Sanity system

[HalflingPower]

I like to play the occasional insane PC, and want to say that if you want your PC to go insane it should be a personal initiative.

[xXCrystal_Rose]

"You hear someone speak your name brushing just against your ear, but when you turn there is only a mirror."

"A glove maker passes holding his bag under his arm. You swear you can see it squirm..."

"You glimpse a wall smeared with the orange stalks of a luxurious russet mold fungus, like the fur of something mythical."

"A Director walks past, towing along a child on a leash. Wait! You rub your eyes and realize it is only a clerk scribe."



Some of the maddened hallucinated visions of insanity I had prepared for the journal of a future character. I'm willing to share these few should they inspire anyone ^^

[granny]

"The price that comes with knowledge"

Maybe we could add some important lore of the server that could be reached in Lowerdark through the contact with ancient scriptures, or devices, or artifacts or beings. To reach it you roll lore. To resist its secondary effects, you roll will.

There could be an extensive table with random things that could hit the character, giving them secondary things that would come out now and then through scripted emotes or even messages for the player.

"You see a dead adventurer, killed in a horrible way. The orange wool of the safety cloak so bright in the darkness. You blink. You focus your vision... it is just a patch of russet spores"

[Vlaid]

In my personal opinion, the Lower Dark should be a terrifying place and absolutely someplace I cringe to see lulzy halflings and others go to "adventure".

There would be no pressure to push this sort of thing on a PC if they simply avoid the Lower Dark, RPing what should be a healthy dose of fear.

[Paha]

Good suggestions, yes, and in some manner something we've wanted to add, but in different forms that didn't quite work as intended. Good ideas are always welcome and will help us think of other tests we can run for edited ideas. Unlikely that we add a wide system for it like withering, that does not quite make so much sense. Unlikely that it comes as you imagine it either, but something to the same effect when it comes to deeper darkness has always been what we wanted. Whether we make something appropriate to affect people, or when it comes, that's another matter. Anything that we would put in needs to have functions and standards we want.

[scrappayeti]

Excellent idea. I would love this.

[Letsplayforfun]

I'll be the naysayer then, just for the sake of argument.

Sanity system in a heroic fantasy world hasn't the same appeal as in Call of Chtulu, since abnormal things are part of day to day life. All adventurers would end up mad in no time which is silly.

It would also script-pressure people to change the way they want their pc to develop, which is demoralizing.

It's also a big hassle to script for something that is pure RP. If you want you pc to go slowly mad, just do so...

My 2c.

[Random_White_Guy]

I'm gonna disagree wholesale with this. I personally feel it's up to the PCs to decide how they react to the horrors and trauma of the Underdark. It is something I feel PCs should wholly consider as a fair few people so flippantly treat the MOST ADDLED AND DANGEROUS AND HORRIFIC PLACE IN THE WORLD as a trip to pismo beach.

I'll keep my resistance to such notions IC but on the whole I think it's something PCs themselves need to do. A system isn't scripted for your PC to develop mental strains when you can just as easily implement it yourselves.

The Withering was something that PCs couldn't do to themselves.

Altering your PC's state of mind and RP due to experience has always fallen upon the onus of the Players.

[Paha]

the kind sanity system suggested here, obviously is not gonna happen.

What I was after is that I agree that going down deeper could very reasonably, perhaps, apply somekind penalties for longer time spend there, be it to saving throw or other thematical and mechanical sides, and those we've tested and I will investigate also in future.

[Letsplayforfun]

Have people mutate if they stay down there too long and unprotected by say, some baublium fueled device...

[Ebok]

I have to say, TERROR is something that only roleplay and good haunting ambiance can achieve. It isn't always easy to RP being afraid, just cause the area is a bit sandier. You can make the monsters harder, but that's still an ooc push, because IC you don't know you'll get slaughtered until you're probably already dead.

I like the idea of this, because, much like the withering, it creates a push and pull between the darkness and the light. the dread took over the world in about 30 days, that's a lot of enslaving. Maybe it wasnt all done directly, maybe they did it through some other strangeness.

Maybe it is not Sanity vs FEAR or INSANITY, but instead, Sanity vs Strange. I think that something on these lines could provide a great deal to the server. I never really liked always turning into an undead in mistlocke, and I'd probably not be wanting to always be strange either, but if it was a flow back and forth, the messages appearing like nightmares while you were awake. It would create a tangibility to the DARKNESS, that could be scary, risky, or otherwise--even if the area was empty.

______

Even if this is dead in the water, I'll still tack this on:

You could always create themes that you choose from when you are hit with strange. Maybe there is a Nightmare, an Aberrant, a Death Fascination, a Panic, and a Numb path. Like a perk, but themes the words that come your way, that gives you a minor perk when faced by your thing. In this way a character can embrace a certain strangeness, and other "paths" can be unlocked specifically for certain factions. I dunno. It just seems like there could be hundreds of ways to implement this. Granted, it would take a good deal of time, and perhaps we're too far in now to really consider it.

ex:
Aberrant: when you are being afflicted with strange you sometimes see them watching you, listening to your words, sneaking around you, murmuring into your ears. At first you cant make them out, but as you get stranger you hear them more. They tell you things, things you dont want to know, things you are afraid of. Maybe at the highest rankings, sometimes but rarely a random (themed) aberrant might spawn around you while in certain places. Small stat advantages and disadvantages, but too much strange (the highest level) and the really bad shit might come for you. Maybe you get a warning, *the sand rumbles*, a moment to FLEE, dunno.

The Withering was something that PCs couldn't do to themselves.

People have never been good at role-playing what isn't there at all. Most need a prompt. If an area is scary, just sayign it is doesnt matter, just having spawns that kill everyone auto there is probably a bit too much like punishment. I feel that something subtle, not as OMG as the withering, but just something subtle would be really neat. Basically, something affecting your pc physically or mentally is still affecting them as an outside source. Maybe the changes are physical too?

[granny]

I think that the people that has a bigger understanding of the scenery and of the canon stuff forget the little that some of us know regarding general aspects of foundation of the things.

I, for instance, did not imagine that the Lowerdark and its creatures could have such lasting effects upon someone's mind. I never thought of the idea of getting down the place and returning insane just out of fear of the strange.

So far, in my feelings, the place was just a really deep place with several alien creatures. It did not create any real sensation that we are trying to conceive here. Not because the design failed, I think, but because the design probably has as a need a minimal amount of knowledge of what you are dealing with and how dangerous it truly might be (to beyond the physical harm). The ignorance is a bliss, or a curse in the idea of collective story telling.

I have not read a lot on the illithid. I got close to no references of what Chuluthu (whatever it spells) might be other than an elephant with tentacles.

So, yes, the more you guys think it is into people's RP to bring out some things and that people might prefer to avoid them, there are some newbies that will need aid. Old Stones did it well to me, I think. Maybe they could be an inspiration as I sad. Maybe we could have now and then some sort of floating text upon our PCs heads giving hints of what is their mental state in the Lowerdark.

Some of us need more clues than the others. That is all.

[SatelliteMind]

I like the spirit of the original suggestion for sure and despite the issues brought up. Hopefully some sort of system can be created that reflects the intent of what the OP is trying to introduce here

[Dr Dragon]

We've all been raised by bard songs to believe that one day we'd become affluent Merchants, theater gods, heroes, kings, arch mages, Or even just live the simple life with a smiling women. We cant even work the jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. Instead the end happened so we  We wont, and we are getting pissed off, and driven to insanity.  

 Instead the sun black, and abberations destroyed our homes, and our gods began to die. Brother was turned against brother as we were forced to murder eachother to survive, and those who were thralls. Some of us had to take the kitchen knife, and bring death to our former families who were enthralled, and trying to kill us. We see no hope in this insane world, and nothing to lose.        

What we thought was once insane has become sane. If there was any age of the mad man we are living in it. Some of us wont be phazed by a certain area with what we have had to do to be alive for this long.

[Knight Of Pentacles]

I vote for a Vitamin D deficiency system since no one is getting sun light.  Maybe also a scurvy system since vitamin C is likely very rare now.