Sorry if this has been asked/covered before, I skimmed the topics and didn't see anything like this that stood out.
I'm going to be GMing Carrion Crown for my gaming group starting in a few weeks. I just started reading over The Haunting of Harrowstone and it looks fantastic, it's definitely my kind of story. I love mystery/horror settings.
My husband (who's in my gaming group and will be one of my players) was telling me about a Ravenloft campaign he ran with 3.5 rules a long time ago, before we got married. In it, he used rules for Taint, which was basically a form of insanity. I've run a couple of Call of Cthulhu games and used various Insanity systems and this one is somewhat similar but tailored for a d20 system. Rules for Taint are found in the Heroes of Horror book, for anyone who's familiar with it.
As he was describing the Ravenloft campaign and the Taint rules, it occurred to me that they might be a fun addition to the Carrion Crown campaign. Now, I've only read about 18 pages into The Haunting so maybe they've already implemented something like this and I just haven't gotten to it yet. If not, I'm wondering what those of you who have run or are running the campaign would think.
Basically, Taint can manifest itself either physically (called corruption) or mentally (called depravity.) Characters who gain corruption gain certain physical disadvantages, such as a penalty to Perception checks due to ear scabs, or a penalty to Handle Animal and Ride checks due to a decaying stench that surrounds you. Characters who gain depravity gain certain mental drawbacks, such as having a mild phobia (must succeed on a Will save or be shaken whenever you encounter the object of the phobia) or being disoriented (if surprised at the start of battle, you spend the first round dazed.)
Taint can be gained by casting certain forbidden, evil magic; entering and/or spending prolonged periods of time in evil or haunted places (such as Harrowstone, in this case); or taking too long to complete a quest. Taint can also be resisted by successful Fort (for corruption) or Will (for depravity) saves, and it can be removed with certain spells or doing certain good deeds, but it's rather difficult to get rid of once you have it.
I would probably go easy on them in this first module, since the party starts out at level 1. There would probably be Taint for entering Harrowstone and if they spend the night in Harrowstone, and maybe if they take longer than a month to complete the module. (again, I haven't read through the whole thing yet, so I haven't determined exactly when and how Taint would be applied.)
What do you guys think?
I've been using the Insanity/Madness rules from the Freeport Companion and that's been working out fairly well.
Since I put Ustalav in Ravenloft for my campaign, I took a look at the Powers Checks, Paths of Corruption and Fear, Horror and Madness rules of that setting. I decided to use homebrew rules between taint from Heroes of Horror, Powers Checks and the Horror and Madness from Ravenloft.
Basically, every time someone does a truly evil act, I decide whether it would result in Corruption or Depravity and make a Powers Check with a d100 with a failure chance based on the magnitude of the act. If the Powers Check fails, the character gets a saving throw, WILL for Depravity and FORT for Corruption. If this save is failed, the character gains a point of Taint. The Taint score is not separated into Depravity or Corruption.
I decided to go with Ravenloft when it comes to Taint: it bestows positive modifiers. At least at first. It might even seem like a boon, but as a character character accumulates more and more Taint, she begins to show the signs of it - physical and mental alterations of the more ungainly type while still gaining bonuses. I try to find a fitting theme to these alteration, like the Paths of Corruption. The more Taint, the harder the saves, as the path to damnation gets more difficult to leave. The character's CHA score determines thresholds on this path; the higher the score, the longer it takes to fall to the darkness. Spells of the restoration line can remove Taint if they are cast within 24 hours, but when the Taint becomes greater, more powerful spells are needed.
Horror and Madness are simply saving throws, mostly WILL. If they are failed by a certain margin, the character suffers from Horror or Madness, the severity depending the margin of failure. The effects can be temporary, like nightmares for a certain time, or permanent, like suffering from a phobia related to the incident that prompted the saving throw.
I decided to go easy on my players, too. In Ravenloft, Powers Checks have to be made for a lot of things, like casting spells of the Necromancy school. I lowered the amount of checks. I want Taint to be a scare. The same goes for Horror and Madness. I believe these tools will have more effect if they are used sparingly.
I believe the 4th module introduces the sanity rules. Perhaps it's worth waiting until then when the Paizo authors connect in the otherworldly secrets man was never meant to unlock.
Sorry if this has been asked/covered before, I skimmed the topics and didn't see anything like this that stood out.
I'm going to be GMing Carrion Crown for my gaming group starting in a few weeks. I just started reading over The Haunting of Harrowstone and it looks fantastic, it's definitely my kind of story. I love mystery/horror settings.
My husband (who's in my gaming group and will be one of my players) was telling me about a Ravenloft campaign he ran with 3.5 rules a long time ago, before we got married. In it, he used rules for Taint, which was basically a form of insanity. I've run a couple of Call of Cthulhu games and used various Insanity systems and this one is somewhat similar but tailored for a d20 system. Rules for Taint are found in the Heroes of Horror book, for anyone who's familiar with it.
As he was describing the Ravenloft campaign and the Taint rules, it occurred to me that they might be a fun addition to the Carrion Crown campaign. Now, I've only read about 18 pages into The Haunting so maybe they've already implemented something like this and I just haven't gotten to it yet. If not, I'm wondering what those of you who have run or are running the campaign would think.
Basically, Taint can manifest itself either physically (called corruption) or mentally (called depravity.) Characters who gain corruption gain certain physical disadvantages, such as a penalty to Perception checks due to ear scabs, or a penalty to Handle Animal and Ride checks due to a decaying stench that surrounds you. Characters who gain depravity gain certain mental drawbacks, such as having a mild phobia (must succeed on a Will save or be shaken whenever you encounter the object of the phobia) or being disoriented (if surprised at the start of battle, you spend the first round dazed.)
Taint can be gained by casting certain forbidden, evil magic; entering and/or spending prolonged periods of time in evil or haunted places (such as Harrowstone, in this case); or taking too long to complete a quest....
Sounds good. The Taint/Insanity rules from Heroes of Horror are always fun, but you'll want to make sure that the players have access to the appropriate spells and feats to help them shed their taint/insanity if you use it.
Other options for insanity are in the Freeport Companion for Pathfinder (as Grendel Todd said), as well as the official Pathfinder Insanity Rules found in the Gamemaster Guide (and also found in the pfsrd here).
I would split corruption and depravity, using the PF insanity rules for the mental side. For corruption, I would use the old Ravenloft Campaign Setting Power Check system.
If you have access to the old Ravenloft Campaign Setting the rules for Power Checks start on page 82. Essentially the system was a way to tempt characters down the path of evil by rewarding them for evil acts with physical awards that had increasingly disturbing side affects. For example, +4 to stealth, but only when you're on all fours and your hands grow leather pads and fur, resembling paws. Or you can cast charm person once per day, but when you do spider skiiters out from your clothing.
Corruption occurs through six phases, but I would usually let player know that I would declare their player forfeit if they reached the sixth phase of darklord. As characters move further down the path of corruption, the side effects get increasingly disturbing. For example, while the character could cast summon swarm twice per day, the also develop a ravenous appetite for rotting meat. If they didn't consume at least 10 pounds of rotting meat a day they would take d4 Con damage because the swarm the character summons actually grows and lives inside them. If the swarm is not fed, the swarm consumes the character. From the flavor side, the swarm comes our the character's nose and throat and returns back into the character at duration end.
I loved this system and would encourage Paizo to develop something similar.
