GURPSよろず

　In GURPS, the Fright Check rules (see p. B93-94) are used to represent the deterioration of sanity due to exposure to the Old Ones.

　 Ones. It is important to realize that, although exposure to the Mythos uses the same mechanic as an ordinary scare, on a fun- damental level Mythos exposure is something quite different from normal shock. On a pragmatic level, being chased by a Shoggoth is probably no more dangerous than being attacked by a chainsaw-wielding psychopath - both encounters will leave the victim equally dead - yet the Shoggoth's effect on the sanity of its human victim will probably be much more profound. This is because, as noted above, human brains are simply nor equipped to deal with the existence of Shoggoths and other ancient creatures. It is not just the threar that the Shoggoth represents that damages the victim's psyche, it is knowledge of the very existence of the Shoggoth and things like it that does the damage.

　Because of this fundamental difference between a normal Fright Check and a Mythos Fright Check, there are a few basic differences between the way the two are gamed out.

　First of all, in any Fright Check involving the Old Ones, their power or their works, the victim rolls against a number equal to halfhis normal target number for Fright Checks (round down). For example, if an individual had IQ 12, Combat Reflexes (+2 to Fright Checks), Strong Will +1 and Fearlessness +1, he would have a normal Fright Check roll of 16. However, if confronted by a Hound of Tindalos, or if studying the Necronomicon, his Fright Check would be rolled against an 8 (this sort of Fright Check will be referred to throughout these rules as a Mythos Fright Check).

　Second, he may not add more than 4 points to his IQ from any source before the Fright Check number is halved. For example, if a character had IQ 12, Combat Reflexes, the Meditation skill and was currently in a meditative state (+2 - see p. 49), Strong Will +3 and Fearlessness +2, his normal Fright Check number would he 21. However, if confronted by a Mythos creature, he could not take a bonus higher than +4, making his Fright Check number 16, which halves to 8. Thus willpower and mental discipline can never enhance a Mythos Fright Check by more than +2 (for the single exception, see Mythos Lore, p. 49).

　The GM is free to rule that some Fright Check-enhancing advantages - particularly Fearlessness and Unfazeable (see p. 47)- are inappropriate for a CthulhuPunk campaign, and cannot be purchased by PCs at character creation or any other time. If Unfazeable is allowed in the campaign, it does nor make the character immune to Mythos Fright Checks; it merely gives him a +4 to such checks taken before the number is halved.

　Finally, any time a Mythos Fright Check is critically failed, the victim permanently loses one point of Will . . . that is, permanently loses one level of the Strong Will advantage, or gains one level of the Weak Will disadvantage.

　Once a character has acquired a new Quirk or Disadvantage, it becomes a permanent part of his character description, reducing the overall point value of the character. These mental disadvantages can be "bought off' normally, with eamed character points, according to the rules given on p. B82. The only caveat is that a character will not totally lose the "bought off' disadvantage until a span of game-time has passed equal to at least one week per each point of the disadvantage's value. For example, if a character acquired a -10 point disad- vantage, and immediately spent 10 eamed character points he had been saving to "buy off' the new disadvantage, he would still suffer under the effects of that disadvantage for at least 10 game weeks from the time he acquired it.

　Mental disadvantages may be "bought off' in their normal increments. That is, someone afflicted with a -10 point Major Delusion can buy it down to a less debilitating -5 point Minor Delusion with 5 eamed character points.

　A concerted program of competent, professional psychotherapy (under the direction of a counselor with at least Psychology-13) can also help overcome Mythos-related mental disadvantages.

　The GM may grant "bonus" character points, which the afflicted individual can use only to "buy off' mental disadvantages. If he is undergoing outpatient therapy (at least two hours per week with the therapist), he may accrue these bonus recovery points at a rate of up to I per month. If he is committed fulltime to a mental institution hz will accrue recovery points of up to 1 per week (always assuming, of course, that the institution is competently and humanely run - otherwise it can be the source of still deeper madness).

　However, if, at any time during his therapy the patient fails a Mythos Fright Check of any kind, all unspent bonus recovery points are irretrievably lost. Recovery points are considered "spent" only if they have actually been used to buy off or reduce the severity of a disadvantage. If the character has bought his Severe Delusion down to a Major Delusion, those character points have been spent, and cannot subsequently be lost. However, if a character has 3 recovery points, and is planning on reducing the disadvantage once he gets to 5, those 3 points are unspent, and may be lost.

　In a Cthulhu Punk campaign, more than perhaps anv other GURPS campaign, Will becomes one of the most important character traits of all. Not only is it the only effective protection against the debilitating side effects of Mythos Fright Checks, it can also be sacrificed to manipulate the extremely powerful "magicks" of the Old Ones - assuming that the user of these magicks has some extra Will to spare.

　A certain amount of tough-mindedness is both reasonable and necessary in a Cthulhu Punk campaign, if the players are going to have any chance of achieving their goals and surviving more than a few adventures. In fact, the GM would be wise to subtly but actively discourage low-Will starting characters in an ongoing campaign.

　However, because of the extraordinary importance and usefulness of Strong Will, players who are inclined to try to abuse the system may be tempted to "hoard" Will, taking unrealistically high starting levels so as to enhance their later survivability. This sort of "min-maxing" is anathema to the horror atmosphere necessary to the milieu, and should not be tolerated.

　Perhaps the ideal way to avoid such abusive situations is simply to keep the players unaware of the importance of Will in the campaign until after character creation. If possible, the GM should have his players design characters as though for an ordinary Cyberpunk campaign, with no idea that Mythos elements are going to be introduced. Of course, this sort of benign deception will not always work, and should be avoided in situations where it's more likely to provoke bad feelings than good roleplaying.

　If players are both aware of the importance of Will in the campaign, and inclined to min-max points, the GM should feel free to place an arbitrary cap on the amount of Strong Will avail- able - perhaps specifying that no character may purchase more than 3 levels of Strong Will, or more than 5 levels of Strong Will and Fearlessness combined. The GM may alternately attach a substantial Unusual Background to excessive levels of either advantage.

　The GM should also remember that for the purpose of Mythos Fright Checks, the maximum bonus to Will from all advantages and disadvantages combined is +4, and it is applied before the number is halved, if applicable.
Furthermore, any such bonuses are also applied before any penalties.
For example, if a character had IQ 12 and Weak Will -2 from immoderate use of forbidden magicks, hut also had Fearlessness +3, Combat Reflexes for +2, and was in a meditative state for another +2, the formula to figure his Mythos-related Fright check would be (12+4-2)/2, or 7. He couldn't use any of his other Will bonuses to offset his Weak Will before adding the +4.

　While it is true that high IQ can also directly contribute to Will (along with its many other uses), a cap on maximum starting IQ is not recommended, both because of the relative expense of IQ, and because the brilliant victim using his intellect to cling desperately to the last shards of his reason and sanity is a perfect Lovecraftian archetype.