Berserking / PCP

[Yagathai]

There was some discussion in The Chatterer about how to model the berserk rage effect in BW. On the simplest basis, you could just say that the berserker drugs, be they mistletoe or PCP, grant a trait like "Brute". Alternatively, grant the user a certain number of "free" wound dice -- so a berserking character could take up to five dice of impairment without any reduction of stats or skills.

Or maybe just a straight-up bonus to physical stats.

Hmmm. How about:

Berserk Drug

Roll a DoF. On a 1, reroll the die. On a second 1, the user suffers a heart attack and takes a Mortal wound .

Assuming the user survives, Berserk Drug grants -2 to all mental attributes, but +3 to all Physical attributes for the duration.

Furthermore, it grants the following traits for the duration of the berserk rage.
Numb
Unfeeling (or Brute, depending on what you prefer)
Unflinching
Berserker
Foaming and Gibbering

Afterwards, the user must make a Health test against an Ob. 5. Success indicates that the user takes the equivalent of a Moderate wound. If the user fails the health test, margin of failure is added to Moderate on the user's PTGS to indicate what kind of wound the user takes.

Repeated use may affect Health, grant undesireable traits, &c &c.

[TimP]

Yagathai,

I did some work on Vikingish berserks for BW classic here: http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=984

Not sure if it will be of any use to you or not, as it's probably waaaay more complicated than what you're looking for.


Tim