Do People Like the Insanity System?

By SublimeShadow, in Dark Heresy Second Edition Beta

I, personally, am not fond of the Insanity system. I have a multitude of reasons I can relay if people desire but first I'd like to hear what people think of it.

I am fine with it. At least it is not like world of darkness where if you steal a sandwich you might have a chance to get a derangement. Yes I am mostly speaking about nWoD and not GMC which fixed that issue.

nWoD's vanilla morality/insanity system is specifically created to portray naive, mundane characters. It's so harsh because things you'd typically expect from RPG characters like killing other people DOES **** you up pretty badly.

There's replacement systems in place for when you're not playing mundane PCs.

Anyway, regarding the topic, I've never had any major complaints about the system, but I've never examined it in depth either. Maybe I should do that tonight. I will say, the original DH2e beta handled Fear much better.

Edited by Tom Cruise

Oh I am not complaining why it was put in there, but lets point out a flaw for what it is. It is highly unlikely, but quite possible for you to fail your rolls for commiting a morality seven sin. GMC fixes it with integrity which is unique to each individual. Though killing is always a breaking point and commiting a killing blow is always a breaking point too.

Still in the topic I never had a problem with insanity for Dark Heresy. Though I like to see what you find Tom. Though so far from what I read it seems fine to me.

Edited by Snowman0147

I feel the need to elaborate on my attitude towards the whole Fear thing. DH2e's first beta handled this wonderfully. Instead of rolling on a random table which produced ridiculous, comical results, each source of fear just had an appropriate result for WHAT you're scared by. Plus, presenting the level of fear as a straight modifier rather than an arbitrary value (-10 instead of 1) was a good move for ease of use.

I distinctly remember the Guardsman in my first ever Dark Heresy game failing a Fear check hard due to seeing a dismembered head. Result? He shot everyone in the party with his bolt pistol for a few rounds. That was, uh, something. Not something I want to see again.

Due to being a follower of the old beta, i haven't read the insanity part in depth.

I like the old new part, where the creature with a fear rating, describes what happens when you see it. Cower, running ect.

I have seen to many scenarios getting f***** due to random generated results. Just like Tom Cruise says :P

Man, they really did throw out everything to roll back to OW. Did anybody have a problem with the Fear effects? Why were they removed? I thought it was great that things induced fear in different ways.

I have no real problem with the Insanity system, but like Tom Cruise, I haven't analyzed it in-depth.

I, personally, am not fond of the Insanity system. I have a multitude of reasons I can relay if people desire but first I'd like to hear what people think of it.

Don't do this. Post what your thoughts on the system so we can address what you say.

Man, they really did throw out everything to roll back to OW. Did anybody have a problem with the Fear effects? Why were they removed? I thought it was great that things induced fear in different ways.

I have no real problem with the Insanity system, but like Tom Cruise, I haven't analyzed it in-depth.

I, personally, am not fond of the Insanity system. I have a multitude of reasons I can relay if people desire but first I'd like to hear what people think of it.

Don't do this. Post what your thoughts on the system so we can address what you say.

I really liked the different fear effects too. But as you and Tom, i haven't made my in-depth analyze :S

I don't remember where I saw it mentioned, but I read somewhere about a system in which insanity results in an exaggeration of existing personality traits. The ultra violent character becomes more so and the studious adept manifests more and more OCD traits. The system I saw actually tied this to existing stats so that your best stat became even more so, to the detriment of the other stats. Basically, the character would slowly become better at a single thing with penalties to everything else until he became incapable of functioning normally.

I think that could be a fun thing for the dark heresy roles. I don't have my pdf on me to look up all of the roles (phone postin), but you could have the warrior be inclined to battle descending into bloodlust, the mystic being inclined to the warp eventually constantly heading voices and hallucinating, the sage (?) being very meticulous and descending into OCD, and the desperado being fast and quick on the draw descending ino paranoia.

I use a home-brew system.

"Insanity" is treated as Moral Corruption and affects non-physical Characteristics- Int, Per, WP, Fel, Inf. Corruption, then, is treated as Physical Corruption and affects the physical Characteristics- WS, BS, S, T, Ag.

Different triggers will cause either Physical or Moral Corruption- mundane horrors, exposure to Fear-causing creatures, exposure to Forbidden Lore (it is Forbidden for a reason, after all), exposure to the Warp, sustaining an Injury from a Warp Weapon, and other triggers.

The Player chooses to which Characteristic he/she will assign the Physical and/or Moral Corruption when it's gained. This allows the Player to delay the PC's slide into damnation (a bit), and it gets harder to "hide the taint" as the PC gains more Corruption, because once any Characteristic has taken 3 points of Corruption that Characteristic is permanently reduced by 1 point and the Player rolls for either a Disorder (Moral) or Malignancy (Physical). The Corruption track on that Characteristic then starts over at zero. Disorders and Malignancies stack (stolen from the Beta), but there is a fair chance the PC acquires a Mutation instead...and that is definitely not good, depending on your Inquisitor...

...I've also designed an (optional) "Inquisitor's Philosophy" track- in general, a "mid-line" Inquisitor allows up to a total of 5 Disorders and/or Malignancies, or 3 Mutations, a Puritan tolerates 1, 2, or 3 less Disorders/Malignancies/Mutations, while a Radical may turn a blind eye to 1, 2, or 3 more, all depending on where the Inquisitor's Philosophy ranks on the track.

I just tell the Player whether they gained Moral or Physical Corruption and how much, and they have to choose where to assign it, and I get to watch them struggle with the decision.

Edited by Brother Orpheo

I like the sound of what Nimsim is mentioning. To respond to cps, I just wanted to see which way the wind blew first. My dislike of the system revolves around a few things:

  1. 0-100 Insanity points. Another stat to keep track of that doesn't feel intuitive. Being "removed from play" as the result of Insanity should happen via what Insanity has done to you, not via an arbitrary cut off.
  2. The randomness. A few people mentioned it above. Most people have predispositions towards certain kinds of responses to mental trauma. Rolling randomly doesn't feel good. It can be amusing, but most of the time its just bothersome and annoying.
  3. Stimuli, while not invoking the same reactions in all people, tend to invoke similar ones. The most simple sources of stress usually activate the fight or flight response. Seeing something "scary" usually has predictable effects. In the Insanity system as it is now though, its completely random. Seeing a bear could cause me to, as mentioned earlier, shoot everyone in my party. Not intuitive. The current failure table has a lot of minor penalties that seem to be in place to make most failed tests generic anyway. Why not give stressing stimuli fear "types" again like in the beta?
  4. The mental traumas feel bizarre. Its a nice idea to have them, as traumatic events can lead to changes in mental state for short (or very long) periods of time but they don't feel very "good". They aren't related to the trauma that brought them on. They aren't mitigated by help. There is no way for them to affect the character further.
  5. Playing off the last point, why are there no actual conditions? Mood disorders, dissociative disorders, anxiety disorders, stress disorders. PTSD should be pretty easy to get in Dark Heresy. That said, some of the mental traumas approximate these disorders but do it poorly. Unless people's campaigns are lightning fast, characters dealing with issues over long stretches of time can add depth and flavor.

I don't remember where I saw it mentioned, but I read somewhere about a system in which insanity results in an exaggeration of existing personality traits. The ultra violent character becomes more so and the studious adept manifests more and more OCD traits. The system I saw actually tied this to existing stats so that your best stat became even more so, to the detriment of the other stats. Basically, the character would slowly become better at a single thing with penalties to everything else until he became incapable of functioning normally.

I think that could be a fun thing for the dark heresy roles. I don't have my pdf on me to look up all of the roles (phone postin), but you could have the warrior be inclined to battle descending into bloodlust, the mystic being inclined to the warp eventually constantly heading voices and hallucinating, the sage (?) being very meticulous and descending into OCD, and the desperado being fast and quick on the draw descending ino paranoia.

Just skimmed your post, but this sounds very similar to the Insanity mechanic in DW.

I don't remember where I saw it mentioned, but I read somewhere about a system in which insanity results in an exaggeration of existing personality traits. The ultra violent character becomes more so and the studious adept manifests more and more OCD traits. The system I saw actually tied this to existing stats so that your best stat became even more so, to the detriment of the other stats. Basically, the character would slowly become better at a single thing with penalties to everything else until he became incapable of functioning normally.

I think that could be a fun thing for the dark heresy roles. I don't have my pdf on me to look up all of the roles (phone postin), but you could have the warrior be inclined to battle descending into bloodlust, the mystic being inclined to the warp eventually constantly heading voices and hallucinating, the sage (?) being very meticulous and descending into OCD, and the desperado being fast and quick on the draw descending ino paranoia.

This sounds like a really interesting idea, if it could be done in a way that isn't too convoluted.

I don't remember where I saw it mentioned, but I read somewhere about a system in which insanity results in an exaggeration of existing personality traits. The ultra violent character becomes more so and the studious adept manifests more and more OCD traits. The system I saw actually tied this to existing stats so that your best stat became even more so, to the detriment of the other stats. Basically, the character would slowly become better at a single thing with penalties to everything else until he became incapable of functioning normally.

I think that could be a fun thing for the dark heresy roles. I don't have my pdf on me to look up all of the roles (phone postin), but you could have the warrior be inclined to battle descending into bloodlust, the mystic being inclined to the warp eventually constantly heading voices and hallucinating, the sage (?) being very meticulous and descending into OCD, and the desperado being fast and quick on the draw descending ino paranoia.

Sounds very interessting. There should be some kind of "classic guidelines" for the roles the player(s) have.

But the GM + the player should figure it out.

My team got a chirugeon, who is hoarder.. the funny thing is, his name is "cutter", and he will keep (and maybe re-use uncleaned) materials for his medical profession :P .. which is >.<

I have to agree with the other posters on here. The Fear and insanity system on the original Beta was an excellent piece of work, and I miss it :( Still, easy enough to implement in the latest Beta...and maybe make enough noise to get it added again :P

Man, they really did throw out everything to roll back to OW. Did anybody have a problem with the Fear effects? Why were they removed? I thought it was great that things induced fear in different ways. I have no real problem with the Insanity system, but like Tom Cruise, I haven't analyzed it in-depth.

I, personally, am not fond of the Insanity system. I have a multitude of reasons I can relay if people desire but first I'd like to hear what people think of it.

Don't do this. Post what your thoughts on the system so we can address what you say.

Indeed this was one of the parts they just should have kept from the old beta.

Some goes for the beta1s fatigue system. Goes very well with the fear rules of beta1, making blood loss something more interesting and sapping weapons (which replaced shocking) also more interesting.

Those guys really were a lazy...

I could have understand it (not liked, but somehow understood) if they skipped the wound and AP system - but skipping every development is just ridiculous.

Something like this is not worth buying if you own Only War.

Lets hope they take this just as the first draft on work on it with the community to at least develop it a bit from OW.

I think the first update is going to be vital on how we perceive the direction of this beta. If some good ideas from the original beta show up in the update, then I will be much more enthusiastic about the overall potential outcome for 2.0

I think the first update is going to be vital on how we perceive the direction of this beta. If some good ideas from the original beta show up in the update, then I will be much more enthusiastic about the overall potential outcome for 2.0

I share your point of view. The coming update will be vital for the morale of the troops.