D&D 5E D&D compared to Bespoke Genre TTRPGs

Hussar

Legend
Seems they’ve replaced a sanity and madness with stress and ... I forgot the other term. Wonder how well it evokes the feeling of helplessness that is really key for cosmic horror.
 

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dave2008

Legend
Seems they’ve replaced a sanity and madness with stress and ... I forgot the other term. Wonder how well it evokes the feeling of helplessness that is really key for cosmic horror.
The have: Seeds of Fear, Fear, and Stress. None of them are specifically for Cosmic Horror; the DMG Sanity mechanic paired with Stress might work if it was more fully detailed.
 

I like the term 'alienation', that might work :)
That's what I've been thinking. It avoids broadly stigmatising mental illness but also conveys what is going on. You could have it keep going up, as it does, you get stranger and stranger - not crazy, but maybe you mind is going to different times and places (perhaps literally), you're getting paralyzed with the realization of the unfolding complexity of the cosmos. High ALN would let you understand the extreme weirdness of the Far Realm and so on much better, make psychic attacks and so on not work as well against you, and so on.

The Dark Gifts might actually provide a model in some ways. Certainly once Alienation gets high enough.

Alienation is used a bit in mental health (less so today) so it might even be worth searching for some more exotic term and re-purposing it in much the way Annihilation did with terroir. Annihilation and the other two books in that trilogy might generally make a decent model for a lot of Far Realm-ish stuff.
 



loverdrive

Prophet of the profane (She/Her)
I can see where you are coming from with that, but OTOH it has a pretty well-established use in D&D as a skill. And that skill's name seems pretty appropriate to what it is intended for, understanding the motives and actions of others.
Yeah, I know. I just LOVE how Bloodborne found the most lovecraftian possible way to describe this concept.
 

Yeah, I know. I just LOVE how Bloodborne found the most lovecraftian possible way to describe this concept.
Now I suppose I will have to read it damn you! ;)

EDIT: Never mind, video game. lol. Sounds like one of the more interesting CRPGs, but usually I just get bored of them after a few hours. Nothing can replace a good human GM.
 

I think this thread has finally crossed the shark...
Not yet...

NOW it jumped the shark!!!
 


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