Mental Disorders

• Insanity: This disorder differs from the rest in that it isn't indicated by the "Disorder:" field, which is still left off the character sheet unless the character additionally has another disorder. Instead, insanity is indicated by a character's Brain Power stat having a negative value. (Characters based on zombies may have a Brain Power of 0, but this is just a zombie joke and they still count as sane.) Naturally, insane characters can therefore receive permanent Brain Power decreases instead of increases, with insane player characters being limited to -5 instead of regular 5. This negative Brain Power can be seen as insane characters operating on a different "psychic wavelength," but practically speaking the effect is that the negative number can still be used to power psychic actions as if it were a positive number, but when an insane character uses a psychic attack on a sane character or vice versa, what should be the target's defensive Brain Power value is, due to the reversed sign, added instead of subtracted, which basically means that insane characters will both deal and take extra psychic damage to and from sane characters, and vice versa. (This is similar to the effects of being high, but will vary in intensity with the characters' Brain Power values.) However, attacks that ignore defense such as [/] and [X] attacks will ignore it even with the reversed sign, functionally treating the target's Brain Power as 0 regardless. As another result of the reversed sign, Brain Increases and Decreases will have the opposite of their usual effects on insane characters. An additional effect of insanity is that insane characters are completely immune to Confusion, and any psychic attack used by an insane character on a sane character will, in addition to its normal effects, have a 50% chance of causing Confusion. The closest real-life equivalent to this condition would probably be schizophrenia—the character would probably hear voices, converse with them, and pursue beliefs that make no sense to sane characters, all of which will likely result in erratic behavior that will prevent the character from acting optimally in battle or in the field. This behavior has no exact official restrictions, but this just means the Maestro will need to keep an extra eye out for player exploitation. If insanity is found to be treatable by medication, the result would presumably be to reverse the sign of the character's Brain Power until the effects of the medication wear off, although to create a more gradual transition you could have the stat rise or fall by 1 per day depending on which direction it's moving. Similarly, something like an enemy attack that causes temporary insanity would presumably turn a normally insane character temporarily sane.
• Insomnia: A rather minor psychological disorder, a character with insomnia is immune to the Sleep Status Ailment, but will treat all comfortable sleeping quarters as uncomfortable ones. This means that their VP and MP will be restored after resting, but HP will remain at whatever it was. The character is incapable of using moves like Pokémon's Rest and Snore but is immune to moves like Pokémon's Dream Eater. Insomnia medications exist, but most of them do not work; one that does work will allow the character to rest comfortably for one night, restoring HP, VP, and MP regardless of the comfort level of the sleeping quarters, but another pill will need to be taken each night. Insomniacs are still healed normally by heal points (locations in the field that heal characters without the need for them to sleep).
• Depression: In the field, the character's Charisma is minimized to 1 and their Clever is at -2 (the minimum of 1 still applies). In battle, the character is considered to be perpetually Slow, only acting every other turn; the character also takes +2 damage from all psychic attacks. If Fastness is applied to the character, then they act once every turn, and if Slowness is applied, they cannot act until the condition wears off. If a depressed character becomes high, then they are treated as a regular, non-depressive character, but without the normal effects of being high. Depression can be temporarily relieved by some legal medications, as well—in the game mechanics, these will probably last until the character rests for the night.
• Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression): This disorder has two sides: manic and depressive; whenever the character sleeps for a night, their state changes from manic or depressive to the opposite one. While depressive, the character is treated just like a character who has normal depression; while manic, the character's Charisma is at +2 while their Clever is at -2, and in battle, the character is considered to be perpetually Fast (able to act twice per turn) but expends 1 VP at the beginning of their Phase of every turn, and if the character has no VP remaining, expends 1 HP instead. If Slowness is applied to the character, then they act once per turn (still expending 1 VP), and if Fastness is applied, they act three times per turn but expend 2 VP instead of 1 (and 2 HP if VP is gone). Additionally, manic characters still take +2 damage from psychic attacks like depressive characters. Also like depression, bipolar disorder may be treatable with some medications.
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): The primary numerical effect of this disorder is that all odd numbers affected by the character are rounded down, while all odd numbers affecting the character are rounded up. This means that any attack performed by the character that should deal an odd number of damage will deal -1, while any attack targeting the character that should deal an odd number of damage will deal +1; it also means that any Status Benefit applied to the character for an odd number of turns will last 1 turn less and any Status Problem inflicted upon the character for an odd number of turns will last 1 turn longer, and Benefits given by the character to teammates or Ailments given to enemies will, if meant to last an odd number of turns, last 1 turn less. In all cases, 1 can be rounded down to 0; for the damage, this odd vs. even application is done after every other calculation involved in determining the damage number. Speaking of which, obsessive-compulsive characters also take +2 damage from psychic attacks. An obsessive-compulsive character's odd-numbered field stats will also be rounded down to even values. The characters tend to deplore uncleanliness, and will take an extra 2 damage from attacks of the Earth or Poison Elements, but instead of just being +2 damage, this damage is a separate hit, counts as non-Elemental psychic damage, and is not affected by defensive Brain Power or armor. This extra hit does not happen every time the character is hurt by the Poison Status Problem, but damage from Status Problems and other effects is subject to the no-odd-numbers rule. Obsessive-compulsive symptoms may be manageable with some medications, and a particular obsessive-compulsive character may favor odd numbers instead of even ones, rounding them off that way instead.
• Psychopathy/Sociopathy: This disorder results in a character who feels no empathy whatsoever, and is coldly and calculatingly logical. These characters are usually highly intelligent and able to imitate empathy to the point of fooling most other characters into thinking that they are not sociopaths. For this reason, sociopathy maximizes the character's Charisma to 9. However, a sociopath is also unable to use the support system, and gains no support points from activities that should award them (other characters may still build support with the sociopath, but only the non-sociopathic character's support bonuses will be activated in battle, and only for the non-socipathic character, not the sociopath). Sociopaths take -2 damage from psychic attacks, but because they cannot tolerate boredom, if all of the characters on the opposing team Do Nothing on the same turn (or are otherwise fully immobilized), then, at the end of that opposing team's Phase of the turn, the sociopathic character will take one hit of psychic damage equal to the number of characters on that opposing team, which ignores the sociopath's defensive Brain Power and armor as well as the aforementioned -2. Sociopaths make good megalomaniacs, but bad heroes; it would be possible to have one as a player character, but this would require intensive role playing, including frequent disputes between the character and the rest of the group. There is no effective treatment for sociopathy in Arpeggio.
• Dissociative Identity Disorder (Multiple Personalities): A disorder heavy in role-playing, the character seems to contain multiple independent minds within the same body. This usually originates as a defense mechanism against psychological trauma, and because of this, the character is likely unable to choose when to switch personalities, with them instead being forcibly switched in response to certain emotions or situations. Different personalities may be mostly defined by different behavior, therefore having mostly the same stats, or their stats may differ—anything from Affinity to field stats to special attacks might change, depending on how drastically the personality differs. It might make sense for only mental attributes, such as psychic attacks and the mental field stats, to differ between personalities, but even something like the difference between Bruce Banner and the Hulk may count as a form of this disorder, in which case physical attributes would differ as well. At that point, the disorder more resembles a form change, so read up on that condition for more details. Player characters with multiple personalities generally follow the stat restrictions laid out there. "Treating" this disorder, with medication or otherwise, would presumably require a "main" personality to lock the character into, unless an entire plotline is designed around combining the personalities into the character's "true self," or something like that.
• Amnesia: Amnesia is identical to being Psyched Out, with the additional impairment of the Knowledge field stat being minimized to 1. Unlike being Psyched Out, amnesia does not last for a specific number of turns and cannot be cured by normal means or even death and revival, but rather its onset and cure should be made into plot points. It should be very rare and not inflicted by normal attacks, unless it is the signature effect of a particular enemy; if this is the case, then it should also be made easier to cure. While afflicted, the player must reflect the character's memory lapses through role playing, although minor, temporary bouts of amnesia due to drinking do not count as this condition.
• Braindeath: If a character is braindead, then their Brain Power will be marked as 0, but unlike insanity, this is not the indicator of the condition—as noted above, some characters may have a Brain Power of 0 without necessarily being braindead, but both are extremely rare. Characters who are braindead are completely immune to psychic attacks as well as unable to use them. Of course, practically speaking, they are unable to do anything else either, and their Knowledge and Clever stats count as 0. This condition is not meant to be used by real characters, but rather to account for the immunities of braindead non-player characters to psychic damage. It may be possible, however, to come up with some kind of crazy cyborg character that may count as braindead but be able to function—but artificial intelligences are subject to psychic damage just like organic characters unless otherwise stated, so applications for characters of this kind should not be taken lightly: the condition cannot be used merely to create an immunity to psychic attacks, and must feature statistical and also role-playing detriments. A character who falls into a coma does not always count as braindead—this depends on each individual case; if the character comes out of the coma at a later point, then they were not braindead while in the coma.