I'm planning on using the character Jasper Kandamerus, as a "long term" cohort NPC for our group in the Shattered Star AP, to shore up some pretty seriouse holes in the party.
To that end, I'm fleshing him out a bit more...and trying to decide how to handle his insanity.
My goal is to ensure that he doesn't overshadow the players...but at the same time can function as an asset when needed.
I don't want to play him as stricktly "comic relief"...despite his low Intelligence, and Insanity.
I also want to play it as if his association with the party...over time...actually help to improve his condition.
I'm not talking about "curing" him...just giving him a more important role in world events than being a crazy cleric in a small town screaming out warnings of DOOM.
I have already given him the trait Broken Mind to help with the more dibilitating aspects of his insanity....
I would love to hear any mechanical, or "role play" advice that people may have.
I don't know who the npc is or what AP consists of but I'm imagining the mad hatter (your pick on which one) I personally had Johnny depp come to mind
Then again I usually imagine him when insanity is brought up
Yet to see someone rp him well though (or at all)
I don't know who the npc is or what AP consists of but I'm imagining the mad hatter (your pick on which one) I personally had Johnny depp come to mind
Then again I usually imagine him when insanity is brought up
Yet to see someone rp him well though (or at all)
Jasper Kandamerus is an NPC that was provided in the web enhancement for the Shattered Star AP.
He is a cleric of Groetus, that suffers from Schizophrenia.One of my biggest concerns is pulling off a character with an Intelligence score of 8....I don't want to play him as an idiot...just crazy 0-o
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well crazy in this case is two personalities. I would make each personality have it's own int, wis and cha then base each personality off of the stats or vice versa. Think of Gollum vs smeegle. One is cunning and hard loner the other is a sniveling, cowardly suck up. Then the fun becomes what triggers him changing between them. So yeah he can be an asset but at the right trigger becomes a bard or what ever else your imagination can come up with.
I don't think 8 qualifies as an idiot. Just . . . Not too bright. Remember, most NPCs have an 8 somewhere.
well crazy in this case is two personalities. I would make each personality have it's own int, wis and cha then base each personality off of the stats or vice versa. Think of Gollum vs smeegle. One is cunning and hard loner the other is a sniveling, cowardly suck up. Then the fun becomes what triggers him changing between them. So yeah he can be an asset but at the right trigger becomes a bard or what ever else your imagination can come up with.
Being Schizophrenic, he'll either be insanely paranoid, see or hear 'things' that aren't real, or become catatonic at times. Dissociative Identity Disorder is multiple personalities.
I don't think 8 qualifies as an idiot. Just . . . Not too bright. Remember, most NPCs have an 8 somewhere.
Even so...I'm actually thinking his low Int score has more to do with his insanity.
It's kind of hard to be making all sorts of intricate plans when the voices in your head won't shut up, and the strange visions wont stop.
well crazy in this case is two personalities. I would make each personality have it's own int, wis and cha then base each personality off of the stats or vice versa. Think of Gollum vs smeegle. One is cunning and hard loner the other is a sniveling, cowardly suck up. Then the fun becomes what triggers him changing between them. So yeah he can be an asset but at the right trigger becomes a bard or what ever else your imagination can come up with.Being Schizophrenic, he'll either be insanely paranoid, see or hear 'things' that aren't real, or become catatonic at times. Dissociative Identity Disorder is multiple personalities.
That's where most of my focus is going....
While thinking about it at work today....River Tam came to mind as someone I would like to fashion him after...Not unintelligent....just unable to effectively organize much of what he knows coherantly.
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Schizophrenia is indeed characterized by extreme paranoia and unusual hallucinations, as Verteidiger noted above. Perhaps have him spontaneously erupt into surprise (because he's having a hallucination) or faze in and out of extremely paranoid behavior? Schizophrenics don't suffer their symptoms 24/7, but they happen sporadically and frequently enough that it should happen at least somewhat often.
Perhaps create some sort of medication the players can use to keep his mind together, and have his symptoms strengthen when he can't use it?
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Schizophrenia is indeed characterized by extreme paranoia and unusual hallucinations, as Verteidiger noted above. Perhaps have him spontaneously erupt into surprise (because he's having a hallucination) or faze in and out of extremely paranoid behavior? Schizophrenics don't suffer their symptoms 24/7, but they happen sporadically and frequently enough that it should happen at least somewhat often.
Perhaps create some sort of medication the players can use to keep his mind together, and have his symptoms strengthen when he can't use it?
I support the sporadic 'episodes' idea. He could be having a normal conversation with a PC and then at some point get derailed into a conversation with someone no one else sees.
I support the sporadic 'episodes' idea. He could be having a normal conversation with a PC and then at some point get derailed into a conversation with someone no one else sees.Schizophrenia is indeed characterized by extreme paranoia and unusual hallucinations, as Verteidiger noted above. Perhaps have him spontaneously erupt into surprise (because he's having a hallucination) or faze in and out of extremely paranoid behavior? Schizophrenics don't suffer their symptoms 24/7, but they happen sporadically and frequently enough that it should happen at least somewhat often.
Perhaps create some sort of medication the players can use to keep his mind together, and have his symptoms strengthen when he can't use it?
I recall Doug Rattman of the Portal continuity was a schizophrenic. While he was medicated, his perception was normal, but when his symptoms were surfacing he would have in-depth conversations with the Companion Cube.
It might be better flavor to make it more of a curse, perhaps. Mechanically, how hard is it to cure a disease, or physical/mental affliction with magic? Curses, however, might be more mystical, might not need a somebody that afflicted him with him, and might not be rid by a single spell.
Or possibly a strange sort of "birth defect". More of a mutation. He can't be cured by conventional means, because that's how he's "supposed to be", how he's always been. Psychic-like. Can see/talk to echoes of alternate realities that never came to be. Or, echoes of the past/future on the land he stands on (which is erratic, rarely is it helpful, as the npc isn't fully there during an episode, but might have some DM uses). Or maybe he's just tormented by the mental scars of a powerful demon/fae that messed him up in the past.
The game is fantasy, so I normally like to appeal to the fantastic aspects of it. I've had a friend that had schizophrenia, she's now no longer alive, but I dunno. It's a debilitating, incredibly sad misfortune. You sit down to a game to forget real-world problems, I s'pose. Mirror them, sure. But I dunno. [/rambling]