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[Fniff]

Sanity can't slip to one in a single roll. You would require two rolls (Each one having to be a 1 or a 2) to slip to Sanity One, and I wouldn't put sanity loss events in quick succession. Sanity One is meant to be basically the "death" point, where you have gone so far down the path of madness that you are rapidly approaching the point of no return. It is the point where you have seen so many awful things and done so many awful things that you have realized that everything you based yourself around has proven itself to be either unreliable or false. Basically, Captain Walker from Spec Ops The Line would be at sanity one at the very end of the game.

So wait, what if the pc is a cynic convinced that the world is bad? Every act of kindness would reduce his SAN.

Yes. See that guy over in the corner? He's gone totally psychotic. He's actually donating to charity and petting dogs on the street. Poor bastard.

*puts on serious hat* Anyway, that'd be more likely to increase your sanity because no matter how cynical you are, you're going to like doing nice things. Even if you're total nihilistic, you have some standards. Unless you are a complete sociopath (which would be recommended against because that'd be kinda like having an invulnerable character), child murder and genocide is going to be considered wrong in your eyes, and if you commit it you're going to feel like an utter shit.

Actually... Maybe a sociopath would end up having a reverse sanity? He'd end up becoming more and more kind until at sanity one he was basically a messiah. That sounds... surprisingly interesting.

[Digital Hellhound]

So wait, what if the pc is a cynic convinced that the world is bad? Every act of kindness would reduce his SAN.

I'm sure you could justify anything with a bit of effort. 'Oh, he only gave his entire fortune to that beggar because the stock market was about to crash/so his actual family and loved ones wouldn't get anything/a team of transdimensional assassins was tracking him by his money/he was nuts'.

Hell, to a cynic 'he only did it because he gets joy from altruism' could be a negative reason.

[Fniff]

So wait, what if the pc is a cynic convinced that the world is bad? Every act of kindness would reduce his SAN.

I'm sure you could justify anything with a bit of effort. 'Oh, he only gave his entire fortune to that beggar because the stock market was about to crash/so his actual family and loved ones wouldn't get anything/a team of transdimensional assassins was tracking him by his money/he was nuts'.

Hell, to a cynic 'he only did it because he gets joy from altruism' could be a negative reason.

The cynic might have to roll for SAN if someone rescues him from a life or death situation, then ends up sacrificing themselves to make sure he lives. It's hard to twist that into a "for myself" motivation. Even if the person is important, your life is the most valuable thing to yourself.

[Harry Baldman]

Let us not forget that the entire point of a sanity roll is that it explains how well the character rationalizes an event that happens to them and keeps a clear head. For instance, the reaction of a cynic to a person who sacrifices themselves for the life of another:

Sanity roll: 1 - "Oh god, he just gave away his life for that person, expecting nothing in return. How can there be such a person in the world? Somebody possessing pure selflessness... incredible..."
Sanity roll: 20 - "Hahahahahah, did the rest of you see that? Hey, hey, have fun being dead, moron! Let's see how you like thoughtless nonexistence as your eternal reward, eh?"

However, I have to go against the idea of Sanity: 1 meaning a death roll (considering that 2 ones mean dealing with this, and these do happen quite a lot). Better to keep ramping up the screwing with perception. Change details. Add details. A shadow here at first, new people that only one guy sees next, finally trap a person in a delusional world or just turn their life into a haze - they can sorta see what they're doing, but the fine points of it get completely lost except for moments of lucidity - the GM starts adding fitting bits of flavor to what they do, occasionally even substituting actions for new ones. Or better yet, when the players fail at something, give them entirely wrong reasons why (like, say, a bat flew at them from a dark spot in the room). Along with occasionally correct ones to keep them guessing. However, don't ever take away control completely. That's no fun.

[Fniff]

Hrm. So, at sanity one, everything that the player sees nothing but his own insane hallucinations? I actually like that. Though I would like another consquence to sanity one.

Also, by sanity one, I mean it's the bottom of the sliding scale of sanity. 10 being "normality" and one being insanity. When you roll 1-2, it means that you simply cannot come up with an excuse for your actions or the actions of others.

EDIT: IDEA! The RP I'm going to put this involves hunting an utterly sadistic, morally reprehensiable person from a list of others, all with their own unique style of craziness. Maybe at sanity one, your character starts to think like the very person he's trying to kill?

[Xantalos]

Hrm. So, at sanity one, everything that the player sees nothing but his own insane hallucinations? I actually like that. Though I would like another consquence to sanity one.

Also, by sanity one, I mean it's the bottom of the sliding scale of sanity. 10 being "normality" and "ten" being sanity. When you roll 1-2, it means that you simply cannot come up with an excuse for your actions or the actions of others.

EDIT: IDEA! The RP I'm going to put this involves hunting an utterly sadistic, morally reprehensiable person from a list of others, all with their own unique style of craziness. Maybe at sanity one, your character starts to think like the very person he's trying to kill?

YES

[kj1225]

Hrm. So, at sanity one, everything that the player sees nothing but his own insane hallucinations? I actually like that. Though I would like another consquence to sanity one.

Also, by sanity one, I mean it's the bottom of the sliding scale of sanity. 10 being "normality" and "ten" being sanity. When you roll 1-2, it means that you simply cannot come up with an excuse for your actions or the actions of others.

EDIT: IDEA! The RP I'm going to put this involves hunting an utterly sadistic, morally reprehensiable person from a list of others, all with their own unique style of craziness. Maybe at sanity one, your character starts to think like the very person he's trying to kill?

Do tell me if and when you do this. I am quite interested in playing.

[Fniff]

I think I'm going to do it after the Tejekov thing. It's based off Far Cry 3. You and the other players have to hunt down one of ten warlords of a pirate infested chain of islands. You take out their outposts on various islands and do various quests in order to lead them out into the open, in order to kill them. I've got systems prepped for health, sanity, scavenging, and crafting.

[Harry Baldman]

I had an idea for a particular system to use in a game, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't belong in Roller's Block, considering that it has nothing to do with RTD whatsoever. So here it is.

Fudge Dice Emotion-Calibrated Action System v1.0

The basic concept involves utilizing fudge dice, essentially a d3 with the values -1, 0 and +1 on its sides. For each action (other than trivial ones) a set of fudge dice would be rolled, and each action would have a minimum value to succeed, a Difficulty Rating. Said DR would be a certain value, and the difference between the DR and the roll would indicate the degree of success.

Spoiler: DR Chart With Examples (click to show/hide)

0: Near-Trivial - finding the remote you remember last leaving on the couch.
+1: Easy - properly treating and bandaging a nasty cut across your palm.
+2: Uncomplicated - finding somebody you know in a rather busy crowd.
+3: Moderately Difficult - shooting somebody in the torso from a medium distance with a handgun.
+4: Difficult - shooting somebody in the head from a medium distance with a handgun.
+5: Very Difficult - persuading a zealous inquisitor that you are not a witch and should not be executed despite proof to the contrary.
+6: Supremely Difficult - surviving a gunshot to the head.
+7: Nigh-Impossible - coming out alive after being shot fifteen times, set on fire and poisoned, then thrown into a 20m deep pit of spikes.

As you may realize, this requires a whole lot of dice. But the number rolled would actually vary depending on the character's state of mind of all things. You roll from one to seven dice, and the number is dependent on your State of Agitation, each with a number corresponding to the dice rolled.

Spoiler: States of Agitation (click to show/hide)

1: Completely Detached - your mind is completely empty, and you think of absolutely nothing, your muscle memory taking over while your brain is out to lunch.
2: Extremely Calm - your emotions are completely wiped at the moment, and nothing remains but cold logic and knowledge of what must be done.
3: Calm - you are at peace, your emotions are mostly reined in and you are settled into a comfortable state.
4: Normal - you are in an average state of mind. You've got your worries, your goals, your life.
5: Agitated - you are intensely worried, inspired, joyous or otherwise excited or stimulated to an unusual degree.
6: Affected - your rational thoughts fade as you let your emotions or inspiration fully take hold, driving you to do and consider things you otherwise wouldn't.
7: Frenzied - you have no rational thoughts. You are pushed over the line, a flesh vessel driven by an emergent being of pure emotion, impulse, inspiration or obsession, sometimes all four.

Now, this system provides a nice polarity, I believe, particularly when you begin to consider skill bonuses. When you are skilled at something, possess an unusual proficiency or some inborn ability to do something, you get a +1 (proficient), +2 (skilled), in exceptional cases a +3 (masterful) to it. So, if you are skilled at something, you may want to reach a state of calm to roll reliably to achieve things without all the minuses getting in the way. Also, you may wish to achieve a frenzied state that allows you to do the nigh-impossible, though this carries the unfortunate risk of an equal risk of incredibly terrible failures, which may befall even a master in certain cases.

As for how to manage these states of agitation, I was thinking that a character would "switch gears" depending on what happens to them during a story, and a player may call a switch of gears if the GM misses a potential opportunity, which the GM would have to approve to keep it appropriate and prevent unnecessary emotion-whoring. Naturally, for optimum simulation a comprehensive backstory and consistent personality of a character would be required.

So, what do you guys think? I think that perhaps the DR chart may need calibration.

[Xantalos]

I see potential for a manic or otherwise insane person to have a master rank in, say, punching, and them being in a completely frenzied state of mind would result (at least theoretically) being able to pass a check of 0 by 10. Say they were punching a punching bag and they got that high. Imagine the results!
*You have punched the punching bag through several walls!*

[Harry Baldman]

Well, in a more realistic setting it would be that a guy punched the bag so hard it fell off its position, then said guy went ahead and punched it until there was a massive hole in the floor where it once lay.

And then he has to roll for how much damage he did to himself in the process.

[freeformschooler]

Spoiler: Concept: Pen and Paper Mario (click to show/hide)

So! A long time ago, I discovered the Mario D20 ruleset. Now, it's far too much for me to run as it stands, but I've wanted to try my hand at a "real" Mario P&P RPG for a long time. Obviously, if I ever did it, it wouldn't look like the above image (I'm masochistic, not suicidal).

I'm not sure if the game would work best on Maptools or as PBP. Time will only tell.

Game World: the game world would actually NOT be my normal Mushroom Kingdom With Swords setting. It would revert back to the idealism of Paper Mario with hammers, badges and other such silly items. Shops would pop out like a story book when entered, and many races both friendly and hostile would inhabit the world. Expect such location names as "Breezy Bay" and "Starlight Cliff."

Character creation: I would ONLY use the Mario D20 rulebook for content, so no classes or races outside of it. Monster races might be possible, but I think some of the standard ones would already count. Players would gain EXP as a pool to save me some headache. I would also probably only take a party of four to start with, given the complexity of the game.

House rules: as an online RPG, I would have to cut out anything very unfun or heavily slowing the game down. This means maps/illustrations no more complex than my current Mario game, and some aspects of the game simplified/sped up (especially combat).

Story: In all the past games in similar settings I've run, players have always been guards, ambassadors or other royal figures in the Mushroom Kingdom. Due to the crazy freedom the ruleset and game world would allows, players would instead start the story as a freelance adventuring group - perhaps at the entrance to the Twilight Tower or some other sinister, level one dungeon. It would be up to them to decide where they should go and what they should do.

[Furtuka]

1. That is wonderful

2. Don't hurt yourself FFS! D:

[freeformschooler]

Spoiler: Relevant (click to show/hide)

Weaponized Knowledge: i have a better idea for timed hits
freefromschool: what?
Weaponized Knowledge: you need to post within 5 minutes of a post saying PRESS A TO LAND TIMED HIT
Weaponized Knowledge: this way people watch the thread with eagle eyes
Weaponized Knowledge: and it sucks up their life
freefromschool: perfect

[Gamerboy4life]

Spoiler: Relevant (click to show/hide)

Weaponized Knowledge: i have a better idea for timed hits
freefromschool: what?
Weaponized Knowledge: you need to post within 5 minutes of a post saying PRESS A TO LAND TIMED HIT
Weaponized Knowledge: this way people watch the thread with eagle eyes
Weaponized Knowledge: and it sucks up their life
freefromschool: perfect

Spoiler: My lord... (click to show/hide)