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[Repentence Tyrathlion]

So, as my latest attempt to get my mischevious bundle of fluff Repentence to HTFU, I'm making her go nuts.

Well, it's a little more in-depth than that, obviously It's a thread that has (both consciously and to a degree unconsciously) been running for months.  Her grasp on sanity has been a little tenuous since her dear, charming mother threw her Reppy's own skull, from a clone presumed to have died.  Add on her fun encounter with a Sansha virus, and now she's well and truely deranged, and getting worse.

It's not a plot arc that is used all that often, from what I've seen (and trying to find a good therapist character is proving hell, but that's another story), so I'm interested to hear everyone else's take on it, both from an OOC and an IC perspective.  Reppy's downward spiral has been mostly related to out-of-pod experiences, but given the nature of the changes in mind and body necessary to become a capsuleer, one imagines that there must be more than a few out there who a little bit cuckoo.

Which raises the further question - how does one deal with an insane capsuleer?  And (possibly more worryingly) would people notice much of a difference?  Given the death toll that the average capsuleer inflicts on a daily basis, it's a wonder they're not all complete sociopaths, so would madness (or at least certain types) end up just being seen as par for the course?

It's an area that interests me the more I think about it.  There's a history of mental illness in my family (at least one of my ancestors died in a mental hospital), and the experience of translating it into the game has proven to be quite an experience.  I'm pretty sure Morwen hates me for it, too.

[Kazzzi]

how does one deal with an insane capsuleer? 

In the rigors of space warfare, we develop strong bonds with some of our fellow pilots. They may feel compelled to help you, and they may suffer for it. Others will shun you or try to protect others from you. Since many capsuleers are outlandish, some may not understand your illness and therefore not accept it as an excuse for your actions. They may become outright hostile.

[Stitcher]

Between the gruelling mental challenge of piloting a ship, the enormous personal wealth and power, the authority over life and death and the experience of serial mortality, I think it would be a rare pilot indeed who didn't have issues with their mental health to some extent.  Even Verin, comparatively stable as he is, fights a constant (and sometimes losing) battle with insomnia, paranoia, depression and a guilt complex.

Certainly, the mythology around capsuleers puts them somewhere between socio- and psychopathic, with pronounced megalomania. You'd probably also see lots if obsessive-compulsive disorder, addictions, nymphomania/satyriasis, maybe a series of sexual disorders (though there can't be many people who'd be willing to RP those). I suspect schizophrenic-spectrum disorders would be less common because they might interfere with the ability to pilot effectively and would be screened out in training.

[Ulphus]

I once suggested (IC) to a director in my corp that some pod-pilots were a bit fucked up.

His words of wisdom were
"All pilots are a lot fucked up"

Words to live by.

[Saede Riordan]

So, as my latest attempt to get my mischevious bundle of fluff Repentence to HTFU, I'm making her go nuts.

Well, it's a little more in-depth than that, obviously It's a thread that has (both consciously and to a degree unconsciously) been running for months.  Her grasp on sanity has been a little tenuous since her dear, charming mother threw her Reppy's own skull, from a clone presumed to have died.  Add on her fun encounter with a Sansha virus, and now she's well and truely deranged, and getting worse.

This sounds vaguely familiar

It's not a plot arc that is used all that often, from what I've seen (and trying to find a good therapist character is proving hell, but that's another story),

If you find one, let me know, cause Nikita is still really messed up

so I'm interested to hear everyone else's take on it, both from an OOC and an IC perspective.  Reppy's downward spiral has been mostly related to out-of-pod experiences, but given the nature of the changes in mind and body necessary to become a capsuleer, one imagines that there must be more than a few out there who a little bit cuckoo.

Which raises the further question - how does one deal with an insane capsuleer?  And (possibly more worryingly) would people notice much of a difference?  Given the death toll that the average capsuleer inflicts on a daily basis, it's a wonder they're not all complete sociopaths, so would madness (or at least certain types) end up just being seen as par for the course?

Anyway Something I did when starting Nikita down the path to insanity is figure out exactly what kind of insanity I wanted to portray. Like, think of specifically, what sort of actions your character should be taking. I can give you more specific help once I know what kind of insanity your going for. until then, here are some tips, based on how I've been playing Nikita:

Some of the major symptoms of true insanity is this sort of disjoint in the mind of the person, instead of smoothly flowing slowly from one emotional state to the next, they abruptly jump from happy, to sad, to homicidal, sort of like derailing a train, they're going fine THEN THE NEXT THEIR SCREAMING AND PULLING A GUN OH GOD!

The next symptom of insanity is that the person isn't really aware they are going insane, at least not unless people tell them, at which point they might get really defensive.

The other thing to look for is this appearance of calm. Like they're emotionally dead in some ways, that is punctuated by the extreme emotional highs and lows, fits, breakdowns, etc etc.

Those three are the big ones, once I know what particular flavor of crazy your going for, we can fine tune it.


 It is a symptom of madness that thoughts become uncontrollably disjointed. This can be encouraged.

[Lillith Blackheart]

You mean most capsuleers aren't already insane? Megalomania and Disassociative disorders seem to run rampant.

But I digress.

It would depend upon what sort of complex you want to give 'em. Are we talking complete looney, talking to themselves and whatnot? Or something more subtle?

Schizophrenic disorders are rather interesting, and only some of the more extreme kinds are commonly diagnosed. Milder cases involve people hearing and seeing things that aren't there, paranoia, etc. Also as an interesting sidepoint, there's been studies that have shown correlation of Schizophrenic disorders with a particular cat-born parasite called toxoplasma gondii that apparently 1/2 of the world's population is infected with.

Moving on.

There's a lot of different disorders you can go with, too. I have the DSM-IV here somewhere (my gf has a Psych degree that she doesn't use for some reason), let's just say that damn near everything is a mental disorder these days, which is mildly depressing.

[Casiella]

So, reading the DSM is a mental disorder too?

* Casiella ducks

[Natalcya Katla]

I play one of the very few totally sane capsuleers in EVE. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Katla's mind. Several noted, well-paid psychiatrists confirm this in writing, with clockwork regularity.

It has been hinted to them what will happen if they don't.

[Repentence Tyrathlion]

Anyway Something I did when starting Nikita down the path to insanity is figure out exactly what kind of insanity I wanted to portray. Like, think of specifically, what sort of actions your character should be taking. I can give you more specific help once I know what kind of insanity your going for. until then, here are some tips, based on how I've been playing Nikita:

Some of the major symptoms of true insanity is this sort of disjoint in the mind of the person, instead of smoothly flowing slowly from one emotional state to the next, they abruptly jump from happy, to sad, to homicidal, sort of like derailing a train, they're going fine THEN THE NEXT THEIR SCREAMING AND PULLING A GUN OH GOD!

The next symptom of insanity is that the person isn't really aware they are going insane, at least not unless people tell them, at which point they might get really defensive.

The other thing to look for is this appearance of calm. Like they're emotionally dead in some ways, that is punctuated by the extreme emotional highs and lows, fits, breakdowns, etc etc.

Those three are the big ones, once I know what particular flavor of crazy your going for, we can fine tune it.


 It is a symptom of madness that thoughts become uncontrollably disjointed. This can be encouraged.

Loved that chron.  One of my minor characters ended up being tortured in that fashion until the torturer chickened out and let them go.

I confess that most of my inspiration at this point has been from loveable rogue Two Face, notably his portrayal in his debut episode of Batman the Animated Series.  For those not familiar with that fine piece of culture, Harvey Dent has split personality issues prior to becoming Two Face (unlike in most portrayals), and there are several interesting scenes regarding the conflict between the Harvey personality and what would become the Two Face personality.  The definitive boundary between the two was kind of lost after that first episode.

So yes, split personality is the core of her problems.  There's also random bursts of amnesia and a few mood swings, from what I've been doing so far.

[Gottii]

Incidentially, in RL dissociative identity disorder (which is controversial), IIRC one of its defining characteristics is that there are always three of more separate personalities.  Its one of the ways they catch criminals trying to fake their way through split personality disorder as an excuse for crimes (i.e. my bad side made me do it!).

Then again, who knows what implants would do to someone, and you might what to base your RP more on popular culture than real life clinical diagnosis, either of which is equally valid in my eyes.

[Gottii]

<delete post>

[Repentence Tyrathlion]

Incidentially, in RL dissociative identity disorder (which is controversial), IIRC one of its defining characteristics is that there are always three of more separate personalities.  Its one of the ways they catch criminals trying to fake their way through split personality disorder as an excuse for crimes (i.e. my bad side made me do it!).

Then again, who knows what implants would do to someone, and you might what to base your RP more on popular culture than real life clinical diagnosis, either of which is equally valid in my eyes.

...well there's a coincidence... only one has shown so far, but there will four personalities in total when I'm done...

[Lillith Blackheart]

So, reading the DSM is a mental disorder too?

* Casiella ducks

tbh, I would say so. Talk about dry reading.

[Graanvlokkie]

Something important, which has been touched on above, is what type of mental disorder you are looking at, because there are lots different mental orders each requiring a total different approach and presenting a different challenge. There isn't really a generic "insanity".

If I remember correctly the White-Wolf pen and paper roleplaying game, Vampire: The Masquerade, had a very good list of mental disorders, each requiring a totally different roleplaying approach. It was one of the flaws for a particular vampire bloodline. My collection of pen and paper RPG books seems to have been buried somewhere in the recent move, but I will see if I can find them, because a list like that would be a good starting point.

Otherwise, you could always do some research into the different mental illnesses out there.

[Lillith Blackheart]

You're talking about the Malkavians.