Derangements are behaviors that occur when the mind is forced to confront intolerable or conflicting feelings, such as overwhelming terror or profound guilt. When your character is faced with impressions or emotions that he cannot reconcile, his mind attempts to ease the inner turmoil by stimulating behavior such as megalomania, schizophrenia or hysteria as an outlet. People in the World of Darkness, unwittingly tormented, persecuted and preyed upon by incomprehensible beings, often develop these ailments by the mere fact of existing. Alternatively, regret, guilt or remorselessness for inflicting abuses eats away at mind and soul. The night’s creatures are not immune to such pressures, either. Existence as an unnatural thing overwhelms what little humanity these beings might have left, driving them mad.
The primary means by which your character may develop derangements is by performing heinous acts and suffering the mental or emotional repercussions. See “Morality,” earlier in this chapter, for more details.
Otherwise, the Storyteller may decide that a scene or circumstance to which your character is exposed is too much for him to bear and he breaks under the pressure. A bad drug trip might reveal too much of the monstrous reality of the world for a person’s mind to bear. A drug overdose could imbalance a character mentally. Or witnessing a creature in all its horrific glory might make an onlooker snap.
Ailments caused by fallen Morality can be healed through your character’s own efforts toward treatment or contrition (by spending experience points). The Storyteller decides if a more spontaneously inspired condition is temporary or permanent. A spontaneous ailment might be temporary, lasting until the character resolves the situation that triggered the condition. It might become permanent if reconciliation is refused, the condition goes untreated or the trigger that caused it is insurmountable. With Storyteller approval, a starting character might have a spontaneously inspired derangement as a Flaw (see p. 217), gaining experience in stories in which the condition or problem is prominent. Spontaneous ailments developed during play might be represented in-game as evolutionary Flaws, not ones established at character creation.
It must be noted that people who are “crazy” are neither funny nor arbitrary in their actions. Insanity is frightening to onlookers who witness someone rage against an unseen presence or hoard rotten meat “to feed to mon- sters.” Even something as harmless-sounding as constantly talking to one’s self can be disturbing to observers.
The insane respond to a pattern only they grasp, to stimuli that they perceive in their own minds. To their skewed perceptions, what happens to them is perfectly normal. A character’s derangement is there for a reason, whether she committed a crime or saw her own children devoured. What stimuli does her insanity inflict upon her, and how does she react to what happens? Work with the Storyteller to create a pattern of provocations for your character’s derangement, and then decide how she reacts.
Your character is overwhelmed by an unnatural fixation with blood. Beyond the act of drinking Vitae, she finds herself drawn to the sight, smell and sensation of fresh blood in small quantities. She might choose to cut herself on occasion, just to watch the seeping wound, or she has a habit of ordering extremely rare steaks just to smell them. This fascination goes beyond the blood addiction that most ghouls suffer. While an addicted ghoul consumes blood at any opportunity, a fascinated one holds on to keepsakes such as vials of blood, soiled bandages or color photographs of crime scenes.
Whenever your character encounters a quantity of blood, roll Resolve + Composure.
If the roll fails, she’s compelled to take a “souvenir.” If she goes for a period equal to her Composure in days without encountering blood or images of blood, another Resolve + Composure roll is required.
If it fails, she searches for more.
Your character’s no longer satisfied with the keepsakes of just any blood. She must draw it fresh from a victim herself. Whether it comes from injuring an opponent in combat, cutting a masochistic lover or a more heinous assault, the character must find a way to satisfy this urge with alarming frequency.
Every time a number of days equal to your character’s Composure passes, you must roll Resolve + Composure.
A failure indicates that the character must go out immediately with intent to wound a victim and save a quantity of his blood.
Your character has trouble getting the required amount of sleep, and not just occasionally. It happens more often than not and leaves her feeling tired, irritable and unable to concentrate. Any time the character is engaged in a stressful situation (Storyteller discretion), roll Resolve + Composure. Failure means that your character is unable to sleep properly and suffers a –2 penalty on all rolls the following day. Each day thereafter is considered “stressful” and requires a similar roll until the character succeeds and gets a full night’s or day’s rest.
Your character has so much trouble resting that her body is beginning to fail her. Whenever the aforementioned sleep roll fails, the character suffers from bouts of overwhelming feebleness throughout the following day. Any circumstance resulting in an intense emotional reaction such as laughter, anger or fear requires a Stamina + Composure roll. (The ghoul may use Vitae for a +2 bonus on this roll as usual.) Failure means that the character slumps to the ground, paralyzed with weakness for a full turn even though she remains fully conscious.
Your ghoul character becomes acutely aware of his unchanging state with the passage of time and begins to obsess over his appearance. He wonders constantly how he would look if allowed to age naturally, and he often searches himself for signs that the Vitae is beginning to fail him.
Every time the character encounters an image such as a mirror or photograph of himself, roll Resolve + Composure.
Failure indicates that the character is convinced that the signs of encroaching age are visible and must beg his regnant for more Vitae at the first opportunity.
Your character becomes irrationally afraid of the mystical mechanism that keeps him young, worrying that the slightest reminder of his actual age could tip the balance and cause it to fail. As a result, he works to eliminate any evidence of his true identity, including documents, photographs, friends and relatives.
Whenever your character encounters evidence of his mortal life (including a person who knew him), you must roll Resolve + Composure.
A success on this roll means that your character can suppress the urge to destroy the evidence.
Failure means he must attempt to erase it immediately.
Your character formulates an irrational, pleasurable association with an object or situation, usually as the direct result of his regnant’s proclivities. To fully enjoy himself, so to speak, he needs to duplicate the situation or be in the presence of the object. This can lead to some truly bizarre behavior, often triggering a cycle of gratification and guilt that’s extremely difficult to break. If your character experiences something that reminds him of the event or object he’s chosen, roll Resolve + Composure.
If the roll fails, your character focuses on re-creating the situation or coming in contact with the object in question.
For example, an orderly who fetishizes licking female patients’ feet when they are restrained might see an attractive woman sunning herself by a pool and feel compelled to indulge himself.
Or a ghoul who fetishizes his regnant’s habit of having him lick her leather boots might experience a compulsion to press his face to the boots of a woman he sees walking by on the street if he finds her attractive.
Your character is no longer satisfied with the presence of the object or duplication of the situation. He must now be hurt by it in order to enjoy himself. The effects of fetishism apply, but the character must also suffer an amount of bashing damage at least equal to his Stamina during the compulsive activity in order to be satisfied. Without the interference of an outside agent, he won’t stop until the damage is inflicted in full.