Mental abnormalities in the DND world

[ianneiriksson]

I have been playing DND for most of my life and throughout it i have always seen one aspect of the game untouched by many a DM. Why is it that all the characters are perfectly sane from the begining? wouldn't it make is so much better to have to roleplay a barbarrian with alzhimers, or a wizard with dislexia (witch would make no sence but would be funny to watch) or a schitophrenic rouge? And i can understand a little bit of why a DM would not even touch that aspect, cause it would be confusing and probably peve off players. But i think that at the begining, after picking your race and gender, you roll 2 d10, pick one for a tens and one for a single digit. When you roll them i think you should have a verry small chance of your character developing a mental abnormalitie, and what you can do is get sheet with several abnormalities on it. For example lets say i chose to start a level 1 half-orc. and he developes a mental abnormalitie. All the names would be on a list but the DM decides to let only 4 in his campaign, so each abnormalitie will have 25% chance off occuring. so on the list he has dislexia, schitsoprenia, OCD, and bipolar disorder. The pc rolls the die and gets a 38, meaning he gets schitsoprenia. Now the DM rolls a d4 to see how bad the abnormalitie is, 1 being the lowest, meaning that he gets a voice that tells the half orc to do a tiny thing, and 4 being the highest, meaning that the voice tells him that everything he knows about others is a lie, and does whatever the voice tells him. lets say he rolled a 2. During the campaign the character hears the voice tell him hey you shouldn't do that or stop dont move, and only the DM can tell the character what he hears.
All of this is just a few suggestions of course all from an idea that i have had in my head for a while, but if you know any real rules about mental abnormalities i would like to know. Iff not than what do you think of my idea?

[Lochar]

First thing: Please, no walls of text.

Second: Because no player wants to play a character with a disadvantage, unless they are being given an even better advantage to overcome it with. IE: "Oh, I'm blind? That means I get Blindsight out to 300 feet, right?"

Besides, Cleric 5 fixes any problems. Remove Disease.

[Dyvim Matt]

Actually, besides DnD, I have come across many other games that don't address mental health. The only ones that spontaneously come to mind are Call of Cthulhu and Mage: the Ascension, but I know there are others. The outlines you have presented seem quick and efficient, I think.

There is a supplement for Mongoose RuneQuest called Taint & Sanity, which basically reproduces the Call of Cthulhu Sanity Rules, but I'm pretty sure it's a conversion from d20, because, due to editing mistakes, it refers to rules that don't apply to RuneQuest, but sound very "d20ish", like Will saves and Skill Ranks for instance. (FYI, RuneQuest does not use those expressions)However, I really don't know if the title for the d20/DnD edition is the same, or if it goes by a different name. Maybe another playgrounder can help you there.

[KKL]

Because very few people do mental problems right.

[Curmudgeon]

D&D has both Character Traits and Flaws. There's no way to make these go away after character creation, but that's consistent with a world lacking psychotherapy.

[Morty]

I don't think that starting with mental abnormalities is a very good idea, but PCs getting a little bit deranged after barely escaping death for a fifth time is perfectly reasonable.

[Dyvim Matt]

Because very few people do mental problems right.

Amen to that. A few encounters with some Malkavian fans in particular are one of the reasons I don't play Vampire (Masquerade or Requiem) anymore... but that's beside the topic. [/rant]

[KKL]

Amen to that. A few encounters with some Malkavian fans in particular are one of the reasons I don't play Vampire (Masquerade or Requiem) anymore... but that's beside the topic. [/rant]

lol fishmalks.

[RTGoodman]

Take a look at UA or the SRD - there's rules right there for it: general Sanity rules (which are more Cthulhu-esque "loosing your mind" sort of sanity), and then a whole section on Mental Disorders (from anxiety disorders, to dissociative disorders, to personality disorders, to schizophrenic disorders, and so on).

[Sequinox]

I DM'd a DnD game with a multiple personality disorder sorcerer (who hates bards with a passion) and the other personality was a bard (who thinks sorcerers are grossly overrated). It was fun.

[Calinero]

Look at a game called Harnmaster. You can roll for mental defects/abnormalities on a table with percentiles. Lots of interesting things. I got astrophobia (fear of thunder) and epilepsy.

[Lemur]

Being an adventurer is a mental abnormality.

[Quietus]

Mental abnormalities, quite frankly, aren't fun to play if they're being done believably. And if they AREN'T being done believably, then they're distracting and annoying. Besides, you're practically forcing people to end up with this issues, when in reality, not only are those sorts of things fairly uncommon among the population, but the only reason those people can function is because of modern science letting us understand the disorders and treat them accordingly.

In a fantasy setting, where demons are real and voices in your head could be a million different things, anyone who has some sort of major deficiency simply *isn't going to survive*. The only way they could really adjust to the world is, as others have said, Clerical spells, which would remove the trouble entirely. Someone who hears voices is EVENTUALLY going to run into a psychotic member of the clergy who helps "purge the demon"... one way or another.

Besides that, the way most people would play mental diseases is simply insulting to people who actually have those problems. And beyond that, it's... convenient. While they're setting up camp, Mr. Schizo is talking to the voices in his head, but when ogres attack in the night, oddly enough, he's got enough clarity to be completely efficient in combat. Someone who's obsessive-compulsive might need to deal with that in normal roleplay, but if it comes up in combat, "Oh, the rush of adrenaline and risk to my life override my OCD".

Please. Don't use mental disorders in roleplay. I can damn near guarantee you're the only one having fun with it, everyone else is annoyed.

[kbk]

I'm surprised no one has posted this yet, but the 2nd edition product Domains of Dread included a sanity system. In addition to your normal saving throws, you had fear, horror, and madness saves.

I also recall a system with a large number of mental disorders that you could roll for on tables, along with some systems to further define insanities.

Fear was when you were outnumbered, or just totally screwed in combat.
Horror involved something supernatural: vampires, zombies, or something like that.
And Madness was when you faced extreme horror or something so horrible it attack your very sanity.

It had a real CoC vibe to it.

http://www.amazon.com/Domains-Dread-.../dp/0786906723

[Doomsy]

Seconded for the most part, Quietus, but I do make an exception for CoC rules. Which is basically your brain going completely effin' blue screen and expressing it through a variety of conditions. It is unwilling and generally not a character trait so much as a cross to bear that does impede every day activity.

[Prometheus]

Don't forget amnesia and depression. 1 out of 4 adventurers are tragically stuck with one or the other

Actually I have a lot of PCs who would role-play (or at the very least) attempt to role-play personality disorders, including the following: split-personality, paranoia, OCD, gender confusion, god-complex, phobias, and cleptomania. The trick is to do it to the extent that it alters your character's actions within the scope of role-play but doesn't actually debilitate them 24/7.

[Piedmon_Sama]

I like the Sanity rules from Unearthed Arcana/Call of Cthulhu, but the problem is they pretty much require your character to have at least average Wisdom, or they're doomed to being a cloudcoocoolander at best, a frothing liability at worst, the first time they come across an Eldritch Horror.

...My spellcheck recognizes "cloudcoocoolander."

[Thurbane]

Earlier editions (AD&D 1E in particular) used to have extensive rules on many kinds of "insanity" and mental disorders, from Dispomania to Hebrephenia and back...

[kentma57]

Many of my characters suffer from these kinds of things, my group calls it role-playing.

[Yukitsu]

My party OOC seems to have a few that leak into the characters, so we usually don't need to resort to putting it on the character sheets.

[Thurbane]

There's also the UA sanity rules.

[golentan]

As someone with a psychotic illness, I first have to protest your depiction of Schizophrenia. It's stereotypical, simplistic, and borderline offensive in its ignorance of the scope and variety of the disease.

Second, I think mental traits are MOSTLY a player's prerogative. If they choose to randomly select a mental illness, they should determine what they could play and how likely it would be, and set their own system accordingly.

But before they get to that point, if the DM feels they are unable to play the character with respect and nuance he should step in. If for example they are simply using the illness as an excuse for stupid or evil behavior, the DM should remove the option from them.

Illnesses of this nature are SERIOUS handicaps, and should penalize the character in ways appropriate to the setting. I mostly agree with Quietus on this one, but the option should be there, if you TRULY understand what it entails.

[ashmanonar]

I don't think that starting with mental abnormalities is a very good idea, but PCs getting a little bit deranged after barely escaping death for a fifth time is perfectly reasonable.

So a Death Delver.

[ashmanonar]

Many of my characters suffer from these kinds of things, my group calls it role-playing.

Many of our players suffer from these kinds of things, my group explains it as role-playing.

[Collin152]

Amen to that. A few encounters with some Malkavian fans in particular are one of the reasons I don't play Vampire (Masquerade or Requiem) anymore... but that's beside the topic. [/rant]

Understand completley. Some folks just don't get what insane does and does not mean, you know?

Now myself, I consider myself insane, but i can still be rational and such much of the time... I just drift into the unfathomably impossible so effortlessly, without even realising what I'm saying is absolute nonsense.
Course, I tell a lot of stories. Can't believe a word I say, and you certainly can't trust that its grounded in fact, reason, or anything of the sort.

On the other hand, it lets me roleplay insane characters really well; I can get inside their irrational heads so easily, it's like I really am insane!
Same applies to any character, though.

[The Glyphstone]

If he hadn't actually suggested houserules to represent this, I'd be calling troll.

Still, it's a bad idea, for reasons everyone above me has stated, so don't do it. Going adventuring is enough of a mental abnormality.

[Kris Strife]

One strip of Penny Arcade had Tycho I think (the one in the yellow shirt), playing as a wizard with alzheimers. I'd put it here, but PSP = no copypasta. I found it funny in spite of good taste, although I think some diseases would cause these effects and there is an insanity spell, but starting out with a mental disorder should only be by player choice and if your group is mature enough for it.

[kbk]

As someone with a psychotic illness, I first have to protest your depiction of Schizophrenia. It's stereotypical, simplistic, and borderline offensive in its ignorance of the scope and variety of the disease.

Second, I think mental traits are MOSTLY a player's prerogative. If they choose to randomly select a mental illness, they should determine what they could play and how likely it would be, and set their own system accordingly.

But before they get to that point, if the DM feels they are unable to play the character with respect and nuance he should step in. If for example they are simply using the illness as an excuse for stupid or evil behavior, the DM should remove the option from them.

Illnesses of this nature are SERIOUS handicaps, and should penalize the character in ways appropriate to the setting. I mostly agree with Quietus on this one, but the option should be there, if you TRULY understand what it entails.

Schizophrenia is an illness few people, even clinicians actually understand. Most people don't understand it has a number of different dimensions and a number of symptoms. Any individual with schizophrenia may have one, some, or many of those symptoms. In many ways its a catch all for really strange behavior.

I'm a psychologist, though not a counselor or clinician (I study the science of behavior instead).

Insanities are complex, and rarely one dimensional. That said, they are popular topics of films, tv, video games and literature. There is something profoundly intriguing about such deviations from normalcy in the human brain, which draws people to try to play characters with them. Its fun and interesting to explore such things, even if a truly accurate depiction is impossible for the sake of the story.

Mankind wonders what is in the dark depths of his mind.

[derfenrirwolv]

One word response

Darwin

[pingcode20]

A long, long, time ago, on the Wizards forums, a lady by the name of Callista put together a guide for those who wish to play insane characters.

It's pretty handy, I have to say.

Insane Characters: A Players Guide