© Daniel S. Wall, July 20, 2026.

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Malaise is an inverse measure of a character’s will to live. The higher their Malaise, the less resilient a character will be. Those with truly high malaise will be quick to grow ill and slow to heal. They will also be remarkably susceptible to attacks from Undead. They will retain all their normal skills and abilities, but a character with a high malaise has one foot in the grave. Until she learns to love life again, a character with high Malaise may be very difficult to keep alive.

The idea here is to create a long-term problem with its own significance in role-play, one that is solvable, but not with a quick healing spell. It plagues characters who have come close to death, or experienced significant loss, been subjected to life-draining attacks, or engaged behavior contrary to their deepest convictions. Any one of these could leave a character with a weakened will to live. It does not undermine their skills and abilities, but it does leave them more fragile. Malaise provides an alternative to the loss of levels or attribute scores and the forcible alignment change of earlier editions of D&D while keeping a sense that these issues create problems not easily resolved within a single game session.

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Malaise at its Core

Acquiring Malaise: Aside from rare instances of special attacks or magical effects imposing it, Malaise is usually acquired through close calls with death, the loss of loved ones, or by actions inconsistent with the established nature of a character. A character fresh off a near-death experience may find that death itself still has a little bit of a hold on them, just as they may long to join a dead spouse or some other loved one. Characters who have acted in a manner significantly inconsistent with their values and goals may find themselves questioning the value of their own life.

Malaise can also be the result of extraordinary attacks one might characterize as life-stealing, such as the bite of a vampire or the nightmares caused by a succubus. These too will weaken a character’s will to live.

Effects of Malaise: The Malaise score of a character is a penalty to any healing done to that character. It is also a vulnerability penalty, adding to the damage done by Undead to that character. A character with 1 point of malaise thus reduces the damage healed from a spell by 1 point and raises her damage from an Undead by 1 as well. A character with 6 points of malaise reduces healing spells by 6 and adds 6 points to any damage caused by Undead. Malaise can have other featurs as well, and at their own discretion, a GM may certain flesh add implications of their own.

Overcoming Malaise: A character must play a full game session with any Malaise earned before attempting to buy it off. After that, a character may buy off malaise at a cost built on a triangular sum at the end of any given game session. If 1 point of Malaise can be bought off at the cost of 1 point of x.p., then 2 may be bought off at a cost of 3 total (1+2=3), and 3 can be bought off at a cost of 6 (1+2+3=6). Thus, Malaise can be bought off slowly at a low cost or rapidly at a high cost. It is up to the player to decide which he prefers.

Certain special abilities or problems may enhance malaise, trigger tactical benefits on the basis of malaise, facilitate rapid overcoming of malaise, or drag out that process. These are rare abilities, and they are prone to high cost. In no case, will an ability ever enable a character to overcome Malaise without going through a full game session with any given Malaise penalty.

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Game-Specific Applications

D&D (1st through 3^rd editions): How does one apply the concept to D&D? First we will look at the specific mechanics for acquiring Malaise, the specific effects of Malaise, and finally, the means of overcoming it.

Mechanics for acquiring Malaise: Malaise may be acquired in a variety of ways.

Death: Any character brought back from the dead automatically gets 10 points of Malaise.

Grief: The death of a loved one or dear friend, or a significant loss with serious consequences, may incur 1-3 points of Malaise at the discretion of the GM (or alternatively, the consensus of the players present).

Life-Draining Attacks: Any attack which might otherwise cause the permanent draining of a level or a point off a character’s attributes would instead result in 3 points of Malaise. (Alternatively, 1 point of Malaise could be added to the existing effect without taking that effect away.)

Moral Transgressions: Any time a character acts in such a manner as to contradict their alignment, they acquire 1-5 points of Malaise, depending on the severity of the transgression. This can replace the old first edition mechanic of simply changing the character’s alignment. How this decision is made varies. It could be the GM’s call or it could be a decision at the consensus of the players.

Near Death Experiences: A Character acquires 1 point of Malaise once she goes below 0 hit point status and 1 more for every 3 continuous rounds spent at 0 hit point status or below. (Note: if the character dies outright, just apply the death rule instead.)

Effects of Malaise: The numeric value of a character’s Malaise provides a variety of different problems for a given character.

Attacks by Undead: It is a bonus to the damage done by Undead to that character.

Death Magic: It is damage taken in the event of a successful save versus death magic. A failed save would of course make this irrelevant.

Healing Magic: It is a penalty to any healing done on the character in question (to a minimum of 1 point healed).

Natural Healing: It is a penalty to any rolls made to assist a character in healing by means of natural medicine, and it is a chance (multiplied by 5) that the wound will not naturally heal according to the normal rules on any given day.

Mechanics for overcoming Malaise: To buy off Malaise, a character must first play a full game session with any Malaise they wish to eliminate. After this, they may buy off Malaise in the following manner. To buy off 1 point of Malaise at the end of a given session, a character must spend 10% of the difference between the experience needed for their current level and that needed for the next. To buy 2 points off at the end of a given session, a player must spend 30% of that difference. To buy off 3 at the end of a given session, they must spend 60%, and so on.

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Tunnels and Trolls (Deluxe Edition): How does one apply the concept to Tunnels and Trolls? First we will look at the specific mechanics for acquiring Malaise, the specific effects of Malaise, and finally, the means of overcoming it.

Mechanics for acquiring Malaise: Malaise may be acquired in a variety of ways.

Near Death Experiences: A Character acquires 1 point of Malaise once she goes below 0 hit point status and 1 more for every 3 continuous rounds spent at 0 hit point status or below. (Note: if the character dies outright, just apply the death rule instead.)

Death: Any character brought back from the dead automatically gets 10 points of Malaise.

Grief: The death of a loved one or dear friend, or a significant loss with serious consequences, may incur 1-3 points of Malaise at the discretion of the GM (or alternatively, the consensus of the players present).

Moral Transgressions: If the player running a character and the GM agree that the character has acted in a manner wildly inconsistent with their character and/or the best interest of their stated goals, they acquire 1-5 points of Malaise, depending on the severity of the transgression. This may not happen often, as a player is unlikely to agree to it, but it remains an option.

Effects of Malaise: The numeric value of a character’s Malaise provides a variety of different problems for a given character.

Attacks by Undead: It is a bonus to the damage done by Undead to that character.

Healing: It is a penalty to any healing done on the character in question (to a minimum of 1 point healed). Note that the in event that a character should have been healed to full Constitution, they end up with their Malaise in damage after all.

Mechanics for overcoming Malaise: To buy off Malaise, a character must first play a full game session with any Malaise they wish to eliminate. After this, they may buy off Malaise in the following manner. To buy off 1 point of Malaise at the end of a given session, a character must spend 10 adventure points. To buy 2 points off at the end of a given game session, a player must spend 30 adventure points. To buy off 3 at the end of a given game session, they must spend 60 adventure points, and so on.

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Worlds of Hurt (My Homebrew): How does one apply the concept to Worlds of Hurt? First we will look at the specific mechanics for acquiring Malaise, the specific effects of Malaise, and finally, the means of overcoming it.

Mechanics for acquiring Malaise: Malaise may be acquired in a variety of ways.

Death: Any character brought back from the dead automatically gets 10 points of Malaise.

Grief: Characters may take on Malaise for the loss of loved ones or for major set backs, as detailed in the rules for social relationships and other relevant portions of the game system.

Deep Wounds: A variety of special attacks cause Malaise as spelled out in the game rules.

Moral Transgressions: Characters may take Malaise for actions contrary to their moral values or memes as spelled out in the relevant sections of the game rules.

Near Death Experiences: A Character acquires 1 point of Malaise once they go down to 0 physical durability or below. They acquire 3 points of Malaise if they spend 1 full round in that status, and 5 points if they spend 2 rounds in that status.

Effects of Malaise: The numeric value of a character’s Malaise provides a variety of different problems for a given character.

Attacks by Undead: It is a bonus to the damage done by Undead to that character.

Healing Magic: It is a penalty to any healing done on the character in question (to a minimum of 1 point healed).

Natural Healing: It is a penalty to any rolls made to assist a character in healing by means of natural means.

Mechanics for overcoming Malaise: To buy off Malaise, a character must first play a full game session with any Malaise they wish to eliminate. After this, they may buy off Malaise in the following manner. To buy off 1 point of Malaise at the end of a given session, a character must spend 1 experience point. To buy off 2 at the end of a given session, they must spend 3. To buy off 3, they must spend 6, and so on.