Corruption by dark powers?

[dekrass]

Are there rules or guidelines out there for corruption by dark powers, or something like that?

I'm pondering a dark fantasy setting in which an insidious god-like being whispers into people's minds when they spend time in the dark. It would influence the people to shy away from light, be more prone to anger and paranoia, and eventually drive them to start sabotaging light sources and attacking people. Those affected could recover from minor exposure by spending a lot of time in sunlight, and a bit more effect could be countered by magic, but one could be corrupted beyond salvation. It seems I would need some kind of system for corruption, or insanity maybe? Part of why I'm not sure is that the way I envision the dark god is more of a force of nature than a creature.

 

And if there are no rules out there for this does anyone have suggestions for how to deal with such a thing? Thank you for any input.

[Greywind]

That would be a plot device/complication of the character suffering it.

[Duke Bushido]

Transform / suppress Transform.

 

But as Greywind as pointed out, that's really more of a plot thing.  However, it's going to require a lot of agreement from the players to "not be in control of my character's decisions and actions," which I have always found to be something of a hard sell.

 

 

 

Duke

 

[Doc Democracy]

Well, you can see that Call of Cthulhu has a sanity statistic and the characters accumulate random insanities as time goes on until the character is lost.

 

With HERO, you can build a mechanic for almost anything you want to run but you need to be prepared to really sit down and think about what you mean by Corrupted by Dark Powers.

 

What would the game effect be?  Will there be intermediate effects or will a character simply accumulate some kind of corruption until it is lost to the player?  Will the corruption be due to player action?  Due to exposure?  Due to exploiting powers best left alone?  Can corruption, once acquired, be lost?

 

If you can answer those questions, you will be MUCH closer to knowing how to do this in HERO.

 

Doc

[Christopher]

I am not aware of any existing Insanity, Corruption or Addiction System in Hero. Building one is certainly possible. Supplements like Dark Champions might have some ideas.

Mecahnics that deal with Exposure to extreme heat or cold might be a good starting point and 6E2 142 hsa those covered. The darkness as you describe it sounds like a "Environmental Effect", just not a typical one.

 

People that play games with such Systems are most likely to have some ideas how to port them (and their feel). Call of Cuthulu and maybe the odd Star Wars games (with a Darkside Mechanic) are the only ones that come to mind.

I do remember a few people posting about playing such games over on "Quote of the week from my Gaming Group" Thread.

Personally I play Warhammer Fantasy, but we are not actually using Corruption/Insanity mechanics thus far.

[Lucius]

4 hours ago, dekrass said:

Are there rules or guidelines out there for corruption by dark powers, or something like that?

I'm pondering a dark fantasy setting in which an insidious god-like being whispers into people's minds when they spend time in the dark. It would influence the people to shy away from light, be more prone to anger and paranoia, and eventually drive them to start sabotaging light sources and attacking people. Those affected could recover from minor exposure by spending a lot of time in sunlight, and a bit more effect could be countered by magic, but one could be corrupted beyond salvation. It seems I would need some kind of system for corruption, or insanity maybe? Part of why I'm not sure is that the way I envision the dark god is more of a force of nature than a creature.

 

And if there are no rules out there for this does anyone have suggestions for how to deal with such a thing? Thank you for any input.

 

So everyone gets a dose of corruption overnight while it's dark, that they shed over the course of the day?

 

Does this only effect people, or are nocturnal creatures like owls and bats and moths assumed to be EEEVILLL?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary says, please enlighten us about this dark force of nature

[dekrass]

On 2/17/2019 at 10:36 AM, Doc Democracy said:

What would the game effect be?  Will there be intermediate effects or will a character simply accumulate some kind of corruption until it is lost to the player?  Will the corruption be due to player action?  Due to exposure?  Due to exploiting powers best left alone?  Can corruption, once acquired, be lost?

 

23 hours ago, Lucius said:

 

So everyone gets a dose of corruption overnight while it's dark, that they shed over the course of the day?

Does this only effect people, or are nocturnal creatures like owls and bats and moths assumed to be EEEVILLL?

Lucius Alexander

The palindromedary says, please enlighten us about this dark force of nature

 

I'm not sure on the game effects yet. It should have a gradual buildup of effects. Any time a sapient, living creature is in darkness the presence of this being presses in on their mind. It's not necessarily noticeable at first, but after a short time they start hearing a sound like distant whispers. Then the real effects start. Starting with feelings of nervousness moving on to paranoia and anger. While those feelings are building the subject feels more comfortable further away from sources of light, but the effects don't actually lessen in the dark, they continue to build. If the subject spends more time in the dark after the initial phase it will begin to see better in the dark. The feeling of comfort in the dark, and discomfort in bright light, will increase. Over time the psychological effects could increase in different ways depending on the nature of the subject and its circumstances. From there I'm hazy on details of the transition, but the end point is transformation into a warped, nocturnal evil creature that hates the light and those who dwell in it. The setting is a big messy fantasy world with a lot of sapient species. I'll need to find or make stats for each, and make a dark version of each to represent those fallen to corruption. Old mines and caves are places to be feared. Those are the places the corrupted congregate.

Mages casting death, disintegration, or darkness spells open themselves to corruption as well. More powerful spells may make things move faster.

The evil influence can be avoided by simply staying in well lit areas. The tech level varies by region with the highest being in an industrial revolution. People make sure to keep lanterns lit or a fire burning in the room while they sleep. The corruption builds up gradually and fades in sunlight about as fast as it builds. A day outside can make things right again on a clear summer day, unless the subject is hiding from the sun because of the corruption. In worse weather and during winter a cure is harder to come by. There are roaming priests who can purge the darkness from all but the worst cases, but they're not always around. Some well educated mages could learn to do the same.

PCs will be able to protect themselves pretty easily from all of this by keeping fires going if they're cautious. The danger comes when they want to be stealthy, or adverse conditions or enemies extinguish their lights.

Nocturnal creatures likes bats and owls are not affected, but are subject to distrust and superstition.

 

After typing all that I think maybe I need to work out some kind of gradual transform effect.

[Lucius]

On 2/17/2019 at 8:21 AM, dekrass said:

Are there rules or guidelines out there for corruption by dark powers, or something like that?

I'm pondering a dark fantasy setting in which an insidious god-like being whispers into people's minds when they spend time in the dark. It would influence the people to shy away from light, be more prone to anger and paranoia, and eventually drive them to start sabotaging light sources and attacking people. Those affected could recover from minor exposure by spending a lot of time in sunlight, and a bit more effect could be countered by magic, but one could be corrupted beyond salvation.

 

Now I find myself pondering a fantasy setting in which an insidious Godlike being whispers into peoples minds when they spend time in the light. It would influence people to fear the darkness, to be more prone to anger and paranoia especially about the darkness, and eventually drive them to wanting to dispel darkness whenever possible and attack those who dwell in darkness. Those affected could recover from minor exposure by spending a lot of time in darkness, and a but more effect could be countered by magic, but one could be corrupted beyond salvation.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

 

the palindromedary starts singing a Joni Mitchell song

 

 

[Doc Democracy]

24 minutes ago, dekrass said:

After typing all that I think maybe I need to work out some kind of gradual transform effect.

 

Told ya!  Once you really sit down and set out what you want, you begin to get a better idea of the mechanics that would deliver it.

 

Personally I think that you might want to think about a layered corruption, a series of levels of corruption.  Each layer delivers something - either a complication "Avoids bright lights" etc and/or provides benefits "+2 PER in low light".  The transform runs using the dependency complication where the dependency is light.  Without the light you begin to accumulate damage (in this case going towards the transform rather than actual BODY).  You might define particular kinds of light as providing regeneration against the transform (firelight may be enough to ward off effects but only delivers 1 BODY/hour, whereas full sunlight provides 1 BODY/minute).  I would also allow the light to get rid of corruption that has not yet delivered change but that changes might require specific rituals/magic etc to overturn, so once you have the "Avoid bright lights" you dont get rid of it by sunbathing, but only by bathing in a pool of radiance within the temple of Pholtus (or something like that).

 

It does mean you have another stat to look after.  You might give each player a bunch of tokens each (one for each BODY they have) and then, when it gets dark, begin taking them back.  When someone is out of tokens, give them the tokens back with a bit of paper that indicates what effect they have to put on their character sheet.  You might also want each player to have a psych complication of "never speak of the corruption of your body".

 

Doc

[Lord Liaden]

On 2/17/2019 at 11:38 AM, Christopher said:

I am not aware of any existing Insanity, Corruption or Addiction System in Hero. Building one is certainly possible. Supplements like Dark Champions might have some ideas.

 

There have been a few such mechanics developed in Hero over the years, particularly for 4E. Champions in 3-D includes "Horror World" by Allen Varney, which introduced a sanity-draining effect in the presence of Lovecraftian monsters. It's run as a cumulative Transform, Linked to a successful Presence Attack by the monsters. Horror Hero: Endless Nightmares greatly expands on the long-term effects of Presence Attacks, including modifiers for Stress, i.e. being in an inherently stressful environment/situation for an extended period. When 5E came out Steve Long wrote The HERO System Genre By Genre, a free PDF exploring conventions for various genres of RPG. The brief Horror description includes a simple optional "Sanity" Figured Characteristic, showing how it might be "damaged" and recovered.

 

However, what dekrass is asking for sounds most like an "ambient" Transform, inherent to a particular time and place. The last official description of such an effect in Hero I can remember is in The Mystic World by Dean Shomshak. That book includes an outline of a universe called "the Shining Darkness," antithetical to life from a "positive" universe such as ours. Being in the Shining Darkness would gradually Transform a visitor into one of its inhabitants, with the progress of the transformation increasingly noticeable. The Transform would begin to "heal back" once visitors left that dimension.

[Duke Bushido]

Now that I've had a chance to re-read it, I can offer something more plot-oriented than the ol' reliable T-form.

 

Doc and Christopher are dead on: create a new Characteristic, similar to a damage-type characteristic, define what affects it, what defends it (Devout Believer, prior exposure, whatever) and call it a day.

 

 

On the other end-- and I don't like this one as much _for this particular application_  (there are places where it works great) you enforce a +0 Disadvantage /Complication that defines both the vulnerability and the effect, and what mechanic will recover against it (if any).

 

 

 

Enjoy

 

(I'd rep Doc and Christopher, but I'm out)

 

 

[Killer Shrike]

NPC's could be handled entirely in the GM's head as a plot element. If PC's are not affected, you need no mechanics.

 

If PCs are affected as well, the root issue is loss of player agency. Effects that control the behavior / actions of PC's  are notoriously difficult to pull off unless your players buy into it and agree to play along.

 

You could just add a characteristic and treat the corruption as damage to that characteristic, healed back only by the circumstances you describe (in this case, time spent in the sunlight, casting certain spells, taking certain actions). You could also just use EGO for this if preferred. This doesn't get you the behavioral alterations you want however. 

 

You could just use an elaborate Transform and "partially transform" PCs affected by this effect, defining what that means, but you are still not addressing the behavioral alterations you want.

 

You could also use a cumulative Mind Control, and fighting off the control temporarily or permanently could be handled via ego and breakout rolls.

 

You could model it with complication(s) based on the Enraged model but defining some specific behavior(s) beyond just a temper tantrum; when appropriate have a player make a roll to see if their character succumbs to the behavioral change, and later roll to see if they recover; deeper corruption can be represented by a higher chance to lose control and a lower chance to recover. This works mechanically but most players will be irritated by the loss of agency.

 

You could also use the Dependency complication as a model for needing more darkness, and the Susceptibility complication as a punishment for being in brightness. Again, mechanically works; depth of corruption can be dialed up and down by playing with the frequency and severity options of those complications

 

However, I would suggest that you also focus on the UPSIDES of characters behaving the way you want them to behave when affected by the corruption. Have deepening levels of corruption grant bonuses to certain things and reward certain behavior, which will cause at least some of the players to willingly participate at least some of the time.

 

I'm not a SW guy, but this is very similar to the "Dark Side of the Force" approach. There are reasons to give in to the dark side in the SW universe...it is seductive and initially beneficial in certain circumstances, and while deeper dipping into the dark side has increasingly negative side effects and consequences it also has powerful benefits.

 

[Sean Waters]

On 2/17/2019 at 1:21 PM, dekrass said:

Are there rules or guidelines out there for corruption by dark powers, or something like that?

I'm pondering a dark fantasy setting in which an insidious god-like being whispers into people's minds when they spend time in the dark. It would influence the people to shy away from light, be more prone to anger and paranoia, and eventually drive them to start sabotaging light sources and attacking people. Those affected could recover from minor exposure by spending a lot of time in sunlight, and a bit more effect could be countered by magic, but one could be corrupted beyond salvation. It seems I would need some kind of system for corruption, or insanity maybe? Part of why I'm not sure is that the way I envision the dark god is more of a force of nature than a creature.

 

And if there are no rules out there for this does anyone have suggestions for how to deal with such a thing? Thank you for any input.

 

In this country, we call that Brexit.

[Sean Waters]

15 hours ago, Lucius said:

 

Now I find myself pondering a fantasy setting in which an insidious Godlike being whispers into peoples minds when they spend time in the light. It would influence people to fear the darkness, to be more prone to anger and paranoia especially about the darkness, and eventually drive them to wanting to dispel darkness whenever possible and attack those who dwell in darkness. Those affected could recover from minor exposure by spending a lot of time in darkness, and a but more effect could be countered by magic, but one could be corrupted beyond salvation.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

 

the palindromedary starts singing a Joni Mitchell song

 

 

 

In this country, that is also Brexit.

[Lord Liaden]

In America, it's known as Fox News.

 

(And that's probably enough politics for this thread.) ?

 

[Ninja-Bear]

8 hours ago, Lord Liaden said:

In America, it's known as Fox News.

 

(And that's probably enough politics for this thread.) ?

 

Only by people fooled by the Darkness! ?

[massey]

 

I think that's just a Distinctive Features.