Mentality - General Information
The brain is a fragile and complex organ. Its intricate design allows people who would normally be diagnosed as clinically insane to function within society. Those who are classified as “normal” could just as easily snap and go insane. Either way, everyone is born within a psychological category, whether it is eccentric to psychotic, everyone has their fit.
Psychological Categories
When selecting your psychological category, it is recommended to roll 1d12 in order to determine it at random. The reason for this random determination is to reflect that people don’t get to choose what mental state they are born with. However, if you have a specific character design you are trying to build, then selecting a category might be more fitting.
The Characters cannot die from going insane, regardless of what stage they are currently in. However, the higher the insanity, the larger the die and the more damage they take. See the Mental Health section for more information.
Psychological Profiles
Every character has a psychological profile that is used to determine their stage of insanity and insanity damage. You'll choose a psychological category to create your character's personality during character creation. Each category has an example profile that can be used if making a quick character or you don’t want to create a custom profile. Your profile is composed of eight to ten quirks which determine how your personality changes based on your insanity stage.
The character’s profile comprises of ten insanity stages. The first three stages are sane stages. When your character is within these first three stages, they are considered mentally “normal”. Up to three quirks can be placed in the first three stages, but a minimum of one quirk must be placed in the sane stages. It is recommended to use quirks that are easier to roleplay as the “sane” quirks.
For the remaining stages (four through ten) you must pick a single quirk to be placed in each stage. When your insanity increases your character gains the new quirk. Quirks stack so the more insane you become, the more quirks you have.
Altered Statistics
As you go down the rabbit hole of insanity, your body and mind will change. Within each profile at stage six, your statistics change with one increasing while another will decrease. When making your custom profile, two statistics must be selected from the table, one for a +1 bonus and one for a -1 bonus. Only the listed statistics can be used.
When your statistics change based on your insanity stage, it affects everything associated with them. All skills, instincts, damage, etc. are increased or decreased.
Custom Profile
Mix and match the quirks of other profiles to get the best match for your character design. Just keep in mind that the changed statistics must remain in stage six.
Still can’t get your psychological profile complete. Then make up your own quirks that better suit your character. Just make sure you get them approved by the game master and that they make sense for your character before starting the game.
Starting Insanity Stage
Once you have your profile created, you choose what stage of insanity your character will start at. If you are not sure, roll 1d10 and start on the results stage.
Psychological Profile: Examples
Each category lists an example profile that any player can use for their character if they do not wish to create their own. For those who wish to create their own custom profiles, these examples can be used as a guide.
The examples have everything already compiled, including the affected statistics. Regardless, if you use the example profile or make your own, don’t forget to pick what stage your character will start on.
Insanity Check
Some things in the world will make you question reality or simply cause you to become disturbed. When you are in a situation like that, your sanity comes into question. Will the situation cause your mental health to weaken and your sanity to snap? Or will you be unfazed by its effects?
Each time your mentality comes into question, an insanity check must be made. To make an insanity check, roll your insanity die (1d20) plus your psyche against the Insanity Difficulty Rating chart.
Insanity Die = 1d20
Insanity Die + Psyche vs. Insanity DR
Insanity checks are made when the game master requires it based on the situation and how your character is involved. The other time you will make insanity checks is when facing creatures that have an insanity aura or special ability that can affect your sanity.
If you fail the check, you'll take mental health damage and gain a mark of insanity. After three marks, your insanity stage will increase by one. Marks of insanity restart once they reach three. If a one is rolled, the check automatically fails.
Insanity Die Cannot Chain
Rolling a 1 = Auto Fail
A quick note about the difference between psyche checks, insanity checks, and self-psyche checks. While they all use your psyche instinct plus a result of a die, they use different dice. Anytime an insanity check or self-psyche check is required to use the Insanity Die, which is always a d20, instead of the standard d10 used with skill checks. Instinct checks that require your psyche to be used (i.e. a spell that uses psyche as its difficulty) uses the standard d10 in the same way all skill checks are executed. If you’re rolling against your Insanity Difficulty Rating, always use the Insanity Die (d20).
Determining Insanity Difficulty Rating
As your psyche increases and your insanity stage fluctuates, your insanity difficulty rating changes along with them. The higher psyche and insanity stage you have, the higher your chances of passing an insanity check becomes. This is because having a stronger psyche means you can resist insane effects easier. And, like your psyche, the higher your insanity stage is your chance of success increases. In fact, your insanity stage has a higher impact on your chance of success than your psyche instinct. Refer to the Insanity Difficulty Rating Chart each time your psyche or insanity stage changes to get your most up-to-date insanity DR.
Mental Health
Everyone has mental health, which reflects how mentally stable the character is. Just like physical health, when mental health is reduced to zero, the character becomes unplayable. The main difference is that with mental health, the character does not physically die.
They can suffer a permanent mental breakdown and become unable to function on their own. Each character has their own limit as to how much psychological damage they can endure. How much they can take is based on their genetic makeup and life experiences. Genetically, character’s all have a different psychological makeup and limit on how much they can endure before breaking. This limitation is represented through the character’s mental health.
Mental health can be increased using talents. For every talent spent gain two in mental health.
A character's mental health is determined by multiplying their mental statistic by their sub-species multiplier. However, the absolute maximum a character’s mental health can be is ten times their mental statistic.
Maximum mental health = mental x sub-species multiplier
Absolute mental health = 10 x mental
Mental Health Damage (Insanity Damage)
Failing an insanity check results in your mental health taking damage based on the Insanity Damage Table.
Insanity Damage Cannot be Chained
Regardless of how high the character’s insanity stage is, the only way for them to die from going insane is if their mental health is reduced to zero. However, the higher their insanity stage is, the larger the insanity damage die becomes. The more insane you become, the more desensitized you are, resulting in your insanity checks being easier to overcome. It’s when you fail them you need to worry.
Mental Health & Sanity Recovery
Recovering from mental health damage can be done through a few different options. As an additional option, anytime one of the following is performed (and is successful) you can decrease your insanity stage by one.
Self-Psyche Check
Once during a full rest, you can make this check to regain mental health. A self-psyche check is making an insanity check during a full rest. See full rest in the Resting section for more information.
Elder Leaf/Sanity Potion
Consuming a specific strain of this substance grants you a higher chance of succeeding in a self-psyche check.
Restore Sanity Spell
This spell restores mental health by the indicated amount in of the spell.
Temple Services
Temples (mostly Psion) can perform a restore sanity ritual that heals mental health. The amount is based on the Restore Sanity spell.
