Roleplaying the criminally Insane, Mechanics-wise Options

[The Jake]

Has anyone here RPed an insane character? If so, what mechanics can you use to help govern it?

Depending on the insanity, I'm inclined to use the many negative mental flaws limited to cyberzombies out of Augmentation as a basis (I don't see why many of those would be limited to a CZ).

Anyone else?

- J.

[nezumi]

I custom-make flaws for that using the Companion rules as a general guide. I think I've tossed out a few previously; invisible friend, voices, etc. Lots of fun (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Chibu]

In short: None needed.

Explanation of opinion:
Mechanics are not necessary. That's character personality, which should be governed by the player, not with rules. All shadowrunners have issues. They get paid to kill people, break into highly secured facilities, and generally do things that a normal person would find to be reprehensible. If you want to take this a step further, you could look up different disorders to get a better idea of what they are like.

But yes, I've played disturbed characters before. Most of their conditions have stemmed from growing up in a dark, chaotic world with little or no family. Everyone has to learn how to deal with what they're given. Some manage to rise about it all, however most find it easiest to merge with the culture, becoming the darkness that has scarred them from the start. With the immense poverty, the racial hatred and the prevalent violence of the sixth world, there is no doubt in my mind that this would be a common occurrence. It is human nature to respond in kind; to meet violence with violence, likewise to respond to kindness by being kind.

In my opinion, it would be more of a change--an oddity if you will--to play a character who is actually sane, who actually does have issues with killing people and the like. However, I assume that you actually mean taking it a step further from the norm. As I've noted elsewhere, I'm an advocate of roleplaying where possible without needing to add rules to it. This is one such area. Whether or not you get extra points for flaws, which should be entirely unnecessary, you will still need to roleplay the actions of the character so there would seem to be little point in having a written statement of 'on every perception check I make, if I generated fewer than 3 hits, have the GM tell me about my hallucinations'.

[Draco18s]

The best examples I've seen was in a D&D game. A dwarf who had Ancestral Knowledge or whatever the dwarf only feat is that gives you your ancestors speaking in your head, with an intelligent weapon that only talked to him. Later we found an (evil) intelligent weapon that ALSO only talked to the dwarf (the two weapons hated each other). He'd walk up to the Big Bad and engage in conversation up until he was sure that the big bad was evil, then in the middle of a sentence he'd go "For Moridin!" and attack. The amount of time distracting the big bad was usually enough to get the rogue into flanking position, although the dwarf wasn't distracting the big bad for that, it was a side effect.

The other was a Mage: Awakening game. One of the players was a Death/Matter mage and kept talking about necrophilia, every 5 minutes if the player could get away with it (Jon was a weird guy). The other characters were so creeped out by this that they made sure that Jon's mage never got his hands on the corpses to the extent that they buried the bodies, then went back in the middle of the night and dug them up and buried them somewhere else. Jon never got to use Death magic, except once when they found a ghost, but in 3 sentences he'd pissed the ghost off (who possessed him and threw him down the stairs at the rest of the group).

[Critias]

It seems to me like if you really had to make sanity issues the focal point of a character (rather than it just being assumed, given his line of work), you could cover it pretty well with existing Qualities. Cyberpsychosis seems like a decent starting point, compulsions, low self control, there's plenty of existing mental issues in there that you could bundle up and call whatever you wanted to.

[deek]

I'd be curious how long he'd last in a group. At my table, you don't get too many chances to "almost kill" the group. Once you are seen as a liability, you are normally escorted to bed with a bullet.

[Critias]

Depending on the disorder in question, keep in mind that crazy doesn't mean...well...yabba dabba doo crazy. Where does it say someone who's criminally insane has to "almost kill" the party over and over again?

Sociopaths would be some of the best Shadowrunners, I'd imagine. Google it some time. Glibness and social charm, a grandiose sense of self, pathological lying, lack of remorse, shame, or guilt, callousness, lack of empathy, lack of capacity for love, promiscuous sexual behavior, lack of a realistic lifestyle, and criminal or entrepreneurial versatility? This reads like a wish list to most Shadowrunners, doesn't it?

And I know it's trendy to call them "people suffering from anti-social personality disorder" nowadays, but to me that's wishy washy. It's like the old saying, "People are in the Army, people are in the Navy, people are in the Air Force...but people are Marines." Being a sociopath implies dedication to your chosen lifestyle that "suffering from anti social personality disorder" just doesn't bring to the table. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

[deek]

I think of insane as unpredictable. I wouldn't say a sociopath is insane, although both could be viewed as the opposite of what "normal people" are.

Are you saying sociopath = criminally insane? I'm fine with that definition, but I'm not sure that the OP was looking for that. I thought he was more looking at guidelines to play someone mentally insane, like cuckoo crazy. And if so, then I'd say, he wouldn't get far with a normal running crew, as he'd be a liability more often than not.

[Chrysalis]

Nitpick: Criminally insane is a legal definition and not a psychiatric one.

I agree with the rest your characters personality is your own crafting. They can be loonier than the Joker, but it does not mean you have to show it mechanics wise, unless you are playing two-faced who has just been introduced to RPGs.

[Method]

If I were to role play a clinical psychiatric disorder it would be Capgras Syndrome... That would be rich.

That aside, I need to agree with Chrysalis. The term "insane" is so poorly defined as to be almost useless. And there is a big difference between crazy and unpredictable. People with stable delusions or OCD, for example, are rigidly predictable. And people with psychosis are generally alert and oriented (meaning they know who, where and when they are and understand the circumstances of their situation). They just happen to see and hear things that other people don't. Oddly enough, if you ask them if they see things other people don't they often have the insight to tell you that is the case. This of coarse assumes that their thinking is organized enough for you to actually assess their level of orientation. As they get more disorganized you can't communicate with them enough to tell the difference.

Anyway, there is also an important distinction between discreet clinical disorders (Axis I disorders) and personality disorders (Axis II disorders). I would argue that axis II disorders (like anti-social personality disorder) are best left to roleplaying, but axis I disorders could benefit from qualities and dice mechanics, since they are much more compulsory. Please discuss.

As an aside, I'm currently contemplating an NPC with Geschwind Syndrome. He's going to be a zealous whack-job assassin that works for a secret sect of the Catholic Church. Good times.

[SincereAgape]

The Bi-Polar negative quality in Runner's Companion did a nice job with the mechanics of at least one psychological disorder. I don't have the book and forget the rules off hand, but as someone who suffers from Bi-Polar I found the rules entertaining and well thought out. They even included mechanics for characters who have or haven't taken medications to stabilize the illness.

I'm going to make the argument that Axis II Personality Disorders should have mechanics included in them as well. Not taking out the roleplaying aspect at all (This should be the main focus on any RPG), but a character suffering from an Axis II should have a negative modifier when in a social situation (especially a borderline personality). This is Shadowrun, where the slightest nervous tick, body language gesture, tone of voice, or projection of negative empathy can offset a negotiation or tick off the wrong gang. In a social situation role, I can see a criminal like the "Joker." receive a negative modifier on etiquette, but a positive one on intimidation.

But then again, sanity in 2009 might differ from social norms in 2072.

[Method]

That's actually a very good point. I hadn't thought about social skill modifiers. I totally agree.

And the core rules happen to include another example of an Axis I clinical disorder: addiction.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

Depending on the disorder in question, keep in mind that crazy doesn't mean...well...yabba dabba doo crazy. Where does it say someone who's criminally insane has to "almost kill" the party over and over again?

Sociopaths would be some of the best Shadowrunners, I'd imagine. Google it some time. Glibness and social charm, a grandiose sense of self, pathological lying, lack of remorse, shame, or guilt, callousness, lack of empathy, lack of capacity for love, promiscuous sexual behavior, lack of a realistic lifestyle, and criminal or entrepreneurial versatility? This reads like a wish list to most Shadowrunners, doesn't it?

And I know it's trendy to call them "people suffering from anti-social personality disorder" nowadays, but to me that's wishy washy. It's like the old saying, "People are in the Army, people are in the Navy, people are in the Air Force...but people are Marines." Being a sociopath implies dedication to your chosen lifestyle that "suffering from anti social personality disorder" just doesn't bring to the table. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

BUT, We ARE Marines, the others are just wannabe's

[nezumi]

Sociopaths would be some of the best Shadowrunners, I'd imagine.

Indeed, I'd have to consider this an edge (although in practice, it would seem most Shadowrunners already possess it, so consider it a 'free' edge).

[The Jake]

Sociopaths could easily be a double edged weapon. Killing someone in cold blood simply because they're a witness could easily come back to haunt you.

Also, sociopaths don't tend to fair well in extended social situations...

- J.

[Fleinhoy]

Insane is such a wide definition that it's very hard to pinpoint exactly what you're after with this question, but I'd say the vast majority of 'runners are at least slightly unbalanced in some way.

I wouldn't make any mechanics for this, but then again I'm a great fan of roleplaying such things. Preferably to the hilt!

Take the current group I'm in: none of the character have, at least as far as I know, been given any official Flaws dictating mental instability, but at least three of them would definitely be classified as less than sane in most healthy societies.

One is a murderous sociopath, who is also very intelligent, the only reason why his multiple killings of witnesses hasn't come back to haunt him (yet) is that he's just too damned good at covering his tracks.

One is a mother who tags her magically active teenage daughter along as a non-combat active member on quite a few missions. Enough said there I think.

And the third (my character) is extremely charming, very charismatic and an absolute cold blooded assassin who takes life with little or no emotion other than seeing it as simple means to completing a job or, if it's wetwork, than having done a good job.