This week’s post is something I’ve been working on for a long time, and my first post which is a set of variant rules! Darkest Dungeon’s stress system is perhaps the core part of the game that sets it apart from other dungeon crawler games, and something I’ve really wanted to try implementing into D&D for quite a while. If you take their choice of path they will heal one Stress pip, and lose one Stress pip if you disagree with them.Darkest Dungeon Stress System in D&D (Download) When at a crossroads while traveling, heroes will often produce a small speech bubble denoting which path they wish to take.Party members dying will vastly increase Stress, especially if they had a good relationship.An example of this is the Adrenaline Tonic, which inflicts Stress in exchange for a very large heal. Some Combat Items can also cause Stress increases in exchange for their main benefits.Some Inn Items can cause Stress increases randomly, for example, the Whiskey Barrel which can either heal or damage Stress.
Some enemies can inflict Horror which increases a hero's Stress every round and functions similarly to the DoT ailments - Burn, Bleed, and Blight.Some enemies have attacks that are designed to cause Stress.
When they are at high levels of Stress (i.e. Stress will randomly increase and decrease as you travel and your heroes banter and bicker.The first step to managing your heroes' Stress levels is to recognize where Stress changes come from. The Plague Doctor using Ounce of Prevention in Darkest Dungeon 2