Old Ones & Elder Gods

One of the more difficult aspects of Lovecraftian horror lies in the presentation of the antagonists, striking a careful balance between the ultimately unknowable alien nature of those creatures from beyond the stars while simultaneously presenting a situation where the players can meaningfully impact the events. Granted you may run a more pessimistic game where the character's are doomed and that's certainly a legitimate way explore the dark misanthropy which makes up the world of H.P. Lovecraft. Yet even he has stories, such as "the shunned house" where the protagonist succeeds in killing one of the creatures of the Mythos. There's many different ways to represent the creatures of the Mythos, but I think the easiest way is to simply utilize the rules for spirits. A good example of this sort of thing can be found over on Shadownessence. Simply put a Power, Resistance, and Finesse trait is all that is strictly necessary for baseline stats. Dread powers from Hunter the Vigil, make an excellent set of tools for designing monsters, but the Pandorans out of Promethean the Created have a grotesque horror all their own. For the sake of simplicity I've stuck with Dread Powers in the write ups, but I've also included a spirit from World of Darkness Book of Spirits to show how easy it is to take something already in the World of Darkness and retool them into Lovecraftian Horrors. I've also included a horror rating, which roughly indicates its 'scale' in terms of danger, influence, or power in the universe. 

Creatures of the Mythos

 

Unspeakable Horrors: Creatures of the Mythos do not possess Sanity and are treated as though they had a Mythos score of 10, each also possesses a 'horror' rating which is serves to replace rank, Sanity-Horror is a good rule of thumb for when such creature provoke Sanity Loss

Dread Form: Mythos are not immaterial, they may be killed upon reaching zero Corpus, if the laws of death apply to them. Size and Speed are always unique to the entity.

That Hideous Strength: Mythos powers stem from eldritch laws unknown to man, they do not possess Numina instead they have individualized Dread Powers
The Stars are Right: Essence is regained normally at point per day, completely if "the stars are right," or one point per health level "eaten" from a living being, other's might regain essence through worship or some other stranger methods.

Hunting Horrors

Quote: "sounds like a great bat flapping"

Background: A Greater Servitor Race, Hunting Horrors are harrier creatures for some of the gods, particularly Nyarlathotep. They can be summoned in their own right, and sent to seek out blood and lives.

Description: Resemble enormous ropy black serpents or worms possessing rubbery skinned wings. Their forms continually shift and writhe and average 40 feet in length. They speak in booming harsh voices.

Horror: 4

Attributes: Power 9, Finesse 6, Resistance 5

Willpower: 14

Essence: 23

Initiative: 11

Defense: 9

Speed: 14/28 when in flight

Size: 15 (no penalties from targeted attacks)

Corpus: 14

Dread Powers: Crushing Blow 3 (grappling), Dread Attack 3 (bite), Flight (may stay aloft indefinitely for 1 essence per scene), Viperine Skin (3 points of armor, firearms inflict bashing damage)

Note: It possesses 1d10 Rites of the storyteller's choosing.

Limi Surun, the Ten Thousand Teeth

Quote: <<We are we.>> In a chittering dead langauge.

Background: A Lesser Servitor Race, the Limi Surun were never  united  in  one  form. While they serve Ur-Ephonoth they do so not as slaves, rather their inherent nature was co-opted toward its end.

They are colony of horrors, built of collective might and

will. The horde has only one directive to feed their never ending hunger.

Description: It’s not quite a solid whole. Close inspection reveals thousands of small shifting black insect like things compacted together. This is also betrayed when it moves as parts of the creature seem slightly out of synch with the other, much like a school of fish. In this state, a sharp blow passes through its body, scattering the interlocked knife like bodies of its constituent beings in a gory arc, but doing little damage. All the while a discordant alien noise speaks out in blasphemous atonements.

Horror: 2

Attributes: Power 3, Finesse 4, Resistance 6

Willpower: 9

Essence: 12

Initiative: 9

Defense: 6 *

*3 against area effect attacks

Speed: 11

Size: 4

Corpus: 10

Dread Powers: Crushing Blow 3(teeth like apertures on every inch of its 'body' ), Lurker in Darkness 1, Swarm Form 4-

Cost 2 Essence, defense to 0 vs area effect attacks, a creature caught within the swarm at the beginning of its turn takes damage automatically. Damage is determined by the intensity of the swarm. The swarm begins with a radius in yards equal to the Size of the horror and does one bashing damage. Each time the radius halves (a standard action), the damage increases by one. Full-body  armor provides half protection,  less  than  full

body affords no protection as the small creatures find

their mark. All creatures caught within a swarm suffer –2

to Mental checks. 

Cults

Cultist

Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 2, Resolve 2, Strength

2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2, Presence 2, Manipulation 2,

Composure 3

Skills: Academics 2, Brawl 1, Crafts 3,  Athletics 1

Drive 1, Expression 3, Firearms 1, Investigation 1,

Medicine 1, Stealth 1, Survival 1, Weaponry 2

Merits: Cult of That Which Should Not Be 2

Willpower: 5

Initiative: 5

Defense: 2

Speed: 9

Weapons/Attacks:

Baton:  1 b/ Knockout/ 6 Dice

Revolver: 1 L / 20-40-80/ 6 shots/ 5 Dice

Armor: None

Health: 7

Sanity: 6

Mythos: 2

Derangements: Paranoia, Vocalization

Esoteric Acolyte

Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 2, Strength

2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3, Presence 2, Manipulation 3,

Composure 3

Skills: Academics 3, Brawl 1, Crafts 3(rituals),

Drive 1, Expression 3, Firearms 1, Investigation 3,

Medicine 2, Stealth 1, Occult 4(Mythos Rites)

Merits: Cult of That Which Should Not Be 3

Willpower: 6

Initiative: 5

Defense: 3

Speed: 10

Weapons/Attacks:

None

Armor: None

Health: 8

Sanity: 4

Mythos: 5

Derangements: (various derangements)

Rites: Dread Voyage(1) or Elder Tongue(1), Communion(2), Baleful Tribulation of the God(3) or Summon/Dismiss Limi Surun, the Ten Thousand Teeth (3)

Imbued Fanatic

Attributes:  Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 2, Strength 4

Dexterity  2,  Stamina  3,  Presence  1, Manipulation  5

Composure 2

Skills: Animal Ken 1, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Empathy 2,

 Investigation (Victims) 2, Occult 3, Persuasion (In

Disguise) 3, Socialize 2, Stealth 2, Subterfuge 3

Merits: Cult of That Which Should Not Be 1, Endowment 4

Sanity: 3(various derangements)

Mythos:5

Dread Powers:  Unholy Attribute 3,Crushing Blow 3, or Dread Attack 2 & Balefire 1

Dorothy Howard, socialite cultist

Mental  attributes:  Intelligence  3,  Wits  3, Resolve 3

Physical attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3

Social  attributes:  Presence  4,  Manipulation 4, Composure 3

Mental Skills:  academics 3,Occult 4 (order of the iron cenotaph),  Drive  3,  Politics  3,

Science 3 (Social Psychology)

Physical Skills: Drive 2, Firearms 3, Larceny 4 (Forging Documents), Weaponry 3

Social Skills: empathy 4, expression 2, Persuasion 4 (Seduction), Socialize 4, Subterfuge 4

Merits: allies 2 (mayoral), barfly, Language (French),Resources  3,  Retainer  3,  Status  2  (order of the iron cenotaph), Striking Looks 1, Torture Suite 2

Willpower: 6

Sanity: 5 (Repression, Denial, Sadism)

Virtue: Charity

Vice: Pride

Initiative: 5

Defense: 2

Speed: 9

Health: 8

Note: While on the outside looking in she's clearly on her way to bigger and better things, at what point Status shifts to Cult of That Which Should Not Be is entirely up the Storyteller but it should be a...trans-formative experience.

The Mythos

Continuing on this dice fueled Lovecraft bender. Today I'm going to be covering the wide range of powers and supernatural advantages offered to mortals in a Yog-Sothothery laden World of Darkness.
Last post I mentioned a trait called Mythos. Anyone familiar with Call of Cthulhu will recognize it as the term as an ability called Cthulhu Mythos which covers the strange esoteric knowledge of, you guessed it, the Mythos. According to Call of Cthulhu this skill is more than just a mortal knowledge and in studying it the "...burning power of a greater and more horrible reality seizes the soul." And behold we have a power stat, I went with Mythos as a new stat rather than replacing a skill because it mimics the reduction of Sanity offered by Call of Cthulhu (where both traits are rated 1-99%).
My major resource for supernatural powers for this game was World of Darkness Second Sight which has an entire chapter ('Reality Bending Horrors') dedicated to H.P. Lovecraft style antagonists and the abilities they may achieve. What really puts Mythos as a power trait on a different level from say, Blood Potency or Gnosis is that you don't have to expend experience in order to gain new dots. The closest approximation to Call of Cthulhu's Sanity in any world of darkness game is probably imbued Virtues in Hunter the Reckoning. Admittedly I am not the first person to think so. Virtues were an expression of a hunter's long term commitment to the hunt which at the highest levels cost the imbued their sanity. Virtues were gained strictly in game making in some ways the character responsible for the advancement. Similarly Mythos is gained through roleplaying, not experience allocation. 
I allowed the following merits for my game and in my mind are probably some the most appropriate for this type of game play. The last Merit was something I created to accommodate those stranger examples of character's in the Cthulhu Mythos. Whether the character is of some questionable birthright, such as the narrator in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" or the product of some horrifying transmogrification like Mi Go brain swiping in "The Whispers in the Darkness." Endowments should cover it. Hunter the Vigil is an excellent resource to fully flush out your investigator and I utilized the Dread Powers section to engineer the creatures of the Mythos.
Finally Rites are found in Mythos Tomes and serve as the bedrock for magic in the game. Though you can very easily use thaumaturgy merits from World of Darkness Second Sight to develop your own Rites. If you don't own Hunter the Vigil, you can always make do with whatever powers you make up, simple dice modifiers, the same can be said for World of Darkness Reliquary.
Texts
Required: World of Darkness Second Sight
Optional: Hunter the Vigil, World of Darkness Reliquary, Call of Cthulhu, World of Darkness Mirrors
Character Creation

Use mortal template.

Replace Morality with Sanity, begins at 10.

Character may exchange Sanity for 5 exp and 1 point of Mythos (to a maximum of 3).

Other Options: 

Use Motivation to replace Virtue and Vice. (World of Darkness Mirrors pg.24)

Merits

Cult of Things That Must Not Be (• to •••••) 

This merit can only be taken by Cultists or reformed cultists.

Reality Blasphemy (• to •••••)

This merit is limited to Great Old Ones, Outer Gods, and Elder Gods. Or any other Mythos 'sphere of influence' that the storyteller deems appropriate.

(World of Darkness Second Sight pg.137)

A Little Knowledge (•)

In this setting the character's brush with the otherworldly is Mythos related. 

Good Time Management (••) 

Multi-Lingual (• to •••••)
Well-Traveled (•)

Relic (• to •••••)

This merit also covers the alien technology of the Mi-Go and other entities.

(World of Darkness Reliquary pg. 85)

Endowment (• to •••••)

This merit is only available at Character Creation or at Storyteller's approval. A character with an Endowment has been physiologically altered by the affects of the Mythos. They're worship of Mythos may have brought forth an Elder God which warped their body or they might descend from an ancient subterranean race of man. The player selects a number of dots of Dread Powers equal to the merit Hunter the Vigil pg.276, these may be multiple purchases of different powers or the same. All Dread Powers cost a Willpower point and use Attribute + Mythos to activate and have at least 1 point in frailties (Hunter the Vigil pg. 104). Additional Frailties add another dot of Dread Powers, to a maximum of 3 frailties.

Other Options :

A character who chooses to allow the Storyteller to design the Endowment and has no knowledge of its actual origins or effects may gain an additional dot in the Merit at no cost.

For example, Hermen bought a single dot of Endowment as a mystery. His character Edward is a reporter for the Chicago Herald who has been searching for his missing father. His family moved from a tiny Icelandic village when he was a boy and heard many stories about the 'old country'. When suddenly attacked by a guard dog he finds himself feeling a strange urge to bite the creature. The Storyteller secretly rolls Strength + Mythos (in this case 2), a success! Edwards mouth distorts outward into a series of spindling teeth (Dread Attack 2) and Hermen rolls Strength + Mythos +2, biting the creature's head clean off. His fellow investigator's gawk at what he's done, he sputters in a terrifying language (Frailty Stir Madness 1, Glossolalia) they've never heard and Edward's friends level their rifles and open fire!

Rites

Rites are the secret keys to the universe, the dread knowledge beyond mortals mans understanding. They function exactly as written with the following changes.

Rites are not purchased with experience and can be learned from a mythos tome directly (with a successful Intelligence + Occult), an individual (with a successful Wits + Intelligence), or directly from an entity of the Mythos (Resolve + Composure). All rites however require a minimum amount of Mythos rating equal to their level or the caster is penalized by the difference.

Mythos (•-••••••••••)
Mythos is at once understanding and damnation.  It is not the knowledge that the Mythos exist  (which can be held by those studied in Occult) but the ability to comprehend a natural truth of the universe, a thing that man was never meant to know.
Unlike other traits Mythos is not regulated to a maximum of 5. Similar to Willpower or other 10 rated traits it has a direct influence on your character's ability to cope with the world around her.
Nor are dots purchased normally, points in Mythos are gained by encounters with the Mythos which result in insanity, by insane insights into the true nature of the universe, and by reading forbidden books and other Mythos writings.  Occasionally witnessing some ceremony or participating in some event might award points as well.
However, every dot permanently removes the topmost dot of Sanity the character potentially can possess.  Any current Sanity dots removed automatically calls for a Sanity roll.
1.  The pool for any rolls to identify, understand, or explain the Mythos have a maximum number of dice equal to the character's Mythos rating
2. Mythos offers some degree of protection against the otherworldly
3. Mythos increases the number of points of Willpower that can be spent per turn 

   Mythos Rating	Supernatural Resistance	Willpower/Turn
   1	0	1
   2	1	1
   3	1	1
   4	2	2
   5	2	2
   6	3	2
   7	3	3
   8	4	3
   9	4	3
   10	5	4

 Mythos Entities
No  human,  even  one  with  10 Mythos, even approaches complete knowledge of the Mythos. It is fair  to say that not even Great Old Ones do. Their  10 scores  represent convenient comparisons against what humans can achieve, not a thorough  plumbing of the mysteries of the Mythos.  Perhaps the Outer Gods  know  it  all,  if they bother to think about such things. But only gods can cope with infinity. The cruel darkness of the Mythos extends  forever. Seeming mastery of its puzzles is  temporary, local, and  illusory. 
Gaining Mythos
Mythos may be rewarded to players during any of the following circumstances, but is no means exhaustive:
4. The First time…
…come in contact with the mythos
…read a Mythos tome
…cast a rite
…witness a Mythos Entity
…gain a Derangement
…witness a Mythos Rite
5. Lose Sanity more than once in a scene
6. Distance themselves from society to study the Mythos
7. Participate in a ceremony dedicated to the Mythos
8. Discover a secret at the expense of worldly possession, love, or the self
9. Speak directly with a Mythos Entity
10. Achieve an exceptional success to avoid becoming Unhinged by the Mythos

Onward into Madness

 Part of the huge appeal of horror is the descent into madness. Its something we can all relate to. Who hasn't stayed up late nights carving the inestimable names of nether gods into their flesh? No? That's OK. I guess we'll just have to fake it.
The World of Darkness has an excellently mod capable trait called Morality. Love it or hate it, its there to add to the game. It goes all the way back to Vampire the Masquerade and of course the fishmalk. They've already shown time and again how to tweak, adjust, and fine tune it to suit the sort of descent into crazy that you're into. Or to reflect the damning consequences of some preventable actions, such as Hubris in Mage the Awakening or Harmony in Werewolf the Forsaken. Its also spelled out how to do this in World of Darkness Mirrors, if you have it read it. If you don't get it. Its just that useful and its become a constant companion of mine.
The default system (for mortals anyway) is Poe's, "the Tell-Tale Heart" insanity crops up from the internalization of guilt or the consequence of cognitive dissonance brought about by some traumatic experience. Poe's narrator kills an old man, he finds, like it or not he's violated some social norm. He's transgressed and he knows it, this is the Degeneration roll in action, in this case our hero's failed the first roll. Throughout the tale he runs his mouth quiet a bit, mostly trying to justify what he just did. A Morality roll is called for just for this reason the character's actions aren't just a threat to their system of ethics, its also a threat to how they see themselves. Fail the roll and your character can't come to terms and just like Poe's narrator, insanity follows.
All in all, well done White Wolf. Call of Cthulhu, and its variations (there are many, Cthulhutech anyone?) on the other hand defines insanity as a static, largely irrecoverable value. Sanity as a zero sum game. Like poor Danforth once you've known enough of the Mythos (see: cthulhu) the your fragile world view comes crumbling down. The greater the horror the greater the cost. Insanity is broken down between temporary an immediate reaction, long temporary lasting a number of hours, and indefinite which is severe and persistent.
I've tried to create a hybrid of the two system, something which fits the World of Darkness, but has that same certain cost Call of Cthulhu evokes.  If you're interested in using this system in the old world of darkness, I would turn you toward the Hunter the Reckoning Player's Guide which contains rules for essentially mortal player characters called Bystanders and systems for how they keep or lose their minds in the face of the supernatural.
For another mad variant, World of Darkness Mirrors offers its own traits, Forbidden Lore and Reason, since I put together my game before the book was released I've developed my own traits and system.

Sanity 

The measure of character's mind in this game is represented by Sanity.  Unlike standard morality or willpower Sanity is the measure of your character's long term psychological wellness.  As the horrors of the Mythos slowly seep into every aspect of the character's life the psychological structure by which the person sustains himself collapses. Sanity begins at 10 for all characters.  Each dot of Mythos reduces maximum Sanity by 1, meaning Sanity may never rise higher than 10-Mythos rating.

Sanity Loss 

Whenever the character is exposed to horrors equal to or less than his current Sanity rating roll a number of dice associated with the horror experienced. If the roll succeeds the character manages to avoid any long term harm but must make a Sanity roll to determine if the character becomes Unhinged. On a failure the character may develop a derangement. The character's Sanity rating drops, he has become inured to the lesser horrors of the Mythos. Regardless of success or failure on the degeneration roll a Sanity roll is made, if the rating fell the new rating is rolled and a failure here means the character gains a minor or severe derangement. In addition if a character fails to achieve a number of successes more than the lowest of Resolve or Composure - 5, they become Unhinged.

At Sanity of 10-9 a character is immune to developing a derangement.

Sanity may only be regained when appropriate at the Storyteller's discretion, suggestions for such an improvement include: spending 10 points of experience, at the end of a story, upon reaching 5 in a single ability, defeated or destroying the Mythos, psychotherapy. Drugs may treat the systems by providing temporary dice bonuses when resisting derangements, but provide no permanent solution.

Unhinged 

A character who is Unhinged is no longer in control of their immediate actions, the sheer terror they have faced has temporarily stricken them mad. Whenever this occurs the storyteller rolls a single dice to randomly determine how the character is affected. Storytellers may simply assign an effect if they choose, players and Storytellers alike are encouraged to add to the list of responses.
For example: On a shadowy country road psychologist Sylvia Benson's car strikes something in the road. Getting out of her car reveals a man in desperate straights, he's clutching a book tightly to his chest, but his lower half is mangled beyond recognition. She's hit someone! The storyteller rules this horror is more than she can tolerate (her Sanity is 10, the Storyteller decides this is an 8 rated event). She rolls no successes on the degeneration roll, her Sanity drops as Sylvia realizes she's accidentally killed someone. She rolls her new Sanity rating of 9, if her Sanity was lower she would garnish a derangement, instead she rolls one die a 7 and flees into the woods.

  Sanity

Sanity	Horror	Dice
10	Looking something disconcerting or  particularly confusing.(surprised to see a human corpse, skim a minor mythos tome)	5
9	Encountering something frightening, disgusting, or extremely confusing.(running across a small stream of flowing blood)	5
8	Dealing with something causing severe panic, disorientation, or loathing.(reading a minor Mythos tome, seeing an ethereal or fleeting entity)	4
7	Seeing something that causes nausea or stupefaction.(witnessing a friend's violent death, awaking trapped in a coffin, skimming a major Mythos tome)	4
6	Find something otherworldly or shocking.(meeting someone you know to be dead, witnessing a minor or vaguely humanoid entity, utilizing a minor Mythos Rite)	3
5	Harming Intentionally('necessary' torture) or Major Property Damage (arson).  Observing something utterly terrifying. (be subject to a terrible Mythos Rite, fighting with a particularly dangerous entity, reading a major Mythos tome, utilizing a moderate Mythos Rite)	3
4	Viewing something that is extremely shocking.(being subject to a major Mythos Rite, utilizing a powerful Mythos Rite, undergo severe torture, seeing a corpse rise from its grave, witness an utterly alien entity)	3
3	Run afoul of mind-damaging horror. (be forced to engage in cannibalism, summon an Old One, read the dread Necronomicon, give worship to one of the Mythos entities)	2
2	Happening upon extreme horror. (being resurrected after death, in the presence of a Great Old One, witnessing widespread catastrophic destruction, become a cult founder)	2
1	Incomprehensible cosmic evil. (brought before the seat of an Elder God, raising dread Cthulhu, committing mass murder )	2

Becoming Unhinged

Random Results	Response	Effect
1	Faint	Proximity to the horror causes the character to pass out, they remain Incapacitated for 5 minutes. If someone attempts to revive the character, the Incapacitated character may make a Stamina+Resolve at -3 to see if they come to each minute.
2	Flight	Terrified the character is forced to flee regardless of the situation, the character runs   away from the source of his fear for 5 -Composure (minimum 1) minutes without any regard for anyone's (including his own) personal safety. Any action not related to escape suffers a -5 penalty, furthermore particularly injured or out of shape character's may need to roll to avoid passing out from the   strain.
3	Nightmares	The sight is ingrained in the psyche of the character, they do not regain their next point of Willpower from sleep, further they are treated as though they did not sleep at all for the purpose of fatigue.
4	Self Destruction	Unable to manage the horror before the character tries to cope through self injury. This can manifest as cutting, punching or hitting, burning, picking at wounds or sutures, self-biting, poking or stabbing, or ingesting of harmful items or substances, this is not suicidal in nature. The character must cause at least 3 Bashing or 1 Lethal point of damage to themselves.
5	Crippled Virtue	The character temporarily finds herself unable to restrain her worst indulgences as her sense of right and wrong is assaulted. The character must indulge in her Vice whenever able for 24 hours and does not receive  willpower for doing so.
6	Cower	Fear overwhelms the character driving them into a fetal state. Suffer a -2 to all actions for the remainder of the scene and must make a Composure+Resolve to take any actions against the object of the character's fear.
7	Stunned	Shocked beyond reason the character temporarily retreats inside themselves. Twitching and drooling the character halves his Speed and suffers a -3 penalty to Mental Skills for the scene.
8	Scream	Faced with something the character's mind cannot come to terms with the only response is to cry out. They cannot speak until their next available action (or roughly one minute). The character suffers a one time -5 penalty on their next action as well as making themselves very obvious targets to any hostiles.
9	Lose Bodily Control	Raw power of the fear manifests in a physical way. Temporarily lose control of bowel function and suffer a -1 to actions for the remainder of the scene as well the subsequent embarrassment. Alternatively the character retches and vomits profusely suffering 1 Bashing but avoiding the smell.
10	Shaken	Experience has left a temporary blight on the character's sense of self-worth losing a point of willpower immediately. For the remainder of the scene no actions can benefit from willpower or the 10 again rule.

Confessions of a Dictator

I began running games in the manner which I assume that most people do. No one else wanted the job, I was fourteen. A decade and change later I've found myself in a constant state of preproduction and always searching for my next game project. This has lead to a certain amount of accumulation of material which I've either posted or stowed away in a notebook.
I encountered a notebook I hadn't written in for about six years which contained conceptual work for long running crossover epic. Scheduling being a slippery whore means much of this stuff stays shelved. Another thing I noticed, rules. Modified rules. Tables. Terminology. All for the Storyteller system, which only survives on my tabletop in the form of a five year old game of Mage the Ascension. Mods above, do I like to rule and codify. To me its all about the immersion and connection to the mechanic of the rpg. In any rpg you've got the setting and narrative you're attempting to achieve, the mechanic should be designed convey this through the stats and dice. There's not a game I run I haven't changed up the rules for in some regard to try to do this very thing.
Here's a tidbit I put together for my Storytelling System Call of Cthulhu one shot.
New Derangements

Glossolalia (mild): Someone who suffers episodes of glossolalia occasionally has periods of time in which he becomes unable to communicate in his own language. In place of his native language, he speaks some bizarre tongue that has no origin in the known world. No one around her is able to understand it. This itself can be a cause of frustration for the sufferer, and may well cause a conflict with other derangements.

Effect: The effect is straightforward in that no one who has any verbal conversation with the character undergoing a spell of glossolalia can understand him. While people familiar with the language in question might be able to recognize it, they won’t be able to comprehend anything the character says. Whenever a character with the glossolalia derangement spends a Willpower point or encounters a specific stressor (determined by the player), that character’s player should roll Wits + Composure. If the roll succeeds, the derangement remains inert. If the roll fails, the character speaks in an alien tongue for the duration of the scene.

Stressed Atavism (severe): While glossolalia might cause the  character to temporarily lose higher speech function, stressed atavism causes her to shut down completely reverting to a sort of 'primal' state or 'lizard brain'.  The character flies into a  psychotic rage, flees, or cowers until the perceived 'threat' passes.

Effect: While the player should work out any threats that might are specific to the character.  For example a professor might find a  challenge to his tenor counts or a woman finding her boyfriend in bed with another woman. But obvious physical confrontations  are acceptable conditions.  In either case the character should roll Composure + Resolve. On a failure the character succumbs to base instinct unable to perceive other beings as anything other than moving shapes that his instincts guide him to attack. He attempts to destroy any potential target he can see, friend or foe. (The Storyteller determines who the creature’s targets are randomly.) He feels no pain and typically keeps attacking one until it is rendered unconscious or killed, and then moves on to the next available target. This berserk state lasts until the end of the scene or the character suffers a wound in one of his last three Health boxes (when he would normally suffer a wound penalty). At this point, the instinct for self-preservation takes over.  He is subconsciously aware of his danger, however, and is overwhelmed by the instinct to survive at all costs, an instinct that takes the form of pure fear. He runs as quickly as possible away from the source of the trouble. A fleeing  person with Stressed Atavism attacks anyone who impedes his flight, although this is more with the intention of driving them out of his way than killing them. Once the character reaches a safe hiding place, he remains there until the episode passes (typically until the end of the scene).

Sadism(mild): A character with sadism enjoys the misery and pain of others.  Whether it be an abusive relationship, taking a physical competition too far, or publically embarrassing a rival, the character has a sense of power and entitlement that comes with knowing they simply can.  Whenever the possibility arises to harm another, either through mental, emotional or physical means and usually at the character's own benefit the player must roll Composure + Resolve to resist doing so.  This does not preclude any degeneration rolls although generally speaking the character doesn't want to kill anyone…yet.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (severe; extreme): Those with antisocial personality disorder no longer subscribe to social norms.  They certainly don't believe in right and wrong.  Their conscience is so submerged that they are desensitized to any normally inappropriate or unacceptable acts.  They are practically automatons, emotionless, and cruel. Nothing tells them not to lie, steal, or kill. Morality to them is a single shade of grey. Any action is typically justified in some matter so the character feels little in the way of guilt.

Effect: The character suffers a -3 penalty to all Social rolls as their cold and distant nature unsettles anyone (save maybe those with Morality of 4 or less) they encounter.  Also they are incapable of succeeding on any rolls that require Empathy, they simply cannot find any correlation between themselves and another human being. This does not preclude any degeneration rolls, while the character may not find merit in social norms abandoning such structure leads to madness.