[UA] Madness

[Jeff Wikstrom]

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.