Disney Plus’s latest Marvel series “Moon Knight” finished up last week in what is in my opinion the most Marvel-like way any of these series have to date. Truly, after “Loki” this is my favorite of these MCU tv series. However, we are not here to read about my gushing over a TV series or to go into a deep mythological/pop culture lore dive to the same – after all, youtube has that nail pretty well hammered down.
No, we are here because of one of my players in my bi-weekly Lands of Usarm game that has recently returned to Basq. But first a little background:
The players had just stopped a second Cataclysm (the event that ripped a hole in space/time and warped the world of Usarm into what it now is) from occurring by the fanatical elven Cult of Mahattapro who had gotten their hands on a piece of “theoretical” ancient Usarm tech. In the ensuing final battle, one of the players (Hereafter referred to as Pita) sacrificed his Losal Wastes Barbarian, Vegas, by sealing himself inside a lead-lined Usarm temple to Mahattapro to assure the Usarm tech would never again fall into the wrong hands. It was very dramatic and Pita and another player shared what can only be described as a homage to Spock’s death in “The Wraith of Kahn”. After this Pita took a session off due to family stuff, leaving the rest of the party to make the long track back north to the Saragubi on their own.
Pita used this time to ponder his next character and decided that he wanted to do something a little different, something that utilized the Sanity System. Alright gentle reader, confession time, you see while I write Lands of Usarm and Basq adventures for Swords & Wizardry, my weekly game uses an offshoot of that particular retro-clone called Crypts & Things. Crypts & Things, being heavily inspired by the Weird Tales of yore, has much Eldritch Horror and as such has a sanity system.
Cyrpts & Things sanity system is pretty easy to grasp and as such it can be used or shoe-horned into other environments and situations. Basically, if something that could mess with a player’s sanity occurs they roll 2d6 and if equal or under their luck score they’re good, if they fail they lose some sanity.
Pita’s Multifaceted Role
In Pita’s case, we decided that one of the dice was to be a special dice if that dice rolled a 6 and his sanity wasn’t at its maximum value (His wisdom score) something special would happen … and that special thing was a random Alter caused by Pita’s characters’ DID.
Pita made 6 characters. 2 fighters, 2 Thiefs, a Barbarian, and a Merchant (not an actual class in C&T). When he rolled the 6 he would roll on a table to see which Alter would come to the forefront. At first, there would be no penalty for a failed Luck roll on his sanity. However, for every in-game hour, he remained as the Alter instead of the main Alter (The scruffy fighter Nero) he would have to “Test His Luck” at a disadvantage equal to the number of hours he’d been the other Alter. On a successful roll, he’d revert to Nero, on an unsuccessful roll he’d take 1 point of sanity damage + the number of hours as the Alter. This sanity dip would not only affect the present Alter but half the sanity hit would affect all other Alters.
For RPG purposes Pita and I also decided that depending on the Alter the reason for a sanity check would need to be Different. Jeff the Merchant for example had his first experience after seeing Goblin Bandits use a N’zi relic to drain one of the NPCs he was traveling with of all his water (ala Tank Girl). Conversely, To’ye the Barbarian had no qualms about this (even going as far as to ask for a sip) and she was soundly in control until Pita made a successful Test your Luck roll, two in-game hours later.
So far it has been fun and has been an interesting – if not exactly an as intended – use of the Luck and Sanity mechanics. So far it’s been a blast for me as a GM as it has kept me on my toes. The only thing I didn’t allow in the end was a Magic-User Alter as to me that breaks Usarm lore (natural ability from being a descendent of one of the “Cataclysm-Touched”).
Thoughts and Potential Issues
While I may be having a blast, the party is a little split though as depending on the Alter the party dynamics can be completely shattered. The idea also requires someone who is really dynamic and has good improvisation abilities (which Pita thankfully has) so this is not a good idea for just any player. Finally, D.I.D is a real psychological condition and some players may find it rude, uncouth, or disrespectful to play for fun a real issue that is anything but. With that in mind if this is something you want to introduce into your game make sure your party is okay with it.
