Things got pretty insane during the last chapter of The Prof's Minotaur Meat playtest the other night... One of the big baddies wields a scepter that causes (4 x d6) Insanity Points to all those within its evil aura. It wasn't too long before some of us went Crazy Eddie* insaaaaaaane!

So, big deal...

Nothing ever happens with Insanity Points. They kinda just keep building and building - but there's no official Sanity whiplash in the WEGS 101 rules. Sure, we all know that if a player's Insanity score is greater than their Sanity score that very bad things happen...

But just what are those very bad things, Wegzo?!?

And why are you arguing with yourself?!?



When a player's Insanity is greater than their Sanity, they've cracked.

The general rule is that the difference of these two stats is how insane the player is. So:

(Insanity - Sanity) = % Insane.

A player with 60% Insanity and 50% Sanity is 10% Insane.

Thanks to the overpowered scepter, some of us quickly came to the point where we had to start doing this math. And any time you need to do subtraction in any game, the game slows down a bit. Subtraction is the speed bump along the highway of sword-n-sorcery adventure, methinks...

The Prof was running the game - and would have none of this. Not on his watch! So, he quickly rattled off:

(Big Paraphrase) "Just keep playing as normal, but if you score between your Sanity and Insanity scores on your success roll, you get zapped with an instant Skill Free Inning. You just don't have the mental wherewithal to pull it all together to act effectively."

It only took a moment for the elegance of this ad hoc rule to shine. The subtraction was cleverly replaced with an evil zone mechanic. Brilliant!

A player with 60% Insanity and 50% Sanity is now 11% Insane (technically). I really dug this because, just like all the bad things in Old Skool, there's one point more for failure via this no-math method. For tactical encounters, this turns Insanity into something that immediately affects play - and also establishes another way for players to spring leaks in their non-stop heroic plan.

And you really start sweating when you roll those dice!

A great new rule for WEGS 101 play!

Go insane with it!



*Crazy Eddie, a local NY/NJ tv commercial stars from the mid-70s.

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L. Willy Wick
www.GameWick.com
Maker of WEGS, the Wickedly Errant Game System
Sword-n-Sorcery With A Vegas Twist!

"Stick THAT in your bag of holding!"

There's some wiggle room there for how to play it, which is great. I'm all for getting rid of rolling twice, so like it nested up in the player's declared action. But that's my WEGS 101 showing...

For nesting, if my shattered Ark Trickster wants to try to Hide, I know that during my success roll I have to avoid that evil insanity zone.

If I succeed outside this zone, I'm hidden.

If not, I'm just a fool for trying to hide and not running off (No Roll Move action).



As I recall, I was a fool repeatedly during the endgame...

The mounting d6 IP penalty is a vicious little twist.

---

L. Willy Wick
www.GameWick.com
Maker of WEGS, the Wickedly Errant Game System
Sword-n-Sorcery With A Vegas Twist!

"Stick THAT in your bag of holding!"