I just read the article in the books about the "Miserable" status and Bouts of madness, Degeneration and Flaws

From experience I know players in my gaming group would object, or at the very least play this grudgingly. I know other gamers (who don't play our MERP sessions) who would get downright angry about it.

Not all would be so objectionable mind you. most of my friends are great role players and tend to trust their GM, whether it is I or one of my other friends who are GMing.

But to snatch control of their Hero from them at a critical point seems barbaric LOL

I tend to like this "Miserable" concept, but I always have the players best interest in mind in the long run and they CAN trust me (but they don't know that).

I'm just musing about this game concept. It is unique

It's not that unique.

Call of Cthulhu has sanity. Lose too much and you lose control of your character, for a little while (unless you see Nyarlathotep or something and lose that d100).

And miserable is a theme in the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings.

Bilbo loses it alone in the dark under the misty mountains.

Frodo falls into despair in Mordor and in the end gives up, taking the ring for himself and ironically being saved by Gollums teeth!

I am looking forwards to one of my players losing his mind, but I know that they will play the part if I ask them too!

My favorite example is actually Boromir trying to get the ring from Frodo just before the attack by the Uruk-Hai.

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That's true I had forgotten about CoC doing that.

And yes I agree there are instances where Tolkien's Middle Earth characters sometimes lose it. I think it's an interesting aspect

It will be interesting to see this in play. It will be several weeks out yet for me before we throw dice.

Another good example...

but I prefer Frodo turning on Sam, when he offers to carry the ring for Frodo, although Frodo does recover his senses, fighting off the madness!

Why not let your players play through the dark parts? If they are capable RPGers I am sure they could do so and might enjoy exploring the depths of their PC.

And yeah. This kind of mechanic has been around pretty much since year dot in RPGs and is foun in many RPGs even today. Its not particularly unusual or unique.

Again, Skywalker speaks, using my words.

I was thinking if you and your players trust eachother as well as you say, then you might as well trust them to play out their own madness.

If it works it works.

No reason for you to force them to turn over their character to you if they can play out a Bout of Madness as well as you... or maybe even better.

/wolf

Actually, as I was teaching the players in my last group about Shadow points and becoming Miserable and the stages of their Shadow weakness, they got evil glints in their eyes and imagined succumbing to Corruption just so they COULD play a mad character. I would probably let them.

One of the players (Joe) had Wandering-madness as a Shadow weakness, which lists Idle, Forgetful, Uncaring, and Cowardly. Another player (Andy) had Dragon-sickness, which lists Grasping, Mistrustful, Deceitful, and Thieving. Andy commented as I read through the descriptions for Joe saying things like, "That stinks." But when I read the descriptions for HIS Shadow weakness, he said, "So I just get awesomer and awesomer?!"

I had to remind Andy that he was supposed to be a hero...

LOL

Sounds like one of my players.... there's one in every group right?

/wolf

That sounds like everyone in my group!

Anthony Hopkins favorite role is Hannibal Lector. Fatally flawed if not outright evil characters are great fun to portray for actors, they get to flex the acting muscles. I always let players play their possessed, dominated or insane characters. As a GM, you'll always try to play fair, a Player will go straight for the jugular.