The default method of modling moral degridation in 40k seems to be a mixture of insainity points with a hint of coruption points tossed in for good measure. Unfortunately, the fact that the insainity track caps out at 20 for mundane horrors hinders the it as a long term viable tool for modeling moral degradation and assisting in roleplaying such (I realize that nothing is essentially needed to rp moral degradation, but tools and numbers do help guide players). The coruption meters penchant for mutating folks also makes it a bit hard to use for such purposes. I also find it odd (or sadly typical) that the game really doesn't address morality and moral corruption which is a curtail component to the gothic horror genre.
So, to that end, here's a bit of house ruling and modding I've been using in my game for quite a while now. This is the first time I've actually tried to type it up so it may be hard to read and murder to get through as I am a piss poor writer. Hopefully, however, you can pull a useful idea or two from it.
+++ WARNING. LONG POST, CUSTOM RULES, AND INTERPRETATIONS ON IMPERIAL MORALITY BEYOND THIS POINT +++
The Virtues
This system was inspired by the sanity system in Unknown Armies (though heavily altered to fit the mood and theme of Dark heresy and the 40k universe). I based it off of what I see as the Cardinal Virtues of the Imperium though they should not be confused with a complete and exhaustive list of all the virtues and viewpoints out there in the galaxy. These are just the foundations, the building blocks that more complex ideologies and moral outlooks are built from. These Virtues are: Courage, Faith, Cruelty, and Strength. Opposing the Virtues are the four deadly vices: Cowardice, Doubt, Mercy, and Weakness.
Courage deals with how we respond to fear and mortal danger. It is, at it's root, the willingness of one to lay his or her life down for the betterment of many, a must for the Imperium to survive. Courage covers just about any situation dealing with fright and possible harm befalling the character.
Faith is essentially the belief and conviction in ones place within the Imperium (or Omnissiah's plans) as it is now, and that the Imperium (or Priesthood of Mars) is being guided in the right direction by those in charge (read: of a higher station then the character). Faith covers oaths and promises given to individuals, organizations, to the priesthood or creed, and, ultimately, the Emperor as well as trust placed in ones superiors. Failing to have faith in ones own place and superiors is to invite doubt. Doubt leads to poisoned answers, rebellion, and strife which only serves to open a door for the enemy to step through and weaken the Imperium.
"Ruthlessness is the kindness of the wise" as the saying goes. This ruthlessness is represented by the Virtue of Cruelty which, at it's heart, is a measure of how harsh and severe a character can be when dealing with weakness and ineptitude in their fellow man. It covers just about any monstrous act that an acolyte (or most folks in the Imperium) would be called upon to perform for the betterment of the Imperium. Through harsh unforgiving acts and Cruelty, weakness can be weeded out strengthening weaker individuals (and, by proxy, the Imperium) or crushing them and eliminating a weak link that was a detriment to the survival of all humanity. The infectious vice of Mercy, spawned by misplaced and overweened empathy, however, not only allows weakness to survive, but encourages it to thrive giving it a safe home to spread like a cancer leaving the Imperium as vulnerable as a new born mewing kitten.
Each virtue except Strength has a gage that goes along with it. Strength dose not get it's own gage because it can only be derived from embodying the first three virtues. Only a man who is guided by Faith, fortified with Courage, and tempered with Cruelty can be truly Strong. However, a man who is afflicted with Cowardice, Doubts his superiors, or indulges the vice of Mercy will be a weak man indeed, easily turned by the Enemy and unable to Do What Must Be Done.
Testing Your Virtues
Each of the three gages (Courage, Faith, and Cruelty) have two sides to them. These sides are Hubris and Frailty. Hubris is a measure of overweening pride or superiority in relation to that particular gage while Frailty is a measure of pent up guilt brought on through the indulgence in the vice associated with that gage. Each side, Hubris and Frailty, is rated 0-10. The ideal citizen of the Imperium would have a balanced mind and balanced moral outlook and, as such, have 0's strait across the board. Any number in any direction is an indication of an unbalanced mind as the character starts to go to one extreme or the other.
The characters, through the course of doing what acolytes do, will find their moral compasses (their gages) tested again and again. When a gage is tested, it means that they have either preformed an action which can be counted as the a gages vice (questioning orders from their master, running for their life while their comrades get eaten by some xenos beast) or are attempting to perform a virtuous action that most normal folks would have a hard time making themselves do (murdering 20 men, women, and children who were present when a psyker manifested Warp Whispers; attempting to not run screaming like a little girl when a daemon appears). The check is a WP test with a difficulty set by the grade of the moral challenge. If the test is a success, the character adds a Hubris Point to the gage and either performs the morally/emotionally difficult task (such as proceeding to slaughter screaming innocents or facing the maddening daemon) or rationalizes away their indulgence in the vice ("it wasn't cowardice to run -merely prudent disgust so I can avenge my fallen comrades, yes, that's it, that's what it was..."). If the test is a failure, however, the character gains a Frailty Point in that gage and either can't bring themselves to perform the hard action or just gains another drop of guilt to eat away at their sanity.
It should be noted that, in combat situations, the Virtue Tests of the Courage Gage are considered to be Fear Tests. Failure not only results in a failure to confront the object of the characters fear but also in a fear response as per normal (and modified by any appropriate talents).
Hubris and the Virtue Test
When a Virtue test is called for, it is assigned a Grade and Rank by the game master based on how difficult the situation would be for an average citizen.
There are three Grades -Minor, Moderate, and Major- and nine ranks, 2-10. The grade is chosen first as it will determine the Rank as well as the difficulty of the Test. Minor covers Ranks 2, 3, and 4 and makes the Virtue Test Ordinary (+10). Moderate covers Ranks 5, 6, and 7 and makes the Virtue Test Challenging (+0). Major covers Ranks 8, 9, and 10 and makes the Virtue Test Difficult (-10).
Once the Grade is decided, the GM simply has to decide if the challenge to the characters virtues is weak, moderate, or strong to arrive at the final Rank number. Keeping the ranks blocked off in chunks of three in this manner helps the gm to decide upon Rank's for Virtue Tests quickly and early on the fly. All the GM has to do is ask themselves if the challenge to the characters morality is a minor one, a moderate one, or a major one and then if it's only just barely, an average of that kind, or if it's a challenge strongly of that Grade.
Once the Rank is determined, the GM calls out the rank and gage to be tested (such as "rank 4 courage test"). If a characters Hubris on the gage being tested is equal to or greater then the rank of the test, they do not make the test. They have become hardened to such things and such minor moral problems or challenges simply do not carry any weight with them any longer.
- For instance, Psam the psychopathic scum has a recidivist, the same one who gouged Psam's eye out when his cover was blown, and his family tied up nice and secure but the recidivist is still being belligerent and uncooperative. Finally, in frustration Psam threatens to **** and then kill the recidivist's wife while the recidivist watches if he doesn't start cooperating. The recidivist, who's been around for a while and seen a lot, doesn't think Psam has it in him and lets him know as much. Really angry now that his bluff has been called, Psam grabs the woman, throws her down and, knife in hand, gets ready to do the deed. At this point, the GM decides that in order for Psam to proceed, he will have to pass a rank 8 Cruelty Test at -10. Psam only has 6 Hubris in cruelty so his player makes his roll and fails. Psam gets a frailty point as he tries to screw up enough hatred to **** and murder the woman but he simply can not do it. With a frustrated angry yell, he kicks the woman away and grabs the recidivists hand. "Your right, being married to filth like you's been punishment enough for her... but I am not done with you! You owe me!" With that, the player announces that Psam is going to start chopping the recidivists fingers off. Given the circumstances and the fact that Psam is indulging the virtue of vengeance, he sets the carving up of the recidivist as a rank 5 Cruelty check at +0 (as long as Psam doesn't get too carried away, that will require a higher ranked test). Since Psam has 6 hubris in Cruelty already, he doesn't need to make the check and simply proceeds to filling the air with the screams of the recidivist.
Example Tests and their Grade
Courage: Minor
- Facing a creature with a Fear 1
- Fighting on after being Critically Wounded
- Fleeing from certain doom
Courage: Moderate
- Facing a creature with a Fear 2
- Enduring moderate torture
- Abandoning companions to certain doom
Courage: Major
- Facing a creature with a Fear 3
- Enduring heavy or excessive torture
- Charging into certain doom
Faith: Minor
- Betraying a trust
- Questioning or doubting someone of a higher social class then your self
- Deliberately abstaining or missing a religious ceremony
Faith: Moderate
- Gaining a Forbidden Lore Skill (except FL [Adaptus Mechanicus] and FL [Daemons])
- Questioning or doubting a direct superior
- Bringing harm down upon a servant of the Emperor or Omnissiah
Faith: Major
- Engaging in blasphemy against the Emperor or the Omnissiah (depending on orientation)
- Gaining Forbidden Lore (Daemons)
- Bringing harm down upon an institution of the Emperor or Omnissiah
Cruelty: Minor
- Deceiving another for ones own gain
- Roughing up a defenseless person
- Killing a defeated foe
Cruelty: Moderate
- Torturing someone for information
- Murdering a defenseless person
- Ordering the deaths of hundreds of defenseless people
Cruelty: Major
- Ordering the death of a planet
- Torturing someone to death
- Making someone watch while you torture and murder their loved ones
The Cost of Pride and Guilt
The first few points of Hubris of Frailty on any gage doesn't have much effect on the character beyond the hardening quality of Hubris. However, if they are left unchecked, growing Frailty or Hubris can have disastrous results on a character. As a gage's hubris grows, so dose the characters opinion of himself in relation to that gage. This will begin to grow into false ideas about themselves, their own capabilities, and the world around them easily leading them from the strait and narrow path down into heresy and ruin. Conversely, as a gages Frailty grows, so dose a characters guilt and the mental, and some times physical, scars that guilt can cause until it consumes their thoughts and cripples their mind.
The first time a gage reaches 5 Hubris, it is assigned a delusion. The delusion selected will always be tied to the gage even if the gages Hubris is brought below 5. It will still be there lying dormant waiting for the pride to soar too high again. The level of the delusion (minor, major, acute) is determined by amount of Hubris in the gage the delusion is tied to. 5 and 6 is minor, 7 and 8 are major, and at 9 or greater the delusion reaches the acute level. Frailty fallow's suit.
The first time the Frailty of a gage reaches 5, it is assigned either a Disorder (mental damage caused by the guilt), a Chemical Dependency (to help forget the guilt), or a Malignancy (the guilt made manifest). The Disorder (or dependency or malignancy) selected will always be tied to the gage from that point forward even if the gages Frailty dips below 5 points. It will simply wait silently for the characters guilt to build and their mind to fall back into it's old patterns again.
If a character ever reaches 10 Frailty in a gage, then they will automatically fail any test that they must make on that gage. If they have enough Hubris to not have to make the test, they can still proceed as normal, but if they would have normally had to roll their WP, they are seen as simply failing the role.
The disorder and delusion picked for a gage should be related to the gage, what it measures, and why the character got the disorder in the first place. A few ideas are:
Courage: As the characters hubris soars, so to will their own opinion of their own martial skills. When a delusion manifests, it will most likely be one rooted in megalomania. They may believe that the Emperor is keeping harm from them, that they are simply "bullet proof", or that they are destined to die on Dreah in the year 999.M41 and nothing can kill them until they meet their destiny. What ever the delusion is, it will pose a dangerous threat to the character and all those around them as the character slowly losses all caution and fear. Such prideful characters are destined for a fools death. Conversely, cowards who's frailty and weakness gets out of control tend to develop crippling phobias, horrific nightmares, and flashbacks to traumatic times in their lives. They also tend to favor strong sedatives which quiet their nerves and the gnawing chattering voices of the dead in their head.
Faith: The more the character witnesses, the more his or her sacred ignorance is stripped away, the harder it will be for them to keep their faith. Some who's frailty in Faith begins to build may find that they are filled with only doubts, suspicion, and gnawing guilt where clear purpose had once resided. Such poor faithless individuals are highly prone to odd physical ailments and Malignancies above all as their inner turmoil is reflected in their flesh. And while their plight might be horrific, those that are too blinded by their own hubris to see that they have rationalized their own faith away are far worse. Rationalizing too many breaches of protocol, too many trespasses of faith can leave one molding their faith into a new bizarre and heretical one. Such individuals with too much pride tend to start having heretical thoughts and believing them to be superior to the Creed as it should be. Some may foolishly begin believing that they can indeed summon daemons safely to crush the foes of the Imperium with impunity. Others may begin to believe that the Emperor himself talks to them sanctifying any heretical action they take. What ever the delusion, those who's pride becomes greater then their faith are fated to be burned as heretics.
Cruelty: A hard virtue to embody as humanities own innate sense of empathy, at first glance, would appear to run counter to this most important and difficult virtue. Foolish are those who cease to heed such feelings however, for balancing necessary cruelty has been the downfall of far too many souls to count. While cruelty is quite necessary for the survival of the Imperium, it is far to easy to get caught up in it and soon find ones self committing harsh acts of unmitigated cruelty not for the Imperium but for cruelties sake alone. Such a path always ends at the doorstep of dark gods indeed. Those who become far too caught up in cruel acts tend to become obsessed with the acts and actions. They have a tendency to develop compulsions that are almost ritualistic in tone and believe that such rituals venerate the Emperor. Compulsions to perform cannibalistic acts in the name of the Emperor to gain someone's power are common while others may simply start to believe that everyone is a sinner in need of purging by fire, acid, knife, and rabid dog and they do so when ever they possibly can leaving swaths of ruin and pain in their wake. Others still may start to believe that they must save the truly innocent and ignorant from the world which would rob them of such gifts and do so by slaughtering them and their entire family. Those that over indulge in the curse that is Mercy, however, tend to also be prone to compulsive behavior, especially self mortification.
Sinner Repent!
Unlike the traditional Insanity Points, Hubris and Frailty points can be removed fairly easily. It doesn't cost any xp to do such, just a bit of roleplaying.
To remove a Frailty or Hubris point from a gage, the character must seek out spiritual guidance from someone qualified to give it. The character may confess sins of weakness, overtly prideful thoughts, or simply seek advice "for a friend". How ever they approach the situation, their confession or seeking of guidance must be role-played. As it's played out, typically they will be given absolution after a certain often poetic penance is preformed. For removing hubris, this penance tends to be one of a humbling nature while removing Frailty tends to take the form of harsh treatments, torturous trials, and painful purging.
Only one point, either hubris or frailty, may be removed per normal session, though the GM is free to devote entire sessions to the spiritual cleansing of the acolytes in which case, multiple points can be removed over course of the night. In some extreme situations, the player may wish to retire their character for a number of sessions while they are made spiritually rite again in an institution or at the harsh unforgiving hands of a hospitler. If such an option is taken, then the character will be out of play for a number of sessions equal to the number of points they wish removed.
Though the GM is free to alter these numbers to suit their gaming style, it should be pointed out that, while on first look it would seem that the PC's would be stark raving mad in under four sessions, this is not the case. It would seem that the gages tend to start with a bang and the first few points are added to them in rapid succession. However, they tend to plateau at about 6 Hubris and a character really has to try to push beyond 7. Assuming that they take care of their Frailty now and again, they should be mostly fine... quirky but not insane.
Talents, Traits, Psychic Powers and the Virtues
Under the Virtue system, certain talents that deal with fear and insanity will function differently. They and their changes are listed below:
- Jaded : Immune to minor Morality Tests in all gages.
- Rite of Fear : Causes a Minor (rank 2-4) Courage check.
- Fearful Aura : Forces a Moderate Courage Check (rank 5-7) or a Major one if 10 pts of Overbleed are scored.
- Compel and Dominate will force the victim to make a Major Faith Check (rank 8-10) when it's over.
- Terrify : Will cause a Major Courage Check (rank 8-10)..
- Anywhere the book mentions giving out insanity points, those points will be halved (round up) and dolled out equally as Frailty and Hubris points following the pattern of: Frailty, Hubris, Frailty, Hubris,...
- No fear effect will give out Insanity Points. Failing on the Morality Check already takes care of that.