Has anybody had a player who actually wanted their character to be insane, and if so, how did you handle it?

The reason I ask is that I recently started a game of dark heresy with a couple players who were new to the setting/genra and one of the players, due to some roll in character creation started play with 2 insanity points. When i told him he this he was extatic and even though I informed him that 2 insanity points is still considered normal he said "NO I WANNA BE INSANE!!!"

His character has turned out to be fairly amusing, and by "fairly amusing" i mean "actually so funny that it made another player fall out of his chair laughing". Everything he does is motivated to get him more insanity points so that he can actually start to get some real conditions instead of just role playing quirks.

Im not asking for solutions on how to make him stop, i like what he is doing with his character, I am just curious if this is a common thing among dark heresy players, and if so i would like to hear some stories of the "not so insane" insane characters.

I have had players not mind getting Insanity points, but never actually seeking them out. I think it is important to remember that getting 100 points makes you an NPC.

I did have a player start out with a condition at one point. I cant remember any stories just that he had a condition from the get-go.

Some small Insanity is actually beneficial to an Acolythe, as he doesnt get fear tests from every little thing he regularly encounters in his job.

20 Insanity is nice (No Fear 1 anymore), 40 is still okay, but over that the deragnedness starts getting noticeable.

P.S.

2 Insanity points is on the level on "has browsed a day on some shock web sites".

I´ve got such a player in my round. He is always happy, when he gets some insanitypoints. For me is ist"common"

Just let them do how they want, but remember them, that 100 points are the end ^^

my assassin is well played as a sociopathy and psychopathy, so much so 1 of my team wants him to get the Hannibal Lecter treatment while they travel from place to place.

I am playing him as insanity, and when I get to have a insanity issue I know where i like to go with it.

My game had a veteran guardsman who did not actively seek out insanity points, but the player was quite content to get them, as it was way more practical for him than bolstering his mediocre willpower. "Yeah, I have a 33 Will, but I am IMMUNE to fear 3!"

The one time we had a player DELIBERATELY take on insanity points it was more of a self-sacrificing act of semi-martyrdom. In this case we were on a backwater proto-hive world where one of the local noble houses had deliberately corrupted the rejuvenant treatment of the local Archbishop in an attempt to weaken the church's power on the world. The result of this sabotage is an utterly broken and insane Archbishop that can be steered and managed by "handlers" to do the nobles' bidding. The Heirophant in our group managed to covertly make contact with the Archbishop and then offered to BURN a Fate point to fuel a Faith Miracle "Emperor, relieve your faithful servant of his burden and allow me to help bear it." So the Archbishop is no longer completely broken and insane, but merely a bit unhinged and damaged; Our Heirophant effectively took HALF of his insanity points for herself! Since this was great RP, good for the long term story and impressively selfless the burnt Fate point was eventually returned to the character once the results of this self-sacrifice played out in the storyline.

ZillaPrime said:

AWESOME. Just awesome.

I had a player who sought out IPs as well as her initial character concept included the word "crazy" in it... and she got the "only the insane shall prosper..." divination. So I gave her an extra 2d10 IP's to start the game with and fun was had by all. Of course, she's not the type to play out the kooky, cute, clown type of Hollywood madness but the genuine broken mind that just doesn't work right kind so I was more then happy to oblige. This coupled with the fact that within the first 5 or so sessions, most all new characters gets up to about 20 IP's in their dirty dirty dirty service to the Emperor, it wasn't a big thing anyway. ;-)