Berserk

Base cost: -10 points; can be resisted.
Berserk is a mental, mundane disadvantage where tou tend to rampage out of control
when you or a loved one is harmed, making frenzied attacks against whoever or whatever you see as the cause of the trouble. (Basic Set, p. 124). 
==Enhancements==
It has the special enhancement Battle Rage.
GURPS Zombies introduces a new +0% enhancement, Vicious, on page 58.
==Variants of AOA==
in GURPS Martial Arts, M178's Kuntao has a box on M179 called Berserk and the Martial Arts
BatMA clarifies that while Determined/Strong are the most likely variants chosen for All-Out Attack that a Berserker AOA can include Double / Long / Feint too. This presumably means a normal feint meant to deliver an attack in the next round and not a Defensive Feint.
Presumably a Berserker who can't use one or more of those possibilities has some kind of quirk about it.
Two restrictive phrases appear:
#"berserkers can’t use techniques that are active defense" might be intended for when they must make AOA with hand/melee weapons, it's unclear if it also applies when they are using Move or Move and Attack.
#"those who suffer the effects of Berserk can only take the All-Out Attack maneuver" seems to forget that, unless it is just referring to situations where foes are within reach.
==Readying while Berserk==
BatMA on M179 also mentions this:
:"Berserkers can employ techniques that require a turn or more of Ready to set up – they just have to use All-Out Attack instead of Ready
:"The options are Determined, for +4 to DX-based rolls required by the setup, or Strong, for +2 to ST-based rolls . . . at the usual cost of no active defenses."
Since no attack is actually being delivered, this could be thought of as an All-Out Ready.
==Changing Posture==
Although M179 makes no mention of posture, players might speculate that a similar "All-Out Change Posture" could similarly be allowed (akin to a Move) if it's serving the purpose of approaching a foe at a higher speed (as generally characters move faster while standing).
===Acrobatic Stand===
This creates no problem when successful since it allows normal maneuver choice - in this case someone could do an Acrobatic Stand as a free action (if successful) and then an All-Out Attack.
A complication arises, however, on a failure. Failed acrobatic stands necessitate spending the next maneuver on a Change Posture.
If GMs allow Berserkers to use Change Posture (technically illegal, but follows the spirit of Move being allowed in Basic and all-out attack-readying in Martial Arts) there would not be any problem.
If however, Change Posture is a banned maneuver, the question remains - can a Berserker take the requisite Change Posture if he is not allowed to choose it?
Even MA98's "all-out" Acrobatic Stand doesn't resolve this problem since it can still fail and necessitate a Change Posture maneuver.
Technical Grappling creates an alternative on TG21 where it allows use of the Force Posture Change technique (initiated with attack-type maneuvers, NOT a Ready or Change Posture maneuver) to change posture. This is made the ONLY means of changing posture when engaged in grappling (in Basic Set the maneuver, unlike Move, remains forbidden) and might be seen as an all-purpose substitute that would eliminate the need for a distinct maneuver altogether.
TG37's Force Posture Change can be used to "To rise to a higher posture yourself" and succeed with a MoV in a Quick Contest between the higher of either trained ST or each foe's FPC technique (which defaults to DX or grappling).
In theory someone could carry around an unresisting pet/familiar which throws these contests as a means of allowing easy FPC rises to higher postures when the Change Posture maneuver is not available.
===Dungeon Fantasy amendment===
Dungeon Fantasy: Adventurers was published in 2017, a standalone RPG which adapted the 2007 supplement GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Adventurers.
pg 57 updated the Berserk advantage with a new note:
:If for any reason you end up in a posture other than standing, you must use the Change Posture maneuver to stand as soon as possible.
This obviously goes TOO far though, since it would prevent a berserker grappling in close-range on the floor with his foe to waste effort on his posture instead of attacking. This should probably only apply in situations you can't make a melee attack because they're out of reach.
==Kromm Quotes==
Sean Punch has commented on Berserk in the following posts to the SJG GURPS Forums:
*on it being fair to allow Committed Attack in place of All-Out Attack, in light of Telegraphic Attack making the lack of defense a greater drawback 7 June 2013
**this also makes sense since Move / Move and Attack allow a Berserker to defend themselves
* On its pricing 30 April 2007
* On how the bad more than balances the good 6 December 2006
* On compatibility with Unfazeable 28 June 2005
* On its separation from Bad Temper in 4th Edition 27 June 2005
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=1223991#post1223991
:If you must roll to stay conscious or alive while berserk, then you must roll – but you do so at +4. Once the altered state wears off, if you're in a state where you would risk unconsciousness or death, you must roll against HT for each effect, and without the +4. Snapping out of a berserk state is considered a shock sufficient to trigger further HT rolls. That's the top reason why Berserk is a disadvantage
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=1224808#post1224808
:Ending your berserk state triggers one extra HT roll for consciousness at 0 or fewer HP, and one extra HT roll for survival at -HP or worse. Both are subject to the usual modifiers (e.g., -1 to consciousness rolls per full multiple of negative HP) and results (e.g., failure by 1-2 on a survival roll means a mortal wound). Neither enjoys the +4. These rolls represent additional chances to fail, over and above what you would face were you not a berserker.
::You don't keep a laundry list of every HT roll made at +4 and then reroll them without the +4 later; if you did, then Berserk would have a base value of -20 or -30 points, not -10 points.
http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?p=1225612#post1225612
:You definitely do make all of those survival rolls, one for each increment of -HP, at HT+4 when Berserk. When you snap out, you don't make them all again. You make just one roll at HT.
===Angie===
Angie the Barbarian has HT 12 and 14 HP. She goes berserk and starts whacking people. In the course of doing so, she takes four hits herself.
The first delivers 8 HP. Who cares . . . Angie can't be stunned, suffer shock, or slow down due to injuries. She's at 6 HP.
The next does 9 HP. That's 17 HP total injury, putting Angie at -3 HP. At every turn past this one, she must roll at HT+4, or 16 or less, to remain conscious. At those odds, she does, of course.
The third blow strikes the vitals, and inflicts 24 HP! That's 41 HP total injury, putting Angie at -27 HP. She hit one threshold at -14 HP (-HP), but not quite a second at -28 HP (-2×HP). She rolls at HT+4, or 16 or less, not to die. She doesn't die.
The fourth and final blow deals another 15 HP. That's 56 HP total injury, putting Angie at -42 HP. She hit thresholds at -28 HP (-2×HP) and -42 HP (-3×HP), and rolls twice more at 16 not to die. She doesn't.
Then Angie snaps out of berserk. Being at -HP or worse, she must immediately roll once vs. her unmodified HT of 12 to be alive. She does, luckily for her. Being below 0 HP and not dead, she must also roll once vs. HT to stay conscious – but at -3 for being so far in the hole. That's 9 or less, and she rolls a 10 and fails, passing out immediately.
==See Also==
* Bad Temper
* Cold Berserk
* Self-Control Number
* List of Disadvantages
==Classic Additional Information==
*Cold Fury: New Options for Berserk in GURPS (11/22/2002)
Category:Mental Traits
Category:Mundane Traits
Category:Disadvantages