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.
You are emotionally addicted to the incredibly rare drug Solace. The effects of this derangement vary depending on how much time has passed since you last had a dose. Time spent in torpor does not count toward this calculation.
One week or less: As soon as you get up, you start looking for another hit. Scoring is your top priority. You can take other actions only if convinced by another character that they will eventually lead you to a syrette of S. (The convincing character must beat you in a contested action pitting Wits + Persuasion against your Resolve + Composure.) If then you come across a more promising means of securing a dose, the persuasion loses its force, and you pursue that lead.
More than a week, less than a month: You’re still on the alert for the next hit, but your recent inability to score has resigned you to disappointment. You must score a success on a Resolve + Composure roll with a –2 penalty at the beginning of the day to avoid spending it in a search for another hit. As above, another character can persuade you to abandon your quest in favor of other activities. Whether you resist the urge or are persuaded, a newly discovered opportunity to score forces you to roll Resolve + Composure at a three-die penalty; if unsuccessful, you drop what you were doing to pursue the high.
More than a month, less than a year: As above, but the roll at the beginning of the day is taken at no penalty, and rolls when you’re confronted with the chance to score face a mere one-die penalty.
More than a year: Your nights no longer revolve around the hunt for Solace. However, if presented with an opportunity to score, you must roll Resolve + Composure or pursue it to the exclusion of other activities.
No matter how long it’s been since your last emotional cleansing, you may find yourself tempted to perform acts you otherwise wouldn’t in order to get yourself a syrette. You may lie, kill, betray or debase yourself for the cash to make the buy, or the holder of the goods may ask you directly to do something awful. You may then take another Resolve + Composure roll to maintain your selfhood and refuse the dose. For especially heinous acts, a generous Storyteller may allow you a bonus of one to three dice on this roll. On a success, you stick around and attempt to gain the syrette through other means. On an exceptional success, you are able to walk away entirely.
Solace use isn’t all bad. Whenever you take a hit, you regain all spent Willpower — unless you successfully resisted it with Stamina + Resolve.