Dragons, krakens, mimics, traps, shrunken heads, yada yada, all that good stuff never scares a player. A PC will botch a couple of fright checks but the only thing that really scares a player (unless you're a really good GM) is a loss of investment gained nearly exclusively by time; I am of course talking about levels. In that other game, the scariest monsters are the ones that permanently take levels away.
In GURPS, the insanity wounding modifier creates a negative character point pool called "Madness" which the GM can use to affect the PC in a number of ways. The attack itself may have other wounding modifiers and can be avoided by other means but if it hits, roll Will and treat the margin of success as DR versus the insanity portion of the attack. Mind Shield may give automatic DR versus such attacks, and Fearless gives its normal benefits, but these are often the first traits an Elder Thing might choose to attack!
Madness can target any attribute or characteristic besides HP and FP. It can lower skills, remove mental advantages, worsen existing mental disadvantages or create new problems. The GM spends the Madness points as he sees fit, being as cruel as he likes. Abominations are rarely kind! Tired of that player's ridiculous parry score? Attack his favorite weapon skill! Skills can only be lowered to default, but lowered attributes may push the defaults even lower.
Reduced point values don't effect a feature until a threshold is crossed that pushes the feature into a lower level. You suffer -1 to IQ after 20 points of Madness, not 1 point of Madness. Quite possibly the most popular target would be Will, which would create a vicious spiral into Madness.
Madness can be cured by Psychology, Esoteric Medicine, certain spells, or even certain applications of Erotic Art. Treat options other than magic as First Aid, healing a like amount of Madness for a given TL. At the GM's discretion, Madness may also be healed over time like normal damage, substituting HT with IQ for a daily healing roll. The level of a feature is not recovered until the entire cost of the level is brought back up. IQ raises back to normal after 20 points of Madness have been cured, not 1.
A "floating beyonder eye" with a 1d6 burning/insanity eye beam decides to attack Horton the Brave. Horton fails to dodge and the beyonder rolls 3 for damage. Horton suffers 3 burning injury, but he can still avoid Madness. He rolls 10 against his Will of 12 and reduces the inanity attack by 2. He now has a single point of Madness. This is mostly harmless, Horton should instead contend with his cloak being on fire.
Gabriela the Articulate is fighting a "disembodied voice" with a scream attack that does 1d6 fatigue and 2d6 insanity. She already has 5 points of Madness from a previous encounter. Gabriela rolls her HT to avoid the terrible scream attack but fails, hitting her for 2 FP, and 5 points of Madness. She fails her Will roll entirely, taking full insanity damage. The disembodied voice decides to steal her gifted Voice [10].
In GURPS, the insanity wounding modifier creates a negative character point pool called "Madness" which the GM can use to affect the PC in a number of ways. The attack itself may have other wounding modifiers and can be avoided by other means but if it hits, roll Will and treat the margin of success as DR versus the insanity portion of the attack. Mind Shield may give automatic DR versus such attacks, and Fearless gives its normal benefits, but these are often the first traits an Elder Thing might choose to attack!
Madness can target any attribute or characteristic besides HP and FP. It can lower skills, remove mental advantages, worsen existing mental disadvantages or create new problems. The GM spends the Madness points as he sees fit, being as cruel as he likes. Abominations are rarely kind! Tired of that player's ridiculous parry score? Attack his favorite weapon skill! Skills can only be lowered to default, but lowered attributes may push the defaults even lower.
Reduced point values don't effect a feature until a threshold is crossed that pushes the feature into a lower level. You suffer -1 to IQ after 20 points of Madness, not 1 point of Madness. Quite possibly the most popular target would be Will, which would create a vicious spiral into Madness.
Madness can be cured by Psychology, Esoteric Medicine, certain spells, or even certain applications of Erotic Art. Treat options other than magic as First Aid, healing a like amount of Madness for a given TL. At the GM's discretion, Madness may also be healed over time like normal damage, substituting HT with IQ for a daily healing roll. The level of a feature is not recovered until the entire cost of the level is brought back up. IQ raises back to normal after 20 points of Madness have been cured, not 1.
A "floating beyonder eye" with a 1d6 burning/insanity eye beam decides to attack Horton the Brave. Horton fails to dodge and the beyonder rolls 3 for damage. Horton suffers 3 burning injury, but he can still avoid Madness. He rolls 10 against his Will of 12 and reduces the inanity attack by 2. He now has a single point of Madness. This is mostly harmless, Horton should instead contend with his cloak being on fire.
Gabriela the Articulate is fighting a "disembodied voice" with a scream attack that does 1d6 fatigue and 2d6 insanity. She already has 5 points of Madness from a previous encounter. Gabriela rolls her HT to avoid the terrible scream attack but fails, hitting her for 2 FP, and 5 points of Madness. She fails her Will roll entirely, taking full insanity damage. The disembodied voice decides to steal her gifted Voice [10].
Eldritch Madness
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