AILMENTS & CONDITIONS

PHOBIAS

There are many types of phobias that characters can become aflicted with below are just some examples of phobia's that exist.

Phobias can manifest in game as a paralysing fear that prevents the character taking any actions.

According to the DSM, specific phobias typically fall within five general categories:

fears related to animals (spiders, dogs, insects)
fears related to the natural environment (heights, thunder, darkness)
fears related to blood, injury, or medical issues (injections, broken bones, falls)
fears related to specific situations (flying, riding an elevator, driving)
other (choking, loud noises, drowning)

These categories encompass an infinite number of specific objects and situations.

There’s no official list of phobias beyond what’s outlined in the DSM, so clinicians and researchers make up names for them as the need arises. This is typically done by combining a Greek (or sometimes Latin) prefix that describes the phobia with the -phobia suffix.

For example, a fear of water would be named by combining hydro (water) and phobia (fear).

TESTING PHOBIAS

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE DIFFICULTY =

18+ if stimulus is thrust upon you suddenly.
16+ if you were warned before hand the stimulus was likely to be encountered .
Example : A character with Catoptrophobia (Fear of mirrors) cannot just know that a mirror is likely to be encountered during a scene, but they can if they are told they are going to a hall of mirrors.
FAILURE: Your character can perform no actions other than retreat /defend self when they fail their phobia test. A character may SPEND a point of willpower to overcome their phobia for a scene. If the phobia causing stimulus attacks the character, all the character can do is retreat immediately.

EXAMPLE PHOBIAS

Achluophobia fear of darkness / Acrophobia fear of heights / Aerophobia fear of flying / Aerophobia fear of flying / Algophobia fear of pain /Alektorophobia fear of chickens / Agoraphobia Fear of public spaces or crowds / Aichmophobia Fear of needles or pointed objects / Amaxophobia Fear of riding in a car / Androphobia Fear of men/ Anginophobia Fear of angina or choking / Anthophobia Fear of flowers / Anthropophobia Fear of people or society /Aphenphosmphobia Fear of being touched/ Arachnophobia Fear of spiders / Arithmophobia Fear of numbers / Astraphobia Fear of thunder and lightning /Ataxophobia Fear of disorder or untidiness/ Atelophobia Fear of imperfection / Atychiphobia Fear of failure / Autophobia Fear of being alone

Bacteriophobia Fear of bacteria / Barophobia Fear of gravity / Bathmophobia Fear of stairs or steep slopes / Batrachophobia Fear of amphibiann

Belonephobia Fear of pins and needles / Bibliophobia Fear of books / Botanophobia Fear of plants

Cacophobia Fear of ugliness / Catagelophobia Fear of being ridiculed / Catoptrophobia Fear of mirrors / Chionophobia Fear of snow /Chromophobia Fear of colors / Chronomentrophobia Fear of clocks /Claustrophobia Fear of confined spaces / Coulrophobia Fear of clowns / Cyberphobia Fear of computers / Cynophobia Fear of dogs

Dendrophobia Fear of trees / Dentophobia Fear of dentists / Domatophobia Fear of houses / Dystychiphobia Fear of accidents

Ecophobia Fear of the home / Elurophobia Fear of cats / Entomophobia Fear of insects / Ephebiphobia Fear of teenagers //Equinophobia Fear of horses

F, G

Gamophobia Fear of marriage / Genuphobia Fear of knees / Glossophobia Fear of speaking in public / Gynophobia Fear of women

Heliophobia Fear of the sun / Hemophobia Fear of blood / Herpetophobia Fear of reptiles / Hydrophobia Fear of water / Hypochondria Fear of illness

I-K

Iatrophobia Fear of doctors / Insectophobia Fear of insects / Koinoniphobia Fear of rooms full of people

Leukophobia Fear of the color white / Lilapsophobia Fear of tornadoes and hurricanes / Lockiophobia Fear of childbirth

Mageirocophobia Fear of cooking / Megalophobia Fear of large things / Melanophobia Fear of the color black / Microphobia Fear of small things

Mysophobia Fear of dirt and germs

Necrophobia Fear of death or dead things / Noctiphobia Fear of the night / Nosocomephobia Fear of hospitals / Nyctophobia Fear of the dark

Obesophobia Fear of gaining weight / Octophobia Fear of the figure 8 / Ombrophobia Fear of rain / Ophidiophobia Fear of snakes / Ornithophobia Fear of birds

Papyrophobia Fear of paper / Pathophobia Fear of disease / Pedophobia Fear of children / Philophobia Fear of love / Phobophobia Fear of phobias

Podophobia Fear of feet / Pogonophobia Fear of beards / Porphyrophobia Fear of the color purple / Pteridophobia Fear of ferns / Pteromerhanophobia Fear of flying Pyrophobia Fear of fire

Q-S

Samhainophobia Fear of Halloween / Scolionophobia Fear of school / Selenophobia Fear of the moon / Sociophobia Fear of social evaluation / Somniphobia Fear of sleep

Tachophobia fear of speed / TechnophobiaFear of technology / TonitrophobiaFear of thunder / Trypanophobia Fear of needles or injections

U-Z

Venustraphobia Fear of beautiful women / Verminophobia Fear of germs / Wiccaphobia Fear of witches and witchcraft / Xenophobia Fear of strangers or foreigners /Zoophobia Fear of animals

Vampires arlready suffer a degree of pyrophobia and heliophobia and have their own procedure for dealing with those partiucular fears.

MENTAL DERANGEMENTS

POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) arises in response to severe trauma such as combat, rape or servitude to a Tzimisce. A ghoul who has been the subject of his master’s latest experiment with super dermal bone art or witnessed his hungry master devour his mortal family might develop this derangement. PTSD can even afflict vampires, perhaps those who survived a Lupine attack or awoke one night to find their havens on fire.

Symptoms manifest as recurrent, debilitating flashbacks and extreme avoidance of situations likely to recreate the initial trauma.

SYSTEM: Upon entering a scene which serves to remind character of the PTSD incident.

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

DIFFICULTY: 18+

SUCCESS: Continue with scene as normal.

FAIL: All statistics are halved for rolling combat or feats (rounded down)

BOTCH: flashbacks of the traumatic episode with the same penalties described above. Ghouls labouring under this disorder are typically disposed of by their domitors. Clan Tzimisce requires servants made of sterner stuff.

INSANE (Temporary)

The character suffers from a panic attack, sudden imbalance, or a full-on psychotic break. Her pulse races and her mind cannot focus. The world’s an unstable place, and she’s unable to keep her balance.

Faced with extraordinary circumstances, any character with an appropriate Condition may gain the Insane derangement for the scene. If the character witnesses something truly horrific — a daughter watches her father walk to the end of the garden and shoot himself in the head, smiling all the while; a man stumbles into the wrong office at work and sees his co-workers feasting on the intern’s organs; a solder sees her unit gunned down by a sniper while she can do nothing

SYSTEM:

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

DIFFICULTY: 18+

SUCCESS: Someone suffering a psychotic break isn’t the sort of person to go down without a fight. Her stated intent might be irrational or just plain impossible, and she might have fewer ethical problems with using extreme violence to get what she wants. The character gains a +1 bonus to all combat rolls, but takes actions after everyone else (if two characters suffer from the Insane derangement both act after everyone else but compare Initiative as normal).

FAIL /BOTCH:No Effect

RESISTING BREAKING FROM INSANITY:

A character can try to force her mind to a state of balance, but it’s not easy. She must sit and focus on blocking out the craziness. She rolls Resolve + Composure as an instant action versus difficulty 20+ She can’t take any other actions that turn and doesn’t apply Defense against any attacks.

NOTE: Character can work to inspire another character’s madness in order to cause this condition. She could orchestrate events that she hopes will provoke a psychotic break, but that’s amateur hour. A professional swaps out her victim’s meds, giving stimulants just as his bipolar cycle ticks into mania, or dosing a paranoid or schizophrenic with hallucinogenic drugs. Some supernatural creatures possess mind-affecting powers that can apply this condition , even to characters who do not have an appropriate Condition.

FUGUE

Victims suffering from fugue experience "blackouts" and loss of memory. When subjected to stress (not general stress, but stress invariably related to the incident which caused the derangement), the individual begins a specific, rigid set of behaviours to remove the stressful symptoms.

SYSTEM: Fugue is triggered by situations that are similar to the situation that inflicted the derangement.

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

DIFFICULTY: 18+

FAILURE: This differs from multiple personalities, as the individual in the grip of a fugue has no separate personality, but is on a form of "autopilot" similar to sleepwalking.A player in a fuge state will have no recall of any incident that occurs, and will defend itself if attacked, It generally will not attack anyone and is most likely to just walk home, when they finally snap out of it, confusion ensues.

MULTIPLE PERSONALITY DISORDER

Sometimes also known as Dissociative Identity Disorder, persons with MPD develop consciously and/or subconsciously several other identities for themselves. Each personality is created to respond to certain emotional stimuli: an abused person might develop a tough-as-nails survivor personality, create a "protector", or even become a murderer in order to deny the abuse she is suffering. In most cases none of the personalities is aware of the others, and they come and go through the victim’s mind in response to specific situations or conditions.

SYSTEM: Characters need to come up with a personality archetype and a trigger for their emergence. When a trigger occurs.

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

DIFFICULTY: 18+

FAILURE: The other character associated with the trigger comes to the fore and takes control of the body.

NOTE: Persona's get no extra skills or bonuses, its still the same body and lived experience after all. Behaviour, Name, body language and dress style are the only things that change.

Persona's are not aware of one another, or even people different persona's have met. Persona's do not recall the actions or experiences of other persona's. Multiple Personality Disorder can be -very- difficult to play as it requires a very skilled role-player to create different characters and remember which one knows what and which one knows who. Persona's ONLY emerge on TRIGGER, not by request & NOT at the -whim- of the player.

NOTE: Each personality must be manifested as a personality archetype. Go HERE for archetypes.

A personality is a personality not a clan, not a species. You choose a personality Archetype, NOTHING ELSE. You are not a Malkavanian that thinks its a Fae for example. Remember what you "Know personality to personality" is different from your dominant persona. Multiple Personalities are SERIOUS mental disorders. Not an excuse to act goofy.

HYSTERIA

A person in the grip of hysteria is unable to control her emotions, suffering severe mood swings and violent fits when subjected to stress or anxiety. For many characters in the World of Darkness, that can be all the time. Decide on a particular circumstance that triggers your character's episode: the presence of a particular type of person, contact by a particular person or even object. Don't confuse this with general phobias. Phobia's are "generalized " Hysteria is "personalized"

SYSTEM:

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

DIFFICULTY: 18+

FAILURE: A character in the throws of hysteria will increasingly get more and more frustrated. All botch thresholds increase by +2 with each botch.

Example a person who fails their hysteria roll will botch on a roll of 1-4. The next time the character botches after this first botch will be on a roll of 1-6, and then after that 1-8, and so on and so on.

Once the character removes themselves from the cause of the Hysteria, they wil recover themselves.

MANIC-DEPRESSION (BI-POLAR DISORDER)

Manic-depressives suffer from severe mood swings, sometimes resulting from severe trauma or anxiety. Victims may be upbeat and confident one moment, then uncontrollably lethargic and pessimistic the next. Characters with this derangement are constantly on a hair trigger, never knowing when the next mood swing will strike.

SYSTEM: Upon failing a task (not combat related)

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

DIFFICULTY: 18+

FAILURE: The character lapses into depression. All social stats are halved for the duration of depression. The depression lasts one scene.

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER

The trauma, guilt or inner conflict that causes this derangement forces your character to focus nearly all of his attention and energy on a single repetitive behaviour or action. Obsession relates to an individual's desire to control his environment — keeping clean, keeping an area quiet and peaceful, or keeping undesirable individuals from a place. A compulsion is an action or set of actions that an individual is driven to perform to soothe his anxieties: placing objects in an exact order, constantly checking to make sure a weapon is loaded, praying every few hours to give thanks for surviving that long. If your character has an obsessive or compulsive derangement, determine a set of specific actions or behaviours, as described above.

SYSTEM: Your character follows them to the exclusion or all else, even if they interfere with the mission or endanger his life or others' lives

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

DIFFICULTY 18+

SUCCESS : Negate the effects of obsessive/compulsive behavior for ONE SCENE.

PANIC DISORDER

People with panic disorder have feelings of terror that strike suddenly and repeatedly with no warning. They can't predict when an attack will occur, and many develop intense anxiety between episodes, worrying when and where the next one will strike. In between times there is a persistent, lingering worry that another attack could come any minute.

When a panic attack strikes, most likely your heart pounds and you may feel sweaty, weak, faint, or dizzy. Your hands may tingle or feel numb, and you might feel flushed or chilled. You may have chest pain or smothering sensations, a sense of unreality, or fear of impending doom or loss of control. You may genuinely believe you're having a heart attack or stroke, losing your mind, or on the verge of death. Attacks can occur any time, even during no dream sleep. While most attacks average a couple of minutes, occasionally they can go on for up to 10 minutes. In rare cases, they may last an hour or more.

SYSTEM: Combat or social confrontation or just strangers can trigger an attack. when these situations occur-

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE

DIFFICULTY 18+

FAILURE :inflicts a -5 combat mod on the victim when triggered and increases the difficulty of all feats by +5

PARANOIA

The victim of paranoia believes that her misery and insecurity stem from external persecution and hostility. Paranoids obsess about their persecution complexes, often creating vast and intricate conspiracy theories to explain who is tormenting them and why. Anyone or anything perceived to be "one of them" is often subjected to violence.

SYSTEM:

PERSISTANT ISSUE NO ROLL

Those who suffer from paranoia have difficulty with social interaction; the difficulties of all rolls involving interaction are increased by +1

DIESEASE /DRUG/POISON/ TOXIN EFFECTS

ADDICTED

The nature of addiction is that it slowly takes over your life, impeding functionality. If you are addicted, you need to indulge your addiction regularly to keep it under control. Characters may take this Condition multiple times for different addictions. Being unable to feed your addiction can result in the Deprived Condition.

Deprived Condition: Unable to get your fix, leaving you irritable, anxious, and unable to focus. Remove one from your Stamina, Resolve, and Composure . This does not influence derived attributes; it only influences dice rolls that use these Attributes.

KICKING ADDICTION:

To ween yourself off an addiction

SYSTEM:

ROLL: COMPOSURE + RESOLVE (remember its lowered) Once a night.

DIFFICULTY 18+

SUCCESS: Means you manage to hold off indulging in your addiction for the night, but remain in the deprived condition.

FAILURE: Means you must immediately indulge in your addiction that night and any previous progress with kicking the addiction is lost.

CLEAN CONDITION:

You need to acquire a number of successes equal to the difficulty of the exposure roll of the disease/drug/poison/toxin. Example if the difficulty is 13+ then 13 successes are required.

NOTE: 13 successes can not be achieved on one night, you collect successes each night, remember if you fail, your successes are reset to zero.

DRUGGED

The character’s mind is addled by mind-altering substances, such as drink or drugs.
Effect: A generic narcotic can be represented with one set of modifiers: the character suffers a −3 penalty to all rolls in combat, including Defense and Perception.

FORGETFUL

The character also suffers from what amounts to short term memory loss.

Effect: The character suffers a -2 penalty on any Mental roll used to recall a detail or piece of information.

HALLUCINATING

Your character is experiencing intense hallucinations, perceiving things that are not actually there. These hallucinations may be pleasant, confusing, or even frightening.

Effect: Your character suffers a –2 penalty to all dice polls involving perception, concentration or Composure. At Storyteller’s discretion, a characters altered senses may allow them to perceive things normally hidden to mundane senses (such as the presence ephemeral creatures or mind-clouding supernatural powers).

HIGH

Your character has been exposed to a potent drug, The precise effects depend on the drug in question, with the most common effects detailed below.
Marijuana: The character suffers a -1 penalty to any Dexterity, Intelligence, Resolve or Wits-based rolls for every dose within an hour (maximum -3). This penalty also affects derived attributes.
Narcotic: Your character enters a relaxed, dreamy state. All dice rolls suffer a -2 penalty.
Stimulant: The character gains a +1 bonus to Strength and Stamina related rolls, but becomes agitated and paranoid, suffering a -1 penalty to social rolls.

NAUSEA

Your stomach and/or bowels have become unsettled, leaving you with the constant urge to void yourself.

Effect: This sensation is very distracting and imposes a -2 penalty to any rolls

FEVER

Your body’s attempts to fight an infection have driven your temperature to uncomfortable levels. In most cases, a fever by itself is not life threatening, but causes fatigue, sensitivity to pain, and impairs concentration.

Moderate: Your character suffers a -1 penalty to all rolls due to pain and discomfort

Grave: The character cannot Heal bashing damage and loses one health point at the same rate they would normally heal it. In addition they suffer an additional -1 penalty to all rolls during each healing period elapsed. When the total penalties reach 5+ character begins to take Lethal damage each heal period.

SICK

Your stomach churns. You retch and heave but only succeed in bringing up bile. Sweat beads on your brow as you spike a fever. Your muscles ache with every movement. You’re wracked with hot and cold flushes as a sickness gnaws away at your insides.

Moderate: A moderate sickness, such as a cold, asthma, the flu, or just a bad hangover, causes a −1 penalty to all actions during combat. That penalty increases by one every two turns (the first two turns, the character suffers a −1 penalty, the next two turns the penalty is −2, and so on up to a maximum of −5 dice on turn 9).

Grave: A grave sickness, such as pneumonia, heavy metal poisoning, or aggressive cancer, inflicts the same penalties as a mild sickness. In addition, however, the physical stress of fighting or even defending oneself from an attacker while gravely ill inflicts 1 point of bashing damage per turn of combat.

INSENSATE

The character shuts down, either due to extreme fear or sudden pleasure. He may huddle in a corner, cringe away from sudden noises, or stare into space as waves of pleasure lap over him.

Effect: The character can’t take any actions until the cause is resolved. He can apply Defense to incoming attacks, and if he takes any damage from an attack, he’s knocked free of whatever fogged his brain.

NUMBED

Your body is not registering any sensation beyond a dull tingling.

Effect: If the character’s sense of touch has been numbed, they suffer a -2 penalty to tactile-based Perception checks or actions that involve acute manual dexterity. Usually this tilt only effects a single portion of the body, but can affect the entire body in extreme cases. The character also gains 2 temporary health points while this infliction persists.

PARALYSIS

Your motor control of your body has been compromised, causing a degree of paralysis.

Moderate: moderate paralysis imposes a -2 penalty to all physical actions (including combat ones).

Severe: Severe paralysis immobilizes the character completely. He can’t apply Defense against incoming attacks, (except Stamina +Armor def) and can’t take physical-related actions.

The character roll Resolve + Composure Difficulty 18+ to negate the penalty for moderate paralysis for 1 turn or reduce severe paralysis to moderate for 1 turn.

POISONED

You’ve got poison inside you. It’s tearing you apart from the inside; burning like acid in your gut and making your head swim.
Moderate: a moderate poison causes 1 point of bashing damage per turn of combat

Grave: a grave poison ups that to 1 point of lethal damage per turn.

NOTE: Different poisons may have different effects, this is a generic poison and the actual poisons effects always supercede this.

WINDED

You are out of breath, lightheaded, and mildly nauseous.

Moderate: The character suffers a -2 penalty to physical rolls requiring strength or stamina and cannot run.

The character must be able to take a moment to catch their breath, typically (8 –Stamina) turns without strenuous activity is enough.

Grave: More severe breathing problems last until the end of the scene.

BLINDED

Character suffers -4 penalty to defence :Furthermore, blind characters are at +4 difficulty on all actions. (or minus 4 on contested rolls)

STUNNED

If, in a single attack, the attacker rolls a number of damage successes greater than a target’s Stamina the victim is dazed. The target must spend her next available turn shaking off the attack’s effects. Victim rolls Stamina versus difficulty 14+ once per round to shake off stunned status (Undead are immune) while stunned the character suffers a -4 defence penality.

IMMOBILIZATION

Immobilized Characters can ONLY roll STAMINA + ARMOR DEF to defend from attacks. Characters held in a grapple are Immobilized.

KNOCKDOWN

The victim falls down. After suffering a knockdown the target must spend ONE action to stand.

DIESEASE/DRUG/POISON/TOXIN EFFECTS

Mental Derangements

Phobias