Session 15C: The Taint of Ghul
Ranthir suspected that the temple they had explored was a tainted place. It was also possible that some of the items they had taken from the Labyrinth were tainted themselves…
When I created the Western Lands setting for my first 3rd Edition campaign, there was a Lovecraftian element I wanted to include and I decided to try modeling that element with a Call of Cthulhu-inspired 
Sanity mechanic.
Quick verdict here: This doesn’t work with D&D.
First, the D&D milieu already incorporates Lovecraftian elements, but does so through a distinct literary tradition descending from the sword and sorcery tales of Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith.
Second, D&D is an intensely and inherently violent game. Call of Cthulhu’s Sanity is calibrated to model the reaction to such violence realistically (with psychological devastation), but, once again, D&D’s treatment of violence is heroic and legendary in character.
It’s just a complete mismatch. I scrapped the Sanity rules.
Nonetheless, there was this aspect of the setting that I felt needed to pop mechanically in order to properly emphasize that it very specifically wasn’t just a traditional part of D&D’s kitchen sink of fantasy. This other order of beings that wasn’t just a different breed of monsters, but something inimical to the very fabric of reality itself.
When Unearthed Arcana came out, it included its own set of Call of Cthulhu-derived Sanity mechanics. I briefly incorporated those into my house rules document, but they never really made it into play. It was still clear to me that they weren’t going to work.
Unearthed Arcana, however, also included a separate mechanic referred to as Taint. This was much closer to what I wanted: Something that infected certain locations, objects, and characters. Something that basically allowed me to “tag” certain aspects of the game world and say, “This is bad mojo. This is Mordor. This is the broken symmetry. This is the singularity beyond which your perception of the world is cracked.”
And it basically worked. I found the rules from Unearthed Arcana a trifle overwrought, so I streamlined and simplified them when I incorporated them into my house rules, and they were brought fully online in the campaign immediately preceding In the Shadow of the Spire.
Later, Monte Cook published a sourcebook called Chaositech detailing a sort of steampunk-ish technology driven by chaotic energies. I thought the idea was really cool and wanted to incorporate it into the existing technomantic arts of my campaign world even before chaositech turned out to be an integral part of Cook’s Ptolus setting.
Chaositech, however, featured another overwrought system for the mutations and other effects suffered by characters wielding it. I realized that I could rip that whole set of mechanics out and basically plug in the Taint mechanics that were already part of my campaign.
Here, too, the taint worked: It created fear in the places where D&D characters typically don’t feel fear. And, in the case of chaositech, it created a clear and definite distinction which made it clear that these strange, technomantic machines weren’t just a simple substitute for magical items. They were something different. They were something other.
If anything, taint has proved a little too effective in the campaign: I thought there would some dabbling with chaositech. But the PCs want absolutely nothing to do with taint. In the current session they are only beginning to comprehend its jeopardy, but you’ll shortly see that the moment they identify something as tainted, they will immediately take steps to dispose of it.
Although that, too, would ultimately prove to have fascinating consequences.
Do you still have your taint rework available? I’d be interested in seeing what you kept from Unearthed Arcana and how you streamlined it.
Echoing what Jeffrey said, I’m always up for a good corruption system and would love to see your take on it.
Let me add my voice to the chorus. I too was a fan of 3e taint rules but found them clunky. I would be happy to see your streamlined version.
I’ve adapted the UA taint rules for a fallout E6 game a friend and myself worked on, dubbed “Wild Wasteland”. We used the taint system as the radiation mechanic applying a Con and Wis penalty and eventually turning you into a Ghoul. The side effects listed in the chart were surprisingly accurate to real world symptoms of radiation poisoning as I recall.
It’s always nice to find new ways to use fun mechanics like these.
Repeating that which has been commented above; I would love to see these rules!
Heroes of Horror has another 3.5 take on taint (and it itself is based on Oriental Adventures taint). The main differences from the SRD’s version of taint (no idea if the actual UA book has something different) is that the various manifestations of taint each have their own mechanical penalties, and it differentiates between physical and mental taint effects. I’m curious how well that one works, rather than just applying ability score penalties.
This post surprised me. I was oblivious to the now obvious point you made, regarding why sanity seemed to work poorly in normal D&D. I hadn’t run it since a failed attempt in 3.5X almost a decade ago. Thank you for your continurd insights. You’ve been my favourite RPG blogger for more years than I can remember, and you keep me thinking and challenge conventional wisdom.
Seconded, this is my favorite rpg blog. Also, would enjoy seeing your rules on taint. How do people feel the d20 Star Wars dark side corruption compares? The rules itself were decent enough, but there was an article by Rodney “Morridin” Thompson on his old swrpg blog whoch really impacted me. Especially his example on the old man reaching into his coat. Can’t find it at all, anybody know where it is?
Re: Taint. I was not anticipating such interest in my Taint rules, but I’ll dig them out and get them posted here ASAP.
I don’t want to oversell expectations here: Mostly I took a metaphorical black sharpie to elements that felt extraneous. Hopefully y’all aren’t expecting a radical transformation. 😉
Where I did do some heavy lifting was integrating taint and chaositech into a single system. That’s difficult to present because Monte Cook claimed the term “chaositech” as product identity under the OGL.
Sandy Petersen has a kickstarter campaign now for including Chtulhu stuff in D&D (5e). I’m curious if it works or not.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/petersengames/sandy-petersens-cthulhu-mythos-for-5e/description
Anything presented in upcoming segments would be welcomed, caveats about IP noted. I’ve never seen it used well in a game outside my first major 3.5 campaign in the mid 2000’s end villain, the Warlord Arcturu, in an alignment swapped King Arthur game where the PCs were fighting undead tied coincidentally like Voldemort’s living phylacteries (one for each major character like Lancelot, Sir Tristan, etc) while defending Roman Gaul and the city of Rome. Even that usage the taint mechanic felt generic and gimmicky. A simpler or better unified system wild be more satisfying.