Anyone integrated Call of Cthulhu style magic into D&D?

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Yes. Only cantrips so far. One PC has 41 Sanity and the other 50 after four sessions. The NPC (no spells known) has 59 (only lost 4 from start, pretty good, LOL).

The old witch will teach them some "more advanced" magics, but not until they rebuild her sacrificial altar (damaged a while back by angry barbarians). She will, in the meantime, adhere to her bargain to teach the PCs literacy since they brought her back her stolen "recipe book" (of sanity-blasting spells, LOL). It's up to the PCs to do what it takes to acquire higher magics through teachers since they can't read.

So far, the Sanity loss factor has limited their spell use to an occasional frivolity (chill/warmth or missive) but the rest have seen use only in or immediately after combat, and then only sparingly. Sanity loss seems to really limit their desire to use magic to solve problems, and I think this is a good thing.

I've been handing out 2d6 bonus Sanity for level gains and 1d3 bonus Sanity for story awards, and this has prevented the PCs from slipping down into Sanity scores of 30 or less... Some blown Sanity checks (resulting in greater Sanity loss for shocking events) caused the rather large gap between the two PCs Sanity scores, as did bad rolls for bonus Sanity. But I think they are doing fine so far. Two 2nd level peasant girls (PCs) just totally annihilated two buff barbarians at the end of last night's game--yes, they got the drop on them with a sneak attack, and then rolled criticals on arrow damage while the other one used daze cantrips to prevent the other barb from taking action--then they used their "burst" (+10 ft. speed) cantrip to overtake the fleeing barbarian (after he became undazed) and stab him in the back! They flanked him and stabbed him to death with kitchen knives, LOL, and all I could roll was a 12 or less, never hitting them even once! So, the next time you get ambushed by a couple peasant girls with kitchen knives and the "evil eye", watch out!

Things that may cause Sanity loss are all around but the PCs aren't finding them on purpose, LOL, and are trying to lead fairly normal lives after fighting the demon. I don't blame them! Things may change Sanity-wise when they start trying to develop their witchcraft again (learn new spells, interact with the demon tree and crazy old witch). But so far, I think my conversion rules are working perfectly.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

I think there should be some way of working xp into all this. You could pay xp to get back some lost sanity when you level up. Or pay spells with xp instead of sanity. Something like that.

What about a BONUS SANITY feat that gives Wis mod x 3 bonus Sanity?

 

[Cheiromancer]

Somewhere or another I heard of a feat that grants you 20 sanity points. Doesn't the Wheel of Time RPG have a sanity system?

Maybe use skill points to confront your nightmares.

Speaking of skills, shouldn't Scry be on the list of skills that reduce your skill cap, along with Knowledge: Arcana and Spellcraft? Scry helps you to see things that aren't there, and that can't be good for your mental stability.

 

[Desdichado]

A few points:

• No, the Wheel of Time RPG does not have Sanity points per se. However, if you've read the books, you know that all male channellers are doomed to eventually go insane. There is a "Secret stat" that only the GMs know called your madness rating, which is initially simply a 1d6 score. Overchannelling adds 1 point to that, and every time the character gains a level, he gains an addition 1d6. There is a little chart that gives ratings in 15 point increments with trigger conditions that cause a symptom of the madness to manifest itself for a certain amount of time. They're really pretty nasty symptoms, too. There is a feat that can be taken multiple times that reduces your score by 20. It's a workable enough system for what you want, but is designed for a much more gradual progression into madness than Cthulhoid magic.
• KK, you should start a story hour with you Harn d20 conversion. I'd be interested in seeing how it runs.
• I've also posted some rules based very loosely on the Cthulhoid system, although it's a bit more forgiving than the Cthulhu system, it still makes magic much more rare and dangerous than standard D&D does. Check them out (with commentary right here.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

• KK, you should start a story hour with you Harn d20 conversion. I'd be interested in seeing how it runs.

Check out my HarnWorld/Cthulhu d20 campaign progress reports here: http://www.shadowharn.net/viewtopic.php?t=554

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

Also, check out my proposed house rules for running a d20 HarnWorld/Cthulhu campaign here:

http://www.shadowharn.net/viewtopic.php?t=254

I don't think this is the final version I am using now, but it gives you an idea of how to integrate d20 with low fantasy/high terror fantasy campaigns.

 

[Kaptain_Kantrip]

And here are two examples of how I have tried to create unique, interesting monsters out of ones from the Monster Manual for use with HarnWorld or other low fantasy/low monster settings. It's pretty simple and puts the terror back into facing monsters!

http://www.shadowharn.net/viewtopic.php?t=396

Monsters should, IMO, be rare or unique beings attributed with confusing, contradictory and terrifying myths and legends. Seeking them out is a task for fools or madmen.