Derangements represent insanity and mental instability. You may choose to take one Derangement, if you desire, which counts as two Negative Traits. If you do choose to take a Derangement, you are limited to no more than three additional Negative Traits (since you can only take a total of five).

 

Under extreme pressure, the human mind tends to crack, attempting to let off steam by giving way. Such problems are represented by Derangements, which may activate under times of stress to cause mental problems for the character. Sorcerers who deal with Umbrood regularly, who are in a pressure cooker of supernatural trouble, or who are just plain not quite all there, are just as susceptible to Derangements as any other.

 

You can opt to start with one Derangement. A Derangement counts as two Negative Traits, but it can be quite dangerous if you run into a few vampires while in the midst of a panic attack. Conversely, hunters under great stress may suffer from Derangements at the discretion of the Storyteller. Any hunter who loses her last permanent Humanity Trait immediately gains a Derangement, as she spirals into inhuman insanity. The final Humanity Trait is retained (as it’s impossible for a human to fully lose touch with her human nature) but the Storyteller assigns an appropriate new Derangement. Expenditure of Willpower can curb the effects of a Derangement, but the Derangements always come back to haunt the character. Only prolonged use of Willpower can stave off Derangements permanently. A character who has spent seven to 15 Willpower Traits in resisting Derangements may manage to overcome the handicap, at the Storyteller’s discretion.

 

Amnesia:

In highly traumatic situations, you sometimes forget who and even what you are. You may simply forget the memory of a single situation, or you may forget everything about your identity, including your current mission. When events and situations that remind you of your lost memories present themselves, those memories may return, sometimes violently

 

Complusive Lying:

You were in New York with a friend once - the name isn’t important - and you managed to convince this car dealer (he was pretty hard up to make a sale) to sell you his brand-new Dodge Viper for, like, a thousand dollars. What a great deal! He didn’t even charge tax or have you go through the whole paperwork of registering it or anything. He did all that himself. Oh, you want to see the car? Well, it’s in the shop right now being repainted. It was this nasty shade of lime green. You say Vipers don’t come in green? Well, this one was a special edition, signed by the president of the company. What was his name? Well, the signature wasn’t very legible - you know how big businessmen are.. . .

When you are being pressured about something, this Derangement can be triggered and you must spend Willpower not to lie outrageously.

 

Delusional:

When things get particularly hard to deal with, you often revert tosomeone you can trust to do a better job than you would. Somebody efficient; somebody stalwart.

Delusional identities arise from feelings of complete hopelessness and despair, and they reflect your deepest terrors. In moments of stress or fear, your real personality will retreat, and a replacement identity (but with the same Traits, etc.), constructed from your ideas of what competence is, will take its place. This other self can be a fictional, historical or composite character. Alternately, your delusions may take the form of misinterpretation of the situation at hand, to make it seem more comfortable and acceptable to you.

 

Dipsomania:

You are possessed by the urge to drink yourself into an absolute stupor when the going gets tough (or even mildly irritating). Such a Derangement can destroy any trust others may place in you. This weakness, should it become known, could be used very effectively against you as a weapon. If the Derangement comes over you at an event, you will immediately be affected by the Negative Mental Trait Witless. Happy drunk or not, you are unsightly in this state. You stagger about, weave as you walk and say all the wrong things. You know you are stronger and more effective while drunk, however, and you turn to it as a crutch to help you out.

 

Hebrephrenia:

The horror of the World of Darkness unveiled has shattered your perceptions of everything you once held as logical and real. This mental trauma has plunged you into a state of mind where you maintain you sanity by clinging to the idea that everything is going on in your head. Everyone you know is but a character in the little play world your mind has created. Those around you get pretty mad when you are rude with them, but it doesn’t matter because they aren’t even real. Who cares if a figment of your imagination gets annoyed, anyway?

 

Hypochondria:

You have noticed that when you get even the slightest bit stressed you begin to get sick. The sickness is usually just a headache or upset stomach, but sometimes it gets much worse. If, at any time during an event you become upset about anything, you will begin to think you are coming down with something. In all probability you are quite healthy, but you need some kind of excuse to get sympathy from those about you. When you begin to get “sick” from all the stress, you will effectively be down by one Physical Trait for the rest of the event or until your “attack” passes.

 

Intellectualization:

You have recoiled from the horror of your situation, and you protect yourself by feeling nothing. You insulate yourself in a world of logic and intellectual vigor where emotions have no place. By isolating your incompatible needs and thoughts into separate compartments, you avoid losing control. However, the pressure inevitably mounts, and the dam eventually bursts during a stressful situation.

 

Manic - Depression:

You sink into deep and fitful depressions, showing no interest in anything that used to capture your imagination. You view the world as flat and gray, holding nothing of value for you. You cannot rouse yourself to do anything, though you will go along with others rather than expend the energy to resist. Conversely, occasional fits of great energy grab hold of you, and you will work for hours or even days on your projects. During this time you resist even the need to sleep as you burn up all your resources on your schemes.

 

Masochism: 

Sometimes things will go wrong, dreadfully so, and deep in your heart, you know it’s your fault. Since nobody else may necessarily know that it’s all your fault, you have to work out a way of keeping yourself in line. Sometimes you do this by getting in harmful situations or by hanging about people and creatures who dislike you. You deserve their abuse, after all.

You even tend to injure yourself physically, but never to a degree that most people would notice. You don’t want anybody to know what a terrible person you are. If a problem comes up and you get blamed, even falsely, you apologize profusely and offer yourself up to the mercy of your accuser. Even if you’re not responsible for it this time, odds are it’s just karma catching up with you for all of your other crimes.

 

Multiple Personalities:

You possess a number of different personalities, and you change Nature and Demeanor in times of great personal stress. Thus you behave in radically different ways at different times. Naturally this causes others to distrust you, as they’re never quite sure who they’re talking to. Your current personality persists until either you change personality again during a stressful situation or you expend a Willpower Trait to return to your “basic” personality.

 

Obession:

When a new person enters your life or you are faced with a dramatic situation, you can sometimes become obsessed with that person or some fetish associated with the situation. This Derangement gives you a sort of perverse ambition toward which you direct all your energy. If you are directly thwarted in your obsession, you may react violently.

 

Obsessive - Compulsive:

You are obsessed with keeping track of things, maintaining exhaustive records and keeping everything in its place. Unless absolute order is maintained in your life, everything will dissolve into chaos.

 

Panzaism:

Since your induction to the ways and world of the supernatural, you have become completely detached. When this Derangement is at its mildest, you have some trouble with the idea of the world at large being real. You seem to be halfway out of your body, in a way.

When the Derangement is at its worst, however, things get really interesting. When thus afflicted, you realize that nothing is real. Nothing. You are nothing. Everything is unreal. You can’t affect it and it can’t affect you because there is nothing there. When everything seems to be going wrong, you wrap yourself up in this idea and don’t come out until things are a little more to your liking.

 

Paranoia:

When someone threatens or stubbornly opposes you, you become convinced that the person is after you. You become obsessed with those you believe to be your enemies, and you make all kinds of mad preparations to protect yourself. During bouts of this Derangement, you trust no one and hold even your closest friends under suspicion.

 

Perfection:

When nothing seems to be going right, you can become obsessed with perfection. Everything must be just so, and you use all your energy to prevent anything from going wrong. You focus all your attention on keeping everything about you in perfect, unaltered order.

 

Power-Madness:

You can become so obsessed with power and dominance that you lose all control of yourself. When your ambitions are thwarted, you sometimes become enraged and attack those who oppose you. In general, you seek total and absolute control over everything and everyone around you.

 

Quixotism:

This Derangement is the opposite of Punzuism. You believe absolutely in everything you see or hear. Yes, there are faeries. That guy with all the hair, he’s a werewolf. This pendant came from Atlantis. You’ll be out challenging windmills to personal combat, at least metaphorically. You most likely came from a perfectly mundane background where nothing out of the ordinary happened. Now that you’ve been initiated into the true nature of the World of Darkness, you’ve taken everything to the farthest reaches of your imagination. When stress overtakes you, you are down two Mental Traits.

 

Remission:

In times of stress, when much is being demanded of you, you can become childlike, retreating to a less mature aspect of yourself. At such times you find it difficult to do anything for yourself, and without the aid of others, you are quite helpless.

 

Sadism:

You tend to revert to cruelty when under pressure. Nothing relieves your stress like causing people pain. Physical pain isn’t all you excel in, though - sometimes mental scarring can last much longer than a mere physical wound. Whenever confronted with something that profoundly bothers you, you must either spend a Willpower Trait or find some way of taking out your anger on someone immediately.