Madness in Madhaven

[mobuttu]

It is said that people get crazy in Madhaven. Even in the book there is a flavor text with a coalition soldier totally gone. But then, in the rules text (pg. 15) there are (only) indications about when PC start to see hallucinations and feel uncomfortable, but without any clue of how they fall into madness. So, here is my try to fix it, as I'm planning to run a scenario in that doomed place I like sooo much!

Madhaven horror factor

Once a PC starts experimenting the dreadful feelings of Madhaven (as per WB29 pg.15), the ruined city as a whole get an HF of 8. So, every day, the PC will have to face that Horror Factor (unless they are on a save place such as the Garden). This roll is not paralyzing as per normal HF rules, but closes the PC to craziness (see Falling into madness below).

Things get worse when PC explore the ruins of Madhaven. Then there could be special "dark" places where HF could reach 8-12, especially at night. See Rifter 20 pg 16. Some examples:

- Shadowed streets 9
- Ruined building/skyscraper 10
- Haunter house 10
- Shadowed ruins 11
- Underground compound 11
- Cave or tube tunnels 12

+1 HF at night.
-1 HF open areas in daylight.

This roll can indeed prevent the PC to go further into some ruins, refuse to explore or advance into the unknown. Failing this roll means the PC are indeed scared of the place.

Don't forget to roll HF when a ghost, entity, or whatever other monster are encountered by the PCs.

Falling into Madness

Every time a PC fails against Horror factor a mark is written at ME side. Once the number of marks equals the PC's ME then he needs to roll against Insanity (12). If it's a failure the PC gains an Insanity (RUE332) according to scene (or just random roll it). Should the PC success against the Insanity roll, nothing happens until another HF roll is failed and another ME mark is added, when the PC must face an Insanity roll again.

This goes on until the PC gains an Insanity when all ME marks are erased and the process stars again.


My intention behind this rulings are to make Madhaven a truly place of insanity, where PC are facing real change of going crazy.

What do you think? Any comments? Improvements? Thanks.

Note: This rules are inspired in the old warhammer RPG insanity rules but using Rifts rules available.

[Giant2005]

Its awesome in theory and kudos for putting the effort in. I too hate the fact that the rules of Madhaven were never described, it kind of ruins the entire book imo.
I don't really like what you have there though, I think the process you have outlined takes far too long and it needs to be made far more severe.
Take for example, a minor physical psychic with an M.E. of 14. A minor psychic which an M.E. of 14 isn't something that is out of the ordinary and yet he would have able to endure Madhaven for a pretty extreme amount of time with these rules. A lot longer than I personally think he should at least.
He could go 8 days before having any serious issues as per Madhaven page 16.
He could then go a further 14 days minimum before having to roll a save vs Insanity at all with your rules (Probably a lot more, the odds are he will make some saves against H.F.). That is over three weeks for a fairly average character that isn't even attempting to protect himself with Mind Block or anything, before he even runs the risk of insanity. In my opinion, that is far too long.
I don't think you need the first step of your rules here, the stuff in the book pretty much covers the M.E. aspect and such and adding the extra layer of defense (The H.F. save) just seems to make things too easy. I'd suggest something far simpler, use the guidelines in the book to determine how long they last safely and then just roll your save vs insanity once per day after that.

[popscythe]

Spoiler:

It is said that people get crazy in Madhaven. Even in the book there is a flavor text with a coalition soldier totally gone. But then, in the rules text (pg. 15) there are (only) indications about when PC start to see hallucinations and feel uncomfortable, but without any clue of how they fall into madness. So, here is my try to fix it, as I'm planning to run a scenario in that doomed place I like sooo much!

Madhaven horror factor

Once a PC starts experimenting the dreadful feelings of Madhaven (as per WB29 pg.15), the ruined city as a whole get an HF of 8. So, every day, the PC will have to face that Horror Factor (unless they are on a save place such as the Garden). This roll is not paralyzing as per normal HF rules, but closes the PC to craziness (see Falling into madness below).

Things get worse when PC explore the ruins of Madhaven. Then there could be special "dark" places where HF could reach 8-12, especially at night. See Rifter 20 pg 16. Some examples:

- Shadowed streets 9
- Ruined building/skyscraper 10
- Haunter house 10
- Shadowed ruins 11
- Underground compound 11
- Cave or tube tunnels 12

+1 HF at night.
-1 HF open areas in daylight.

This roll can indeed prevent the PC to go further into some ruins, refuse to explore or advance into the unknown. Failing this roll means the PC are indeed scared of the place.

Don't forget to roll HF when a ghost, entity, or whatever other monster are encountered by the PCs.

Falling into Madness

Every time a PC fails against Horror factor a mark is written at ME side. Once the number of marks equals the PC's ME then he needs to roll against Insanity (12). If it's a failure the PC gains an Insanity (RUE332) according to scene (or just random roll it). Should the PC success against the Insanity roll, nothing happens until another HF roll is failed and another ME mark is added, when the PC must face an Insanity roll again.

This goes on until the PC gains an Insanity when all ME marks are erased and the process stars again.


My intention behind this rulings are to make Madhaven a truly place of insanity, where PC are facing real change of going crazy.

What do you think? Any comments? Improvements? Thanks.

Note: This rules are inspired in the old warhammer RPG insanity rules but using Rifts rules available.

Neat man, sounds fun!

[mobuttu]

I think the process you have outlined takes far too long and it needs to be made far more severe.

I agree with your whole point. The rules were intended to be hard yet allow some play-ability.

I don't think you need the first step of your rules here, the stuff in the book pretty much covers the M.E. aspect and such and adding the extra layer of defense (The H.F. save) just seems to make things too easy. I'd suggest something far simpler, use the guidelines in the book to determine how long they last safely and then just roll your save vs insanity once per day after that.

Your Insanity-rolls-after-the-"save period" are indeed far more extreme, which could be argued against using the other side of your point: consider a normal human with ME 10, on the first day in Madhaven he should be rolling against Insanity and probably become insane, which by all means is very poorly playable (especially considering I'm going to run the scenario with Coalition PC).

All in all, I agree with you that the rules presented might be too soft. Maybe if we reduce the numbers of ME marks by half ME, before starting to roll insanity would be harder. Also bear in mind that the number of monsters and scaring places in Madhaven are quite big, so chances are that a PC will roll several times a day against HF, thus increasing the numbers of ME marks.

Thanks for your comments btw, they are highly appreciated.

[Jerell]

My intention behind this rulings are to make Madhaven a truly place of insanity, where PC are facing real change of going crazy.

What do you think? Any comments? Improvements? Thanks.

Zoinks, I like it. For some reason I can picture a Great Dane dog boy and a vagabond in a green shirt and brown pants running all over that place. Unmasking crazies or robots pretending to be ghosts every adventure...

[Mech-Viper Prime]

My intention behind this rulings are to make Madhaven a truly place of insanity, where PC are facing real change of going crazy.

What do you think? Any comments? Improvements? Thanks.

Zoinks, I like it. For some reason I can picture a Great Dane dog boy and a vagabond in a green shirt and brown pants running all over that place. Unmasking crazies or robots pretending to be ghosts every adventure...

Sounds like a bad cartoon to me.