The PERSONA Hack
a long while ago I wrote a game called SubLiminal; it was my take on Deep Morphean Transmissions and Don't Rest Your Head - something intended to be as lite and snappy as possible without the dice mechanics I couldn't translate in online games or insouciant autocontextual philia that DMT insisted on.
It sucked in just about every way possible except for the name and the inspirations from scientology. Later, I took the idea and made a hack for luke gearing's VIOLENCE and added the secret sauce of grimy PERSONA 3 psychogothica.
Here is a game about crawling in dungeons of the mind.
Every character has a Psyche. Damage to the psyche results in a Psychic Injury Check (ψ checks). On a 13+, gain 1 Pressure. On a 20+ gain 1 Psychic Wound related to the source of the damage.
Psychic Wounds act like permanent additions to Pressure. They add +2 to ψ checks.
When a character would have 12+ Pressure, they instead Freak Out (Fight/Flee/Fawn) related to one of their Psychic Wounds, losing 1d6-3 pressure afterward.
Threats to the psyche come from 1 of 5 stimuli - Pain; Betrayal; Impotence; Shame; Uncanny.
When confronted with threatening stimuli, roll 2d6. If the result is over the character’s current Pressure, make a ψ Check.
If psychologically confronting someone directly, resolve as per melee rules.
+2 if you know them personally
+2 if they have a higher Pressure than you do.
If a character is resistant to a type of stimuli, subtract 1d6 from the confrontation roll.
Therapy can remove 1d6-2 pressure per week. If the psyche has no pressure remaining, roll 1d6. If the result is higher than the number of psychic wounds a character has, remove the most recent one.
Player characters can enter and exit Headspace - a network of individual points adjacent to the real world where the noosphere is open like a hole in the ozone, letting in weird psychic space radiation.
Each point is called a Complex. These range from a single person to a landmark in the psychic superstructure.
Physical damage to the inside of a Complex hurts it like normal.
When the Complex would take an Injury, it instead manifests a Delusion - an active agent in Headspace.
Treat a Delusion as one level of Training higher for every Psychic Wound its Complex has.
Defeating a Delusion adds 1 Pressure to the Complex.
When a Complex would take a Down result, it instead gains 1 Pressure automatically.
When a Complex would have 12+ Pressure, it suffers Ego Death. If you’re inside it at the time, you can:
alter how it operates in Headspace
alter how it operates in the real world
transfer 1 Psychic Wound to the Complex
Complexes resist damage based on their size: -2 for regular, -3 for big, -4 for very big. Guns do nothing to Complexes larger than Regular size.
Moving between Complexes requires a Portal. Creating a new Portal is always a two step process:
First, find a weak spot which connects where you are to where you want to go. Second, roll as per Melee with the size of the target Complex as the modifier.
Damage taken inside a Complex works like normal. All Injuries taken inside Headspace vanish once a Character returns to the real world.
Player Characters start with 3 traits and 1 of 22 Archetypes. If an Archetype would be used in a roll, it has advantage. Having an archetype also gives disadvantage on 1 incoming type of stimuli and advantage on 1 outgoing type of stimuli.
Things can be turned into new traits within Headspace.
If it has +2 to anything, the new trait has +1, if it has +3, the new trait has +2, and so on.
If you currently have 2 traits, you must first eject one, causing it to manifest as a Delusion. It can only be replaced once it is defeated.
They hate this.