Madness cards and an altered Sanity System


Strange Aeons


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This should maybe be in the homebrew forum, but I made this for my Strange Aeons campaign, so I posted it here.

I made a bunch (70+) of cards for my altered sanity system in conjunction with the expanded fear system.

Alterations:

I have a more formatted document for this but here's the gist:

Sanity is equal to the sum of your mental ability scores.
Sanity Threshold is your best mental ability modifier + one-third your level.
Sanity Edge is half your sanity.

You gain a madness when you take sanity damage greater than your threshold.
Taking out the "or equal to" cuts the number of madnesses handed out dramatically.

Rather than lesser and greater madnesses, I just made each madness (usually) have a lesser and greater effect.
-When your sanity is undamaged, your madnesses have no effect.
-When you're sanity is damaged but still above your edge, you suffer the lesser effects of your madnesses.
-When you go over the edge, you suffer the greater effects.

The DC of each madness is 10 + (1/2 your level) + an ability modifier (specified on the madness card).

The DC is lowered in the normal manner (magic and therapy apply a negative modifier). When the DC is reduced to zero, the madness is cured.

Most of the madnesses I designed also have ways of increasing their DC.

I still have some editing to do, maybe some different font choices for readability at card size (maybe tarot size instead...).

If anyone wants a copy of these cards or the one page document with the Sanity System detailed on it, just let me know here or in a PM.

Almost all the art was bastardized from Scott Purdy's amazing art, and some of the madnesses and flavor text were adopted from Kingdom Death: Monster (not linked; NSFW) and the DSM-5


Yeah, posted this prematurely. These are not going to work as standard poker cards. I'll keep working at it and post again when some progress has been made.


Progress has been MADE!.

Okay, so what we have here is a separate card for the lesser and greater effects of each of the 71 madnesses.

I intend to keep them in the top two rows of a card holder page. Inactive cards get turned face down, and the page acts as a limit on the number of madnesses a character can have at once.

This will double as a wet- or dry-erase surface to write the changing DC of the madness in the space on the top right side.

Proof deck has been ordered from DriveThruCards... now it's like waiting for Christmas to arrive.


Who do you feel about me using your unspeakably amazing creation in my own Strange Aeons game?


I highly encourage it!


Auto-correct butchered my post, but I appreciate it all the same.

Let me know if/how you want me to give credit.


I don't need any credit. I hope it works well for you.


Well, these came out just beautiful.


Whoa.

Want these nao!!!


Any chance you could share the DTC link with us?
Cause this looks amazing, even if you DONT want to mess with the lesser/greater madness thing you could just hand out one of the two cards.


Sent you a message


Freehold needs this and will gladly purchase it from the provider of your choice.


Sent you a message too


May I review the pdf? Please.


Does this link work for you? If not I can send you a different one.


It says it was trashed by the owner.


Freehold DM wrote:
It says it was trashed by the owner.

Weird, the links work for me.


If the link doesn't work for you and you want a copy of the pdf, just PM me, and I'll get it to you.


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Had a couple more people PM me for the Altered Rules Doc
So, here it is.


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Here's my method of keeping my characters in the story, even if they die. Cross-posting here since it's tied in with this system.


After having a player nearly reach the edge of sanity without gaining any madnesses (just lost it in bits and pieces), I've added a sentence to the rules: "When your suffer sanity damage that pushes you over the edge, if you do not have a madness, you gain one."

It's been updated in the document.


Wow, these are amazing. Could you kindly send me a PM as well? Much apreciated.


So, I'm currently using these madnesses and a (slightly kinder) version of the insanity rules here. I've only given the players the minor version of the madnessess they manifest until such time as the greater version kicks into play, but told them that it exists. Time will tell how it plays out, but it seems to work for now.

I created a text-only numbered table of the Madnesses, including the name, flavor text of the madness, and effects of the lesser and greater versions. While the art is great, this version is easier to reference.
I did not include the Base DC since I was not using that portion of your changes to the rules, but could be added back in with a little copy-pasta magic.

(Actually, I created two, one that preserved the duplication of certain cards and one that did not.)

Thought it might be useful to some. Works well to roll d100 (reroll if you get too high). I had them roll twice and took the more amusing result :-P.

https://pastebin.com/7XqWNgLN : Madness cards - table
https://pastebin.com/FvzGjEv1 : Madness Cards - table (no duplicates)

If I've overstepped I'll take these down.
I did notice the link went dead.


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I actually made an spreadsheet of these before I made them into cards. I should have posted a link to that. Sorry you had to go through the trouble.

Not sure why the link died, but here's a new one: LINK


Darkstand wrote:

So, I'm currently using these madnesses and a (slightly kinder) version of the insanity rules here. I've only given the players the minor version of the madnessess they manifest until such time as the greater version kicks into play, but told them that it exists. Time will tell how it plays out, but it seems to work for now.

I created a text-only numbered table of the Madnesses, including the name, flavor text of the madness, and effects of the lesser and greater versions. While the art is great, this version is easier to reference.
I did not include the Base DC since I was not using that portion of your changes to the rules, but could be added back in with a little copy-pasta magic.

(Actually, I created two, one that preserved the duplication of certain cards and one that did not.)

Thought it might be useful to some. Works well to roll d100 (reroll if you get too high). I had them roll twice and took the more amusing result :-P.

https://pastebin.com/7XqWNgLN : Madness cards - table
https://pastebin.com/FvzGjEv1 : Madness Cards - table (no duplicates)

If I've overstepped I'll take these down.
I did notice the link went dead.

Hey, I know it's been a while, but I'll be starting this up later in the year, and while I LOVE these insanity rules, I was wondering how your kinder rules worked/are working? I can see my regular group resisting the slow healing of the sanity score, so I was wondering, if you didn't mind, what kind of changes did you make? I'd really appreciate any help! Thanks.


Wow- just saw this thread. I am running this AP now and am interested in these cards. How did you have them printed? Thanks


PM sent.


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First of all thank you for these they were a great inspiration for the background and direction I am going with my campaign. Considering we are many years from the original AP publication there were a plethora of directions and books to add stuff from.

Thanks again.


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Glad someone else is making use of them.


Always good to have some alternative homebrewed cards for all that sanity stuff. :)


If you have attempted to get to my linked file(s) above and found that you needed to ask permission, you have my apology. I was not regularly checking the e-mail address attached to the account.

I have now removed the google security update from hundreds of my shared files, so hopefully no one will have to ask permission to view them.

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