The stress of dungeoneering
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The stress of dungeoneering
Im playing Darkest Dungeon for PC right now and one really interesting thing is how it depicts the disturbingness of dungeoneering on the adventurers. The game has a track called "stress" that measures the mental/emotional impact caused by underground incursions into lairs filled with horror and supernatural abominations. After a couple incursions (or even just one if youre unlucky) its normal for a character to refuse to go back. And if you push it through, the consequences can be catastrophic, both for the character alone, and for the entire group.
What roleplaying games out there depict this kind of thing ? Is there any edition of D&D (or other dungeon delving game) where this kind of "emotional damage" is tracked ? If not, how to do it in a simple enough way to house-rule into existing games ?
What roleplaying games out there depict this kind of thing ? Is there any edition of D&D (or other dungeon delving game) where this kind of "emotional damage" is tracked ? If not, how to do it in a simple enough way to house-rule into existing games ?
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Well, that's right up the Darkest Dungeons' alley. You went to the dark scary dungeon and got scared by the scary dark things? Now you have compulsive masturbation and gambling.ETortoise wrote:Torchbearer is all about grinding you down during gungeon crawls. While there isn't a sanity track, conditions include angry and afraid along with physical conditions like exhausted and injured.
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I might have been playing darkest dungeon wrong then. In the early build I was playing, it seemed optimal to stress out new recruits as much as possible, so you could figure out which were the chumps and which were the heroes.Longes wrote:Well, that's right up the Darkest Dungeons' alley. You went to the dark scary dungeon and got scared by the scary dark things? Now you have compulsive masturbation and gambling.ETortoise wrote:Torchbearer is all about grinding you down during gungeon crawls. While there isn't a sanity track, conditions include angry and afraid along with physical conditions like exhausted and injured.
The terrible chumps get negative crap, while heroes don't care about stress.
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Send him to the bar, brothel, church, etc. to engage in drinking, gambling, fucking, praying, brawling, etc and relieve the stress (according to his traits, some activities will be more efficient than others). This costs time and money though, so its advisable to only invest in those worth it and send the chimps back their mommies.Negative Zero wrote:So what do you do when the dice decide your character refuses to go back to the dungeon to advance the plot?
Wat. Adventurer "breaking" or "becoming heroic" is determined by a random die roll, as soon as they stress out. And the die roll is repeated every time you get max stress. Heroic state goes away after camping, or getting to town. Afliction persists untill you de-stress.ishy wrote:I might have been playing darkest dungeon wrong then. In the early build I was playing, it seemed optimal to stress out new recruits as much as possible, so you could figure out which were the chumps and which were the heroes.Longes wrote:Well, that's right up the Darkest Dungeons' alley. You went to the dark scary dungeon and got scared by the scary dark things? Now you have compulsive masturbation and gambling.ETortoise wrote:Torchbearer is all about grinding you down during gungeon crawls. While there isn't a sanity track, conditions include angry and afraid along with physical conditions like exhausted and injured.
The terrible chumps get negative crap, while heroes don't care about stress.
Watch out: characters get bad traits while de-stressing too. My occultist got syphilis in the brothel.
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The plague doctor can cure diseases, but it's damn hard (33% chance while in the camp).
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Guess it changed since I last played it then.Longes wrote:Wat. Adventurer "breaking" or "becoming heroic" is determined by a random die roll, as soon as they stress out. And the die roll is repeated every time you get max stress. Heroic state goes away after camping, or getting to town. Afliction persists untill you de-stress.
Gary Gygax wrote:The player’s path to role-playing mastery begins with a thorough understanding of the rules of the game
Bigode wrote:I wouldn't normally make that blanket of a suggestion, but you seem to deserve it: scroll through the entire forum, read anything that looks interesting in term of design experience, then come back.
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For a game where you play a single character, no. Not unless you're playing horror. These sort of mechanics are for games where you control several characters and would otherwise be incentivized to ignore most of your stable in favor of leveling up one or two superheroes. You want to rotate between all your minions, because putting all your eggs in one basket is just asking for him to come down with combat paralysis.Negative Zero wrote:So what do you do when the dice decide your character refuses to go back to the dungeon to advance the plot? Roll up a new character? Go play Smash Bros?
I'm not entirely convinced that this is a mechanic that is in any way good for the game.
In most of the games that implement this sort of thing, it also raises the question of when to keep pushing forward and when to head back, because the mechanics strongly discourage doing it piecemeal. From what I recall from watching it on Twitch, in Darkest Dungeon the map is swapped for an entirely new one when you head home and the good stuff is generally at the end of the map, plus there is a degree of investment in an expedition and you really want them to turn a profit.
But yes, this is another one of those mechanics that's fun when you have multiple characters and can keep going when some of them crack.
But yes, this is another one of those mechanics that's fun when you have multiple characters and can keep going when some of them crack.
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