Sanity

[TRose]

In my opinion sanity should be an optional rule based on the game setting. In a modern game your player might not expect the store clerk to turn into a tentacle horror. And a sanity check would make sense there. But to Thrud the Barbarian in a fantasy game, well it would be business as normal, just cut off the head and take all the twinkies. But Thrud might need to make a sanity check to cross a busy street in a modern town with care zooming by, honking horns etc..
And once your players have had some one turn into a monster 3-4 times there should no longer be sanity checks for such things as people get used to things. Years ago when I work as an EMT, at first working with people all bloody was ick. But soon I could be working on some one with their guts all out and be discussing where to eat lunch with my partner with no problem

[Jason Durall]

Sanity is an optional rule in BRP.

However, I mentioned in one of the other threads that I'd have loved to make it more akin to hit points, fatigue points, or even power points. A limited resource based more directly off two characteristics and not tied to a skill.

An alternate easy way might be to include Pendragon-style personality mechanics, and make one of those spectrums "Sane ---- Insane". Then, you could simply adjust your total along the track according to failed rolls and character action. I've long had a hankering for a Call of Cthulhu with personality mechanics in it...

[SDLeary]

Originally Posted by Jason Durall

An alternate easy way might be to include Pendragon-style personality mechanics, and make one of those spectrums "Sane ---- Insane". Then, you could simply adjust your total along the track according to failed rolls and character action. I've long had a hankering for a Call of Cthulhu with personality mechanics in it...

Woo! Now this sounds interesting.

Perhaps with an additional pairing... Hardened/Sympathetic, and some way to note particular situations that might reoccur.

Time to go back to the Classics books to find the full list of pairings.

SDLeary

[Atgxtg]

Originally Posted by soltakss

It's like soldiers. Some come back with Post Traumatic Stress, something that can be modelled with SAN. Most don't as they get used to seeing things and it's only really extreme things that bother them.

You know, this statement, combined with my experiences working at a Hospital gives me an idea. How about people developing some sorm of Mental Armor that works like AP against shock and horror?

I know that after working in the trauma room, we all got sort of jaded towards physical injuries and pain and suffering. After awhile., about the only thing that would "faze" me was when we got injured children.

Its sort of like you permanently sell off some SAN points to by a few points of SAN Armor Points. Maybe we could allow character to sell off 5 or 10 SAN points for a Point of SAN AP? We could cap the AP at 1/4POW or so. But the AP is only applicable to that kind of shock. While the trama team is farily impervious SAN loss from seeing the the horrors of physical injury, a Shoggoth would still shock the hell out of them.

Maybe sorcerers could get some free AP from thier summonging skill (say their Crit chance)?

[drohem]

Old editions of Gamma World had a Mental Strength characteristic, and maybe this could be used to resist horrifying situations.

You assign the horrifying event a Potency, and then you match that Potency vs. character's Mental Strength.

Failure to resist the horrifying event could result in Sanity loss (if using Sanity in conjuction with the Mental Strength characteristic)...

or....

failure could mean a phobia, trauma, etc. Maybe something like GURPS.

Anyway, just an idea off the cuff.

[Simlasa]

Again... UA's 'madness meter' breaks down shock in categories...
You have:

Unnatural... the shoggoth
Self... you're own self-image vs. reality
Violence... self explanatory
Isolation... reaction to being cut off from community
Helplessness... the feeling you get when facing off against Cthulhu or the DMV.

Every threat to your sanity, in each category, has a rating that you roll against...
If you fail to many times you go nuts... if you succeed several times then your rating in that category goes up and those sorts of things stop bothering you. You don't even have to roll against stuff you are sufficiently hardened against.

There are lots of things in UA that I don't like but the Madness Meter is really pretty great.

[drohem]

Ok, I'll bite:

What's UA?

[Trifletraxor]

Unknown armies which he mentioned on page 1 is my guess. But as it's not BRP, not any must to know the acronym!

SGL.

[drohem]

Gratzie.

I've never looked at or read anything about that game.

[Jason Durall]

Originally Posted by drohem

Gratzie.

I've never looked at or read anything about that game.

Unknown Armies was developed by Greg Stolze and John Tynes for Atlas Games. Tynes was the leading force behind Pagan Publishing before PP parted ways with Chaosium.

Some Chaosium freelancers and some of the Pagan team worked on the Unknown Armies game line, and there are some design elements that are very much a response to Call of Cthulhu.