GODLIKE: Coping With Combat (Patreon)

An optional GODLIKE rule in need of playtesting. Try it at your table and let us know how it goes. Illustration: Tom Lea, "The Two Thousand Yard Stare." EDITS: I reduced the difficulty to make it more attractive to low-Cool and low-Command characters. I added a note about the Esprit de Corps motivation to the interference rule.

Soldiers cope with the traumas of battle in many ways. They stay busy with work. They talk about home or romance. They help their buddies. They daydream about going on leave. They trade insults. They learn to laugh at the worst in life. 

But when the stress, sickness and exhaustion really get bad, people tend to lash out. They try to control something, anything in the unyielding face of horror. 

Once per day, a Talent whose Will points are lower than their Base Will can try to recover by taking it out on themselves or the people around them. Describe your Talent’s misbehavior and roll a dice pool equal to their Command + Cool stats. 

Hyperstat dice cannot contribute to this roll. After all, the strain of relying on Talent powers is what got them into this mess.

Success means gaining width in Will points. Coping mechanisms cannot raise Will beyond Base Will. The worse the misbehavior, the easier it is to gain Will points from it.

There are three categories. Choose your Talent’s favorite category and write it in motivations on the character sheet: “Copes with combat by being a goon” or “Copes by taking it out on himself.”

At the GM’s discretion, any NPC might display these symptoms after too long in combat.

TAKING IT OUT ON YOUR ENEMIES OR CIVILIANS

A goon.

• Moderate (Difficulty 3): Mutilating enemy dead. Excessive pillaging.
• Serious: Torture. Brutality. Killing enemy prisoners.
• Outrageous (+1d): Killing noncombatants.

TAKING IT OUT ON YOUR BUDDIES OR ALLIES

A jerk or a goldbrick.

• Moderate (Difficulty 3): Shirking. Bullying. Fighting. Intractable resentments and grudges. Fraternization.
• Serious: Serious indiscipline. Malingering. Intolerable theft.
• Outrageous (+1d): Going AWOL. Refusal to fight. Threatening or attacking leaders.

TAKING IT OUT ON YOURSELF

A dogface, a sad sack, a whiskey warrior.

• Moderate (Difficulty 3): Troublesome alcohol or drug abuse. Obsessive superstition. Distressing neglect.
• Serious: Dangerous recklessness. Negligence causing disease or injury.
• Outrageous (+1d): Self-inflicted wounds. Overdosing on drugs or alcohol.

INTERFERENCE

A buddy, bystander, or enemy can interfere by trying to oppose your roll with whatever skill makes sense to the GM. If your roll succeeds but the opposing roll equals or beats its width and height, they stop your Talent's actions before the trouble. Your Talent gains 1 Will point. If they have an Esprit de Corps motivation that applies to your Talent, described in Black Devils Brigade, they also gain 1 Will point for stopping you. Neither can be raised beyond Base Will. If they try but fail to stop you, they lose 1 Will point.