In order to make Pandemonium a little more “fun” to play; I went back to an article that I found concerning making D&D madness into an enjoyable role-playing event rather than conforming to the realistic and unfortunate realities of mental illness. In this spirit, I suggest adding some of the following to Pandesmos, the first (and least anti-social) layer of Pandemonium:
*Areas of alter egos/multiple personalities:
In all of these cases, the alter ego could be permanent (until cured), or it could switch back and forth based on time (e.g. one personality in the morning, another in the evening) or could be triggered by an item or event (e.g. seeing a river or getting angry might trigger a personality shift)
-An area where the afflicted person takes on a second personality with same alignment but otherwise opposite in behavior. (E.g. if the PC is shy then the alternate personality is bold; if the PC is prim and proper, the alternative personality is crude and vulgar; etc. Apply penalties or bonuses based on how well they act this out – the more outrageously played, the better)
-An area where the afflicted person takes on the opposite alignment but in an exaggerated cartoony way (E.g. a paladin turns into a mustache-twirling villain with a maniacal laugh; the greedy thief turns into the cliché hippie that wants to share the world)
-An area where the afflicted person believes himself to be of a different age (e.g. the fighter turns into a lisping child that wants to play tag or the thief turns into a grumpy old man with aches and pains who is always complaining about things – especially those “young whipper-snappers”)
-Area that induces a “creature complex” where the person thinks he is a creature or monster (E.g. the cleric suddenly believes she is a magical unicorn and will nuzzle up to another PC to try to get a sugar cube.)
In this plane of madness, perhaps an afflicted person might gain illusionary powers similar to what he believes he has (E.g. a man who thinks he is a blink dog might APPEAR to have the ability to blink about)
-An area where the afflicted person thinks he is a figure from legend (E.g. the henchman starts giving orders because he now thinks he is Conan or Gandalf) Or perhaps when the PC spots a woman, he suddenly thinks he is a cartoony Don Juan [or Pepe LePew if you prefer]
-An area where the afflicted person takes on a personality with an emotional extreme (E.g. imagine a frail wizard suddenly going into “Hulk Smash!” mode and pounding on doors expecting them to shatter and making “huge leaps” [actually just hops] to travel about)
*Another possibility is an area that induces a form of “personality” amnesia. The affected person basically becomes a blank slate that is extremely suggestible towards a new one (E.g. if another PC says “I wish there were some way to cure him” then the afflicted PC suddenly thinks he is a doctor and starts trying to take everyone’s temperature and look down their throats until another suggestion gets made – note that saying “I wish Gus would act like Gus” won’t have any effect and attempts to reset the afflicted person’s personality just by describing their old behavior shouldn’t work well)
*Another possibility is an area that induces Quixotism. Afflicted persons see all things as wondrous objects or beings. A rock is suddenly seen as the Fabled Gem of Yuwanna. A bunny is suddenly seen as the Dreaded Incisor-Beast of Bunsylvania. It might be very difficult to get the afflicted person to leave this "land of wonders" and perhaps there is a whole city of people wearing pieces of trash believing them to be fabulous armors and beautiful gowns of the finest silks
Does anyone else have some “fun” insanity ideas that we could add to make this plane more interesting?
For more information on different types of delusions and psychosis, I would suggest the following Wikipedia articles:
PSYCHOSIS/DELUSION
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capgras_delusion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotard_delusion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusional_parasitosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fregoli_delusion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermetamorphosis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndrome_of_subjective_doubles
Cotard delusion could get VERY interesting if it's just a monothematic delusion *not very likely in most real world cases-- a monothematic delusion is a delusion only involving a single theme or subject, and is generally a result of an organic brain disorder-- such as an injury, tumor, or scarring-- rather than a psychiatric disorder.* and the subject belongs to the Dustmen faction...
(Another interesting scenario would be an asylum patient or otherwise crazy colonist who really DID encounter someone who takes on various forms, is impersonating other members, etc.)
Some of these are a tad more difficult to encorporate into Planescape of course, since most of them involve real phenomena in the D&D world.
This would also be of significance on the Outer Planes and in Sigil:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_syndrome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stendhal_syndrome
(a very similar but usually much milder syndrome to Stendhal is seen among some astronauts when they first gaze upon earth from space)