MADNESS AND HORROR
Thule harbors many dangers, both physical and mental. Fighting savages in the jungles and glaciers isn’t particularly horrific, but encountering the minions of a Great Old One can have a profound impact on one’s sanity. If you choose to incorporate the threat of a slow descent into madness in your Thulean adventures, here is a simple system to do so.
Madness Checks: A character exposed to something truly unsettling must succeed on a madness check or gain 1 level of madness. Events that call for madness checks include:
Encountering an aberrant, undead, or extraterrene creature for the first time.
Being surprised by an aberrant, undead, or extraterrene creature.
Seeing an ally reduced to 0 hit points by an aberrant, undead, or extraterrene creature.
Being dominated or stunned by a mental effect.
Seeing alien runes or symbols.
Hearing the voice, roar, or call of a Great Old One.
Witnessing unwholesome conjuration or necromantic magic of spell level equal to or higher than half your character level.
Suffering a critical hit from an attack dealing psychic damage.
Check Difficulty: When a character is exposed to madness, he or she is subject to a mental attack against Will defense or Mental Defense, or is required to make a Will saving throw. This should be an easy saving throw or low-attack bonus effect for the character’s level. (A save DC of 10 + 1⁄2 the Hit Dice of the creature causing the effect, or an attack bonus equal to 2 + the creature’s level, is a good rule of thumb.) Madness and horror are easily resisted at first, but once a character begins to crack, things fall apart quickly.
Madness Levels: Each time the character fails a madness check, he or she gains 1 level of madness. The character takes a penalty on Will saves, Will defense, or Mental Defense equal to the levels of madness he or she currently suffers from. As the PC’s condition worsens, there are additional effects:
-1: The PC is slightly unsettled.
-2: The PC hears voices whispering in a strange and unknowable language.
-3: The PC is visibly shaken, and the penalty also applies to the character’s attack rolls and skill checks.
-4: The PC is overwhelmed, and must make a saving throw at the start of each encounter or do nothing on his first turn.
-5: The PC is mad, and at the start of an encounter does nothing but babble incoherently each round until he succeeds on a save.
The effects of madness are cumulative, so a character suffering from 4 levels of madness must attempt a save at the beginning of each encounter, and also suffers the penalties to attack rolls, skill checks, and Will saves, Will defense, or Mental Defense, depending on your game system.
Recovery: A character may attempt a saving throw after each long rest to remove 1 level of madness. In addition, restorative magic that reduces mental damage or removes fear allows additional saving throws. At the GM’s discretion, surviving the encounter that exposed the character to madness or defeating the creature that caused it may hasten recovery.
If you incorporate madness rules in your game, try not to push the PCs up the track too quickly. A measured pace provides more tension, and it’s not fun for players to constantly suffer penalties. We advise presenting no more than one or two potential madness events in one encounter, and no more than two or three encounters featuring madness elements in any given adventure.