When did your player characters realize that they were not the flame?
Does anyone use things like stress or sanity is games that aren't specifically Lovecraftian? It seems like an interesting idea, but I'm not sure how my players would take it.
>>43637015
When the other members of our party decided to leave one of their main front line fighters, and the pin cushion creating ranger in the town to trek off into the woods to try to take on the mantis spider monsters dwelling there with a guide, and a bar wench only to all burn to death in an almost continent spanning wildfire created by the party wizard due to a knee jerk reaction even though he was specifically told that the strange goo/wax covering the whole area was highly flammable.
Meanwhile the Fighter and the Ranger are left to rally the disheartened townsmen and dig in for a long siege against the warhost of said mantis spider monsters. The campaign was scrapped after more then half of the party cooked themselves to death. I was satisfied that there were statues erected in our honour, and I laughed at the misfortune that the others died alone and scared in the middle of the dark woods.
When he awoke to the Tower of the Iron Gauntlet in the realm of Pandemonium.
>the flame
When did your player characters realize that the fire rises?
>>43637052
I've never been a huge fan of most stress track/sanity systems because I think they can end up one note and you get stuff like TWO LEGS TWO LEGS in CoC or this kind of hilarious roulette wheel of social disorders in WFRP.
But I will shout out to Unknown Armies and what is sort of a spin-off to it, Nemesis. Nemesis refines the UA sanity system and it makes for a really good system which tracks traumatic experiences of different sorts:
>Experience of violence
>Experience of the unnatural
>Internal conflict
>Experience of helplessness
I like this because it differentiates the trauma and makes it easier to buy into particular mental problems coming from particular events. The other really good thing is: there is no way out. You're never "okay" after experiencing major trauma.
What happens is if you pass the sanity test, you get a 'hardened' marker and if you fail it you get ah, I think it's just called a 'failed' marker. Each trauma is rated with an intensity, and you don't roll for trauma with an intensity below your hardened markers: you've seen enough shit that it doesn't bother you. But at the same time, a character with a full hardened track is basically dead inside: nothing fazes them, they've been through too much shit and they can't relate with normal society or morality anymore.
Failed markers mean you have an immediate fight/flight/freeze response and if you start racking up failed markers you can develop disorders or a need for a coping mechanism: could be something conventional like counselling, or drink/drugs, an obsessive interest in the object of your trauma, a phobia, etc.
>>43637151
>>43637155
Wow, that's much more in-depth than the DnD 5e madness tables I've been planning on using. Care to share?
>>43637520
I think Nemesis (or at least like a part copy of it) is completely free actually, so just google it. You'd need to modify it a bit for fantasy but the sanity stuff should be pretty portable.
You should also definitely read Unknown Armies if you haven't, that's an amazing game.
>>43637015
When we found the corpse of a legendary saint being posessed by a very powerful demon. Cue the two priests of the same religion screaming blasphemy
>>43637015
Goddamn, I love DD's narrator.
Deathwatch, after a mission where he volonteered to stay behind and sacrifice himself for the mission. He ended up being the only survivor because the rest of his brothers walked into a trap.
He volonteered because he was starting to like his brothers, and ends up being the last one.
I like the idea of a SM with survivor's guilt. Especiallu considering the hypno indoctrination can't be use on him to make him forget or steel his mind, since only the Chaplains of his own chapter know the passwords for that.
>>43637052
In a very intentionally dark and gritty campaign I'm running (people asked for it, don't look at me like that!) I stole some mechanics from Poison'd.
Depending on how rational/innocent/good and so on people start out, they get a Faith score (that frequently gets renamed into stuff like Innosence, trust, hope etc.)
When the players try to do something that is arguably "good" or "evil" they have to roll under their faith score. If they fail, they have to roleplay out how their character can't do it because there must be another way/this can't be happening/It's wrong! and so on.
This is very inconvenient for them when the characters are very virtuous/innocent/positive they KNOW they should kill the bad guy/the possessed baby jesus/ orc babby or whatever, but leads to some great role-playing moments.
Then, when something awful happens to them that wear them down or make them lose faith in humanity/the world/the gods/whatever, they get another score usually called Trauma/Rage/Despair or something similarly angsty.
That stuff gets added as a bonus on the roll against their Faith, so as more shitty stuff happen to the characters, it gets easier and easier for them to be callous, amoral or even evil. And since characters roll for doing good things as well (being gracious to your opponents, giving a shit about random inconvenient instances of people needing help etc) characters have a harder and harder time being nice.
In practice this means that there is an actual mechanic that maps character progression from bright-eyed naive idealists to callous murderhobos and that causes just as many problems for both the good ones and the bad ones, and my players fucking love it.
It's not QUITE sanity/insanity, but there was at least one character where his "hope" score was basically described as trusting in logic and reason, and as he was confronted with more and more magic and horror he started going a bit bugnuts and disillusioned.
In his own backstory. Basically, "You're totally a hero even though you're a fucking nobody carpenter's son from a backwater town, and now you get to go to the military elite's elite academy and train to be a grea hero! Also you're totally wizard material so you get to be a war wizard as well! Your dad's so proud! You're going to go so far without any active effort on your part!"
Then he faces first actual combat situation, realizes he's a fucking terrifying coward (kind of easy to believe that you're a great hero when you get to do safe practice routines all day and everyone is cheering you on) and suffers fucking COLOSSAL morale failure that ends up killing half of his comrades from the academy and basically fucking up what was supposed to be a simple rearguard action.
The only reason they merely exiled him instead of executing him was his wizard mentor who appealed on his behalf.
He wasn't the flame. He wasn't the flame so hard.
>>43639852
>In his own backstory.
Sounds like the kind of thing that would've been better in the game than in your backstory m8.
>>43640018
>The reason why he's adventuring in the first place
>IN game, rather than in his backstory
>>43640018
Not if you want to play a character who's broken and traumatized when the game begins. That stuff happened about two months before the start of the game.
Gotta say, it actually went very well and facilitated some great roleplay.
>>43640084
What are some highlights?
>>43640059
>The reason why he's in the military academy and the subsequent aftermath of his entry are not worth exploring
>That contrast between idyllic school life and war is hell
>Not a 10/10 pair of sessions in the making
>"Why do that when he can just think of a reason to go kill goblins in a cave instead?"
Literal garbage tier GM detected
>>43640326
>A pair of sessions entirely about one player
>Leaving the other players out to cold just because you find one more interesting
You're not a good GM. You're a selfish one.
>>43640805
>Leaving the other players out to cold just because you find one more interesting
Huh? You're the one who said that, not me.
Are you seriously so unimaginative you can't think of a reason to get the other players involved in that situation? Furthermore, the onus is not on me to figure out how to do so given that none of the other players were mentioned, nor am I their GM.
I am simply stating that it is a criminal habit of players to take really good material and stash em in their backstory where they're effectively untouchable scenes whose impact on the characters are never actually felt by the players when you could get way better mileage out of it in the actual game, and that you are a garbage tier GM for thinking that it's perfectly fine to throw away such good shit so you can justify whatever mundanity you've planned that session.
Given that you jumped on me because I didn't specifically state that YES YOU SHOULD INVOLVE THE OTHER PLAYER CHARACTERS IN THE SESSION THEY'RE PLAYING YOU KNOW THAT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA, however, I now think you just don't GM at all, which certainly explains why you're garbage at it.
>>43640973
>Are you seriously so unimaginative you can't think of a reason to get the other players involved in that situation?
I probably could, yes, but then, what of their backstories? I could jump through hoops to figure out why they're all with this guy, but honestly, it sounds like a pair of sessions focusing entirely on that one ponce from how you described it, with the others being just sort of there.
>I am simply stating that it is a criminal habit... [Redacted for Space]
You sound like a pretentious fuckwaffle. Just saying. And that aside, they're allowed to put what they want in their backstory. If they want to roleplay this out, sure, I'll see if I can make time. If they don't, and want it to be events in their backstory, then sure. I can work with that to. The fact that all this happened is already a gold mine of ideas I can use.
>Given that you jumped on me because I didn't specifically state that YES YOU SHOULD INVOLVE THE OTHER PLAYER CHARACTERS IN THE SESSION THEY'RE PLAYING YOU KNOW THAT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA, however, I now think you just don't GM at all, which certainly explains why you're garbage at it.
The fact that you specifically said that it would be a contrast between idyllic school life and war is hell sounds a lot like you're putting focus on one player to the exclusion of others. The other PCs might not have a reason to be involved in this war or this idyllic school life. And the player might decide he, ya know, doesn't want to go through this and let it be in his backstory so he can just get on the course of the game already. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Frankly, you sound like you're trying way to hard at this GMing thing. Everyone GMs differently, man, and you seem personally offended that I have my own style, and you have your own.
>>43641069
>Everyone GMs differently, man, and you seem personally offended that I have my own style
An odd thing to mistake pity for offense.
>>43637015
When they got lit on fire.
>>43641240
Oh, I see. It's alright man. Everyone gets their own emotions confused at some point. It's cool.
>>43640973
>Making up an intresting backstory for your character from before the game started is a criminal habit
>Good material is so rare and precious that it has to be carefully rationed and used only in moderation in an optimal way.
Wow, aren't you shit tier.
>>43641271
>His bantz are as good as his GMing
>>43641346
>IP counter didn't change
My players tore out the sorcerer's tongue and cut off his hands when his wild magic accidentally killed eight innocents after putting them in danger multiple times.
>>43637052
Unknown Armies and the new Delta Green have multiple Insanity tracks for things like violence and helplessness.
What's the most interesting time you've had with san loss in a game?
>>43637015
> Be Eva pilot
> In sessions after I gain a lot of Stress, the GM tends to run me through weird horrifying dreams
> start new session focused on my character in my room
> hear something in the hall
> open door
> wall of pale flesh blocks the doorway, covered in eyes and sticklike arms
> "Oh shit, its another one of these dreams. Uh, I guess I scream like a bitch"
> GM turns to one of the other players at the table and tells them they hear something in the hall, followed by a scream.
> MFW this isnt a dream
>>43647574
What happened next?
Anyone here?
when 5 of the 6 party members in the group failed to jump a short gap. 3 1's, a 2, and a 6 with a dc of 10... they then fell 70ft to the ground below.
But I am theFLAME
>>43637052
It's used in Warhammer Fantasy 2nd Edition. It's pretty fair.
>>43647574
Well, don't just stop there.
Continue.
>>43637155
Can characters start with differing degrees of hardened-ness, depending on their past? Do they determine these things at character creation, similar to their other crunch features?
>>43637076
You weren't playing in Alera, were you? Because mantis spider monsters with flammable wax sounds REALLY familiar.
I bet your GM was just inserting the croach, though. It does make for a convenient doom.
>>43650709
Can't speak for Nemesis, but yes for UA. A grizzled detective will have Hardened notches against violence, but will likely be surprisingly vulnerable to internal conflict and have a couple Failed notches in Self.
What is this flame you speak of and why must I be part of it?
>>43637015
Pretty early on. It was a bit obvious in hindsight and the clues were everywhere.
Very little smoke, they could touch inflammable things without igniting them and of course when they interacted with liguids there was no sizzle and they did not extinguish themselves.
>>43651538
The key is not becoming part of the flame. It's realising that the flame is already within you.
>>43651685
But what is flame?
>>43651762There is a place beneath those ancient ruins on the moor that calls out to the boldest among them. "We are the flame" they cry, "and darkness fears us!" They descend, spurred on by fantasies of riches and redemption, to lay bare whatever blasphemous abnormality may slumber restlessly in that blackened abyss. The But the darkness is insidious. Terror and madness can find cracks in the sturdiest of armors; the most resolute of minds. And below, in that limitless chasm of chaos, they will realize the truth of it. "We are not the flame!" They will cry out, "we are but moths, and we are doomed!" and their screams will echo amidst the cyclopean stones... of the darkest dungeon.
No sense being the flame when you can be a fireproof moth.
>>43637015
Very shortly after meeting with his great-to-the-twelth grandfather, an Ancient Red Dragon. He was certainly IN the flame, though! Briefly. I guess you could kind of say he was the flame in the sense that the atoms which once comprised his body were now incorporated into a jet of plasma and combustion byproducts.
Character was a dragonblooded sorcerer who'd been disowned as a child after he accidently set a grain silo alight while playing with his powers, then ran away from home before he could be punished.
The fire traumatized him, and without his actual family to rely on he became fixated on his lineage as a replacement, reasoning that a dragon wouldn't hate him for burning things, and might even praise him for his powers. As a result he became even more fixated on flames because he reasoned that a dragon deeply understands fire, therefore he must as well if he's going to be accepted by his sire. Started off TN, then CN, then edged into CE in his continual attempts to make himself into someone a dragon would be proud of.
When he finally met his sire, after a campaign's worth of tracking, divination, rumor-hunting and favor daisy-chains, he was so excited that he went straight into the dragon's lair with little more than his gear and a cart full of treasure as an offering (stolen from party funds, at that, the first time he'd ever screwed US over), without waiting for the party to back him up. He walked right up to the dragon himself and promptly declared that he was his greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreat etc. grandchild, come to offer tribute and serve in his glorious name.
The dragon had just about woken up at this point, and immediately demanded that the sorcerer offer up his own magical items and gear as offerings as well, which he happily did. The dragon then said that no true descendant of his is so spineless as to debase himself and offer up his hoard, and fried him. Without his ring of fire resistance on, he didn't bother rolling.
