Sanity rules in D&D - your views?

[Snoweel]

Even funnier would be if they developed nymphomania.

LOL :\

 

[s/LaSH]

As a spot thing, I would think it'd be just fine. There are monsters in D&D that drive you crazy already (the Gibbering Mouther), why not have a more unified mechanic?

However, I wouldn't throw in a whole SAN system; mighty heroes should sneer upon minor demons with contempt. An escalating hardness would be my theory of suitability, so you can start off being traumatised by a guy with a knife but end up skinning a balor and thinking 'what the heck am I doing this so calmly for?'

(And I've never read a SAN system - I think I get the idea, though.)

 

[Bauglir]

I dislike any 'slippery slope' mechanic in an RPG.

By this I mean the kind of mechanic which leads the character to eventual, inevitable demise simply through normal play.

Sanity, CoC style is a good example of this. Every PC that somehow manages to survive will just end up insane anyway.. it's inevitable. (or at least it has always been that way in my experience). This is why I never understood the appeal of CoC.

Making up a character that you know is doomed from the start seems to me like something of a pointless exercise, and not my idea of fun. YMMV ofc.

 

[Cerubus Dark]

Regarding your "OMFG a bunch of kobolds!! I think I'm going insane !!!!!", there is an option in UA's sanity system (and I think I might've seen it in CoC as well) called 'sanity hardness' (two actually - either your level or your WIS modifier).

There's also a table that says only particularly horrific creatures of the animal or humanoid type can damage your sanity.

So you can decide that kobolds (for example) are insufficiently disturbing to affect sanity.

Aw come on a pack of Kobolds would scare the bejeusus out of any 3 year old or seinor citizen!

 

[Cerubus Dark]

I dislike any 'slippery slope' mechanic in an RPG.

By this I mean the kind of mechanic which leads the character to eventual, inevitable demise simply through normal play.

Sanity, CoC style is a good example of this. Every PC that somehow manages to survive will just end up insane anyway.. it's inevitable. (or at least it has always been that way in my experience). This is why I never understood the appeal of CoC.

Making up a character that you know is doomed from the start seems to me like something of a pointless exercise, and not my idea of fun. YMMV ofc.

This just goes back to the same thing of watching horror movies, we know its not real yet some people still get scared. Its not really about making PCs that you know are going to die, but a little bit of confronting your own fears and shortcomings. Plus extra points if you can get a grown man to scream like a little girl. (we need an evil simley)

 

[Hand of Evil]

I use them for any creature huge or greater in size, in magic, I use slots and magic points, players that cast raw (non-slotted) magic may have to role sanity. Also use them with death, the return from, feeling their is a system shock.

 

[Will]

Well, there are several effects that already function like sanity. Intimidate, for example, causes someone to 'freeze in fear' during combat. That might be good for random huge monsters. Maybe give them the ability to Intimidate as a move action or automatically with the first round. or something.

In my game, which strongly features a vast series of necromantic kingdoms, with all sorts of horrible experiments and creations, I occasionally have the players make Will saves out of combat. You know, walking through a gallery filled with mutated zombies (five armed creature, another covered with eyes, ...). If they fail, they are frozen in fear for a moment (except, of course, for the paladin!)

No long term effects, but I think it adds a low key sense of drama. The horror seeps in from knowing what they fight... people who keep other people in breeding camps for raw materials.

 

[Vaxalon]

I sometimes require a will save to avoid wisdom damage due to horrific events.

 

[diaglo]

break out your old 1edADnD DMG, revised 1979.

i love using cursed items to cause insanity. or diseases. or psionics

 

[Munin]

Sanity just doesn't have the same appeal for me in a typical d&d setting as it does for a modern or near modern game.
The creatures that I would expect to cause sanity loss, like demons, already have a similar effect in place, like fear.

I run a shadow chasers game with some heavy CoC elements, and a modified Sanity systems seems to be working great. I've added an element I call Shadow Awareness which measures a characters acceptance of the reality of shadowkind, and conversly shadowkind's awareness of the character as well. It works pretty well so far.