Insanity in T2K

General Pain · #1 01-05-2009, 05:48 AM

After seeing all 6 episodes of "Survivors" (http://epguides.com/Survivors_2008/) - I thought they brought up a good point...There was this guy who obiously had not taken his medication in a couple of weeks... So nowadays people take pills for basically everything...and after ww3 getting hold on these would prove quite difficult indeed.So crazy people would probably flurish in and "prosper" in their own way---

your thoughts...

Mohoender · #2 01-05-2009, 06:09 AM

When you brought up that subject I first thought to the usual (serial killers, schyzo running wild...) and, then, I remembered one of the scene in "A bridge too Far".

When the british paratrooper land near Arnhem they run into people who had escaped from a sanatorium. These people were quite peaceful but they all started to laugh with no reason. General Urquhart (Sean Connery) commented it, saying that they should know better than themselves. We all know what was the final outcom of Market Garden.

Therefore, insanity in T2K is a good idea and there is more to it than simple serial killers. Getting information from some crazed man or woman might be very hard but equally vital to a group.

General Pain · #3 01-05-2009, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mohoender

When you brought up that subject I first thought to the usual (serial killers, schyzo running wild...) and, then, I remembered one of the scene in "A bridge too Far".

When the british paratrooper land near Arnhem they run into people who had escaped from a sanatorium. These people were quite peaceful but they all started to laugh with no reason. General Urquhart (Sean Connery) commented it, saying that they should know better than themselves. We all know what was the final outcom of Market Garden.

Therefore, insanity in T2K is a good idea and there is more to it than simple serial killers. Getting information from some crazed man or woman might be very hard but equally vital to a group.

my point exactly...what happens when there is no more HALDOL....people who can function normally...go paranoid,crazy or Nuts without their prescriptions....so if you consider the percentage in normal day usa vrs ww3 usa the percentage of disorders would be much higher...

-no more drugs to quench the paranoia etc
-severe mental shock after loosing basically everything
-post-traumatic stress would basically be everywhere
-no more psychatrists,doctors etc
-no more asylums,hospitals etc
-the prisons are "open" - then again they would prolly be fortified by other groups

- the serial-killers and the like (the criminally insane) could be prtraied by the GMs as quite normal and polite

MajorPo · #4 01-05-2009, 06:47 AM

Indeed it would be a crazy world. Post traumatic stress disorder would probably rate as the number one disorder, followed closely by depression and various forms of anxiety. Apart from the more interesting issues around someone suddenly coming of their antipsychotic medication there can also be some nasty issues with suddenly stopping antidepressants too. For example, ceasing a number of them will leave someone at high risk of suicide within the first 3 weeks.

Schizophrenia is a genetic condition so rates of it's occurrence in the general population shouldn't be effected, though other forms of psychosis could be increased. Everyone is capable of becoming psychotic and the risk of it occurring increases with lack of sleep, poor nutrition, head trauma, stress, and drug and alcohol abuse. I'd think that all the things I just mentioned would be pretty common experiences in the Twilight world (How many people cuddle up to the still on a cold night and think, "One cup for the jeep, one cup for me")

General Pain · #5 01-05-2009, 07:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MajorPo

Indeed it would be a crazy world. Post traumatic stress disorder would probably rate as the number one disorder, followed closely by depression and various forms of anxiety. Apart from the more interesting issues around someone suddenly coming of their antipsychotic medication there can also be some nasty issues with suddenly stopping antidepressants too. For example, ceasing a number of them will leave someone at high risk of suicide within the first 3 weeks.

Schizophrenia is a genetic condition so rates of it's occurrence in the general population shouldn't be effected, though other forms of psychosis could be increased. Everyone is capable of becoming psychotic and the risk of it occurring increases with lack of sleep, poor nutrition, head trauma, stress, and drug and alcohol abuse. I'd think that all the things I just mentioned would be pretty common experiences in the Twilight world (How many people cuddle up to the still on a cold night and think, "One cup for the jeep, one cup for me")

I was expecting an answer from you PO

AcesandEights · #6 01-05-2009, 09:32 AM

Has anyone used any of the sanity loss systems from either Call of Cthulhu, Unknown Armies or anything similar?

I'm used to the CoC rules and can see some nice uses for them in any rpg that has a world-on-the-brink (or over the brink, for that mater) milieu, though I don't know that it's necessary I just think they're a great role playing tool.

Targan · #7 01-05-2009, 09:45 AM

The Gunmaster insanity rules are the most accurate and realistic of any RPG.

AcesandEights · #8 01-05-2009, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Targan

The Gunmaster insanity rules are the most accurate and realistic of any RPG.

I'll have to look it up. Sometimes 'accurate and realistic' is good, sometimes it just means needlessly complex and chart-driven.

Haven · #9 01-05-2009, 12:42 PM

One thing to consider:

How many of them would survive to see the year 2000?

Mohoender · #10 01-05-2009, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Haven

One thing to consider:

How many of them would survive to see the year 2000?

I would think many. Nobody will care for them anymore and I can't imagine anyone to organize a massacre of insane people. The most dangerous might be killed but that's it.

Being crazy doesn't mean you don't have the hability to survive. Moreover, some might survive among several communities. Believes might be built around the most harmless as it was the case in less technologicaly advanced societies. One community might consider that they are a link to god. Another one that they will bring luck. Yet another might simply consider that they are the bearer of some kind of wisdom.

A multi-national movie (Israel, France, Belgium, Dutch and Romania) was made in 1998 (Radu Mihaileanu) that included exactly that: the tile is "Train de vie" (Lifetrain). The action takes place in Poland (july 1941). The Nazi are slowly rounding up Jews everywhere in Poland and the village (Shtetl) elder council is looking for something to do. The solution is given by the town simple-minded (Shlomo): make their own deportation train and escape through Ukraine and Russia to Palestine. Then, the all movie is about this train's escape. I have seen this movie in Polish but I don't know if it was ever translated into english. If it was I strongly advise it, it's one of the best movie on that subject.

Targan · #11 01-05-2009, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AcesandEights

I'll have to look it up. Sometimes 'accurate and realistic' is good, sometimes it just means needlessly complex and chart-driven.

HQ and General Pain have a copy of the Gunmaster Psyche Rules on their website The Big Book Of War. The Gunmaster Psyche Rules were written by MajorPo who is a psychologist in RL.

MajorPo · #12 01-06-2009, 03:29 AM

The gunmaster psyche rules are based on the real world prevalence of mental disorders and then ramped up by a factor of around 10 so that more people are crazy. I think that's a fair enough assumption for the stressful world of Twilight. If you think I'm being too lenient feel free to increase the odds cause I think you can never have too much mental illness in a party of PCs. It's character defining!