Madness

Failed a Madness check? Draw a Major. 1d44: 1–22 upright, 23–44 reversed.

No card drawn

Madness

Press Draw a Madness.

Madness

Madness is how tight the screw is. It starts low and only goes up in the dark.

1. Starting Madness

At roll-up, Madness starts at 1d4+1.

Minimum Madness starts at 2. It only rises when a rule says so. You cannot Calm or drink below minimum.

2. When to make a Madness check

A check is not for every corpse or every scare. It is for the moment the horror of the situation gets too great.

The player or the GM may call for a check when one of the following happens. If it is not on this list, it is not a trigger.

Your first kill
A failed vampirism check
Dropping to 0 HP
Reading notes of horrific knowledge (a forbidden notebook, for example)
Facing a new grotesque monster or horror (a kind you haven’t faced before)
Witnessing an ally die or convert to a horror
Upon failing a Rite

3. The check

Roll 1d20. You want higher than current Madness.

Result	What happens
Over Madness	Hold. No draw.
Equal or under	+1 Madness. Draw a Madness. It lasts rest of delve or until Calm.
Natural 1	+1 Madness. Draw a Madness. Take a phobia.
Natural 20	Virtue: -1 Madness.

4. What increases Madness

Your Madness goes up by +1 when you:

Fail a Madness check
Drop to 0 HP
Witness an ally die or convert to a horror

Dropping to 0 HP and witnessing an ally die or convert are also triggers (see section 2): raise Madness by 1 first, then make the check. A failed check adds its own +1.

Some madnesses (section 5) also move Madness or minimum Madness. Those say so on the table.

5. Drawing a madness

When you fail a Madness check, you must draw a madness. Shuffle the Major Arcana deck (the 22 Majors only) and pull one. It lasts the rest of the delve, or until you Calm (section 6). When it ends, put the card back in the deck, unless you want the same break to hunt them.

These are behavior for the rest of the delve or until CALM, not new spell lists.

Temperance and Wheel are in the deck on purpose. Do not pull them out to be cruel. The 1 on the check is already cruel.

Show the upright madnesses (1–22)

d44	Card	Madness
1	Fool	Reckless. You must approach the next horror. You may not hold the rear.
2	Magician	Compulsion. You will touch, use, or complete the relic/rite/experiment in reach.
3	High Priestess	You hear the dead. WIS checks with ADV & +1 Madness the first time you act on what they say.
4	Empress	You protect someone present at the worst moment. You will not leave them.
5	Emperor	You give orders. Allies who ignore you are, to you, already lost.
6	Hierophant	You will not desecrate. You will not NOT pray. Last rites before loot.
7	Lovers	You see one person here as the beloved (a lost love, a trusted ally). You will not raise a hand to them.
8	Chariot	Adrenaline. ADV on checks & attacks for 1d6 rounds, then DIS until you CALM.
9	Strength	You will not flee: even when you should. No fighting retreat.
10	Hermit	You isolate. You will not split with the party. You take the side passage.
11	Wheel of Fortune	Reroll this Madness check now. Keep the new result, even if it is worse.
12	Justice	You confess or accuse someone present of the thing in this room.
13	Hanged Man	Freeze. No actions for 1d4 rounds. You can be dragged.
14	Death	Minimum Madness +1 (this is a permanent scar).
15	Temperance	Mercy. This card ends at once. -1 Madness (not below minimum).
16	Devil	You will bargain. You will not destroy the experiment, the prisoner, or the book.
17	Tower	You scream. Everyone CLOSE gains +1 Madness. No check for them.
18	Star	False hope. You walk toward the light, the voice, the open door.
19	Moon	Hallucination for the rest of this watch. The GM lies to you once, in detail.
20	Sun	ADV on the next check or attack, then +1 Madness when it resolves.
21	Judgment	You perform last rites whether they are dead. You stop the fight to do it.
22	World	You understand too much. Madness cannot drop below 5 until treated in town.

Optional: Reversed Majors

If you want more options, allow a reversed draw (flip the card, or roll 1–10 upright / 11–20 reversed). Same card, opposite vice. Still one card per fail.

Show the reversed madnesses (23–44)

d44	Card	Reversed
23	Fool	You will not take the next step. Someone else must open the door.
24	Magician	You will not touch the relic. You make others do it.
25	High Priestess	You refuse the dead. You cover your ears. WIS at DIS on lore.
26	Empress	You abandon the one who needs you so you can live.
27	Emperor	You will take no order, including your own plan.
28	Hierophant	You will not pray. You spit on the rite. Loot first.
29	Lovers	You cannot look at the beloved. You attack the resemblance.
30	Chariot	You lock. No advantage. You wait to be told.
31	Strength	You flee first, always. Morale as a monster.
32	Hermit	You will not be alone. You cling. You will not scout.
33	Wheel of Fortune	Draw another Madness. +2 Madness.
34	Justice	You hide the crime. You will lie to the next lawful face.
35	Hanged Man	You cannot stop moving. No holding a doorway.
36	Death	You refuse the scar. −1 Madness now; +2 the next time you fail.
37	Temperance	No mercy. Draw again; ignore a second Temperance.
38	Devil	You smash the experiment even if it kills the prisoner.
39	Tower	You go silent. No warning when you break. The scream is swallowed.
40	Star	You will not follow light. You douse torches.
41	Moon	You trust the hallucination. You argue with anyone who contradicts it.
42	Sun	DIS on the next check or attack, then −1 Madness.
43	Judgment	You will not give rites. The body stays as it fell.
44	World	You understand nothing on purpose. You cannot use a lore bonus until town.

6. Calming (mid-delve)

If you find yourself suffering a madness mid-delve, you can attempt to calm yourself. Calming takes a moment (consider this requiring 3–5 rounds in a non-stressful area), not an action. Calming only ends the madness. It does not lower your Madness level.

Methods of calming that work include:

Administering last rites to the fallen
Spending several rounds praying
Standing watch in a secure location
Drinking until intoxicated
Talking with an ally
Any other method the GM allows

7. Phobias (the scar)

On a natural 1 during a Madness check, assign one phobia. Refer to the row that matches what they just saw. If they already have that exact phobia, do not write a synonym: raise minimum Madness by 1 instead.

When the trigger is in the room (or they must walk toward it), they make the next Madness check with disadvantage, or they will not enter until someone drags them.

Do not hand out three phobias in one night.

Treating a phobia / lowering Madness (downtime)

Phobias last until treated.

Pick one per downtime stretch:

Drink it away. Spend 100 gp drinking with no carousing XP or other bonus. Minus 1d4 Madness (not below minimum). The phobia stays unless the GM rules the bender was the treatment.
Rites. Rites at a church (or equivalent). Minus 1d4 Madness, and a phobia may lift if the rite matches the wound (shrouds at a proper burial rite; blood at a genuine confession).
Asylum, lazaretto, or house of a holy order. One week. Minus 1d4 Madness and one phobia lifted. The house will remember them.
Take up a hobby. Engage in a hobby to take your mind off your phobia (1 week). One phobia lifted; Madness is unchanged. You may also spend 50 gp on the hobby and roll 1d4 for XP.

You cannot treat a phobia in the crypt between rooms.

Acceptable Victorian hobbies

Cemetery picnics
Fern collecting and cultivating
Anthropomorphic taxidermy
Diatom arranging
Séances and tarot readings
Crystal gazing
Hair-work (mourning jewelry woven from the hair of the dead)
Pressed-flower or seaweed albums
Butterfly and insect collecting
Shell collecting
Aquarium keeping
Microscopy
Fossil hunting
Wax-flower modeling

Phobias

Phobia	Trigger
Blood	Open wounds, the bite table, the chalice, feeding
Shrouds	Chewing dead, nachzehrer, mausoleum lids, linen over a face
Closed Stone	Vaults, pits, a sealed door, anything that shuts
Beloved Face	Portraits, a double, the vampire’s problem (seeing a lost love in every face) leaking onto an ally