Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
So, with Van Richten’s Guide out, I’m starting to think about running a Ravenloft game again, and I’m pretty confident that I want it to have a stress system. I like the one in Van Richten’s conceptually - certain stressful experiences trigger a roll to resist gaining stress, which carries ongoing penalties until you can spend time de-stressing. But I find the execution underwhelming - a simple penalty to rolls is a dissatisfying way to express that stress, for a number of reasons.
I’m pretty sold on the idea of using the exhaustion mechanic as a template. Multiple levels, which are cumulative and each impose a unique penalty. I don’t want the final level’s effect to be death, or loss of character due to “insanity,” but I do want it to have some sense of finality to it. Like it makes sense that this is the culmination of the stress system. Maybe some sort of permanent penalty? A new Flaw or Fear? I kind of like that conceptually, but that would mean more opportunities to gain Inspiration and I don’t want reaching the final level of Stress to be a positive thing.
How many levels should there be? 6 to mirror exhaustion? Or would it be better to have more or fewer? What sort of penalties might be appropriate for each level? Disadvantage on certain rolls is an obvious choice, but the question becomes what rolls? Maybe gaining the Frightened Condition (of what?)?
If anyone has thoughts on the matter I would love to hear them. Also, I want to leave the thread open to discussing stress/trauma/“madness” systems in 5e generally. If you have an idea that doesn’t fit the exhaustion level model you want to suggest or solicit feedback on, by all means throw it out there! These are just my initial thoughts, I don’t want them to limit the scope of the discussion.
I’m pretty sold on the idea of using the exhaustion mechanic as a template. Multiple levels, which are cumulative and each impose a unique penalty. I don’t want the final level’s effect to be death, or loss of character due to “insanity,” but I do want it to have some sense of finality to it. Like it makes sense that this is the culmination of the stress system. Maybe some sort of permanent penalty? A new Flaw or Fear? I kind of like that conceptually, but that would mean more opportunities to gain Inspiration and I don’t want reaching the final level of Stress to be a positive thing.
How many levels should there be? 6 to mirror exhaustion? Or would it be better to have more or fewer? What sort of penalties might be appropriate for each level? Disadvantage on certain rolls is an obvious choice, but the question becomes what rolls? Maybe gaining the Frightened Condition (of what?)?
If anyone has thoughts on the matter I would love to hear them. Also, I want to leave the thread open to discussing stress/trauma/“madness” systems in 5e generally. If you have an idea that doesn’t fit the exhaustion level model you want to suggest or solicit feedback on, by all means throw it out there! These are just my initial thoughts, I don’t want them to limit the scope of the discussion.
