A ghost touches your soul. An elder evil's face is glimpsed. Your whole family dies. Roll under your own wisdom score or take a condition below*. While you have a condition, you cannot gain XP. All the conditions' mechanical effects and XP nullification will go away once their requirements have been satisfied, but these should prompt lingering role-playing issues.1d12 Insanities:
- Secrets†: You're certain that a random ally or NPC has a secret, and you must find it out by any means necessary (the secret doesn't have to be true, but your character must be satisfied with the confession).
- Paranoia: You must change your current, true name and hide it in a Matryoshka doll in a box in a chest within the pits of ______ (the DM can decide how to get you the name of the place).
- Resentment: You must secretly or suddenly set up a situation harmful to a random ally or NPC. This should expose them to significant possibility of harm or loss of reputation.
- Power: You must gain an office with sway over no less than 100Xyour level sapient beings.
- Puzzlemania: You have to solve one adventure puzzle or riddle on your own. If anyone tries to help you, not only is the chance to end this condition ruined, but you also have the Resentment condition from above towards that character too!
- Monsterphilia: you have to woo one monster. Consummate the relationship somehow before regaining your wits.
- Gold fever: You need to collect at least 100 gold coins (no sharing!), then roll a (DC 15-1 for every 100 gold hoarded since you got unwell) Will save, or you still have this condition.
- Fear: Hire a body guard and cower during fights as long as the body guard lives. After they die you reluctantly start taking care of business again.
- Obsession: Chose a quest/mission/objective you have yet to fulfill (even if it is a really old one you kinda forgot), or throw yourself at the mercy of the DM and they will make up one for you. Drop any other current objectives and single-mindedly pursue that one to completion.
- Fey-primitivism: You abhor worked metal of any kind, and seize up with imagined allergic reactions at the touch of such. This condition ends once a foe has pierced you with such an implement and you survive.
- Pyromania: You must set some structures (occupants quite optional) ablaze. The amount of floors of burned structures must equal your current level.
- Tomemania: You become obsessed with finding esoteric information (of your choice) that you are convinced is to be found in the tome of ____ and won't be sane until you have studied it for a number of weeks numbering (roll until you roll under your Int). You must do some research to find the name of the tome, as well as clues to where it might be.
†: This one is almost directly ripped from a False Machine post that started this idea for me.
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here's one I rejected for not being questy enough and overlong:
Body issues: You must (1d3) 1: loose 1d20 pounds, 2: gain 1d20 pounds of fat, or 3: gain 1d10 pounds of muscle. It will take 1 day of fasting to lose any 1 pound (roll over Con to confirm), and 1 week to gain any (roll under Str or Con to confirm). If you lose or gain fat, also lose or gain a point of Con when you reach your goal weight. If you gain the muscle, gain a point of Str, but you must eat double rations to maintain your body image/gained score.
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