[UA] Madness

[Hammons, Jade]

	I'm not sure I entriely understand the resoning behind this being a bad thing. I am usually able to prompt 'madness checks' on people noticably less intelligent than me, whereas when they try the same thing back, I just debunk them with my finely honed questioning cynicism. Admittedly, I offer suffer 'madness checks' based on the mear fact I am intelligent and can philosophically and mentally conceive of some pretty weird crap, that assults my brain with no warning from time to time. I'd say a higher mind indicates a higher capacity for rationalization. This isn't a Warner Bros. cartoon where the stupid can run across the open air of a collapse bridge if they don't look down. It's a world where the intelligent say "It was probably just swamp gas", and 'an area man' says "It were an UFO! I swear it! I bet they stole my cow last week."

Jade Hammons

"It is ridiculous claiming that video games influence children. For instance, if Pac-man affected kids born in the eighties, we should by now have a bunch of teenagers who run around in darkened rooms and eat pills while listening to monotonous electronic music." 




-----Original Message-----
From: ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com
[mailto:ua-bounces at lists.unknown-armies.com]On Behalf Of Jeff Wikstrom
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2004 12:19 PM
To: The Unknown Armies RPG Mailing List
Subject: [UA] Madness


Towards a slightly more complex Madness check

When you have a high Mind, Madness checks become trivial.  When you have a low Mind, they’re terrifying.  I don’t like that, and (as I have in the past) I’m considering ways to make Madness checks nastier to smart people and less dangerous to foolish people.  Low-Mind characters in particular seem less viable.

What I’m thinking of first off is a “Resist Madness” Mind skill, calculated exactly like Initiative for Speed.  So Mr. Mind 40 has a Resist Madness skill of 20 to start with, but can put skill points in Resist Madness and bring it up to 40.  Dame Mind 70 has a Resist Madness skill of 35, and maybe she has better things to put those other 35 skill points in.

Thus smart characters aren’t *necessarily* better at Madness checks than the foolish, and the foolish can have a fighting chance relative to them, by buying up the skill.

I recall discussing this same thing on this same list awhile back, but I don’t think this specific variant was suggested.
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