Sanity

For a more horror themed game, with some craziness indicators;

Your Sanity is like hit points for your mushy little brain.  You start with your Wisdom and maybe a couple of classes get bonuses?  Maybe not.  Maybe there's a starting move that asks you about whether you've seen some crazy shit in your day or if you're a soft little lamb.

Some kind of custom move damages your sanity in a general way.  When you witness something that your paltry mind cannot handle, roll + Wis.  On a 10+ you're okay and either remember with distant clarity or blissfully forget what you experienced (your call).  On a 7-9 you retain control of your actions, but suffer 1d6 lost sanity points.  On a miss, oh boy are you in for some fun.  Hallucinations, temporary fugue states, etc.  The GM will tell you how it goes.

Create items that feed on your sanity.  Create custom moves that damage it in specific ways.  Make up a set of psychic debilitations.  Offer it up, most importantly, as currency for new and exciting power.

Wow,

This sounds ... a bit like the beginnings of an outrageously awesome Event.

I see touches of Eternal Darkness here.  Psychic debilities ... that was unexpected.

Currency.  That puts a couple shudders in me. 
If you offer up 1d6 sanity ... choose 'you give up the given sanity forever, or...'

This is some very strong mechanics.

Constructively for class ideas: the God of the Priest, and the Warrior Against Darkness (the paladin) shields their minds.  Take Sanity +4.  The Warrior witnesses horrors on the battlefield day in and day out.  Take +1 forward on any Violence trait horror check.  The druid serves spirits from beyond Sanity +2.  And the Wizard is prepared through text and chant and rigorous practice.  Sanity +6.

A 'Last Breath' style move that shatters your mind and provides a permanent mental Debility.  "When you Sanity shatters (reaches 0) and madness lurks beyond the edges of sight..."

Sacred Seal of the God of Light and Fury (5 charges): This seal appears as a relic, made of holy writ from ages bygone.  When applied with prayer and wax to weapons and armor this seal guards against the predations of the Shadow and Beyond.  When you take no sanity loss from a Supernatural or Corrupting horror check one of the verses on the seal blackens (remove a charge).  When all the charges are gone, the seal withers and falls, its Light to protect the world no more.

Probably should have a couple Compendium Classes - the Hunter, the Vengeance, the Black Knight.

Aaaaa so many thoughts >_< This is awesome.

When your mind and body are sundered, roll.  On a 10+, describe your vision quest and how you found your way back.  On a 7-9, your dark passenger will show you the way back for a price.

I'm with stras, sanity should be something you get at chargen and spend with very limited opportunity to regain rather than a second hit point stat.

A quick draft of a monster add-on...

After you've made a monster, if it represents a truly horrible terror (a true abomination, horror from another realm, or extremely disgusting undead, for example) or else inspires supernatural awe and fear, answer the following:

Is it huge? If so, hold 1.
Is it solitary? If so, hold 1.
Is it terrifying? If so, hold 1.
Is it not of this reality? If so, hold 1.

Does it have a special attack or quality that inflicts horrific mental wounds? If so, note the attack and hold 1.

By default, anyone who witnesses the monster in all it's horrible (or awe-inspiring) glory takes 1d4 sanity damage. For each you've held, increase the damage size by 1, to a max of d12. If the creature has a mental attack, as above, they can also inflict their sanity damage through that attack.

Yeah, sanity costs should normally be 1, not 1d6.  And how do you heal it?  I dunno -- there aren't any rules for it.  Good luck!

When someone with a holy connection (clerics and paladins, sure, maybe others) opens a channel and looks directly upon their god to beseech a major boon, loose one sanity and roll+wis.  On a hit, your god looks upon your request favorably.  On a 7-9 they require something of you as well.  Or something.

Determining how one loses and gains sanity says more about the setting and cosmology of the setting than it does about the characters or the mechanisms that govern them.

I think Adam just wrote our next Event right there.

I think Adam just wrote our next Event right there.

I wish I could plus one that comment harder.

It'd be easy to write.  Maybe we could get Graham Walmsley to help us do some kind of fantasy-cthulhoid adventure framework...

It'd be easy to write.  Maybe we could get Graham Walmsley to help us do some kind of fantasy-cthulhoid adventure framework...

Yes, please! Stealing Chthulu was brilliant.

Quote from: sage on July 05, 2012, 07:25:41 PM

I think Adam just wrote our next Event right there.

I wish I could plus one that comment harder.

I would have doubled my pledge if this had been a stretch goal, nearly all our games have at least a hint of cthulhuoid horror!

Sorry if this is uncalled for in this thread, but in terms of Sanity and Cthulhu, I just felt compelled to point out that Sean Preston, over at Reality Blurs, is working on an AW/DW Cthulhu-Hack called Tremulus: http://realityblurs.com/wordpress/?tag=tremulus.

Okay then, back to this thread.  Would a move for healing sanity be warranted?  I suppose it depends on your campaign, but something that merges the concepts of the "Make Camp" and "Perilous Journey" moves might be appropriate:

Find Respite
When you take an extended break in a place of spiritual comfort, you may go on a mental journey of self-discovery and healing.  Roll+WIS (??).  On a 10+, choose 3.  On a 7-9, choose 1 and the GM tells you something else that happens.  On a 6-, the GM tells you something else that happens.
- Regain 1 Sanity
- Discover an answer to a Mystery
- ??
- ??

Does anyone have any ideas to fill in the "Choose" options in this?

For Find Respite:

• Learn a new Truth about yourself.  Take +1 Forward when this epiphany helps you.  Tell the GM and the group what the insight was and how it applies to your roll.
• Gain a measure of inner peace.  Tum-ta-tum-ta-tum-ta-tum.  (I don't know what this would do).

I definitely think that the "Bleakness Slider" is tied to how you get your sanity back.  Generally, recovering from mental trauma takes time and care and time away from adventure.  Maybe the gods can provide such succor, maybe not.  Breaking your body is easy, breaking your mind is where things really start to come apart.