Thrudski
Topic Author
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue 06 Sep 2022, 15:45

Bout of Madness AITA?

Thu 06 Oct 2022, 15:27

Background
During our last game session, one of the characters gathered enough Shadow to equal their max hope- there was not enough time to Harden Will so hit his max cap.
was running with 10 hope, 6 shadow and 2 scars, got hit with a Great Cave Trolls Strike Fear ability and failed the roll, gaining 2 Shadow

after an earlier fight, the party found a magic bow of Númenórean craftsmanship [that was due to become one of the characters items from the Treasure Index]

What happened after
the player looked through the Madness section and decided that as he was a Ranger of the North and had planned to take Royalty Revealed during the next Fellowship Phase, he would take a bout of Lust and steal the new magic bow as it was "his due, as he was descended from Númenóreans". When the Party camped for the night to recover from the Troll fight, he made a Stealth roll and succeeded with a 6 then hid it for later retrieval. When the party woke up I told the player that her new bow was missing - a number of Scan and Hunting rolls were done by the party but no one rolled a 6 so didn't beat the thief's number of successes.

So the question is, AITA for letting this happen and letting one character steal from another when undergoing a Bout of Madness?
 
Andwise
Posts: 45
Joined: Tue 03 Nov 2020, 05:55

Re: Bout of Madness AITA?

Thu 06 Oct 2022, 16:46

Hmm. I was under the impression (maybe wrongly) that the player loses agency of their character when having a bout of madness. Your player got to choose what happens and it doesn't even seem that bad. Dunno. Are there future consequences? I guess when the others find out there will be some trust lost and some anger.
It's up to you guys. Sounds interesting though!
 
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Harlath
Posts: 518
Joined: Sun 19 Jul 2020, 10:40

Re: Bout of Madness AITA?

Thu 06 Oct 2022, 17:10

So long as the thieving character returns the bow to the intended recipient (as Famous Arms/Armour are designed for a specific character)

"To play out a bout of madness, players must describe how their characters lose control for a short period of time, doing something they will later regret."

The bout of madness is just a temporary thing, so the thief can then return it, with some fun roleplaying and tension in-character while no harm is done out of character.
 
Thrudski
Topic Author
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue 06 Sep 2022, 15:45

Re: Bout of Madness AITA?

Thu 06 Oct 2022, 17:14

So long as the thieving character returns the bow to the intended recipient (as Famous Arms/Armour are designed for a specific character)

"To play out a bout of madness, players must describe how their characters lose control for a short period of time, doing something they will later regret."

The bout of madness is just a temporary thing, so the thief can then return it, with some fun roleplaying and tension in-character while no harm is done out of character.
thanks - i completely skipped over that part

think some sort of retcon might be in order
 
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Harlath
Posts: 518
Joined: Sun 19 Jul 2020, 10:40

Re: Bout of Madness AITA?

Thu 06 Oct 2022, 18:20

That's often a good approach: "Apologies, missed this element of the rules."

Plus as noted above, it turns what might have been an OOC issue in to an interesting source of tension in-character, but without ill-feeling OOC.

"A madness took me, but it has passed" - someone can give a Boromir style speech, albeit hopefully without such a tragic end.

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