User:Cedric/Role-playing madness

DM's only

Madness

SPOILERS: DM’s and above only.

In Out of the Abyss, players can get prone to madness, caused by several factors:

• Eating a heavily mushroom-laden diet. Puking is expected each time, though one does get some sustenance from them. But this continual wretching shatters the body (at least 3d6 poison damage each time). Lack of taste stimulation (diversity really), too, costs the sense of self. Roasting the fungi adds some variation, yet not much. At least it prevents the puking -- because you added something to the act.
• Loss of diurnal cycle and order of day and night from prolonged darkness creates eventual drift from normal everyday consciousness and again one loses one's sense of self.
• The dampness creeps into their lungs and creates a constant "foreboding" affect, akin to water in lungs. The Duegar adapted by keeping a continual furnace that seems to "burn out the swampy air". This backdrop tends to negate normal social protocol, since your always on high alert. The best players can do is pretty much sleep together to counter-act the affect of spiritual isolation.
• Complete lack of familiar landmarks that would otherwise validate the life of the individual. Nothing down there validates any of your normal history -- you're essentially an outsider all of the time. Your "personal self" withers as if "irrelevant".

However, if a saving throw is made (or if the DM is using User:Cedric/Nhilus and getting to suicidal ideation), read one of these "fortunes" or "meme-biotics" to the individual, in order. The complete set allows sanity to be restored (eventually) once the neural-linguistic program sinks in. In no case, should you reveal them without examining their authenticity and their purity of mind that their throw has indeed been "saved".

1. “That which does not kill me, only makes me stronger.” 2. 3. "I know the boundary between the outer world and my inner world." 4. "I am a singular being, unique and gifted in my own way. My voice is distinct from all others.” 5. "The Universe is full of mystery. Not all voices and movements in the Unknown belong to sentient beings like myself -- no matter their versimilitude." (Nhilus is a meta-source, a representation of the Unknown itself). 6. "Giant challenges hide giant opportunities. You need only to persevere, perhaps retreat and regroup. Behind every stormcloud is a rainbow that just waits for the sun." 7. "I can trust my eyes, ears, and tactile senses (when they agree, even magic can't counter it). Beings similar to me, like this, share a common bond, no matter their attitude or outer behaviors." 8. “Any debts I owe require me to be living or, if they require my death, can be gained by simple acquiescence.” 9. "Everything in the Universe reflects some epic/divine history and/or purpose which only takes time to resolve and understand." 10. "There are understandings which only the Ancient and Divine apprehend. These stand apart from the apparent authority of others, which may be false or confused." +1 to stat or +10,000XP 11. The last one wasn't legible, but it has been reconstituted as: "When you don't have sufficient Truth, madness is the only relief. [Expletives deleted]" Substitute "madness" for "irrationality"... perhaps he meant to go beyond reason? Note bene: The first two codes make use of the personal pronoun "I" to re-establish the personal ego of the soul afflicted. The remainder are precisely-worded otherwise to avoid the tendency of obsessive reflection upon the "self" -- the source of much of their madness. These above notes are taken from the journal of Lovecraft`s "mad Arab" found deep in the depths of Undermountain along with (presumably?) his remains. His actual fate remains in question. The Out of the Abyss campaign, by the way, is the only way to multi-class higher than 4 classes -- should some player aspire or have such a need... Surviving the Abyss and mastering all these codes are the ***only*** means to unlock this ability in the game. You also get up to 2 more time-quanta per round -- a major bonus adding extra power to ANYTHING you want to do. Oh, and immortality. A boon only if you make it out of the Abyss. MuHahahaha!!!

Madness temporarily allows more than the normal 4 class slots in the soul. That is, your soul might find a strange and unreliable ability from a class that you normally wouldn’t have.

(If there were anyone that knows of his fate, it would be at one of the shrines in Sloobludop. Good luck understanding jack there though.)

Regarding madness “wearing off”. This seems like a good temptation, but the god roll is how to save players from a desynchronization of gameplay and real-life attitude and consent. The must have favorable rolls to have madness “wear off” OR absorb the memo-biotics. Of course, the gods might give you a memo biotic. You have one, right?

Roleplaying madness. The DM can announce that the player sees an NPC just as if they are there, but there isn’t. Payers may panic and try to strike it, only to find that it doesn’t take any damage. A very cool way to DM the NPC is to use the players suspicions at the table to generate the behavior of the NPC. Such that if they act paranoid, the NPC tends to cbe exactly what they feared. If they p9ck up on this, they should lose a madness level.

—— DM notes:

• The next memobiotic should be given only when you've felt the player grokked the last one. Like the food in the body's GI tract, the mind can only digest them once the prior "meal" has been digested.
• Done properly, immunity to all future madness affects is given as their fragmented soul becomes more whole. They can then even act as "counselor" to other characters, saving them from madness effects.
• HP damage immunity bonus: After finishing the campaign and making out naturally, one gets ((#_ability\classes_with_level_above_opponent)/8*(#_meme-biotics/8))%immunity to direct damage each round due to their familiarity with the Unknown (precisely where their opponent is conceiving their moves) -- that's possibly complete immunity to damage. Opponents will have to use new strategies to create incidental damage (like paralyzing you or a boulder that hits you and does the damage).
• The must go through all of these to have 100% immunity. The need for companionship transcends class boundaries.

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Several new techniques can be employed for madness affects in DnD. It is important to keep these secret to maximize their effect.

• Dread: Players arm gets sliced off when there was nothing even seen. They look around and do a perception and search check, reveals nothing. Do they pick up their arm, hoping for recovery? Cure wounds is ineffective. Their mates look around and say "bummer dude". If so, they find that they get full functionality back after a sleep as if it was never gone. If they didn't pick it up, they lose functionality permanently, though there is no bleeding. Too bad, so sad.
• Meaninglessness: The DM simply rolls their own die(dice) for the player and denies the roll(s) of the player with a -1 penalty. On a 0, the player fumbles and does something unintended instead.
• Hallucinations: Lying from the DM about NPCs that aren't there. "You turn the corner and see a giant, black demon with blazing eyes of hellfire." Only it's in their head. They ready their weapons, only to find that when they look back, it's not there... The DM can roll to see how many share this hallucination. If all of them do, it stays there and they attempt to strike, expending all of their energy, yet receive nothing.
• Paranoia: Random poking from players. If they don't react protectively, their madness goes up by 1(?)
• Schizophrenia: Player attempts task X, DM says they accomplished task Z.
• Bi-polar: Players roll two dice for each time one is called. Which one is used? If they have a smile on their face, the highest, even-numbered roll is used, if present
• Body dysmorphia: They have random problems, even though their stats appear fine.
• Madness: If their journey continues long without any encounter, PC goes mad and goes off on a tirade, perhaps running from the group.