Indefinite Madness Table
In a typical campaign, characters aren't driven mad by the horrors they face and the carnage they inflict day after day, but sometimes the stress of being an adventurer can be too much to bear. If your campaign has a strong horror theme, you might want to use madness as a way to reinforce that theme, emphasizing the extraordinarily horrific nature of the threats the adventurers face.
Going Mad
Various magical effects can inflict madness on an otherwise stable Mind. Certain Spells, such as contact other Plane and Glyph of Mortality, can cause insanity, and you can use the madness rules here instead of the Spell effects in the PG. Diseases, Poisons, and planar effects such as Psychic wind or the howling winds of Pandemonium can all inflict madness. Some artifacts can also break the psyche of a character who uses or becomes attuned to them.
Resisting a madness-inducing effect usually requires a Mind Contesting Roll.
Madness Effects
Madness can be short-term, long-term, or indefinite. Most relatively mundane effects impose short-term madness, which lasts for just a few minutes. More horrific effects or cumulative effects can result in long-term or indefinite madness.
A character afflicted with short-term madness is subjected to an effect from the Short-Term Madness table for minutes.
A character afflicted with long-term madness is subjected to an effect from the Long-Term Madness table for × 10 hours.
A character afflicted with indefinite madness gains a new character flaw from the Indefinite Madness table that lasts until cured.
| Effect | |
|---|---|
| 1 - 15 | "Being drunk keeps me sane." |
| 16 - 25 | "I keep whatever I find." |
| 26 - 30 | "I try to become more like someone else I know—adopting his or her style of dress, mannerisms, and name." |
| 31 - 35 | "I must bend the truth, exaggerate, or outright lie to be interesting to other people." |
| 36 - 45 | "Achieving my goal is the only thing of interest to me, and I'll ignore everything else to pursue it." |
| 46 - 50 | "I find it hard to care about anything that goes on around me." |
| 51 - 55 | "I don't like the way people judge me all the time." |
| 56 - 70 | "I am the smartest, wisest, strongest, fastest, and most beautiful person I know." |
| 71 - 80 | "I am convinced that powerful enemies are Hunting me, and their agents are everywhere I go. I am sure they're watching me all the time." |
| 81 - 85 | "There's only one person I can trust. And only I can see this special friend." |
| 86 - 95 | "I can't take anything seriously. The more serious the situation, the funnier I find it." |
| 96 - 100 | "I've discovered that I really like killing people." |
