PDA

View Full Version : Roleplaying Insanity



PersonMan
2010-03-26, 09:56 AM
There's a character I've come up with recently, who is insane.

The basics are that he has been kept in stasis for years, woke up recently and three "voices"(actually three different beings trying to use him for their own ends)are telling him to:
-kill everyone
-Don't kill everyone, make a new species like you are
-Just get your genetics all over the place, make a new world

And as a result, his "true" mind is sort of completely in tatters. So far, I've decided to run what he says through a Lost In Translation thing to make his nonsensical ramblings complete gibberish half the time.

Any thoughts or ideas on how I can run this guy's craziness?

Rauthiss
2010-03-26, 10:00 AM
Be careful with it would be my first advice. Characters that are insane can border on very annoying if not roleplayed well.

That said, what level of insanity are we talking? Does he obey the voices without hesitation? If so, I would roll a d6 every <predetermined amount of time> to decide which voice he follows. Alternatively, are we talking "emit eht lla sdrawkcab gnikaeps" crazy? If so, then stop. Making the rest of the party (if there is one) unable to understand you makes the game less fun for everybody, IME.

Greenish
2010-03-26, 10:01 AM
You can distill craziness from crazy people and rats, I seem to recall. Just remember not to take more than a few drops of it though.

PersonMan
2010-03-26, 10:02 AM
Be careful with it would be my first advice. Characters that are insane can border on very annoying if not roleplayed well.

That said, what level of insanity are we talking? Does he obey the voices without hesitation? If so, I would roll a d6 every <predetermined amount of time> to decide which voice he follows. Alternatively, are we talking "emit eht lla sdrawkcab gnikaeps" crazy? If so, then stop. Making the rest of the party (if there is one) unable to understand you makes the game less fun for everybody, IME.

Not really. He doesn't always obey them, and a good chunk of the time they fight. It's like having three people who hate eachother strapped into chairs, unable to move, telling one traumatized guy to not listen to the others and go that way. They often fight about what to do, leaving him to make a quasi-decision.


You can distill craziness from crazy people and rats, I seem to recall. Just remember not to take more than a few drops of it though.

Rats!

I only have mice. Also, all of my friends are boots, not people.

Saph
2010-03-26, 10:03 AM
Figure out a way of picking between the three voices, either random die roll or shifting through them in sequence. Then whenever anyone asks you a question, answer depending on which voice is dominant at the time. If you want to screw with their heads, change voices in mid-conversation. If you REALLY want to screw with their heads, change voices every sentence.

Anyone trying to talk to you will probably give up very quickly, or go crazy themselves.

boomwolf
2010-03-26, 10:23 AM
Didn't really understand what the last 2 voices want, but my general guildlines for someone with "voices in his head" is this:

1-each voice has a complete personality of his own, including mental stats and skillpoints (in mental abilities only) if you deem necessary. each has his own agenda, and if he had his own body he would have done things differently. probably even take different classes.
2-he has his own agenda, that differs from the voices.
3-voices can convince him if their agenda and his own can both be advanced by the same action.
4-the voice agree on SOME stuff, and if all three agree on the same thing, he is likely to follow.


In case you do use skillpoints and stats for the voices, it is highly important that they cannot know anything he does, but it is possible he knows something and some of they don't. so, every time he makes a mental check, the others do so too. each one that beats his result gets the information, each one that does not gets nothing. as for talk skills, its just for them arguing with themselves and attempting to convince, so they might bluff, use diplomacy, or attempt to intimidate the nutshell to do their bidding.

senrath
2010-03-26, 10:33 AM
If you can get other people to play the voices, that might help a bit.

Caliphbubba
2010-03-26, 10:33 AM
Have you considered using a "triggers" for the voices?

Like certain phrases or items that give the voices a greater....I don't know...influence than normal. maybe tied to their goals.

Last Laugh
2010-03-26, 10:42 AM
My friend once played a very dumb half-orc barbarian. Whenever the player got a good idea he would roll a d10 and on a 1-2 he would tell the party that idea.
Percentile dice maybe?
1-25 The idea as the first voice would present it (not mentioning how many would die maybe)
26-50 The idea as voice 2 would present it
51-75 :the idea as voice 3 would present it
75-100 :What you the player wants

cheezewizz2000
2010-03-26, 10:43 AM
You could try treating each voice like an inteligent item, and have the DM occasionally make you make a will save against your alternate personalities' ego scores. When two of them agree, combine ego scores to make the save harder. You would have to be a very flexible roleplayer to be able to juggle 4 characters, but if the other players are not aware of your insanity and instead just see you having to make a will save every so often against what appears to be a charm effect that their spellcraft rolls can't identify, they'll become paranoid husks that jump at shadows.

It'll be fun.

Afterthought: If each of them has an ego score, then each of them has a will save, so if one is affected by a mind-altering effect, another personality could surface to take control while the other "sleeps it off". Read Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett and pay attention to Agnis Nitt/Perdita X. Dream to see how that could work. Pay particular attention to the bridge scene in Carpe Jugulum and how Agnis/Perdita reacts.

Greenish
2010-03-26, 10:48 AM
Read Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett and pay attention to Agnis Nitt/Perdita X. Dream to see how that could work. Pay particular attention to the bridge scene in Carpe Jugulum and how Agnis/Perdita reacts.Short version: the other personality looms in the consciousness like an iceberg in pink fog. When you just thought you got hold of the victims mind (with your Dominate Person SLA), it slips away and there's something else.

Thrice Dead Cat
2010-03-26, 10:57 AM
I'm not sure if it would work terribly well at a table or for your concept, but you could converse between the various personalities. So, when asked a question, you may have an immediate answer depending on if X, Y, or Z is running the show, but you may quickly say something to the effect of "Hold on, but it's also this, not that." "Well you're a bloody fool!" "Oh, sorry, not you, him, the, er, never mind..."

cheezewizz2000
2010-03-26, 10:59 AM
Short version: the other personality looms in the consciousness like an iceberg in pink fog. When you just thought you got hold of the victims mind (with your Dominate Person SLA), it slips away and there's something else.

Well, that and how the two different personalities react to the bridge across the chasm that is only as wide and deep as you think it is,with Agnis clining on or dear life until Perdita surfaces and hauls herself up and skips merily across

cheezewizz2000
2010-03-26, 11:02 AM
I'm not sure if it would work terribly well at a table or for your concept, but you could converse between the various personalities. So, when asked a question, you may have an immediate answer depending on if X, Y, or Z is running the show, but you may quickly say something to the effect of "Hold on, but it's also this, not that." "Well you're a bloody fool!" "Oh, sorry, not you, him, the, er, never mind..."

Conversations could be held internally, or through note-passing with the GM. GM hands you a note, you react to it in character, and out loud. To the players, it just looks like the GM is handing you notes and you calling him an idiot. Then he makes you make a will save, and you do what the note says.

The other players will need something similar, or at least equal in magnitude, otherwise you have a danger of hogging the spotlight.

Greenish
2010-03-26, 11:13 AM
Well, that and how the two different personalities react to the bridgeOh yeah, that bridge. I always think of it as a plank over a shallow ditch. :smallcool:

Escheton
2010-03-26, 02:23 PM
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence

Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence

Sex...Ha Ha Ha! (Sex and Violence)
Sex!! I love sex I love all them sex all them sex
Sex! Ha Ha!!

Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence



Basicly that. Spread genes and kill things? Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Dead calm ****ed up and guilty, followed by more sex and violence.
Piss and spit everywhere, more genes spread, not effective in actual genespreading but hey, your crazy and its dna all over the place in a world without forensics , so who cares.
Be a complete douche, filthy and womanizing, sinister sociopath, scary and morbid and traumatised victim, guildtripped and twitchy intermittently
Depending on rolls or however you want to sort that out.
Alignmentwise chaotic neutral.
You would have to be damned good at what you do to keep a party because crazy people tend to alienate people.

PersonMan
2010-03-26, 05:25 PM
Basicly that. Spread genes and kill things? Sex and Violence. Sex and Violence
Dead calm ****ed up and guilty, followed by more sex and violence.
Piss and spit everywhere, more genes spread, not effective in actual genespreading but hey, your crazy and its dna all over the place in a world without forensics , so who cares.
Be a complete douche, filthy and womanizing, sinister sociopath, scary and morbid and traumatised victim, guildtripped and twitchy intermittently
Depending on rolls or however you want to sort that out.
Alignmentwise chaotic neutral.
You would have to be damned good at what you do to keep a party because crazy people tend to alienate people.

Not exactly what I'm looking for. The "voices" are usually fighting against eachother, so it's not like their agendas mold together, it's more like this:
'Alright, we're in town. Now, kill everyone in the marketplace!'
'No, go find the nearest brothel!'
'No, fools! Stay here, take control of the government and RULE THIS WORLD!'
'Are you calling me a fool?!'
'Yes!'
'Foolish fool! Only a fool would foolishly call me a fool!'

...you get the point.

Deca
2010-03-26, 05:28 PM
You can distill craziness from crazy people and rats, I seem to recall. Just remember not to take more than a few drops of it though.

A Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell reference? Madness! Madness I say!

PersonMan
2010-03-26, 05:35 PM
A Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell reference? Madness! Madness I say!

You know, a friend of mine recently read that book and recommended it, but I didn't get past the first few pages.

Deca
2010-03-26, 05:38 PM
You know, a friend of mine recently read that book and recommended it, but I didn't get past the first few pages.

Well it is a bit slow and unwieldy. I actually put it down several times and went off to read other books before coming back and finishing it.

As for roleplaying insanity, the main rule is to be careful with how 'wacky' you make it. Its fun and humorous for sure, but it gets incredibly annoying after say, 10 minutes.

Aron Times
2010-03-26, 05:39 PM
I have schizophrenia, and I have to say that most depictions of mental illness are overly exagerrated (most of the time; there are some people that ****ed up).

The first symptoms appeared when I was 10 years old, but I was diagnosed only at the age of 21 because my family doctor was so much in denial about my condition that he kept reassuring my mother that my bizarre behavior was simply a phase that I would outgrow. He's otherwise a decent and uber-awesome guy (he's basically a real-life equivalent of Doctor House), but his inaction caused a lot of problems for me in the 11 years that it remained undiagnosed.

The first thing you should remember when roleplaying a mentally ill player character, that is, an adventurer, is that he must be able to function normally most of the time. People who are so badly ****ed up that you have to roll a die to determine what they're doing more than once a week have no business being adventurers. Furthermore, most mentally ill people do not exhibit "obvious" Hollywood symptoms at a cursory glance. It took doctors hours of observation in a psychiatric facility to notice my psychosis.

Also, don't confuse "crazy" with "stupid". At the height of my illness, I tested with a genius-level IQ in a university. In fact, the dean said that I scored the highest of all freshmen that year. Unfortunately, my psychosis prevented me from getting the score that I was easily capable of since I was too damned crazy to focus. Sure, most of the time I was able to function normally, if a bit weird to others, but inevitably I would have a psychotic episode that would derail my attempts at higher learning.

To sum it up, your character's mental illness should not define his whole character. Gregory House is not defined by his crippled leg, and neither should your character be defined by his disability (schizophrenia is considered a disability in the USA).

Pilum
2010-03-26, 05:43 PM
To be vaguely real: one group I was in once had a guy who was GENUINELY mentally ill. Had pills but - to cut a long story short - ended up not taking them. We first twigged when we're having the usual post-game 'debrief' in the local pub and he suddenly giggles. Erm, ok. We carry on. After a few minutes, he whimpers. Conversation stops. "No, no, I don't want to." Puzzled looks round table. "No, I like them, I can't." Drinks finished, gosh would you LOOK at the time, well, up early tomorrow, see you next time guys, exit stage left. Sadly after some more of this it was clear he couldn't function; last I heard he was in a residential centre where he HAS to take his tablets. Didn't seem to be doing much for him though, the state he was in when I last saw him sat at a bus stop...

Sad.

ETA: Agree with that Mr. Silver. Mostly - I suppose there's an argument that anyone who willingly goes out and does what your average adventurer does is not exactly right in the head in the first place - or at least, not after a while. But don't (if you know Vampire) do the 'easy' and now rather boring Malkavian thing. It's rather overplayed and wasn't all that in the first place...

Thajocoth
2010-03-26, 05:44 PM
I thought up a character concept once of a Druid who spent over half their life in wildshape, so they were more used to being a big cat than an elf. Part of the concept was that for social things (like greeting someone), they'd roll a save to remember what the civilized thing to do was. 1d20 - On a nat 1, transform into a panther and do what a panther would do, 2-9, do what a panther would do, regardless of current shape, 10-19, if in human form, do the humanoid thing to do, otherwise do the panther thing to do, and on a nat 20, shift into an elf and do the humanoid thing to do.

So this would be for stuff like, they get a drink at a bar. Do they hold up the cup and dip their tongue in it to drink? Or tilt the mug back to drink? If they're greeting a friend, do they rub their head against the person and possibly lick them? Or greet them with a handshake, or possibly a hug?

This character never got to see a session. However, I endorse a similar mechanic for your character. Decide how many of the voices have an opinion on the current action you take and roll 1d20. If all three have an interest, 1-6 = voice 1, 7-12 = voice 2, 13-18 = voice 3, 19-20 = What you as a player believe you should do. If two of them have an interest, 1-8 = voice 1, 9-16 = voice 2, 17-20 = you the player. If just one has any interest, 1-14 = voice, 15-20 = you the player. This means that you'll usually be choosing a crazy option with small windows of clarity between.

Critical
2010-03-26, 05:48 PM
I'm roleplaying Insanity in my RL group as well, particularily, an ex-wizard turned barbarian, who thinks he's still a mage. My advice - don't do it too often, or it will get old and annoying.

Darklord Xavez
2010-03-26, 05:48 PM
I agree with Thajocoth. My ADHD is rather serious, and it usually only affects me at all no more than once a day, usually in the evenings. It only seriously gets in my way about once a week, maybe less. Don't bother making a table to decide what voice is controlling him, because that's just too silly. Also, maybe the voices could talk to each other, so your character occasionally randomly (at least to onlookers) "stop it" or "be quiet, you" to one of the voices.
-Xavez

PersonMan
2010-03-26, 05:55 PM
I have schizophrenia, and I have to say that most depictions of mental illness are overly exagerrated (most of the time; there are some people that ****ed up).

The first symptoms appeared when I was 10 years old, but I was diagnosed only at the age of 21 because my family doctor was so much in denial about my condition that he kept reassuring my mother that my bizarre behavior was simply a phase that I would outgrow. He's otherwise a decent and uber-awesome guy (he's basically a real-life equivalent of Doctor House), but his inaction caused a lot of problems for me in the 11 years that it remained undiagnosed.

The first thing you should remember when roleplaying a mentally ill player character, that is, an adventurer, is that he must be able to function normally most of the time. People who are so badly ****ed up that you have to roll a die to determine what they're doing more than once a week have no business being adventurers. Furthermore, most mentally ill people do not exhibit "obvious" Hollywood symptoms at a cursory glance. It took doctors hours of observation in a psychiatric facility to notice my psychosis.

Also, don't confuse "crazy" with "stupid". At the height of my illness, I tested with a genius-level IQ in a university. In fact, the dean said that I scored the highest of all freshmen that year. Unfortunately, my psychosis prevented me from getting the score that I was easily capable of since I was too damned crazy to focus. Sure, most of the time I was able to function normally, if a bit weird to others, but inevitably I would have a psychotic episode that would derail my attempts at higher learning.

To sum it up, your character's mental illness should not define his whole character. Gregory House is not defined by his crippled leg, and neither should your character be defined by his disability (schizophrenia is considered a disability in the USA).

Thanks for the info. The concept is more of someone driven faaar past the point of sanity by the constant presence of three powerful beings constantly messing with his mind. So at this point he'll just sort of stumble through normal life until something catches the eye of the beings, and then crazy happens. However, this has given me some good ideas on how the "base" mind feels at times when the beings aren't stirring up insanity.

Thajocoth
2010-03-26, 05:55 PM
...Also, don't confuse "crazy" with "stupid". At the height of my illness, I tested with a genius-level IQ in a university. In fact, the dean said that I scored the highest of all freshmen that year...

I think insanities tend to form around intelligence for some weird reason. To think that some of the world's most intelligent minds are trapped in bodies that can barely communicate, if they can communicate at all (which I fully believe to be the case). And then, to throw salt on that wound, they're considered by the general populace to be so much "lower" than them, when in reality the general populace can't fathom the level of intelligence going through these people's minds.

So in a way, crazy can be almost the opposite of stupid, but also be like a cage.

PersonMan
2010-03-26, 05:58 PM
I agree with Thajocoth. My ADHD is rather serious, and it usually only affects me at all no more than once a day, usually in the evenings. It only seriously gets in my way about once a week, maybe less. Don't bother making a table to decide what voice is controlling him, because that's just too silly. Also, maybe the voices could talk to each other, so your character occasionally randomly (at least to onlookers) "stop it" or "be quiet, you" to one of the voices.
-Xavez

I have a little brother with ADHD. He usually gets by pretty well, but I think that, even without his ADHD, he had a pretty show attention span, so his homework doing is messed up sometimes.

Also, the voices don't really control him, per se. The most any one can do to him is screw up his perspective or some of his thoughts.

Deca
2010-03-26, 06:04 PM
I think insanities tend to form around intelligence for some weird reason. To think that some of the world's most intelligent minds are trapped in bodies that can barely communicate, if they can communicate at all (which I fully believe to be the case). And then, to throw salt on that wound, they're considered by the general populace to be so much "lower" than them, when in reality the general populace can't fathom the level of intelligence going through these people's minds.

So in a way, crazy can be almost the opposite of stupid, but also be like a cage.

Wow. That is pretty much Genius: The Transgression (http://sites.google.com/site/moochava/genius) in a nut-shell. That game even has a mechanic (Jabir) that does exactly what you just said.

Reluctance
2010-03-26, 06:13 PM
As much fun as this sounds like on paper, I'm not seeing it working the same way in play. Unless you have the other players chipping in as the three splices, you'll be doing all this in your own head and the outward result will be a twitchy and disjointed character. At which point, the advice becomes "play him twitchy and disjointed".

What Joseph Silver said bears repeating. As interesting as a character with mental illness (or some sort of supernatural equivalent) may be, he'll have to be somewhat functional to explain why he sticks with the party and vice versa. Ask yourself what has kept the character from wandering away or getting himself killed yet.

And if you have the PHB2, the Possessed warklock theme sounds exactly like your character. The occasional odd action/fight for the core personality to retain control is a lot more effective than a character who behaves truly randomly. Constant noise and wackiness will only annoy the other players and have them tune you out.

PersonMan
2010-03-26, 06:18 PM
As much fun as this sounds like on paper, I'm not seeing it working the same way in play. Unless you have the other players chipping in as the three splices, you'll be doing all this in your own head and the outward result will be a twitchy and disjointed character. At which point, the advice becomes "play him twitchy and disjointed".

What Joseph Silver said bears repeating. As interesting as a character with mental illness (or some sort of supernatural equivalent) may be, he'll have to be somewhat functional to explain why he sticks with the party and vice versa. Ask yourself what has kept the character from wandering away or getting himself killed yet.

And if you have the PHB2, the Possessed warklock theme sounds exactly like your character. The occasional odd action/fight for the core personality to retain control is a lot more effective than a character who behaves truly randomly. Constant noise and wackiness will only annoy the other players and have them tune you out.

That's true. Maybe after a while the beings become visible around him?

I think that having other players chip in is a nice idea.

Tinydwarfman
2010-03-26, 06:18 PM
I think insanities tend to form around intelligence for some weird reason. To think that some of the world's most intelligent minds are trapped in bodies that can barely communicate, if they can communicate at all (which I fully believe to be the case). And then, to throw salt on that wound, they're considered by the general populace to be so much "lower" than them, when in reality the general populace can't fathom the level of intelligence going through these people's minds.

So in a way, crazy can be almost the opposite of stupid, but also be like a cage.

Eh, there is definitely some link between mental disorders and intelligence, but there is certainly no rule about it. There are plenty of geniuses who are perfectly sane, and plenty of average IQ basket-cases.

Thajocoth
2010-03-26, 06:40 PM
Eh, there is definitely some link between mental disorders and intelligence, but there is certainly no rule about it. There are plenty of geniuses who are perfectly sane, and plenty of average IQ basket-cases.

This is why I called it a tendency rather than a rule. There's also some dispute in some cases as to what's a mental disorder. A mild autism, for example, is disputed. (For autism, however, I believe what I said IS a rule, not just a tendency, but I have several theories related to autism specifically.)

megabyter5
2010-03-26, 07:19 PM
I think the first thing you need to do is name the voices, to make them seem more fleshed out. If your first post was meant to indicate that they were real beings communicating with you telepathically, then use either their real names, or names your character might come up with from distinguishing personality traits each voice has. After that, motivate him to stay with the party. I'd suggest having at least one party member to be one of the few people, if not the only one at all, that you trust and confide in. Be careful though, or else you'll just be flipping between "twitchy guy in the corner" and "Marty-Stu who just needs a friend".

As for mechanics, I hope you'll be using point buy, because you're looking at major ability score contrast. Make charisma and wisdom your lowest two stats, preferably both below ten. An unstable character would definitely have penalties in those two. Thankfully, having two dump stats opens up room for high scores in your other abilities. Obviously, you'll need a class... Maybe a rogue? You definitely have a reason to stay out of the party's "face" role, so you'll to play skillmonkey pretty often.

Just my 2cp. Hope that helps!

PersonMan
2010-03-26, 07:41 PM
I think the first thing you need to do is name the voices, to make them seem more fleshed out. If your first post was meant to indicate that they were real beings communicating with you telepathically, then use either their real names, or names your character might come up with from distinguishing personality traits each voice has. After that, motivate him to stay with the party. I'd suggest having at least one party member to be one of the few people, if not the only one at all, that you trust and confide in. Be careful though, or else you'll just be flipping between "twitchy guy in the corner" and "Marty-Stu who just needs a friend".

As for mechanics, I hope you'll be using point buy, because you're looking at major ability score contrast. Make charisma and wisdom your lowest two stats, preferably both below ten. An unstable character would definitely have penalties in those two. Thankfully, having two dump stats opens up room for high scores in your other abilities. Obviously, you'll need a class... Maybe a rogue? You definitely have a reason to stay out of the party's "face" role, so you'll to play skillmonkey pretty often.

Just my 2cp. Hope that helps!

Well, I'm not sure what campaign I'll be using him in. If it's one, I'll be homebrewing a class for him, however, if it's the other I'm thinking of using him in, he'll be a barbarian. For one we're rolling, for another...I'm not sure.

The voice-naming sounds like a good idea, and yes, the "voices" are actual entities.

DabblerWizard
2010-03-26, 08:22 PM
Tastefully playing an "insane" character can be a tricky business.

Just to clarify, insanity, as a term, has nothing to do with mental illness. It's a legal term having to do with overall mental capacity (1) at the time of a crime and (2) during trial.

I have a number of friends that would take offense to a player making a character with a "real" disorder, or even a sensationalized hybrid like what you're talking about doing here.

As a disclaimer, the kind of "mental illness" you're mentioning is only related to real mental disorders in a very vague sense. People with multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder in America) don't experience their different states of being all at once. Also, "voices" in a person's head, as experienced by people with schizophrenia, are closer to "impressions" and "feelings" than actual voices, from what I understand.

I mention these things only because mental disorders aren't a joke, and having a mental illness can be really painful, and hurtful, and shouldn't be taken lightly.

PersonMan
2010-03-26, 08:30 PM
Tastefully playing an "insane" character can be a tricky business.

Just to clarify, insanity, as a term, has nothing to do with mental illness. It's a legal term having to do with overall mental capacity (1) at the time of a crime and (2) during trial.

I have a number of friends that would take offense to a player making a character with a "real" disorder, or even a sensationalized hybrid like what you're talking about doing here.

As a disclaimer, the kind of "mental illness" you're mentioning is only related to real mental disorders in a very vague sense. People with multiple personality disorder (now known as dissociative identity disorder in America) don't experience their different states of being all at once. Also, "voices" in a person's head, as experienced by people with schizophrenia, are closer to "impressions" and "feelings" than actual voices, from what I understand.

I mention these things only because mental disorders aren't a joke, and having a mental illness can be really painful, and hurtful, and shouldn't be taken lightly.

I see. However, as I have stated before, the "voices" are other beings that have implanted themselves in the character's mind, causing...a breakdown, I guess would be a better term for it.

Thanks for the heads-up.

Riffington
2010-03-27, 01:53 AM
Eh, there is definitely some link between mental disorders and intelligence, but there is certainly no rule about it. There are plenty of geniuses who are perfectly sane, and plenty of average IQ basket-cases.

The link, statistically speaking, is in the opposite direction: a lower intelligence correlates with psychiatric disorders. http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/166/1/50

Gruesy
2010-03-27, 02:43 AM
If you want to play the character like someone with multiple personality disorder / dissociative identity disorder, I'd recommend reading When Rabbit Howls by The Troops for Truddi Chase. It's the autobiography of a woman with MPD/DID whose original personality hasn't been present since the age of two. Instead, over the years, ninety-two different personalities - the Troops - manifested and ran her life, each with varying skills and memories, built around protecting the sleeping core personalities from further trauma.

Tokiko Mima
2010-03-27, 05:38 AM
This was written with Malkavian clan of insane vampires in mind, but I think it's helpful in general for playing cinematic insanity in a convincing fashion.

Not-So-Stupid LARP Tricks For Playing Malkavian. (http://home.earthlink.net/~esasmor/blacklight/malk2.htm)

Hope it helps! :smallsmile:

Escheton
2010-03-27, 09:16 AM
I like how this insanity discussion is mainly about control and level of conforming to "normal behaviour" or "common state of mind"
Your high lvl adventurers, you are vastly evolved above the mindset of commoners, the casters will be able to wrap their mind around stuff so vast it shape planes at some point...
UA has some stuff about insanity I think.