerer made it a point to seek out an item that allowed him to use Detect Thoughts, and used it constantly. He now cast Dispel Magic on every new major NPC "in case they were shapechanged"

After 100 points lost, he pretty much lost it. He no longer talked, and refused to listen to anything anyone told him. He became totally selfish and paranoid about attempts on his life and tended to react very violently to any percieved hostile action.

At about 115 points lost, he was incarcerated for killing a waitress (she took too long getting his drink, and he accused her of poisoning it, even after verifying with Detect Poison that she had not, and summarily killed her with Searing Light).
Big_Pharaoh
11-26-06, 10:59 AM YEAH!!!
That's AWESOME! Tell me you were kind to that player when he made his next PC. What a fantastic role-player!
Anyhow, the real question I should have asked you is under what curcumstanes do you have your characters make Sanity checks? I think the reason I thought the sanity lose in your games wouldn't be drastic is because I accidentally transfered what I thought would be check worthy onto your system.
pathwalker
11-26-06, 04:21 PM Mostly the GM in my campaign used Wil saves (with varying DC's depending on how bad it was), similar rules to fear effects. It was mainly used for temporary insanity, for paticularly grusome monsters. Rather then just running away though, GM rolled from a table of random effects, from rage to fear to just having something snap and stand there for a couple rounds.

Just be warned on using such if your trying to set a mood similar to a horror movie, as insanity can easily end up as a comedy for the players. Had a mage low on spells when something new and grusome came up. He failed his save, ended up with the random insanity effect as a rage (with all the pros and cons of a barbarin's rage). The grusome monster ended up being beat down by a quarterstaff welding magi.
CryoSilver
11-28-06, 08:22 AM YEAH!!!
That's AWESOME! Tell me you were kind to that player when he made his next PC. What a fantastic role-player!
Anyhow, the real question I should have asked you is under what curcumstanes do you have your characters make Sanity checks? I think the reason I thought the sanity lose in your games wouldn't be drastic is because I accidentally transfered what I thought would be check worthy onto your system.

It all depends on the campaign. In a normal campaign, creatures like mind flayers might force sanity checks every time they show up. But if it's an underground campaign, maybe just the first couple times.

Most creatures with energy drain force Sanity checks, since IMC at least, energy drain palpably drains part of your very life force, which is quite soul-shaking.

Whatever the PCs would find appalling or unnatural forces sanity checks. Zombies, orcs, gnolls, trolls, etc probably not, or just for a handful of points.

Most times IMC, the Sanity checks are called for based on situations more than monsters. When the PCs were escorting a pair of orphaned children to their aunt and uncle's home in a nearby village and arrived to find the entire village destroyed and the victims sacrificed, slaughtered or eviscerated and rotting, they had to make Will saves. When the villagers came back as zombies, they had to make another save, but for just 1 point, since they'd seen zombies before.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Big_Pharaoh 11-24-06, 01:24 AM	Since I had no luck here, (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=743654) I thought asking what systems everyone else uses might help me out! So, do you use a Insanity system? If so what books do you use? Do you also use Taint from Heroes of Horror or Unearthed Arcana? How have insane characters worked out in your games?
CryoSilver 11-24-06, 04:14 AM	Sanity Sanity is a system by which a character’s mental health is gauged in-game. It represents both the character’s mental stability and overall health and resistance to insanity. In many ways, this system was derived from that of Call to Cthulu, but adjusted heavily to fit the more heroic world of Dungeons and Dragons. 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. For DMs: typical Sanity loss should be such that average damage id equal to the EL of the encounter, or the party’s level, whichever higher or more relevant, with a save DC equal to 10+1/2 the party’s level. Initial Sanity: A character has this much Sanity upon creation. Maximum Sanity: A character can never have more than this many Sanity points. 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 his ranks in Diplomacy as a bonus on this check. If he knows what event contributed most to the patient's insanity, 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, oblivious 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 character ever loses all of his Sanity, he becomes permanently insane. The only way to reverse this is to cast Miracle, Greater Restoration and Heal on the character, in that order. Permanent insanity places the character under the DM’s control, and imposes any number of other interesting effects at his discretion. If playing with Call to Cthulu as a supplement, the character gains the Cult Sorcerer template if he doesn't die or pass beyond the veil of meaningful interaction with the real world. ..
High Octane 11-24-06, 07:15 PM	In the campaigns I play in, we dont need to have insanity scores to act like we have one.
CryoSilver 11-24-06, 08:25 PM	My newer campaigns don't have alignments, so this substitutes.
Big_Pharaoh 11-24-06, 11:01 PM	Cryo How often do you have characters go permanently insane? It seems like a Will save at DC 10+party level is fairly low, making serious sanity lose rare, am I off? I like your system. The fact that you have a Will save connected to it instead of a percentile roll seems to mesh better then UA. It gives me ideas... ideas... thanks Octane I would love to trust my players enough that they would act the part without me making a system, in fact I am integrating a race just for those players. Unfortunetly not everyone is as enthusiastic about their characters acting bonkers, oh well.
High Octane 11-25-06, 12:48 PM	Octane I would love to trust my players enough that they would act the part without me making a system, in fact I am integrating a race just for those players. Unfortunetly not everyone is as enthusiastic about their characters acting bonkers, oh well. I meant they act it even when I dont want them to.
CryoSilver 11-26-06, 03:53 AM	Permanent insanity is no fun for the players unless its fitting; once a character has gone off the deep end, they are essentially an NPC. And the saves actually get harder as the levels rise, because saves are based on the formulas (Level*1/2) + 2 for good saves and level/3 for bad saves, so the difference between level and save bonus becomes more pronounced. FUnny how that is :P. However, Sanity points themselves tend to be lost faster than gained, ginving players that sense of slow decline into insanity. The 1d6 back at level gained is really a pittance. The players can roleplay this really well, using their starting sanity as a base point and slowly getting worse and worse. When playing under this system with a friend DMing, my character started out fairly normal (if a but neurotic). After losing about 10 Sanity points, he started becoming slightly obsessive and paranoid. He insisted that the group was being stalked, and had a compulsion to lock doors. After 20 points lost, he began seeing things out of the corner of his eye. After 40 points lost, he started hearing voices and having more pronounced hallucinations. He now believed that everyone was working for the enemy and (being a spellcaster) crafted an aumlet that allowed him to use Detect Evil at will, and Zone of Truth 3 times per day. After 60 points lost (out of an initial 120), he became totally paranoid. He refused to talk to anyone outside his Zone of Truth, and used Detect Evil on the other PCs any time they left his sight and returned, fearing they'd been replaced. After 80 points lost, the hallucinations became full-blown, manifesting as a Frank the Bunny-like imaginary NPC that told him not to listen to the lies everyone told, and that everyone secretly wanted to kill him. My sorcerer made it a point to seek out an item that allowed him to use Detect Thoughts, and used it constantly. He now cast Dispel Magic on every new major NPC "in case they were shapechanged" After 100 points lost, he pretty much lost it. He no longer talked, and refused to listen to anything anyone told him. He became totally selfish and paranoid about attempts on his life and tended to react very violently to any percieved hostile action. At about 115 points lost, he was incarcerated for killing a waitress (she took too long getting his drink, and he accused her of poisoning it, even after verifying with Detect Poison that she had not, and summarily killed her with Searing Light).
Big_Pharaoh 11-26-06, 10:59 AM	YEAH!!! That's AWESOME! Tell me you were kind to that player when he made his next PC. What a fantastic role-player! Anyhow, the real question I should have asked you is under what curcumstanes do you have your characters make Sanity checks? I think the reason I thought the sanity lose in your games wouldn't be drastic is because I accidentally transfered what I thought would be check worthy onto your system.
pathwalker 11-26-06, 04:21 PM	Mostly the GM in my campaign used Wil saves (with varying DC's depending on how bad it was), similar rules to fear effects. It was mainly used for temporary insanity, for paticularly grusome monsters. Rather then just running away though, GM rolled from a table of random effects, from rage to fear to just having something snap and stand there for a couple rounds. Just be warned on using such if your trying to set a mood similar to a horror movie, as insanity can easily end up as a comedy for the players. Had a mage low on spells when something new and grusome came up. He failed his save, ended up with the random insanity effect as a rage (with all the pros and cons of a barbarin's rage). The grusome monster ended up being beat down by a quarterstaff welding magi.
CryoSilver 11-28-06, 08:22 AM	YEAH!!! That's AWESOME! Tell me you were kind to that player when he made his next PC. What a fantastic role-player! Anyhow, the real question I should have asked you is under what curcumstanes do you have your characters make Sanity checks? I think the reason I thought the sanity lose in your games wouldn't be drastic is because I accidentally transfered what I thought would be check worthy onto your system. It all depends on the campaign. In a normal campaign, creatures like mind flayers might force sanity checks every time they show up. But if it's an underground campaign, maybe just the first couple times. Most creatures with energy drain force Sanity checks, since IMC at least, energy drain palpably drains part of your very life force, which is quite soul-shaking. Whatever the PCs would find appalling or unnatural forces sanity checks. Zombies, orcs, gnolls, trolls, etc probably not, or just for a handful of points. Most times IMC, the Sanity checks are called for based on situations more than monsters. When the PCs were escorting a pair of orphaned children to their aunt and uncle's home in a nearby village and arrived to find the entire village destroyed and the victims sacrificed, slaughtered or eviscerated and rotting, they had to make Will saves. When the villagers came back as zombies, they had to make another save, but for just 1 point, since they'd seen zombies before.