Looking for rules on Stress, Sanity, Corruption, Wounding.

[Florian]

Hey guys.

Like it says on the tin, I´m looking for rules on those issues.
This has´t got anything to do with "realism" or "verisimilitude", I´m rather looking into "actions and consequences".
Background: I´m working on a Dungeon/Hex Map Exploration campaign based in Varisia with Troupe Play and a sharp time limit in mind. You have to press on and reach your goal, thereby risking health and sanity of your character in the process. The more your character is damaged, the more rest he´ll need afterwards, meaning you´ll have to swap character in the meantime.

Any clues or thoughts on "good" rules that mesh well with the basic Pathfinder framework and help towards reaching my stated goal?

[Tohsaka Rin]

I do remember Unearthed Arcana having rules for Sanity and Corruption.

[Starbuck_II]

For a new campaign based on eldritch horrors, spawn or rugralu (however you spell that god of destruction):
For Sanity, I merged mental corruption with sanity rules from Heroes of Horror and Unearthed Arcana. Like, UA, I allow wisdom for sanity resistance for random rolls/Corrupt spells/fear effects.
I use the table from Mental corruption for what happens.

I also use Corrupt spells that use sanity as well to cast (some are Book of Vile Darkness spells that use Sanity instead of stat damage). I the idea here was the cost of the spells if your very mind.

[charcoalninja]

Pathfinder's own Game Mastery Guide has rules for madness and sanity as well as lingering afflictions that merit a look. You can find it on the PRD under Game Mastery Guide, and for wounding, Pathfinder Unchained has a simple wound system where the character gains a cumulative -1 penalty to attacks, saves, checks and caster level, and I believe AC but I'm not sure for every 1/4 HP you're down. For a more gritty feel it recommends doubling the penalty.

Personally I recommend using Vitality Points / Wound Points with these wound rules as they mesh really well.

[ShurikVch]

For Stress, Sanity, Corruption you may try to look in Call of Cthulhu d20, and especially in the Book of Broken Dreams supplement

For wounding you may try Dismemberment and Permanent Injuries in D&D (http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/09/dismemberment-and-permanent-injuries-in-dnd/) article from Dice of Doom, or D&D On Death & Dismemberment Tables (http://deathanddismemberment.blogspot.ru/2014/11/d-on-death-dismemberment-tables.html)

[Edgar Snow]

Not quite the same thing, but the online SRD has 'Taint' rules. That has to do with exposure to evil corrupted places or items. Some of the effects seem to fit your goal. The benefit is that it is accessible to everyone to learn.

[Florian]

Thanks for the answers so far, but sorry, not the stuff I'm looking for.

WHAT i look for is way more "meta" than that and does not concern the character but the game itself.

For example, D&D 4E knows the milestone mechanic.
WHFRPG 3rd knows the (Intra party) Stress Track.
13th Age knows the Escalation Die and Escalating Difficulty for harder dungeons.
The John Sinclair RPG knows Hero and Villain Points, trading one for the other for effects.
Descent knows Overlord points, Arkham Horror has the Gate track.

Stuff like that, but already "translated" to D20.

[Zakerst]

I'm not really sure of the things you're mentioning as examples but have to checked into Elder Evils for their signs machanic, you could advance or swap those around depening on what the players do, it's also a good place to start for making new ones.

If you need anything more "meta" than that I'm not sure anything shy of house rules will suffice for 3.5/pf.

[Florian]

If you need anything more "meta" than that I'm not sure anything shy of house rules will suffice for 3.5/pf.

I want to avoid having to do all the work if possible ;)

My (pretty raw and unbalanced) thoughts on this so far run along this lines:

Introduce "bloodied" from 4E: Everytime a characters drops below 50% total hp, he gains a permanent Disability that can only be cured by extended resting.

Introduce "Dungeon Depression": The longer time is spent in a Dungeon and fighting, the more effective Curses, emotion-based spells, and so on are against a character. This too can only be cured by extended resting.

Introduce "Pushing" as a mechanic, a bit modelled after Milestones: The more Encounters you can solve in a straight row without pause, the more you have a chance to regain lost hp, x/day abilities or spent spell slots.

[Zakerst]

So it sounds like you may just have to back port that from 4th though the best way to reflect this would be some amount of ability damage which only heals one point per long rest (8 hrs in 3.5) ability drain is permanent, also maybe look at some of the curse affects from the BoVD for maybe some other nastiness that can be accrued.

The second bullet sounds like it's a sort of cursed earth effect. I'm away from my books right now but I think there are rules for such thing in HoH and maybe some in the BoVD, another source you might want to look at is the taint as is appears in OA as that covers areas large enough to be a problem.

Another more nasty way to make damage stick is to use vile damage, if you wanted you could also try making vile status affects eg they can only be removed in a hallowed area and with the help of magic

[Jack_Simth]

You really want to read through the Variant Campaigns section of Unearthed Arcana (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/variantCampaigns.htm). It's got Sanity Rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm), Taint rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/taint.htm), Alternate Injury rules that make the game more lethal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/vitalityAndWoundPoints.htm), and it's also got some unusual stuff such as an Honor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/honor.htm), Reputation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/reputation.htm), and Contacts (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/contacts.htm) system.

[Florian]

You really want to read through the Variant Campaigns section of Unearthed Arcana (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/variantCampaigns.htm). It's got Sanity Rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm), Taint rules (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/taint.htm), Alternate Injury rules that make the game more lethal (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/vitalityAndWoundPoints.htm), and it's also got some unusual stuff such as an Honor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/honor.htm), Reputation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/reputation.htm), and Contacts (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/contacts.htm) system.

Lethality is not the actual goal here and should not even be the byproduct. "Risk and Reward" are.

Remember that I mentioned Troupe Play, so you have more than one character availlable.

Think of it this way: There's a dungeon with 5 levels, there's a doomsday cult, you habe three days or its game over. Period, no discussion.
You don't have money and WBL doesn't count here, so you can go of the straight route to the cult or sidetrack to equip yourself with very good and tasty loot, but there's a risk for that. You certainly won't beat the cult without at least better gear.

How far do you think you can push your character until you have to replace him with a fresh one, a tpk happens, you've got to switch to a (surviving?) henchman or game over happens?

[Jack_Simth]

Lethality is not the actual goal here and should not even be the byproduct. "Risk and Reward" are.

Remember that I mentioned Troupe Play, so you have more than one character availlable.

Think of it this way: There's a dungeon with 5 levels, there's a doomsday cult, you habe three days or its game over. Period, no discussion.
You don't have money and WBL doesn't count here, so you can go of the straight route to the cult or sidetrack to equip yourself with very good and tasty loot, but there's a risk for that. You certainly won't beat the cult without at least better gear.

How far do you think you can push your character until you have to replace him with a fresh one, a tpk happens, you've got to switch to a (surviving?) henchman or game over happens?

... You're looking for add-on systems that punish characters for pushing on past a point (whether that's injury, things they've seen, things they've been exposed to, how long they've been up, whatever), then adding a time limit. No matter how you implement that, additional lethality will be a consequence (the fighter who lost an arm in the last fight and can no longer properly wield his greatsword and switched to a longsword will now be less effective of a fighter; he's less effective, so if he presses on, he's more likely to get killed, and the time limit pretty much requires he presses on). You appear to have two mutually exclusive goals. Well, unless it *just* affects down-time between missions, but in that case you barely have a mechanical effect, and you're unlikely to find any existing game mechanics for what you want.

[Xuldarinar]

If I may, if you do not mind non-official solutions I may have one.


I did take a differing approach to the taint/corruption system. It doesn't kill you, but effects are added depending upon how much you acquire. Here is a link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?436313-System-Complete-Taint)if you are interested.