How do characters get taint/become tainted?

[Socksy]

I've been looking through Oriental Adventures and Heroes of Horror and I can't find the rules for characters getting taint. I can find the consequences of getting too much, but I can't see how characters acquire it in the first place other than by travelling through tainted regions or hanging around undead/using darker forms of necromancy. Even then I'm not sure how much taint these actions cause a character to get, or if it fades naturally at all. Considering just using the CoC sanity rules if I can't find anyone who knows how to deal with getting taint. Anyone able to help? c:

[Yael]

Ask Cthulhu himself, he will taint/remove your sanity effectively enough.

For real, though, I guess that Heroes of Horror explains how taint is obtained, I'm AFB, btw.

[Jeff the Green]

There are a few ways. One, as you said, is being in tainted areas. I believe the default is 1 point per week, but you may increase that if you feel it's warranted. Second is attacks by certain enemies. This is listed in their stat blocks. Third is performing tainted actions. This is mostly DM adjudication territory, though necromancy is a good place to start. Cannibalism, murder, particularly evil mind control, and worshipping certain gods are also good ideas. Finally, there are some class features, like from the Tainted Scholar, that increase your taint score.

[BWR]

Can't speak for Heroes of Horror, but OA is the first d20 adaptation of The Legend of Five Rings, so I'm going by that.
Taint is the supernatural touch of Hell. Call it jealousy - any realm that touches your soul wants to keep you. The jealousy of the human realm is mortality, for instance.

Taint seeps through from Jigoku (hell) either through natural weak spots between realms or through being deliberately called on. The Festering Pit of Fu Leng is an immense, permanent hole into hell through which Taint seeps into the world. The closer you get to it, the more Taint there is in the area, sort of like spiritual radiation. When exposed to the Taint you try to resist it with your internal fortitude (represented by the Earth Ring (stamina and willpower) in R&K, IIRC Fortitude ST in d20. The exact difficulty of the roll and how often you need to roll depends on amount of Taint in the area. Just being in a Tainted area can be enough, but direct physical contact with Tainted creature or object increases the danger, and consuming Tainted food and drink is very dangerous, and open wounds in Tainted areas are even worse. Wounds caused by Tainted creatures can be really, really nasty (depending on the monster - a goblin bite is unlikely to Taint you unless you're Matsu Robun, if you're lucky enough to survive a wound from an oni lord you're probably already Lost). Maho and certain artifacts (if cast, subjected to or wielded) can give you Taint. If you are already Tainted you can call on the Taint to improve yourself, granting more Taint. Taint can be inherited from a parent who was Tainted at the time of conception. Sometimes you are just unlucky and are born with it or develop an infection for no reason whatsoever; sucks to be you.
You can deliberately call on various Tainted entities to grant you power and gain Taint, too.

Taint never fades naturally, but increases on its own after infection. The greater the amount of Taint, the quicker it develops. Certain things like jade petal tea suppresses and halts the Taint, but only so long as the tea is drunk. Certain kiho and Techniques can prevent growth or even reduce the amount to a non-zero number. Certain spells can, depending on edition, burn it out at the cost of your life, entirely remove it (almost unheard of), transfer most to other people or places, or protect you against involuntary gain. A bare handful or artifacts can remove it from you (the Jade Hand, Jade/Doji's Tears, most notably. Possibly Isawa's Last Wish but I wouldn't count on it). Removing your Name can work, as can a few other cheats, but these are rare to the point of being unique events.

[Socksy]

Okay, thanks for all the help! :D

I wanted to introduce it into a campaign I'm running which involves a CE creature being raised to Divine Rank 1, some warlocks and anima mages trying to take over a country and then possibly the world, and a LOT of Neutral and Evil Dragons squabbling over the same country and dragging the PC into it.
Guessing the Dragons won't do much of anything, the warlocks and especially anima mages will be pretty heavily tainted, and the fledgling Demigod probably wouldn't inflict any Taint (nothing to do with Hell and isn't a Demon either)?

Gaaah. Confusing. I think I might stick to Sanity rules, or shove the two things together.

[BWR]

Well, that's how it is done in L5R but there's no need to run it exactly like that. Adapt it to your needs. You can tie it to morality, power source or some other thing if you wish - it doesn't have to be specific plane.

Taint in itself has its own sanity rules, if you wish to use them. The more Taint you have, the greater the number of mental problems you develop until you become Lost, a slave to the Taint forever and usually removed as a playable character. The main question is "why do you want to introduce Sanity and/or Taint?" what exactly is it with the two that appeals to you?
If you just want the PCs to gradually lose their minds, Sanity a la CoC is the way to go. If you want a more visceral horror with the PCs graduallly have their body changed and their mind taken over, then the Taint is the way togo.

[Socksy]

Probably more sanity, then. Thank you! :D

[Ingus]

The part of Taint I like is the disease-like advancement.

EDIT: finger slipped, didn't mean to just say that :)

First of all, I just remembered that Taint is in SRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/taint.htm), so anyone can take a look.

Then, as a general suggestion, use it like a terrible, horrific threat, that the PC can take somehow in check for a while, but that can ultimately can doom the PC.

Moreover, even the mild signs of Taint are a great roleplay occasion.

That's a great input on how PC's can take taint in the first place.
Make them fight a Tainted NPC, for example, and make him bite one of them.
Or use it in conjunction to a Blasphemy which will otherwise kill or gravely disable PCs (I used it once and players liked it) or in a foul, foul location.

[j_spencer93]

Introduced it into ours, made my good aligned character afraid to do some things they considered grey in terms of alignment, except for a certain half orc who literally did everything he could think of to gain taint (including carrying around the skull of a villain that tainted him originally, offering to have sex with a succubus, and then trying to outwit asmodeus and take his throne). anyway point is it can be interesting, especially is used as a way to show true vileness in people.