Adrenaline Mechanics

We're going to look at this same question another way. When we critical fail a save against any emotional target, this causes an adrenal response. We gain an adrenal bonus to initiative and reaction speed, Strength feats, and as emotional armor against future trauma for the remainder of this scene, but not to offensive things such as attacks! Adrenal bonuses from fear will apply to speed. Automatic adrenal responses are always defensive unless you use anger to turn it negative. We can take a point of Darkness to apply this adrenaline boost to an anger check. If you have at least 1 level of darkness, then you can choose to spend ki instead of taking more darkness to make an anger or intimidation check. The results of the anger check changes the adrenaline boost to apply to offensive attacks like power attacks. The degree of success determines the degree of anger, which determines how many mental conditions we take. The number of mental conditions determines how many advantages we get to offensive actions and we use the greater of our original adrenaline bonus for emotional armor, or the number of mental conditions, whichever is greater. The adrenaline bonus from anger protects all emotional targets. When we have a panic attack from critically failing an attack on our feeling of helplessness, perception goes up. When combat training fails, and we become afraid, anger is one way of resolving that situation. Under these guidelines, what is a critical failure of isolation and loneliness and what sort of adrenaline response is that? In the last emotional target for guilt and shame vs our sense of honor and sense of self, a critical failure here means you become an NPC. Your acts are villainous and vile that you give in to the dark side. This hardens you to guilt permanently. If you want to remain in control of your character, you can spend a point of light, if you have one. When you spend the point of light, your remain in control of yourself, but must now suffer the adrenaline response that is protecting you from guilt. What does the natural adrenaline response look like and what things does it help us do? Summarize all 4 targets from these rule changes, filling in the missing details according to human psychology such that the rules are consistent with each other and consistent with what we know of human psychology.

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1. Fear of Physical Injury (First Emotional Target)

• Save: Roll using Basic Combat Training to resist fear of injury or violence.
• Penalties for Failure:
  • If you fail the save, you experience a fear response.
  • This leads to penalties to initiative, reaction time, and possibly a freeze response in combat situations.
  • You might also take a Condition of Anxiety, making future fear saves more difficult.
  • Critical failures worsen the emotional wound, imposing additional penalties on all rolls and increasing the chance of critical failure.

Ways to "Give In" to Avoid the Penalty:

1. Surrender or Flee: The most straightforward way to avoid fear-induced penalties is to give in to the demands of the threat or flee the situation.

   • Example: If a bandit threatens you with a knife, you could hand over your valuables or run away, resolving the fear and avoiding a Condition of Fear.
   • Consequence: You've avoided penalties, but now you’ve given the enemy power over you.

2. Submission to Authority: If someone with authority or power over you (like a superior officer) threatens physical punishment, submitting to their commands can also alleviate the fear.

   • Example: A drill sergeant threatens punishment unless you follow orders. By giving in and obeying, you avoid the fear condition.

3. Comply with a Threat: If someone uses intimidation to extract something (money, information, compliance), simply complying avoids the fear response.

   • Example: If someone is physically intimidating you to gain information, revealing what they want spares you from being emotionally wounded by fear.

4. Anger Response (Optional): Instead of surrendering, you could tap into anger (using a point of Darkness or Ki) to suppress the fear. This transforms the fear-based adrenaline boost into an offensive response, empowering strength-based actions or power attacks.

   • Consequence: You become more aggressive, but suffer from mental conditions like rage, recklessness, or tunnel vision. The anger response provides short-term benefits but can lead to long-term disadvantages.

Adrenaline Response:

• Defensive: Without using anger, the adrenaline response boosts speed (for evasive maneuvers), reaction time, and provides emotional armor, reducing trauma.
• Offensive (Anger Boost): Turning fear into anger gives a boost to offensive power attacks, allowing you to act more aggressively in combat.

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2. Helplessness vs. Joy (Second Emotional Target)

• Save: Roll using Faith to resist feelings of helplessness, depression, or being overwhelmed.
• Penalties for Failure:
  • If you fail, you fall into a state of helplessness or anxiety, reducing your ability to act decisively.
  • This can result in penalties to initiative and reaction time as you feel frozen or unsure of your ability to affect the outcome of a situation.
  • You might take a Condition of Despair, increasing the difficulty of future faith or willpower-based checks.

Ways to "Give In" to Avoid the Penalty:

1. Seek Help or Guidance: One way to avoid the emotional penalties is to give in to the need for support. Accepting help from others (friends, mentors, religious leaders) can alleviate the feelings of helplessness.

   • Example: When overwhelmed by a situation, turning to a trusted ally or authority figure for guidance can help you avoid feeling emotionally wounded.
   • Consequence: You avoid despair, but now you are dependent on external support.

2. Surrender to a Higher Power or Fate: Another way to "give in" is to accept that some things are out of your control, surrendering to fate or divine intervention.

   • Example: If you're trapped in a situation you can't change, accepting that "this is the will of the gods" could help you avoid the emotional wound, removing the despair condition.
   • Consequence: You avoid despair but may lose agency in the situation by giving up control.

3. Resign to the Situation: In some cases, simply accepting your circumstances—even if they are bad—can protect you from despair.

   • Example: In a siege, realizing that "there’s nothing more I can do" and focusing on personal survival might help you avoid mental fatigue from trying to "fix everything."
   • Consequence: This form of surrender allows you to avoid the emotional wound, but at the cost of passivity.

4. Anger Response (Optional): You can take a point of Darkness to convert the helplessness into anger, gaining a more aggressive stance. In this case, anger manifests as hyper-vigilance or extreme willpower, helping you push through obstacles.

   • Consequence: The mental conditions induced by anger, like obsessiveness or irrational stubbornness, will provide advantages in actions requiring endurance or determination, but may cloud your judgment.

Adrenaline Response:

• Defensive: The adrenaline response heightens perception and awareness, allowing the character to notice things they might miss in their overwhelmed state, helping with survival and decision-making.
• Offensive (Anger Boost): Shifting the adrenaline into anger boosts precision in attacks, allowing the character to find and exploit weaknesses in their opponent.

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3. Isolation vs. Sense of Community (Third Emotional Target)

• Save: Roll using Culture (social involvement) to resist feelings of isolation or social rejection.
• Penalties for Failure:
  • Failing the save causes feelings of isolation, leading to emotional withdrawal or loneliness.
  • Penalties include lowered initiative, social interaction difficulties, and future penalties to persuasion or social checks due to feeling disconnected.
  • A Condition of Loneliness makes the character more susceptible to future social attacks, reducing their ability to function in group situations.

Ways to "Give In" to Avoid the Penalty:

1. Concede to Social Pressure: Giving in to peer pressure or the demands of a social group can prevent feelings of isolation.

   • Example: If a group of friends or allies is pressuring you to conform to a certain behavior (like drinking or committing a questionable act), complying with their demands will alleviate the fear of rejection and avoid the isolation penalty.
   • Consequence: You avoid isolation but compromise your integrity or autonomy.

2. Seek Validation or Approval: One way to avoid penalties is to seek validation or approval from others. A character might act in a way that gains social approval, even if it’s not what they truly believe.

   • Example: If you feel rejected, going out of your way to appease or please others can help you avoid the penalties of loneliness.
   • Consequence: You avoid loneliness, but at the cost of becoming dependent on external validation.

3. Join or Conform to a Group: Giving in might also involve joining a group you don’t fully agree with or conforming to societal expectations to avoid isolation.

   • Example: In a scenario where a character feels like an outsider, joining the "in-crowd" or performing acts of conformity can help them avoid emotional penalties.
   • Consequence: You avoid penalties, but you sacrifice some personal freedom or beliefs.

4. Anger Response (Optional): A character can take a point of Darkness to channel their isolation into anger, using it to dominate or manipulate others. This anger-driven response grants advantages in intimidation or social dominance.

   • Consequence: The character may become more aggressive in social interactions, but at the cost of developing mental conditions such as arrogance or narcissism.

Adrenaline Response:

• Defensive: The adrenaline response to social rejection involves emotional numbness, protecting the character from the emotional pain of rejection and making them temporarily resistant to social pressure.
• Offensive (Anger Boost): Anger transforms this into an opportunity for social domination, increasing the character’s ability to manipulate or intimidate others in social situations.

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4. Guilt vs. Sense of Honor (Fourth Emotional Target)

• Save: Roll using Culture (moral values and adherence to societal rules) to resist feelings of guilt or shame.
• Penalties for Failure:
  • Failing this save results in overwhelming guilt or shame, leading to lowered initiative, hesitation in decision-making, and a Condition of Guilt that affects all future moral and social checks.
  • Critical failures in this target can lead to complete loss of moral standing, potentially resulting in the character becoming an NPC (as discussed earlier).

Ways to "Give In" to Avoid the Penalty:

1. Apologize or Make Amends: The most common way to give in to guilt is to apologize or make amends for the wrong that caused it.

   • Example: If you feel guilty for betraying a friend, making an apology or offering compensation could alleviate the emotional condition.
   • Consequence: You regain emotional stability, but at the cost of personal pride or material resources.

2. Submit to Punishment: Another way to give in is to accept punishment for the wrong done, whether it’s from society, an individual, or a higher power.

   • Example: If you’ve committed a crime, turning yourself in and accepting the punishment helps resolve the guilt, protecting you from further emotional harm.
   • Consequence: You avoid emotional penalties, but suffer legal or social consequences.

3. Justify or Rationalize the Guilt: Some characters might avoid the emotional penalties by justifying their actions, convincing themselves that their guilt is unfounded.

   • Example: If you feel guilty for deceiving someone, telling yourself that “it was for their own good” can protect you from feeling overwhelmed by guilt.
   • Consequence: You protect yourself emotionally, but may become detached from your own moral compass.

4. Anger Response (Optional): You can take a point of Darkness to turn guilt into anger, using it to justify your actions and lash out at those who made you feel guilty. This increases your ability to manipulate others or intimidate those who accuse you.

   • Consequence: The character becomes more aggressive and manipulative, but suffers mental conditions like moral blindness or self-righteousness, justifying further unethical behavior.

Adrenaline Response:

• Defensive: The natural adrenaline response helps the character numb themselves emotionally, creating a barrier against guilt, allowing them to continue functioning without being crippled by shame.
• Offensive (Anger Boost): Anger transforms this into righteous indignation, granting advantages in deception, persuasion, and manipulative tactics, as the character convinces others (and themselves) that their actions were justified.

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Summary of "Giving In" to Avoid Emotional Penalties:

1. Fear of Physical Injury:

   • Penalties: Lower initiative, reaction speed, and potential critical failures.
   • Ways to Give In: Flee, surrender, comply with threats.
   • Anger Response: Turn fear into power attacks.

2. Helplessness vs. Joy:

   • Penalties: Lower initiative, impaired decision-making.
   • Ways to Give In: Seek help, resign to fate, surrender to a higher power.
   • Anger Response: Use anger to boost determination and push through.

3. Isolation vs. Community:

   • Penalties: Lower social interaction, future persuasion difficulties.
   • Ways to Give In: Conform to social expectations, seek validation, join a group.
   • Anger Response: Use isolation-fueled anger for intimidation or social domination.

4. Guilt vs. Honor:

   • Penalties: Lower initiative, hesitation, potential NPC transformation.
   • Ways to Give In: Apologize, make amends, submit to punishment, justify actions.
   • Anger Response: Turn guilt into self-righteous anger, enhancing manipulation and persuasion.

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Narrative Consequences of the Tension Pool in Critical Situations

When the tension pool reaches six dice, the stakes rise dramatically. Rolling the dice adds a narrative consequence, determined by the GM, based on the psychological and environmental stress caused by multiple critical wounds or failures. These consequences affect not just physical abilities but also the party’s morale, psyche, and emotional stability. Below are examples of narrative consequences, with some including psychological checks, environmental changes, and reinforcements for the enemy.

1. Reinforcements Arrive for the Enemy

• Narrative Impact: The enemy gains additional fighters, making the battle feel overwhelming.
• Psychological Impact: Characters may experience despair or helplessness, leading to a collective fear check. Each player must roll a critical save against fear.
  • Failure Consequence: Players experience adrenaline boosts, as outlined above, but take on emotional conditions like panic or recklessness.
  • Success Consequence: Players temporarily harden to the fear and gain bonuses to initiative, but their heightened state may cause risky behavior.

2. Moral Collapse in the Party

• Narrative Impact: The accumulating failures cause doubt to spread throughout the party. Characters begin to question the value of continuing the fight.
• Psychological Impact: Each player must roll a morale check (similar to a critical fear check). If failed, they temporarily lose resolve, becoming hesitant or passive.
  • Failure Consequence: A temporary morale debuff causes penalties to attack rolls, coordination, and communication.
  • Success Consequence: Players gain a short-term boost in emotional armor, pushing through, but at a high mental cost (they may take long-term emotional trauma as a result).

3. Internal Conflict or Panic

• Narrative Impact: Amidst the chaos, tension between party members explodes into an argument or an emotionally charged outburst.
• Psychological Impact: A social combat scenario emerges. Party members might be forced to make interpersonal checks (Culture or Charisma) to resolve the conflict.
  • Failure Consequence: The party splits its focus, leading to reduced coordination. Each player receives a penalty to their next round of actions, reflecting their internal distractions.
  • Success Consequence: The conflict strengthens bonds temporarily, granting a small bonus to social checks and emotional armor.

4. Fear Overcomes the Group

• Narrative Impact: The stress of seeing companions critically injured causes overwhelming fear.
• Psychological Impact: The GM calls for a group-wide fear check. Characters with hardened trauma may gain bonuses, while others may suffer from their accumulated mental conditions.
  • Failure Consequence: Players must take the adrenaline boost from fear but gain emotional conditions like panic, cowardice, or impulsiveness.
  • Success Consequence: Players temporarily become emotionally numb, focusing only on survival. However, this leads to a long-term emotional detachment that may hinder relationships and social checks in future sessions.

5. Environmental Shift

• Narrative Impact: The physical environment becomes more dangerous due to the party's failure. The ground might crack, a building may collapse, or the weather turns harsh, adding environmental hazards.
• Psychological Impact: The party's situational awareness becomes paramount. Players must roll perception or survival checks to adapt to the sudden changes.
  • Failure Consequence: They suffer penalties due to hazardous terrain or conditions, such as taking damage or suffering disadvantage on physical actions.
  • Success Consequence: Characters react quickly and adapt, but may take on a heightened sense of anxiety from the sudden shift in the environment.

6. Emotional Breakdown of a Key Character

• Narrative Impact: One of the party members (or even a companion NPC) suffers a severe emotional breakdown, refusing to fight or becoming a liability.
• Psychological Impact: Other party members may have to make willpower or faith checks to console or motivate the character.
  • Failure Consequence: The affected character is out of the fight, forcing others to protect them, which creates tactical disadvantages.
  • Success Consequence: The character regains control, but other players now face additional emotional pressure, increasing the chance of them developing trauma.

7. Betrayal or Abandonment

• Narrative Impact: A previously trusted ally or NPC abandons the group or betrays them, shaken by the party’s visible failures.
• Psychological Impact: This betrayal creates a sense of isolation. Players must roll a social save (Culture or Charisma) to resist feelings of abandonment.
  • Failure Consequence: The emotional blow causes loss of initiative and penalizes social actions. Trust issues might arise, even within the party.
  • Success Consequence: Players rally together, forming a stronger bond, but one character may take on emotional detachment or trust issues for future social encounters.

8. Catastrophic Group Fatigue

• Narrative Impact: The party’s collective exhaustion from repeated failures causes overwhelming fatigue.
• Psychological Impact: Players roll a constitution or stamina check to avoid succumbing to physical and emotional exhaustion.
  • Failure Consequence: A collective debuff applies to initiative, reaction time, and perception for all players, reflecting the weight of their exhaustion.
  • Success Consequence: The group pushes through, but players are left emotionally drained, increasing the likelihood of future critical emotional failures.

9. A Sudden Desperate Move from the Enemy

• Narrative Impact: The enemy, sensing weakness in the party, makes a desperate or cunning move, taking advantage of the party’s emotional state.
• Psychological Impact: The party must make tactical checks (Combat Training, Strategy, or Perception) to react in time to the enemy’s maneuver.
  • Failure Consequence: The party becomes cornered or separated, worsening the combat situation. This could result in more critical failures or wounds.
  • Success Consequence: The party barely fends off the maneuver, but the pressure leaves them in a psychologically weakened state, prone to future trauma.

10. Fear-Induced Recklessness

• Narrative Impact: The overwhelming sense of failure causes one or more party members to act recklessly, driven by fear and panic.
• Psychological Impact: Players must make a willpower check to avoid acting impulsively or recklessly.
  • Failure Consequence: Characters act out of panic, rushing into dangerous situations or attacking without strategy. They suffer disadvantages to tactical decisions and risk further critical failures.
  • Success Consequence: The party avoids reckless actions, but their heightened caution causes a delay in their response time, impacting initiative.

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Summary of Tension Pool Narrative Consequences

1. Reinforcements for the Enemy – Adds additional enemies, leading to a group fear check.
2. Moral Collapse in the Party – Causes doubt and hesitation, with morale checks affecting initiative and coordination.
3. Internal Conflict or Panic – Party members turn against each other, requiring social checks to resolve the conflict.
4. Fear Overcomes the Group – A fear check determines whether players can maintain composure or panic sets in.
5. Environmental Shift – The terrain or environment becomes more dangerous, forcing the party to adapt quickly.
6. Emotional Breakdown of a Key Character – A major emotional collapse occurs, requiring willpower checks from other players.
7. Betrayal or Abandonment – A trusted ally abandons the party, forcing social checks to resist feelings of isolation.
8. Catastrophic Group Fatigue – The party’s accumulated exhaustion takes its toll, affecting all future checks.
9. A Sudden Desperate Move from the Enemy – The enemy capitalizes on the party’s emotional state, requiring tactical checks.
10. Fear-Induced Recklessness – Players risk acting out of fear or panic, suffering disadvantages to future decisions.

These consequences aim to create escalating tension and psychological pressure, making critical failures in the tension pool a highly dramatic moment in the narrative. The GM can choose from these narrative elements to heighten the stakes and create memorable, tense moments in the story, reflecting the growing emotional strain on the party.