Sanity system

[Damien]

Much like the withering system, I'd like to suggest a system for sanity. Aberrants play a major part in this setting, though as it stands I feel people go too eagerly into lower dark to the point of it being a gimmick. I'd suggest a point based system where delving into lower dark and constantly being surrounded by freaks slowly changes you, be it lowering your wisdom slowly and some other amusing effects. Maybe you start to go bug eyed, etc.

It would honestly give me a lot more respect for ordinants, because we all know as it stands you can just make a high saves character and everything is honkey dory.

[Vlaid]

I actually feel this would be a GREAT change. It would shine a bigger light on the Ordinants and what they do if they were some of the few people who could go down there and deal with it without just going completely insane or getting warped.

Love this idea. You could do a lot of cool, creative stuff with this too. Like what was done with the withering. Different monsters that affect your "sanity" in different ways.

I really dislike how people who aren't even ordinants, or oathsworn just traipse down into the Lower Dark with some zaney lulzy halfling with high saves or something and act like a hardass. Dealing with the Lower Dark should be about more than just having a high saves PC. Plainly - it should be terrifying no matter who you are but it is hard to portray that without just firing massive death saves at everything that goes down there.

[Blue41]

Considering the number of creatures whose descriptions consist of some variant of 'your mind cannot make any sense of what you're seeing', I think something like this would be interesting. Perhaps Ordinants/oathsworn could have some kind of gear/loot that would make their minds a little more flexible when confronted with the impossible.

[Ebok]

That's pretty inspiring actually. Setting up ways to linger in the shield and do black guild things as a lightly faster route to recovery. There would need to be a system in place to "regain" sanity in big chunks however, like the costly remove withering curse. I'd advise another spell be involved one way or another.

Although unlike the withering PHYSICAL changes, it would be different with sanity MENTAL changes. As that is entirely up to the player to role-play correctly. Unless like, there was boons to the penalties you acquire while nearly insane. Maybe holding torches having light sources helps.

With that in mind, I think the insanity should be reduced in various safe havens, or drop quicker within places such as the Inns <--Providing reward to get people into those places, and inspiring people to make performance characters to cater to the crowds. It also invites reason for adventures to return to these locations after a gruesome fight, leading to more post-adventure banter, which is a sweet thing.

I love this idea.

[CollegeDropout]

I like this, could make for some neat roleplay and status emotes similar to nightmares.

[Bearic]

Clarity would be the perfect spell to counteract the insanity instead of remove curse, otherwise, awesome idea, yes!

[Damien]

Maybe have something involving divination to counter your madness? A good way to give strength back to the school really.

[Knight Of Pentacles]

Suggested something similar to this to a DM a few months back.  They brought up a point that too many people would roleplay their insanity in goofy ways.  If this is still a concern maybe consider a "Despair" system.  Where characters grow more and more cynical and disillusioned the more terrible things they see and experience.  Could be counteracted with good food, drink, rest, leisurely things.

[Ebok]

I'd rather not see Clarity hit anyone with an exp loss for casting it. Because its so important of a spell already. That being said, it really is the perfect choice, so long as it couldnt be spammed without cost.

[The Machinist]

Remove Fear perhaps?

I think this has potential and would be an excellent "perk" for the Ordinants and make them really stand out (presuming they would have some way to combat the "Insanity" effects) from the random adventurers.

Certain areas (that are natural and peaceful) could be made to slowly reverse the effects, perhaps the Hidden Pond.

[Zango_Unchained]

You could have messages akin to the withering messages such as:

"You notice a flicker of movement in the darkness, and as you turn to look at it, you notice another where your eyes just were. You feel oppressive glares from the shadows but your certain they are empty, or are they?"

Or for a more physical change..

"You feel as if your stomach was lined with lumps. Eating heavy foods seems to leave you sickly and vomiting. Must be the worm soup."

[Pandip]

I'm incredibly leery of this idea. It's one of those things that sounds like it'd be brilliant on paper and in theory, but ends up being a drag in practice. I honestly don't think this would add very much to the server for the amount of work that might have to be put into implementing a system of this breadth. I didn't adore everything about the withering system and I think this is a vastly inferior idea.

A couple of major concerns:

• Team nature struggled the most with the withering because their access to cures was extremely limited compared to Mistlocke PC's and, worse yet, they were the ones most affected by the withering. This might not be a particularly huge issue if we apply sanity only to the Lowerdark, but nature already feels like the bastard redheaded stepchild of EFU:R in terms of item accessibility, interaction, systems, and mechanics, and I don't think this is going to help that state at all.



• Withering was a PHYSICAL manifestation that couldn't be ignored. It affected your humanity, it affected your ability to be in major centers, it made you a pariah in society. Whether you wanted to be affected by it or not, you had to deal with the consequences of your withering. Sanity is a mental thing that can be mostly ignored because there are no visible repercussions. In theory, this is a great idea because, "whoa! so much RP opportunity!" but I think the reality is going to be more akin to what we see with the nightmares. Awesome system. Well-written, immersive, and very relevant to the setting. How many people actually roleplay with them? How many people actually read them? How many people treat resting as anything other than throwing down a campfire and taking a look at your spellbook? I think a sanity system is going to suffer from a similar negligence.
  
  
  
• Even if sanity were to be implemented, it has to be implemented so that there are absolutely zero benefits to being insane and a great deal of significant minuses to losing sanity. Seeing excruciatingly withered people in EFU:M that drank as many withered potions as they could and happily ran around with their DI was a frustrating experience, because sometimes people simply didn't seem to care all that much.

Granted, I've never played an Ordinant, but I honestly just don't see how this benefits the server greatly enough to warrant being added.

[Damien]

You misunderstood me. I suppose I should have called it like aberrant touch system or something, I'm for the idea of people slowly being twisted into freaks from time spent near the void, etc. I want it to work near exactly the same as withering really, where by the end you are some glowing abortion that must be burned out if left untreated.

[granny]

I think that, as a start, something like Old Stones curse could bring up the initial feeling you guys are seeking. Including that scary thing of scratching yourself.

[xXCrystal_Rose]

It's a nice idea in concept. Such a thing could also persist through future chapters as well to add more of a damaging effect to certain experiences or to show the cost that some knowledge comes with. It would take a lot of time to create such a system but it could be worthwhile in the long run as a feature.

The problem is implementation and more than anything roleplay. If people are not interested in roleplaying that sort of stuff out without it being scripted in the first place then they won't if the effort is made to script it. I am afraid it'll just become a system that is gamed and mostly ignored like the withering. It might be better if when such a mentally traumatic situation is exposed to people the DM present makes it known and it is in the hands of the players to carry it out, and reward those who do well.

I personally am ALL for the descent into madness. It is one of my favorite themes, and a recurring one. Cthulhu tabletop game handled it decently enough. Rather than a broad systemized thing though I just think it would be better on an individual basis, with passive messages once in a while like the nightmares. Something that is specifically toggled by a DM as part of a plot they might be running. If it is too common it is a little trivialized and people will just be begging for and guzzling sanity cures trying to keep their sanity level high rather than really roleplaying it out. Withering all over again.