Another Idea:Taint System

[Rugabug]

Hey, had another idea. When i pnp, i like the horror campaigns the most and the whole necromancer story got me thinking. In the Book of Horror they have a taint system. I think it would grand fun, what do you guys think?

[Saulus]

If you're going to make a suggestion, IE a "taint" system, it would make a lot more sense to actually describe it. There is almost nothing to go on with this with "Hey a taint system would be a good idea".

[Rugabug]

sorry, not sure why I assumed you guys ahve the book lying around. I've only seen ti once really. Ok so here goes.

In horror campaigns, when a player sees or something truly horrible (IE: Having you unborn babies ripped out of you for some sick scheme at god-dom or really end of the world stuff.), he/she gains one or more taint points (dm's discression on how man) I dont remember the list of each effect nor how many taint points you need per effect but I can easily get my hands on it im sure. I do know the general effects though. Taint is the rotting of one's soul pretty much, due to extremem horror (duh). As such, as taint acrues "bad things" happen to both the person's mind and their body simultaneously. (IE: The person slowly begins to go mad, ranging from hearing voices to phobias (or in extreme cases believing reality is a lie. As for the physical effects [the best part] they generally begin to rot. One rnadome ffect could be the character's skin starts to sloth off [bleh I got that one] or they start to go bald/get grey streaks. Ect.) Taint is extraordinarly hard to remove and generally takes a long hard quest to get rid of even a few points.

Anyways, i think it woudl be grand fun and all, though im sure that not all people would be up for getting charisma drained and what have you so maybe (if implemented) the willing individuals should tag themselves in such a way that the dms would know them.

so, thoughts?

[Kangleton]

I think your idea is blasphemous.

If every player who experienced evil became tainted, then everyone would have their skin "sloth off", with greying and balding hair, and a rotting soul. Everyone.

In a setting like this, most of us play extraordinary heroes or villains, both of which bear witness to gruesome and horrifying events almost on a daily basis. If the taint system were implemented, we'd all be walking around with no souls because they would have been obliterated long ago by the day-to-day vile affairs of the countless evil religions, fanatics, and psychopaths. To avoid taint, we'd all have to play commoners, which is probably the last thing I intend to be while playing in a fantasy setting where I can slay dragons and squash monsters.

[Peridan]

Well at least you were honest ^^

[Kaeldorn]

In a way, this system is already in place. How? Well, it can be RP'ed out just fine without any actual game mechanics doing it. We don't need people to physically turn into monsters by force, as Kang said, but at players' and DM's disrection a character can be physically or emotionally affected by 'unfortunate events'.

For some of the more recent examples, look to Cybil, who did act out to lose her mind when her shadow was torn from her by the Moth'Oira, as well as the loss of her children later on. Or read the At a Loss thread (which I still really really need to make up to date, but I just didn't get to it in the last few weeks), where Yashia's soul was being consumed by emptiness (i.e. Shar).

[Rugabug]

Shrugs It was just an idea 8)

and Kang, taint isnt caused by evil but extraordinary horror. Evil characters can get taint too ( and there is some seriously sick stuff for them like lich eyes )

[Product of Void]

Great for PnP were you do a SMALL percentage of stuff you do on a PW.

Terrible idea for PW unless you just rp it. An actual system like this would modify all charactors eventually.

Reminds me of Ravenloft.