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When a player get mad, there is a nice little Table in the GPC about his wanderings.

  1. Did anyone use it? It seems very easy to get better.
  2. How to manage his winter phase? Did he get (passive) glory? Training?

The GPC says a roll/6 months, but I am inclined to roll each year, and it looks to me you gain passive glory, but no training. Am I right?

 

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32 minutes ago, Tizun Thane said:
  • Did anyone use it? It seems very easy to get better.

I tend to use it if the PK in question happened to escape from his compatriots, so they don't know what happened to him. However, oftentimes they will try to capture their maddened fellow, and try to heal him/keep him safe until he recovers. Sometimes, the knight becomes more catatonic. Also, we use Madness somewhat differently, as we did scale back the Inspiration bonus, too. The -5 to all skills tends to be enough to keep the players from trying to abuse it, as well as the GM (me) being pretty strict when a passion inspiration can be used in the first place. We impose Madness on a failed mission when you are critically inspired. For instance, in a recent game, a PK used Hospitality to defend his host, when the host was attacked by another knight. He rolled a critical in Hospitality. Alas, despite this the attacking knight managed to behead the host (who had entered combat to help the PK, his guest) with a critical hit, whilst ignoring the PK's hit (Hate passion was in play). The PK killed the attacking knight, but the host was dead... The other PKs found the now-maddened PK kneeling on the floor, blood all over him, trying to balance the host's head on the neck-stump and sobbing: "It won't stay on... it won't stay on..."

We shall see how that goes (the player missed the next two games).

32 minutes ago, Tizun Thane said:
  • How to manage his winter phase? Did he get (passive) glory? Training?

This is actually germaine to the issue, as he is currently missing at least one winter phase, perhaps even two if he doesn't show up. I could see arguments going either way, if he has been maddened the whole year. However, I think I will opt on the side of generous when it comes to passive glory and give him that. Even if he is maddened, people might still talk about him, etc. However, I probably won't give him the training, as he is currently imprisoned in his own home, until he'd recover. He simply doesn't have the mental capacity to train.

44 minutes ago, Tizun Thane said:

I am inclined to roll each year, and it looks to me you gain passive glory, but no training.

That is the way I am inclined to GM it, too.

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1 hour ago, Morien said:

However, oftentimes they will try to capture their maddened fellow, and try to heal him/keep him safe until he recovers.

My PKs always try the same trick, but they couldn't this time.

By the way, I think it's not faithful to the sources, when it seems to me you always let the madman wandering without interference.

1 hour ago, Morien said:

That is the way I am inclined to GM it, too.

Thank you for your answer, Morien. Useful as usual;)

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1 hour ago, Tizun Thane said:

By the way, I think it's not faithful to the sources, when it seems to me you always let the madman wandering without interference.

Well, yes and no.

See the answer about Lancelot's madness here by none other than our Greg Stafford: https://www.quora.com/How-was-Lancelot-rescued-from-his-madness-Who-rescued-him

You can see that Lancelot got locked up three times: chained by Sir Bliant (unchained and then escaped), locked inside a house (taken out by the king) and, implicitly, held within the castle.

So there is a lot of support for capturing a maddened fellow knight and keeping him locked up. It is more of an issue of finding him first, since often the onset of madness happens in a place and time that the other PKs are not in a position to do so right away: busy fighting their own enemies, or something like that.

Indeed, if you look at the table in GPC that started this whole discussion, you will find that a lot of those results are people taking the maddened knight in. Sure, perhaps not lock him up, but at the same time, not ignoring him and not leaving him to wander alone. :)

1 hour ago, Tizun Thane said:

Thank you for your answer, Morien. Useful as usual;)

You are quite welcome. Happy to help. :)

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5 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

When a player get mad, there is a nice little Table in the GPC about his wanderings.

  1. Did anyone use it? It seems very easy to get better.

I've used it at times. It depends on what story possibilities I come up with. Sometimes I use the table, and other times I'll have the character vanish for a year or so and reintroduce them with some new story that might factor into future adventures. 

The last PK who went mad was a Berroc Saxon, who did so while the PKs were defending the ruins of Joyuese Guarde in Brittany from the Bacadae at night. He ended up charging the peasants, and had his horse jump the ditch to do so, crticalling his rolls despite penalties. He rode into the peasants with his great axe and scattered them left and right and disappeared into the woods. He was persumed lost but was found recovering at the city of Aurelianium the next year while the army was on the march to face Attila. The character had some strange dreams about a stranger named Gangrand and stories of a big black wolf.

Now the character has a Love (passion) battle that he is trying to keep under control.

5 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:
  1. How to manage his winter phase? Did he get (passive) glory? Training?

Take the character sheet and hold onto it, and maybe charge a few things here and there.

5 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

The GPC says a roll/6 months, but I am inclined to roll each year, and it looks to me you gain passive glory, but no training. Am I right?

 

I'd say passive glory doesn't really make much sense as the mad character probably isn't acting according to his normal traits. He probably isn't being all that chivalrous or religious, but that might depend on what form his madness takes. Likewise with passions, although the character certainly should get glory for the passion that caused the madness.

As for training and practice, I usually handle that as the GM depending on if the knight recovers during the year, and what sort of things he does while hunting. Often knights come back with some new or strange skills. For instance a knight that runs off in the woods for a few years and lives off the land might come back with some Hunting, Greatspear and Bow skills. One knight came back with a couple of points of Industry! He never wanted to look into how that happened.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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19 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

Take the character sheet and hold onto it, and maybe charge a few things here and there.

A bit mischievous... I like it!

In my campaign, Morgan have a grudge against the knight, so she will probably capture him quickly for some nefarious purpose, maybe becoming some chained fool for her court, something like that.

 

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2 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

A bit mischievous... I like it!

Credit that to Greg. It's in some of the older KAP stuff. I also tend to use madness to help discoruage frivousl passion rolls. My reasoning is someone who goes made over a frivolous thing is probably on shakier mental ground to begin with. 

2 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

In my campaign, Morgan have a grudge against the knight, so she will probably capture him quickly for some nefarious purpose, maybe becoming some chained fool for her court, something like that.

Yes, she isn't the most forgiving. Still, she's not the evil villain you see in modern retellings.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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On 2/12/2020 at 4:29 AM, Tizun Thane said:
  • Did anyone use it? It seems very easy to get better.
  • How to manage his winter phase? Did he get (passive) glory? Training?

I tend to use it. And allow the two rolls. One to come back dramatically during the year if you went mad early or before winter phase and one to come back during winter phase. It can be pretty easy to get back, but missing out on a year or most of it is a pretty big penalty that most players don't like.

I let the players do training and practice and do passive glory. It helps them from falling behind. I don't let them roll their checks if their still mad and I also, like @Atgxtg force some dramatic changes on players too if it seems appropriate. Some people have converted religions based on who has saved them.

We also employ madness if you fail at a task you've impassioned if your passion is over 20. Which helps introduce risk to those 20+ passions.

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  • 1 month later...

My PKs manage to get the mad character back, from the clutches of Morgan, no less. So they are very happy of course, and they have a new plan. The madman is now in their custody. Their new plan is to confront him with his beloved wife (love 18 more or less). They hope the shock will help him to regain his sanity.

The mad PK became crazy after a failed loyalty (Arthur) by the way. I don't know exactly how to handle the whole situation. Any thoughts?

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On 2/13/2020 at 5:35 AM, Tizun Thane said:

A bit mischievous... I like it!

Give credit to Greg for that one. Way back in KAP1, I think it was in the Pendragon Campaign book, Greg suggested doing that. Occasionally a PK would go mad, And I'd hold onto the sheet for ayear or two, then give it back with a few changes in skills or traits. One player got the sheet back with a couple of points in Industry, and was so horrified that he never wanted to figure out what happened while he was mad.

On 2/13/2020 at 5:35 AM, Tizun Thane said:

In my campaign, Morgan have a grudge against the knight, so she will probably capture him quickly for some nefarious purpose, maybe becoming some chained fool for her court, something like that.

Okay. 

Just a heads up, but the Morgan of the literature isn't as much of a villain as she is in modern tellings. She is much more a stereotypical female with Celtic overtones. Thus she is desirable, and somewhat mysterious, but jealous and vindictive. Most of the bad things she does is in response to some real or perceived slight against her. She's not so much anti-Arthur as anti-Guinevere. 

If you really want to put the mad PK through the ringer, you could have Morgan pity him in his maddened state and develop a crush on him. The the player would have to deal with the ramifications of having her like him, and the risks of incurring her wrath should he not return her affections. 

 

 

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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9 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

There is some déjà vu. You answered the wrong post, Atgxtg ;) . Otherwise, Morgan already hates the PK because she was banished because of him.

In real world, and in fiction, personal  "Hates" have a tendency to turn into "Loves".

I'm not saying it has to or will go that way, just giving you some more options. For instance, she capture him and makes him suffer for a bit, then feels pity for him and her feeling change over time. 

 

Or not. It's all up to the GM.

Chaos stalks my world, but she's a big girl and can take of herself.

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