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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 3313137" data-attributes="member: 3285">I disagree.  As a kid, I was absolutely terrified of what might be under the bed or just outside my covers.  I never saw anything.  I didn't have to.  I couldn't even hear it.  I was straining to listen.  Something was out there.  I just couldn't detect it.When I turned the lights on, then it wasn't a big deal, because what I thought was lurking around was clearly not in evidence.But to put more of a clarifying point, I agree that say, a blind person is going to react to fear differently from someone who can see a monster charging at them.  What I'm saying is I sincerely doubt anyone will WILLFULLY look away from a horrible beast to save their own sanity in a moment of terror.There are repeated references in Tatters of the King where sanity loss is significant if the character is looking at it, and then there's lower sanity if the character closes his eyes or looks away.  I don't think this is a legitimate mechanic any PC should normally use, and certainly not a recourse in a horror game.  That said, I also understand where this mechanic comes from. In Lovecraft's stories, the poor author who looks back over his shoulder has his mind shattered because he SAW the thing.  But I should point out that in the majority of those stories, the person FELT compelled to look at it...the fact that the other characters didn't look at it was often sheer luck or circumstance.In essence, this mechanic feels like it started out well-intentioned (the idiot who looks the thing in the face is the one who suffers most) and has turned into a meta-game concept that's abusable by PCs.  If horror is reduced to the one dimension of sight alone, it means that by negating sight I don't lose sanity.  And that just seems completely opposite of being afraid of things-that-go-bump-in-the-night...cause of the, ya know, "night" part.</blockquote>

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