Portraying Mental Health in Dark Moon

What You Cannot Do:

Real-world depictions of enduring, diagnosable mental illness or neurodivergence, unless portrayed by a player with that condition (diagnosed or self-diagnosed) who is drawing on their own life experiences to do so, are not a part of Dark Moon.

This is intended to represent categories from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), such as autism, bipolar disorder, anorexia, binge eating disorder, schizophrenia, and borderline personality disorder. It is unacceptable for any of the players in this game to further mental illness stigma by blaming the problematic actions of their characters on diagnostic categories and labels that real-world people live with.

In particular, given that we have borrowed the word "Lunatic" from its original meaning referring to people institutionalised and labelled with psychiatric disabilities that today would be given a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder, any insensitive portrayals of episodes of psychosis or mania will be treated extremely harshly. If you have the time and would like a nice read, the Organizing Guide for Psychiatric Survivors (2019) provides an authentic look into the ways our current mental health systems fail those given a psychiatric diagnosis of these kinds.

What You Can Do: Keep it Supernatural

Vampires, shifters, and changelings all have their own ways of working that make it hard for them to fit within the human world and cause problems for the humans around them. This is fine, as it is not based on real-world diagnostic labelling or symptoms. Where similarities exist, you should be sure to carefully portray your actions in a clearly supernatural manner. For example:

• Vampires do not have antisocial personality disorder, they are vampires, and are very social with their vampire friends even as they may ruthlessly manipulate their human "friends" and appear not to have empathy for them. The contrast between how you treat humans and how you treat other vampires tells an interesting story about you as a supernatural creature.

• Shifters do not have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, they are shifters, and their impulsive actions are caused by both their animalistic instincts and a swell of destiny within them that waxes and wanes with the moon. The contrast between how the instincts of your were-animal and the were-animals of other players or NPCs manifest tells an interesting story about you as a supernatural creature.

• Changelings do not have autism or Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, they are changelings, and their need for consistency and ritualised somewhat nonsensical routine is logically explained by the fact that disrespecting the rules of faerie magic can cause extreme problems. What purpose your rituals and routines serve in terms of your magical power and connection to the natural world tells an interesting story about you as a supernatural creature.

What You Can Do: Keep it Temporary and Use the Stats

Stat damage and Setbacks can represent physical and emotional difficulties of a wide variety of kinds. It is okay to react very badly to a difficult situation in a variety of interesting ways, representing your roleplay of a damaged stat or Setback, although self-harm and suicide for reasons of poor mental health is a Restricted Topic. You should ensure there is a clear and justifiable link between your actions and the damaged stat(s) or associated colour(s) of Setback.

After the point at which the stat damage or Setback is healed, you should no longer be doing that roleplay, and should try not to carry the lingering effects of it with you if such effects would indicate a diagnosable mental illness or neurodivergence as illustrated above.

If all your stats are damaged or you have all five colours of Setback and you are crossing the rainbow, your character will not survive whatever they do, and this is known in setting. Go out with a bang in the way that makes the most narrative sense to you.

What You Can Do: Use the Power-Threat-Meaning Framework

The Power-Threat-Meaning framework (2018) is an alternative to diagnostic categories for mental illness developed and endorsed by the British Psychological Society. If you want to tell an overarching story about how your character is struggling with trauma, we suggest you read up on it and then use it as a guide for your roleplay instead of reading the DSM and attempting to mimic the symptoms of a chosen diagnostic category.

In brief, the Power-Threat-Meaning framework asks six questions of you and your past:

• What has happened to you? (How is Power operating in your life?)

• How did it affect you? (What kind of Threats does this pose?)

• What sense did you make of it? (What is the Meaning of these situations and experiences to you?)

• What did you have to do to survive? (What kinds of Threat Response are you using?)

• What are your strengths? (What access to Power resources do you have?)

• What is your story? (How does all this fit together?)

The answers to these questions help you make sense of the way your symptoms fill a rational and useful, if possibly also destructive, role in your current life, and gives you the tools needed to work towards a state of better mental health.

Many of the members of Cambridge Lunatic Society are struggling with the stress of existence in a human world not designed for them, the cyclical need to take protective actions to save that world that never seem to permanently fix anything, and the slow downward spiral in their fight against the dark moon and the thinning of the veil. Applying the Power-Threat-Meaning framework to how that general state has affected and will continue to affect your specific character, in a way that makes narrative sense to you as a player, will lead to genuine and authentic roleplay of how trauma manifests and is hopefully resolved.

What You Can Do: Use Character Strengths and Virtues

If you want to tell an overarching story about how your character is struggling with trying (and failing) to be a better person, we suggest you read up on Character Strengths and Virtues (2004), a foundational text in the field of positive psychology, and then use it as a guide for your roleplay instead of reading the DSM and attempting to mimic your struggle against the symptoms of a chosen diagnostic category.

Positive psychology is about defining states of optimal mental and social health and well-being and finding ways to get people closer to them, rather than the diagnostic category approach of defining states of mental and social ill health and finding ways to get people away from them. Its general framework of what a virtue means and how to inspire yourself and others to it will be familiar to those who have played Empire LRP, though Empire's specific virtue system is not a part of or inspiration for Dark Moon. Character Strengths and Virtues defines six virtues and twenty-eight strengths within them, which are:

• Wisdom and Knowledge: creativity, curiosity, open-mindedness, love of learning, perspective, innovation

• Courage: bravery, persistence, integrity, vitality, zest

• Humanity: love, kindness, social intelligence

• Justice: citizenship, fairness, leadership

• Temperance: forgiveness and mercy, humility, prudence, self control

• Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

Some of these echo the stat array for Dark Moon, and some of them do not. Regardless, if you wish to tell a deeper story about character strengths and flaws than the stat array provides as standard, you should read up on what the words on the list above are defined to mean, pick some virtues and strengths that resonate with you as a player, and think about how they, or the lack of them, manifests in your character's thoughts and actions.

You may also wish to keep in mind that the list above refers to human virtues. You can read up on the way that Character Strengths and Virtues defines a virtue at the link above, and are encouraged to think about if there are any virtues specific to the kind of supernatural creature you are that may be particularly present or lacking within your character.