implementing insanity in a typical FR campaign

[darkbard]

sure, the sanity rules have been around for quite some time. but with the "official" 3.5 version now available with unearthed arcana, i've begun to think about implementing the sanity rules in a baseline d&d campaign [we'll call it FR just for argument's sake. but i don't want any arguments about whether or not FR is high-powered, etc. i'm simply using FR as a stand-in for any typical d&d campaign [i.e. where magic is fairly pervasive, lots of different monster types, etc.]. you could call it greyhawk or eberron just as easily.

in any event, has anyone adopted a sanity system for such a style of campaign? if so, what rules have you adopted? obviously, things like spellcasting or encountering owlbears or ogres shouldn't really be all too extraordinary in such a standard d&d setting and thus shouldn't threaten the average character's sanity. but what events/actions would?

thanks for any input.

 

[Tonguez]

Dragons and Abberations for starters

Personally I have used a Phobia system so characters got to choose what they were afraid of - eg Magic, Spiders, Heights (anything really) then used the CR (level, height) to determine the degree of fear (ie a CR 6 spider is scarier than a CR 2, a lvl 3 spell is more frieghtening thn a Lvl 1)

In the system I used Fear Factor with a Base 0+ CR, Minor Phobia 5 + CR, Major 10 + CR, Exterme 20 +CR.

Dragons got a base Fear rating of 10 + Phobia (eg a CR 7 Dragon hase a base fear factor of 17 if a person with a major phobia of Dragons encounters one they have a Fear DC of 27 (Will save)). Abberations had a base rating of 5 as did undead.

PS don't know what the UA sanity rules are...

 

[jester47]

Well Darkbard-

you are in luck. I am about to put it in FR (with a lot of other rules). The thing is that the Sanity rules in UA are written with Fantasy in mind instead of Horror roleplaying, and they are streamlined a bit more than the ones in Call of Cthulu. Basicly, I am going off the tenant that Magic makes you nuts. Sammaster went nuts in the wrong way. And everyone knows this. However, Ed Greenwood has mentioned that Elminster is not really playing with a full bag of marbles either. Its just that he has gone insane in a different way (some of his quirks are indicative of not being all there).

The way I am doing it is I am using sanity resistance equal to the character's Wis bonus. I AM using moderate san loss from spellcasting. Learning spells also has an effect. Divine casters are the big winner when it comes to sanity. They do not loose san for learning spells as the spells come from thier diety who may be insane or never will be insane or may simply be the will of nature. Arcane spellcasters loose 1 san for each of a spells level they learn. Creatures and monsters I am playing by ear using table 6-5 as a guideline. Most anything with a 0 in front of it will ussually have no effect. Combined with san resistance this makes the weirder monsters more san destroying and the lower level spells much safer. However, woe be to the talented practitioner of the art whose talent is not matched by his wisdom...

Healing is as stated in the book. With the heal skill, and the right fantasy drugs that are listed, you can see why people in the realms have been able to persist, and why the terribly powerful mages are nuts.

Aaron