Is it better to be a madman in a mad world?

[chezzprinn 0]

Ok, seeing as my last thread contained ideas already greatly discussed witin the community regarding a sanity system, I decided to post my own ideas on the subject. For the record, I don't think sanity should be something that affects only one kind of player e.g. bandits, and if you read my last thread, it proposed that if a sanity system was based on kill count, there should be benefits to being insane as well as negatives.

Well this new system I am proposing is not based on killcount and is in fact a condition that can be acquired by EVERYONE.

Firstly, insanity (or equivalent mental illness) could be a sideeffect of infection through encounters with zombies. To rationalise this,insanity could be the manifestation of the zombie disease in a potentially non lethal form. The product of the body striving to rid the brain of the disease, resulting in a severe breakdown of the victim's mind but not a total zombification.

So, the way this works is: Player X gets mobbed by zombies but escapes. However, each zombie hit that causes infection also has a small chance of causing insanity. ( 1%?) Player X, being the unlucky guy he is, acquires insanity. Insanity would involve all the various symptoms proposed by the community (hallucinations, shaking etc.) BUT also comes with a few added benefits, these being fear and a slightly raised blood level. ( To simulate lack of self-preservation)

Insane people inspire fear in other sane people. Fear causes heavy breathing and shaking in an affected person. This, coupled with a slight increase in blood level, gives an insane person a small advantage in close combat. The question then to the player is this: Do you embrace your new way of life for the added benefits and put up with the negatives or do you try to combat the illness with anti-psychotic drugs ( I'm not a psychiatrist so I don't know the exact name for drugs used to treat people deemed insane) which are incredibly rare. So, is it better to be a madman in a madworld? This idea ask the player that question and lets them decide.

TL;DR

Every zombie hit that causes infection also has a tiny chance of causing insanity within a person(1%?). Insanity causes hallucinations, shakes, etc when not kept in check by anti-psychotic drugs which are extremely rare. However, insanity also gives slight benefits to close combat (fear-instillment in other players, slightly raised blood level.) This gives the player the choice to either embrace insanity as an adaption to the new world, or try to suppress it with drugs.

Keep in mind, I am open to any tweaking or suggestions of what to add onto this idea.

Thanks for your time :)