Negative Mania Manifestations

In this psychological addendum we may discuss the down side of mania, as such are wont to manifest after battle, especially among the victors. For the losers do not have the luxury of second-guessing, confession and binge drinking from their lonely biers in the still corners of The Cities of Shades. Let’s not forget Achilles and Alexander brooding in their tents.

Death’s Shadow

After the moans of the dying, the cries of the women and the whimpering of the children have overtaken the comparatively pleasant Song of Battle, each character makes a 1d6 Esoteric check to determine if his soul was shivered. Monks and sorcerers, Yogi and confessors seek to develop and increase their esoteric score for this reason, to remain unbuffetted by the world.

About that, the GM should design a specific quest, inward against insanity, or outward into privation fraught nature, or into the chaos of suffering urban humanity for visions from beyond.

Barbarian warriors should typically gain a re-roll on after battle esoteric checks, as youthful vision quests are part of pre-civilized culture.

If the soul has been shivered, then the GM will either decide whether Body, Mind or Spirit was more tested in the recent action, and have the hero make a 1d20 mania check, or he will be a prick and demand from Heaven’s throne that the highest mania score be checked against a 1d20. You see, making this mania check is bad, failing it is good. In this way the crazy get crazier. Making the check increases mania by 1 point, failing it keeps it stable.

For these mania manifestation checks, good becomes bad, a “1” result amounts to a curse [adventure hook dangling] and a “20” a blessing [I prefer a permanent pathos re-roll for a heavenly blessing, or maybe War’s own sword falling from Heaven at Attila’s feet.]

Delilah, Brisais Clause

Oh, if the hero has acquired a slave girl of remarkable beauty, a 4 or better, he must make a 1d6 against her machinations or make a mania check against a second ability: Discord, Fear or Rout.

Conversely, if the slave girl is an ugly wench, and thus works hard to sooth all of his mental ills rather than bewitching him, he will get to re-roll a failed mania check.

If she, through her wicked beauty or caring conformity, gets him a blessing in this way, improve her utility score by 1!

Gathering of Furies & Angels

Again, what would make a mania check successful in action, makes it unsuccessful after action. This is why the best war leaders often get fired and demoted between wars.

If one rolls higher than the mania, without hitting the 20, there is no effect.

If one rolls lower than his mania, then have the other players convene a council of Furies or Angels, with the GM sitting as judge, to decide how the hero will be afflicted. This is the metaphysical version of the gathering of kites picking over the dead on the battlefield. This could result in a heavenly or hellish adventure, with the hero accompanied by dead from the battle who could be conveniently played by the uncursed players as a bonus adventure.

The GM should keep an eye on how a curse may be used as a test to gain a blessing if the hero prevails.

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Curses

Body Mania or Discord

-1. Lust: must rape in full armor, now, never mind that you dragged the poor Thracian wench onto your Corinthian slave girl’s mat where she sleeps happily fettered to your cot—which the poor lad sitting wide eyed in the corner hauls over hill and dale… What could go wrong?

-2. Mirth: seeks entertainment and diversion and is difficult to focus on the next task.

-3. Drunkenness: drinking to insensibility and even helplessness is a common affliction after battle. Irish warriors and English pirates often suffer this affliction.

-4. Melancholy, a deep depression that prevents the use of the hero’s pathos until he is jarred by exterior action. This chaining of the hero’s physical instincts can be lethal.

Mind Mania or Fear

-1. Fear: A reluctance to take action, the craven shakes brought on by the calculus of post battle reality.

-2. Greed: The curse of Agamemnon, as the hero desires more than his fellows, based on the fact that he is smarter than those oafs.

-3. Brooding: Dark pondering afflicts the warrior second guesses his actions, the Furies using his mind to wrestle alone with the possibilities that might have been and might be in the future.

-4. The Distant One: This is a particular curse that causes the more brilliant maniacs, like Alexander and Napoleon, or Nathan Bedford Forest bitch slapping Braxton Bragg, to lose social traction as they gain in genius. This curse causes a Social disadvantage until it is lifted by a successful Social action, or by a battle that does not cause this curse to repeat.

-5. Doubt: That is correct, Oh Nimbus Minded Prince, big brained killers suffer between the ears a lot. The hero afflicted with doubt has a disadvantage in his next action, until he succeeds in something. This could be really bad for a low level soldier or army leader. You, Oh Prince, are privileged to have others fall in your stead!

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Spirit Mania or Rout/Panic

-1. Faith Fall: The hero, such as Miamoto Musashi on Mount Nagasaki, writing The Book of Five Rings, Percival or Arthur, has a crisis in faith and must seclude himself and pray and is pretty much useless in the mean time. At the end of his ritual seclusion, such as when Xenophon would make sacrifice to Zeus during the march of the 10,000, the hero MAY [not must] now make a Social check on 1d6, to see if he can sell his insights to his companions. If the check is made, he gains the die difference in advantages to assign then and there to his fellows. If he fails, he is afflicted by the die difference in disadvantages in his next action, which might be a challenge to his enlightened leadership.

-2. Rage: Unreasoning anger afflicts the hero whose highest spirit ability is Animism, as it did Achilles. The instincts that the world is out to get him, have been proven true, and he will simmer in uncooperative hate until some greater emotion stirs him, in which case, all of that stored up rage [his Animism score] is applied to his first pathos check, when eh is awakened from his sizzling self pity. Woe to Hector.

-3. Cosmophobia: Fear of Heaven, Time or the Hereafter, or in the case of some Postmodern sorcerer, Climate Change, afflicts the hero who has his highest spirit ability as esoteric and triggers a vision quest. Whether it is Alexander getting lost in the desert looking for the Oracle of Amon, figuring out the Gordion Knot while Darius schemes, or merely your best sentry removal stud insisting on climbing a mountain to speak with a particular kind of owl before he slits throats by moonlight for you again, this can be mighty inconvenient. Yet, the Cosmophobic character, if he survives his quest, will gain an advantage roll to be saved for when he needs it, a Rout point, and a pathos point.

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Please, feel free to add more mania pitfalls to your version of Grunt, such as specific fears that might take success in action at a disadvantage to overcome: such as fear of heights, of water, or even fear of failure causing a disadvantage check against pathos. Mania manifestations can be a good way to balance out play in which the party has been over successful.

Bestiary

Beasts are split into animals and monsters.

Animals

Animals are rated the same as humans, except that animals have no mania.

Predators have a pathos of 2-12.

Plant eaters have a pathos of 1-6.

Domestic animals have their pathos halved, such that a wolf will have a 2-12 and a dog 1-6, a zebra 1-6 and a horse 1-3.

In some ways animals are inferior and some ways superior.

Inferiority is addressed as a disadvantage, such that a domestic animal with an inferior animism, will operate at a disadvantage when trying to resist a command and a gorilla with a superior strength will operate at a multiple advantage.

The Standard Animal Keys

M = manlike [1d6]

Subhuman -1-4

Extraordinary +2-3

Superhuman + 3-4

...being a minus 4 ability to a plus value assigned to a 1d6.

Great = 13-18

Categories c. and d. below are for very large animals or monsters.

Values for animals and monsters may be set at, for instance, Strength:

a. 4-9 [1d6 + 3], wolf, stag, chimp, leopard

b. 5-10 [1d6 +4], lion, tiger, bear, gorilla, moose

c. 7-12 [1d6 +6], Hippo or over-sized beasts listed above

d. GREAT ABILITY: 13-18 [1d6 +6], elephant

An animal’s abilities are rolled, and then the subhuman score modifier is applied to reduce it as far as 0 or the superhuman is applied to increase it. Abilities increased beyond 18, such as Grendel’s strength of 22, still fail checks at 19 and 20.

For specific ability checks, an animal with a score exceeding 6 has its check done on 2D6.

Beasts [animal or monster], with scores exceeding 10 points make specific ability checks on 1d20.

Animals may have over 18 Overall body points and therefore higher Hit Points. But any body score over 18 is regarded as an 18 for Overall Body 1d20 checks.

I will make a hound dog, a gorilla and lion below as examples.

Hound Dog

Pathos 1-6

Body: Strength =M, Stamina =M, Agility =M

Mind: Knit =M [physical learning], Kit -3 [Does he understand what humans use that tool for?], Wit -2

Spirit: Animism =M, Social -1 [does he know what his master wants?], Esoteric [have fun here]

Weapons: fangs [2] Armor: hide [1]

Gorilla

Pathos 1-3 [a chimp would have 2-12]

Body: Strength +4, Stamina -3, Agility +2

Mind: Knit -2, Kit -3, Wit -2

Spirit: Animism +1, Social -4, Eosteric =? [I need some design help here for animal esoteric.]

Weapons: body/fists [1], Armor: hide [1]

That +4 strength could result in a +10 damage and the +2 agility an 8 damage reduction in case a 6 is rolled, is daunting for a single man armed with a hand weapon.

A great ape, basically a gorilla-sized chimp, with fangs and claw-like nails could make a cool monster, like Thak, in the Conan story Rogues in the House.

Let’s do a lion, before going to monsters.

Kit for animals may be used to determine how well they grasp the use of human weapons against them or tack to control them. A smart lion might understand when a gun is ready to fire. Thak, in the example above, figured out how to operate his Sorcerer master’s traps.

An animal with a 0 kit, really does not understand that the thing the human is holding will kill him.

A 1 grasps the danger vaguely and is afraid and runs,

a 2 has a phobia of weapons and takes evasive action,

a 3 knows how to overcome their use, like the Ghost and the Darkness pair of leonine man-hunters.

Lion

2-12 pathos [really overpowers a normal human in advantage and initiative]

Body: Strength +4, Stamina -2, Agility +4

Mind: Knit +2, Kit -3, Wit -2

Spirit: Animism +4, Social -2 [reading human group action and intent], Esoteric [This might be kept level and used for weather prediction on the animal’s part, or having some understanding of its specific human enemy, like the lion that tracked its hunter back to his distant home and killed him. In considering lions, I am inclined to give predators a full esoteric score and have it applied to their understanding of humans and/or their social interaction with their own kind.

Weapons: claws/fangs [2], Armor: hide [1]

Elephant

An elephant is an example of an animal with a monstrous strength of 13-18 [12 = 1d6] and a human range esoteric score.

Weapons: tusks/skull [3], Armor: hide [1] Military elephants wore armor of [4]

An elephant gore/toss/stomp/crush would use its weighted/pointed weapon array generalized at [3] plus a strength bonus of 13 to 18, killing most humans, even armored and/or agile ones, that it struck.

Multiple Weapons

Note that multiple attacks in Grunt are Advantage-based, and that multiple weapons on beasts and in the hands of grunts, such as using the shield along with the sword to attack rather than defend, are a matter of damage augmentation, not additional attacks. A lion is regarded as attacking with claws and/or fangs, just as the elephant with any or all of its weapons. So, an elephant, who uses weighted weapons [feet, trunk, skull], which each value 2 damage, but has tusks rated at 3, does damage according to its most forensically lethal weapon.

Likewise with monsters below, Grendel, for instance assumed to be clawing, rending or biting as he feels fit, with his greatest asset, his fangs, setting his weapon rating.

This steers us towards the Monstrous.

Monsters

These beasts have the bodies of superior animals or superhumans. They possess, as their main ability a high pathos. Roll a monster’s pathos with 3d6.

Their manias should also be rolled the same way, 3d6.

Each monster should also have one of its specific abilities in Body, Mind & Spirit, rolled as a 3-18, such as Grendel’s strength.

The other 7 specific abilities, might be rolled as:

M = manlike [1d6]

Subhuman -1-4

Extraordinary +2-3

Superhuman + 3-4

Great = 13-18

...depending on the GM’s sense for the monster. In any case, a monster should have one great [3-18] ability and the rest either extraordinary or ordinary.

Dragons and Titans, for instance, might have multiple Great Abilities. Hit Points and sanity points for such creatures are likely to exceed 20.

Like with animals, over all body may result in more than 18 HP, but never for an overall ability 1d20 check, except in the case of pathos. Overall Body checks should always fail on a 19 and critically on a 20.

Vampires

In the case of a vampire, I suggest a 5-10 strength and stamina and a 3-18 agility, which is damage reduction. For vampire nerds, you might make up an entire hierarchy. As kind of demigods of death, I like vampires to be mostly superhuman in various areas during their power arch at night:

a. 4-9 [1d6 + 3]

b. 5-10 [1d6 +4]

c. 7-12 [1d6 +6]

d. 13-18 [1d6 +6]

And during the day, when they wane, to have subhuman to extraordinary powers.

Subhuman -1 down to -4

Ordinary 1d6

Extraordinary 1d6 +1 or +2

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I hope my fellow gamers like GRUNT. Other than providing some science-fiction and historical scenarios, the design is complete. Since I have almost no chance to play an RPG, the development is left to you, the experts.

Thank you,

James LaFond, Oakley, Utah, as autumns storms roll in, Saturday, August 17, 2024