Imperium

	Sign In Sign-Up

Insanity And Psychological Disorders

Bequin was cowering in a corner, filthy, tearful. The sight of the Child of the Emperor Mandragore had sent her fleeing in blind panic. Like me, she had made the mistake of looking at the runes and marks on his foul, dazzling armour. Unlike me, she hadn’t had the sense to look away.

She couldn’t speak. She barely registered us.

- Xenos, by Dan Abnett

No matter how heroic, no matter how dedicated, even the greatest of the Imperium’s champions will eventually feel the psychological toll of the things they have seen and done in the Emperor’s name. The Officio Medicae's asylums are filled with shell-shocked soldiers and catatonic Inquisitors. Beggars sit on street corners, rocking gently with a tear in their eye, and in the spired cathedrals above them, frothing zealots bloody themselves with spiked collars and jagged whips.

Imperium represents this gradual descent into madness through the gaining of Insanity points, which are then traded for psychological disorders.

Gaining Insanity Points

Most characters begin with zero Insanity points, a clean psychological slate. However, traumatic events over the course of adventures will cause the character to gain points. Stimuli for Insanity point gain are divided into Violent, Personal and Unnatural categories. Detailed descriptions of each category can be found below.

Characters are normally allowed a Nerve test to avoid gaining Insanity points. If the trauma is particularly powerful (encountering a Daemon, for example), the GM may rule that even characters who pass the test will gain a small number of Insanity points.

The GM can apply modifiers to Nerve tests – a soldier in a reinforced concrete dugout is less likely to crack under artillery bombardment than a soldier in a water-filled foxhole.

A matched failure on a Nerve test means that the character has been well and truly unhinged by the ordeal, and doubles the number of Insanity points gained. A matched success, on the other hand, results in the character becoming hardened to the stimulus, meaning that in future he or she gains a +10 bonus to any Nerve tests to avoid Insanity points gain from this particular group of stimuli. Multiple matched successes can, over time, build up cumulatively, to +20 bonuses, +30 bonuses, and so on.

Violent Stimuli

Although the Imperium is built on the sacrifice of untold billions of humans, this doesn’t mean that the Imperial citizens in question are inured to death. Encountering violence is a dreadful trauma to the civilised human mind. Note that these stimuli do not only refer to person-to-person violence, but also to injury and death caused by accidents. Also, some characters may not be as traumatised by killing aliens, mutants and so on, depending on their ideological background.

Stimulus	Insanity Points	Stimulus	Insanity Points
First time in a life or death combat situation	D3	Being under artillery bombardment or sustained aerial assault (per day)	D3
Committing your first killing	D6	Seeing your first violent death	D3
… if that killing was murder (i.e. victim was helpless, unarmed or executed)	+D6	… and that death was murder	+D3
Each subsequent murder	D3	Suffering a crippling injury	1
Killing someone at extremely close quarters (i.e. with bare hands, knife, etc.)	D6	Suffering severe and permanent scarring	1
Seeing a corpse, or part of one, for the first time	1	Being set alight (per location)	1
… and that corpse was someone you knew	+1	In a combat situation (per week)	D3
… and/or the corpse was mutilated	+D3	Mutilating a corpse for any reason	D3

Personal Stimuli

No matter how tough and hard-bitten a character is, he is still just one being with, on some level at least, a need for security and comfort. This usually manifests in family, colleagues and friends. When something happens to upset that balance, a character’s mental state can be affected.

Stimulus	Insanity Points	Stimulus	Insanity Points
Seeing a colleague or comrade die…	1	Having any mental characteristic reduced to 0	D3
Seeing a close friend die in shocking circumstances…	D3	Cabin fever (per week of uninterrupted confinement)	1
Seeing a family member or lover die in shocking circumstances…	D10	Solitude (per week with no extended contact with the outside world)	1
Learning of the death of someone close…	D3	The ending of a close relationship	D3
…and failing in an attempt to prevent any of the above, or being unable to try.	+D3	Being betrayed by a close friend or trusted ally	D3
…and feeling responsibility or guilt for that death.	+D6	Being officially declared a heretic (Imperials only)	D10

Unnatural Stimuli

The true nature of the universe is kept secret from the citizens of the Imperium. Daemons and Chaos are unknown, except in superstitions that most shrug off as nonsense. Likewise, few citizens have any real knowledge of psychic powers or aliens, and an encounter with either can come as a terrible shock – orks aren’t that big, surely…

Stimulus	Insanity Points	Stimulus	Insanity Points
Encountering a warp entity (or a group of them)	D3	Studying a Chaos tome (per week of study)	D3
Encountering a Lesser Daemon or Daemonic Beast (or a group of them)	D10	Gaining a new mutation or Chaos attribute	D3
Encountering a Greater Daemon or Daemon Prince	2D10	First time witnessing psychic powers	1
Encountering one of the Chaos gods	2D6xD10	First time being psychically assaulted	D3
Summoning a Daemon of any kind	D3	First encounter with an unfamiliar alien species	D3
Witnessing or involved in an act of Chaos worship (new or non-worshippers only)	D6	First encounter with a mutant (non-mutants only)	D3

Reducing Insanity Points

Psychological disorders aren’t unavoidable once Insanity points start piling up. There are several ways to reduce a character’s Insanity points score.

Relaxation

Being away from any source of stress can be very good for a character’s mental health. A character may take a Willpower test for every month of rest, losing an Insanity point for every successful test. During time spent relaxing, the character cannot be confronted with any sources of stress more serious than working out what to cook for lunch. He cannot work, perform duties related to an adventure, cast psychic powers, and so on. It is usually a good idea for the character to leave home for a while and take a holiday.

If the character has the Meditation ability, he or she gains a +10 bonus to Willpower tests.

In the Imperium, the opportunity to have such an easy time of it is generally only available to the wealthy.

Counselling

In many cultures, and amongst many Imperial organisations (including most branches of the military), counselling is sneered at as being a sign of weakness. Nevertheless, it can be good to talk through problems with a trained listener. Any character with a Leadership characteristic of at least 80 can act as a counsellor.

A character can take a Willpower test each session of counselling, losing one Insanity point if the test is passed.

Again, some degree of wealth is normally required to undergo counselling, since the counsellors charge by the session. Appointments are also normally required, and booking within a week of the intended session can be difficult.

Overcoming The Stimulus

This is the natural result of dealing with the traumatic stimulus causing psychological stress. At the GM’s discretion, if the character suffering Insanity points is integral to the stimulus being negated (i.e. isn’t cowering behind a bush), then half of the Insanity points caused by the stimulus are lost.

An example of overcoming a stimulus could be a PC who interrupts a depraved Chaos cult ritual manages to halt the ritual and rescue the sacrificial victim. Another could be a character’s first encounter with a tau, a shocking experience. However, the character befriends the alien, thus partially negating his fear-driven reaction to it.

This method of reducing Insanity points is by no means guaranteed. It is up to the GM whether a PC overcomes a stimulus. If players attempt to keep their characters sane by sending them into battle against every disturbing situation they come across, then that character is clearly already insane.

Developing Psychological Disorders

As soon as a character reaches ten Insanity points, the character must take a Nerve test. If this is passed, there is no immediate effect, but the Insanity point total remains the same, and the character must test again when he or she next gains Insanity points.

If the test is failed, deduct ten Insanity points, but the character has developed a psychological disorder.

This is chosen by the GM and should be appropriate in some way to the stimulus that caused the psychological disorder to manifest. For example, being tortured by the Adeptus Arbites could result in a character developing an Irrational Fear of Arbitrators. A soldier caught in artillery bombardment might suffer from shell shock. A character locked in a solitary prison cell might become claustrophobic. A possessee whose Daemon has been exorcised may develop multiple personality disorder, with the new personality strikingly similar to the Daemon.

If the GM cannot pick a suitable disorder, check with the player if they think there’s anything appropriate (players know the way their characters’ minds work better than the GM), offer the player a choice of several disorders, or roll a D100 to determine a random disorder. Of course, if you disagree with the randomly determined disorder, there’s nothing to stop you from rolling again until a reasonable result comes up.

D100	Psychological Disorder	Effects
01	Agorophobia	The character is terrified of open spaces, and will often refuse to leave a building. Whenever the character is outside, or in a wide open interior area, his Nerve and Willpower are temporarily halved. This penalty may be reduced depending on circumstances – an agoraphobic character in a dense forest will be less seriously effected than a character in a desert.
02-04	Alcoholism	The character becomes addicted to alcohol as a result of trying to block out the traumatic events in his life. He must pass a Willpower test to avoid having a drink whenever the opportunity is available. He will drink until the alcohol runs out or he passes a Willpower test. There is a cumulative penalty of –5 per drink, in addition to other penalties caused by the alcohol, to all further tests to avoid drinking.
05-06	Alignment Change	The character undergoes a life-changing personality alteration. The character’s zeal shifts one step towards either puritan or radical (equal chance of either). Puritan characters can only shift to conservative. A radical character may either become liberal or change allegiance (GM’s choice).
07-08	Allergy	The character develops a psychosomatic allergy. Often this will be related to the stimulus, in that a character allergic to a particular food may have been fed that food while in prison, or a character allergic to leather may have been tortured by a man wearing leather, or gored by a leather-producing animal. The allergy will take the form of a rash, uncontrollable sneezing, runny eyes, itchy throat or vomiting, depending on the nature of the allergy.
09-10	Amnesia	The character loses his memory. He has no idea who he is, his background, his history, or what happened to cause him to lose his memory. The character loses the ability to cast any psychic powers or use any non-physical abilities. The character will initially be extremely distressed by this realisation, and will not know to whom to turn, but can be placated by someone who passes a Leadership test – this could be problematic, since the person in question need not be a friend, and can even be a sworn enemy… The character is allowed a single Sagacity test 2D6 hours after the bout of amnesia begins in which to remember everything. If this test is failed, the amnesia continues indefinitely. Once a month, the character can take another Sagacity test. If this is successful, the character remembers everything (including ‘forgotten’ psychic powers and abilities), except the event that triggered the amnesia. The character may take further monthly Sagacity tests in order to remember the events that led to losing his memory, but will gain one Insanity point for each failed attempt.
11-12	Anorexia	The character loses all appetite for food, or even becomes revolted by the thought of eating. Sometime this is triggered by a desire to lose weight, even when already grossly malnourished (anorexia nervosa), although this need not be the case. When they do eat, it is in small amounts, just enough to remain alive, but not enough to remain healthy. In the first month of anorexia, the character loses D10 points of Toughness. In the second and all subsequent months, the character loses D10 points of Strength and a further D10 points of Toughness. Should either characteristic reach 0, the character dies. Lost characteristic points are recovered within a month of the affliction being cured.
13-14	Avarice	The character becomes obsessed with material wealth and obtaining more of it. Virtually everything they do is motivated by the quest for greater riches. The character will display this wealth ostentatiously, possibly making him the subject of ridicule or an attractive target for criminals.
15-16	Bulimia	This is an eating disorder, similar in cause and effect to anorexia, in which the character gorges himself, only to vomit it up afterwards out of guilt. This has the same long-term effects as anorexia (above).
17-18	Catatonia	The character immediately slips into catatonic withdrawal for a number of hours equal to the margin of failure of the Nerve test, divided by ten. The same will occur every time the character fails a Nerve test in future. While in a catatonic state, the character will not acknowledge the presence of any outside stimuli, will lose the power of speech and may curl up into a foetal position.
19-20	Chewing Fingernails	This is a relatively minor nervous disorder that has no harmful side effects, although it will make the character’s nails untidy and may offend some characters.
21-22	Claustrophobia	The character becomes morbidly afraid of enclosed spaces, possibly as a result of being confined somewhere previously. Enclosed spaces can be difficult to rule on, but as a guideline, anywhere where the roof is not at least two feet above the character’s head, and where the walls are more than six feet apart. A claustrophobic character in a room smaller than this temporarily halves his Nerve.
23-24	Compulsive Rituals	The character repetitively carries out certain rituals when feeling nervous. This can be washing the hands to get rid of invisible dirt that he is convinced is there, repeatedly checking that a weapon is loaded, whistling a particular tune, tapping feet, drumming fingers or some other irritating habit.
25-26	Delusions	The character suffers from some irrational delusion. This may be as minor as inaccurately believing a certain character speaks with an indecipherable accent, having an imaginary friend, or as major as believing himself to be a mutant, abhuman or even an alien. These delusions do not usually have any effect other than to perturb other characters. Occasionally, a character may suffer from a delusion so serious that it is impossible to function in normal society – believing himself to be the Emperor, that the laws of gravity do not apply to him, that the ground cannot support his weight, or that cleaning fluid is the elixir of eternal life, all place the character in extreme danger. The only way of ensuring the character’s safety is to commit him to an asylum.
27-29	Depression	The character takes on a deeply pessimistic outlook, losing 2D10 points of Leadership and Willpower. Additionally, he must take a Willpower test at the start of each week. If the test is failed, every action with any potentially negative consequences (including getting out of bed in the morning) require a Willpower test in order to even attempt them. Should the character fail, he may try again an hour later.
30	Deviant Eating Desire	Characters suffering from this disorder become obsessed with eating or drinking something that really shouldn’t be consumed. This is usually something nearby at the time of the disorder’s manifestation, whether it is grass, soil, dust, dishwater, or something as revolting (and perhaps illegal) as blood, corpses, or human waste. Characters may go to great lengths to hide their diet, or they may do it publicly, depending on how far gone they are from normality, and how extroverted they were before the disorder manifested. The side effects of this disorder are generally health-related, and will probably have social or legal consequences as well.
31-32	Drug Addiction	The character becomes addicted to a particular drug that he has taken recently, whether it was an illegal narcotic, some form of medicine, or something else. The character must pass a Willpower test every day to resist taking a dose of the drug. As soon as the drug’s effects come to an end, the character must take another Willpower test, or take another dose. If no dose is available, the character halves all mental characteristics until he can find the drug. When the character does find the drug, he must take one dose, and will take a second unless he passes a Willpower test, and then a third, and so on, until a Willpower test is passed. These additional doses have all the usual effects, but may have harmful side effects.
33	Exsanguination	Characters with this disorder habitually cut or bleed themselves, either for the addictive high of blood loss, or because the discomfort distracts them from the misery or trauma of their lives. Every day, characters must pass a Willpower test or lose a number of hit points equal to the margin of failure, divided by two.
34-35	Extroversion	The character is incredibly outgoing, and will always insist on representing the party in any conversations or negotiations – regardless of whether the character has any social skills or not.
36-37	Fainting	The character has a tendency to faint under pressure, starting… now. The character will be unconscious for D6 rounds, but can be woken by someone spending an action shaking him violently. Whenever a stressful situation arises in future, the character must pass a Nerve test or faint, as above.
38	Fugue	Characters suffering from this disorder may, in periods of high stress, enter a trance-like state. This happens automatically when the disorder first manifests, and on a failed Nerve test in all future stress situations. They will behave noticeably out of character for the duration of the stress situation, before returning to normal with no memory of what occurred during the fugue.
39-40	Gluttony	The character eats excessively. The character must take every opportunity to eat, with a Willpower test required to resist the urge. Each month, for the first three months, the character gains D10 points of Toughness, but loses D10 points of Initiative. After that, there are no further characteristic changes. Characteristics return to normal within a month of the condition being cured.
41-42	Hatred	The character hates an individual, group, object or place associated with the cause of the disorder, and will do almost anything possible to cause harm to it should the opportunity arise in future. A successful Willpower test is required to resist this urge.
43	Heroic Idiocy	The character is utterly insensitive to danger. The character is immune to Fearsome and Terrifying creatures, but will still gain Insanity points caused by them. Because the character knows no fear, he will frequently take near-suicidal risks.
44	Homicidal Episodes	Characters suffering from this disorder are a liability in most threat situations, since they are prone to lashing out violently, with intent to kill. When in a situation where there is a risk of violence occurring (negotiations where weapons are visible or implied, argument in a bar, a surprise meeting with characters of suspicious motivation), characters must take a Nerve test. If this test is failed, they will attack the nearest potentially dangerous character with intent to kill. A Sagacity test can be taken to distinguish between friends and foes.
45-46	Humanitarian	Characters with this disorder have stronger-than-normal humanitarian instincts. Unless they wish to resist by taking a Willpower test, they will attempt to rescue those in danger, intervene in arguments (often on the side of the underdog), negotiate with hostile characters, prevent the execution or torture of prisoners, and so on.
47	Impaired Communication	The character loses the ability to communicate via speech and writing. Any communication must use hand signals.
48-49	Insomnia	The character must pass a Nerve test in order to sleep at night. Even then, the character only manages a number of hours equal to the margin of success, divided by five.
50-51	Introversion	Introverted characters become immensely self-centred, losing interest in the outside world. They lose 2D10 points of Leadership and must pass a Willpower test in order to make any form of communication. If the test is failed, communication will consist of shrugs and non-verbal grunts, at best.
52	Kleptomania	Compulsive thieves have an irresistible urge to steal anything that isn’t nailed down (and prise up anything that is). Every time characters have the opportunity to steal, it requires a Willpower test to resist the urge. This can be modified according to how much the rewards outweight the risks.
53	Lucky Charm	The character is convinced that a particular item, type of item, person or abhuman sub-species is somehow lucky, and makes every effort to ensure that such a lucky charm is around at all times, and preferably in physical contact. When this is not the case, the character’s Nerve and Willpower are temporarily halved.
54	Manic	Characters with manic hypertension are tense, wild-eyed and overactive, gaining 2D10 Initiative, but losing 2D10 Leadership.
55-56	Manic Depressive	The character’s personality contains both Manic and Depressive traits, the strength of each alternating as time goes on. At the start of the adventure, determine which of these two psychological disorders the character is suffering from. Every two to three hours thereafter, and whenever the character is in a stressful situation, there is a 50% chance that the character switches over to the other disorder.
57	Megalomania	Megalomaniacs have vastly inflated egos and an insatiable lust for power. They feel they must be the leader of any group they are in, and will go to extreme lengths to gain any position of authority, no matter how petty. Any characters who refuse to obey orders should expect an angry reaction.
58-59	Migraines	When placed in a stressful situation, the character will suffer migraines if he fails a Willpower test. The migraines last for the length of the situation, plus 2D6 minutes, and temporarily reduce all mental characteristics by D10 points.
60	Multiple Personalities	The character has a second personality, significantly different to the first. The exact nature of it is up to the PC (or the GM, if he so insists). At moments of stress, the character must pass a Willpower test or temporarily switch over to the second personality.
61-62	Narcolepsy	The character suffers from a serious sleeping disorder, in which the character can fall asleep at almost any time. At any point when the character is not physically active (when sitting down, reading, driving, on guard duty, etc.), he must pass a Willpower test or fall asleep for D6 hours.
63-65	Nightmares	The character’s sleep is interrupted by terrible nightmares that cause him to thrash around and cry out in his sleep. The character will not remember the content of these nightmares when he awakens, and is unharmed by them, although they may be irritating to others.
66	Pacifism	The character becomes pathologically opposed to violence. He will refuse to fight or even to hold a weapon, and will gain an Insanity point every time he fails to prevent a killing. In the Imperium, pacifism is often equated with cowardice or treason. In certain situations, it may even be classed as heresy.
67	Pathological Lying	The character is literally unable to tell the truth. No matter how obvious a fact is, no matter how much evidence points towards it, the character will always lie about it. This has no effect on the character, except as to make him totally untrustworthy in many people’s eyes. The GM should impose Experience penalties on PCs who fail to roleplay this disorder appropriately.
68-69	Paranoia	Paranoid characters suffer from delusions of persecution, either by those around them, or by some shadowy organisation or conspiracy. They find it hard to trust people they meet, since any one of them could be an ‘agent’ of the persecutors.
70-72	Phobia	Characters suffering from a phobia have an irrational fear and sense of revulsion towards a particular stimulus or concept. Phobic characters temporarily halve their Nerve and Willpower characteristics while in close proximity to their stimulus. Some examples of phobias are given below: - Acrophobia – heights - Apotemnophobia – amputees - Arachnophobia – spiders - Asymmetriphobia – asymmetrical things - Atephobia – ruins - Automatonophobia – servitors, puppets, shop dummies, anything imitating sentience - Bacillophobia – microbes - Ballistophobia – missiles or bullets - Bibliophobia – books - Blennophobia – slime - Botanophobia – plants - Daemonophobia – Daemons, Chaos - Dikephobia – justice - Ecclesiophobia – churches, the Adeptus Ministorum - Gerontophobia – growing old, the elderly - Gnosiophobia – knowledge, the knowledgable - Hadephobia – hell - Hagiophobia – saints, holy things - Hamartophobia – sinning - Hereiophobia – challenges to official doctrine, rebellion, heresy, racial deviation - Heirophobia – priests - Heterophobia – the opposite sex - Homilophobia – sermons - Hoplophobia – firearms - Melophobia – music - Necrophobia – death, dead things - Ophidiophobia – snakes - Teratophobia – monsters, mutants, giving birth to a mutant baby - Xenophobia – aliens, off-worlders
73	Psychosexual Disorder	The character’s natural sexual urges are pushed in an unusual direction by mental trauma. Technically, the alteration is not a new sexual preference, but a symptom of a treatable psychological disorder. Examples could be: - Change in gender preference - Bestiality (animals) - Frigidity / Impotence (loss of sexual desire or ability) - Necrophilia (the dead) - Nymphomania / Satyriasis (excessive sexual desire) - Teratophilia (mutants)
74	Quixotism	The character develops a romantic ideal of duty, honour and chivalry. Believing himself to be some form of modern day knight, the character fights for the weak, protects the innocent and will perform great acts of daring, all for the cause of justice.
75-76	Religious Experience	The character undergoes a religious conversion, reawakening or challenge. This is not necessarily viewed as a psychological disorder. It can be seen as a way of tackling mental stress before it causes a genuine disorder – turning to the Emperor in a time of need, in other words. Characters either increase their faith in their current religion (or become practicing worshippers, rather than paying lip-service to their god), lose their faith to some degree, or convert to a completely new faith. Often this is just switching between sub-sects of the Imperial Cult, but can include heretical movements, including Chaos cults.
77	Schizophrenia	Schizophrenics exist in worlds of their own making. They are trapped, listening to threatening phantom voices telling them how everyone is persecuting them, sometimes even goading them to defend themselves from the persecutors. These fantasies are so terrifying and vivid that untreated schizophrenics often retreat further from the real world, their conditioning getting worse and worse. Schizophrenics lose 2D10 points of Leadership. Additionally, once per week, they must pass a Willpower test or gain an Insanity point. Future psychological disorders will generally exaggerate the symptoms of the schizophrenia (Paranoia or Talking To Self, for example).
78-79	Scotophobia	The character is afraid of the dark. In total darkness (e.g. underground), the character is at quarter of his usual Nerve and Willpower characteristics. In other darkened environments (e.g. night time), the character is at half Nerve and Willpower.
80	Self-Destructive Episodes	The character is incredibly dangerous, but only to himself. When placed in an extremely high stress situation, where lives are potentially at stake, the character must take a Nerve test. If this is failed, the character begins to hack at himself with any close combat weapons or, failing that, his fists. Treat this as a close combat attack against himself, with no parrying or dodging. The character will fight until he incapacitates or kills himself, or until he is restrained. He will not deliberately attempt to harm anyone who tries to restrain him by grappling, although a matched failure on a grappler’s roll to hit means that a random swing has hit the would-be restrainer.
81	Senility	Senility begins to affect the character, almost certainly prematurely. The character must pass a Sagacity test every month or lose D10 points each of Willpower, Sagacity and Leadership. If this disorder is cured, characteristic loss is not permanent and lost points will be recovered at a rate of D10 per month, until back to their original level.
82-83	Shaking	The character’s hands shake uncontrollably, halving Ballistic Skill when firing a weapon held in the hands.
84-85	Shell Shock	Normally caused by prolonged exposure to battlefield conditions, shell shock (also known as battle fatigue) is when a soldier’s mind can no longer cope with the constant alertness required of frontline duty. The soldier is chronically locked into a combat-ready state, where he will dive for cover at the slightest sound. Additionally, he occasionally suffers delusions, such as smelling the stench of mud, smoke and decomposing bodies instead of the pleasant spring day everyone else is experiencing, or looking around a restaurant and seeing the customers slumped in their chairs, riddled with las-wounds. It is a frightening and difficult to handle disorder that can deteriorate if not treated. Once per month, the soldier must pass a Willpower test or gain an Insanity point. Future psychological disorders will generally exaggerate the symptoms of the shell shock (Shaking, Homicidal Episodes or Delusions, for example).
86-87	Skin Complaint	The character has a stress-induced rash on a randomly determined location. Although itchy, this is harmless. If it’s located on the face, the character loses D10 Leadership.
88	Sociopathy	The character loses any sense of morality and empathy. He becomes anti-social, willing to do anything necessary to ensure that he gets what he wants. Normal societal restraints no longer apply, so the character is perfectly willing to commit crimes, including violence, in order to achieve his aims, although a selfish fear of punishment may still serve as a deterrent. The character is incapable of constructing a close relationship with anyone, or of appealing to their better nature, and loses 4D10 Leadership.
89-90	Somataform Disorder	Although there may be no physical damage to the area, part of the character’s body just stops working as a result of trauma. Either choose a symptom or roll randomly: 01-20 The character goes blind. 21-35 The character goes deaf. 36-55 The character loses the ability to speak. 56-75 One of the character’s hands stops working. 76-00 One of the character’s legs stops working.
91-92	Stammer	The character speaks with a stammer, reducing Leadership by D10 points and preventing the use of the Public Speaking and Blather abilities.
93-95	Talking In Sleep	The character talks in his sleep, either as a one-sided conversation or as a running commentary, normally relating to the event that caused the psychological disorder.
96-97	Talking To Self	The character constantly mumbles to himself, providing an unconscious running commentary on his thoughts. He may inadvertently insult people he dislikes, and will certainly be unable to carry out stealth operations. The character can attempt to stop himself from speaking by taking a Willpower test. If successful, he manages to avoid mumbling for a number of minutes equal to the margin of success, divided by ten.
98-99	Trembling	The character’s whole body trembles constantly. Ballistic Skill is halved, and the character loses D10 points of Leadership.
00	Unquestioning Obedience	This disorder is generally gained after a period of brainwashing, or through restrictive cultural norms (e.g. a wife in many primitive cultures is expected to obey her husband without complaint, or a tau will always obey a member of the Ethereal caste), or certain head injuries. The character will always follow the orders of those he deems to be his superiors. The GM may allow a character to take a Willpower test to refuse to comply with suicidal, dangerous, immoral or illegal orders, with negative or positive modifiers as he deems appropriate. Should the character be forced to do something totally opposed to their personal morals (e.g. murder), the GM should impose one or more Insanity points to represent the trauma of carrying out the act.

Curing Psychological Disorders

Once a character suffers even a serious psychological disorder, it isn’t the end. Many characters will be able to continue as before, albeit with a slightly altered personality, or a few ‘quirks’. Occasionally though, a character will develop a psychological disorder that needs to be treated if he or she wants any chance at a normal life.

Time

There is always the possibility that a character’s disorder will cure itself over time. Every 2D6 months, a character may take a Willpower test, with a –10 penalty for each Insanity point currently possessed, and –20 for each additional disorder afflicting the character. If the test is passed, the disorder gradually fades away and the character returns to normality.

Asylum

The asylums of the Adeptus Apothecarion and Officio Medicae vary drastically in quality. Some are renowned centres of psychiatric treatment and research. Others are dungeons where the mentally ill are systematically abused or left to rot. The exact nature of the asylum will rarely be clear to a visitor, but will become all too obvious to the patient confined there, and it is up to the GM to determine the quality of an asylum and its staff.

The legal systems of many (but by no means every) worlds take a defendant’s mental state into consideration when making judgements or passing sentence, and a crime that can be put down to mental illness will often be punished by being sent to an asylum, rather than prison or execution. Some worlds simply treat insanity as being part of the criminal condition, and lock the mad in with the bad.

The Officio Medicae offer free psychiatric treatment to all Imperial military personnel, and most Imperial organisations include both physical and mental healthcare amongst employee services. Other citizens may have to pay for treatment, although planetary governments sometimes run state healthcare schemes that absorb at least part of the cost. Asylums tend to charge in the region of 50-500 sestertii per month, depending on the quality of the treatment available.

To determine the effect of a stay in an asylum, roll a D100 on the appropriate chart, once per month. High quality asylums grant a +10 bonus to the roll.

D100	Low Quality Asylum	D100	Average or High Quality Asylum
01-40	Abuse, maltreatment and incompetence cause the patient to gain an Insanity point.	01-15	Unfortunately, possibly due to mistakes in drug dosage, the patient deteriorates and gains an Insanity point.
41-90	The patient does not improve, but suffers the effects of the psychological disorder as normal.	16-80	The patient is stable, but suffers the effects of the psychological disorder as normal.
91-00	The patient recovers from the disorder and is promptly released.	81-00	The patient recovers from the disorder. Following a final session with a psychiatrist, the patient is discharged.

Surgery

Trepanning and lobotomy are frequently used as an aggressive cure for mental disorders, although more advanced Imperial cultures tend to frown on the potentially damaging side effects.

Treatment of this kind generally only takes a single operation (costing 100 sestertii), for which the patient will normally be rendered unconscious. See the Recovery section for more details on how to carry out an operation – cutting into the brain counts as major surgery, and carries all the attendant risks of death and injury, plus the following effects and potential problems:

- If the surgery is successful, a single psychological disorder is healed. This need not necessarily be the disorder that the patient wanted curing. The character also permanently loses 2D10 points from Initiative, Willpower, Sagacity and Leadership, with each loss reduced by one point for every full ten points of the surgery’s margin of success.

- If the surgery is a failure, the patient loses 2D10 points of Initiative, Willpower, Sagacity and Leadership, plus one point for every full ten points of the surgery’s margin of failure.

Drug Therapy

Drugs have long been used to suppress the effects of mental illness, although they are not a cure, and side effects may be almost as bad as the disorder being suppressed. A course of drugs will cost around 5-20 sestertii per dose, and is usually sold in batches of enough doses for one week.

To determine the drug’s potency and its side effects, roll once on each of the tables below, adding the prescribing doctor’s Sagacity score:

D100 + Sg	Potency	D100 + Sg	Side Effect
75 or below	The drug is weak, and a dose is required every 2-3 hours. Even then, it requires a successful Willpower test for the drug to suppress the disorder.	60 or below	The drug causes severe nausea and leaves the patient feeling like hell. Each dose causes the patient to retch for several minutes and lose D6 hit points.
76-90	The drug should be taken twice per day, and requires a successful Willpower test if it is to suppress the disorder during this time.	61-70	The drug causes a deep sense of pessimism in the patient. While under the influence of the drug, the patient suffers from the effects of Depression.
91-110	The drug’s effects last for a full day, but will only successfully suppress the disorder if the character passes a Willpower test.	71-100	The drug is highly addictive, and there is a 5% chance per dose taken that the patient will gain the Drug Addiction disorder. Some unscrupulous doctors will deliberately prescribe addictive drugs to patients, to drum up business.
111-130	A single dose of the drug suppresses the disorder for half a day.	101-140	The drug has no noticeable side effects.
131+	The drug is incredibly powerful, and a single dose suppresses the effects of the disorder for a full day.	141+	The drug stimulates the patient, temporarily increasing Initiative and Willpower by D10 points each while the drug is in effect.

Recurring Disorders

If a patient is successfully treated for a psychological disorder, or it fades away by itself, that does not mean that the disorder is gone forever. It is always possible (indeed, probable) that future stress will cause a relapse. The GM may decide that if a character develops another psychological disorder, it will be the same as the one that was ‘cured’.