Guilty Conscious/PTSD/Aversion to Suffering

[Tim Proctor]

Okay here is the backstory:

Party member (LG) does action X for no real reason other than being arrogant, gets an entire town massacred (while he runs away). I use a system that I call 'Fate' points where I will give the player a 'Fate' point which can be turned in for something later (not really the point) but they now have a kinda PTSD, Guilty Conscious, Aversion to Suffering disfunction.

My question is:

How do I implement something like that in game?

My thoughts are:

Occasional night terrors and sleepwalking, he makes a Will save or wakes up and is Fatigued the following day, as well as enters bouts of Depression (as listed in the BoVD) that last for a few days at a time, can use substance abuse to counter the depression but runs the risk of an addict via BoVD also. What are people's thoughts?, comments, suggestions?

[Maginomicon]

You can draw inspiration from the Sanity Variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm) and the Taint Variant (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/taint.htm).

If the arrogance wasn't in-character, but an out-of-character hissy-fit, it should be resolved out-of-game.

If the arrogance was in-character, an alignment change may be in order. However, if it makes sense for it to be in alignment, social consequences would make sense, such as the character's reputation preceding him wherever he goes until he atones (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/atonement.htm). (atonement works for more than clerics and paladins)

Personally however, if it was in-character, you may want to look into my Real Alignments (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=283341) system to resolve this. Real Alignments allow characters to (among many other things) be jerks while still remaining "lawful good" (Lawful Good becomes a pejorative short-hand term).

[Alefiend]

How do I implement something like that in game?


First, find out if the player is willing to roleplay these effects on his own. An event like that is RP gold when the player runs with it. He might even apply penalties without being asked to.


Occasional night terrors and sleepwalking, he makes a Will save or wakes up and is Fatigued the following day, as well as enters bouts of Depression (as listed in the BoVD) that last for a few days at a time, can use substance abuse to counter the depression but runs the risk of an addict via BoVD also.

That will probably work fine. I recommend inflicting these conditions only when the PC isn't otherwise fully engaged in something—if he keeps driving himself his personal demons can't catch up, or he's too exhausted every night to suffer from sleep disorders, but when he has time to think about what he did, he gets hit with the emotional whammy.

[AMFV]

Okay here is the backstory:

My thoughts are:

Occasional night terrors and sleepwalking, he makes a Will save or wakes up and is Fatigued the following day, as well as enters bouts of Depression (as listed in the BoVD) that last for a few days at a time, can use substance abuse to counter the depression but runs the risk of an addict via BoVD also. What are people's thoughts?, comments, suggestions?

As somebody who's actually suffers from combat related stuffs, that not exactly accurate, what you should do is first have him roll spot and listen all the time, give the characters tons of mildly inane but possibly suspicious information. If the character feels threatened, don't let him sleep for an extended period of time, don't make him fatigued, as it's a heck of a rush, but don't let him prepare spells either.

It should have an extreme negative on social reactions also, since it becomes very difficult to focus on conversations especially when there's things going on the background.

Also there might even need to be some mechanical benefits, PTSD is developed for a reason, it's a stress reaction, so you handle stressful situations much much better with it, you react faster to trouble, it's the type of thing that can keep you alive in a situation where you need it, but is a detriment in other places. To be frank, I think PTSD would actually be useful to a murderhobo, since it increases awareness prevents you from sleeping heavily, it's an evolutionary response for your brain, because it adapts to the stress, which would be tantamount to the stress present in adventuring.

[Tim Proctor]

@AMFV, Thank you for your service in the Military. I thought about the hyper-vigilance factor but his issues aren't with that, they are with the guilt of making a poor decision and having hundreds of people killed.

@Alefind, yeah I don't think he is the type of player to self impose restrictions, so I am looking for a mechanical interaction on top of the role playing.

@Magi, I read both of those and was specifically interested in the violence and taint section in HoH, but there wasn't a simple mechanical fix.

[Slipperychicken]

You might want to pre-emptively ban the spell Heart's Ease (BoED, Cleric 3?), since it seems intended as a(n admittedly quite cheap) cure to such psychological ills.

[JusticeZero]

I just assume that various levels of PTSD is the standard and default state for adventurers. You have a hard time functioning in normal society because you notice out of place details a lot and stop to look for the ambush or trap? Family still peeved because they tried to give you a surprise birthday party only to have you dive into the room and put a knife to your aunt's throat just as they were about to jump out? Well! There's a zany halfling juggler, a dwarf in armor hundreds of miles from the nearest mine, and a geeky girl in robes with a degree in applied illusioncasting headed through town asking about sightings of skeletons, and they all understand you. Hurry quick and grab your Uncle's old longbow and leathers. They'll take you in.

[Darkprophet232]

There is a form of PTSD called survivor's guilt that sounds a little closer to what your looking for. The idea is that "They didn't deserve to die/ it should have been me/ I deserve to die."

It creates severe depression, passive suicidal tendencies (not avoiding death, but not trying to kill yourself), suicide ideation, suicide, insomnia, emotional lability (uncontrollable crying or laughing), lethargy, bitterness, and general anxiety.

This can translate to D&D well as the character takes far-too difficult quests and take unnecessary risks, giving his gold to charity or just throwing it out, withdrawing from the group, spending all of his off time locked to himself abusing substances as he can't distract himself until he's back out risking his life, not wanting to take the atonement because he feels he's not worth atonement, he deserves this feeling.

I hope that helps.