I like the Sanity mechanic. Yes, its an abstraction, like everything else. A shield would be worth a lot more than a 5-10% defensive increase, but if you are blocking one attacker you create an opening for someone else, etc.

I know in the current environment everyone lives in their own carefully curated social media garden, and never does anything wrong. So it is easy to pass judgment on others when they show any imperfection. But, in real life, we've probably all said or done things in the heat of the moment under stress that we'd like to take back. What if an accumulation of stress made it so you lacked any restraint and always acted like that?

In the game when you lose all your sanity, you become an NPC. I see that as being unable to objectively and rationally engage with the outside world, not neccessarily someone in a padded cell. Does that sound like any real world "NPC's" you might have heard about or encountered?

For the OP, I'm curious if you've tried the expanded SAN system of Delta Green. Personally, I really like it and think it adds a lot to the gaming experience.

Quote from: KingofElfland;1145681The last CoC game I played my PC with high POW kept getting saner. The Keeper had to arrange the finding of a spell book to force SAN loss. There are ways to recover SAN per rules that are not all that different from recovering HP.

heh. Wayyy back me and a friend were playing on a CoC MUD and my friends character had a really good roll on the mental traits such that they could not lose SAN in order to learn some spells. One of the admin tried to help by appearing in their Cthulhu avatar. No loss. Normally that would have had a character flopping around on the floor gibbering. Or at the very least chunked off a fair portion of their sanity. We had to get creative to overcome that resistance.

Quote from: Spinachcat;1145585If anyone is interested in Lovecraft-adjacent horror, I most highly recommend SILENT LEGIONS by Kevin Crawford.

It's an A+ toolbox for creating hideous Mythos-worthy monstrosities and unique cults.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/145769/Silent-Legions

I just picked it up. While I don't think its really optimized for Lovecraftian horror, the fact that its built around creating sandbox games with all those tools makes it a pretty useful add-on for any system.

In the last two days I've gone from not actually noticing Sine Nomine to wanting to buy his whole goddamn catalog.

Sanity in CoC doesn't much bother me as a mechanic. The way D&D hit points and character classes work bothers me far more.

I find that the trade-off wherein gaining Mythos knowledge automatically lowers current sanity and decreases maximum sanity works nicely to create a separation between febrile academics poring over their tomes to research the current horror mystery and more stalwart PCs who do the physical exploration and handle any combat that might occur without enforcing some artificial restriction on activity. The player who had a PC with over 40% Mythos knowledge was pretty careful about where she went beyond the walls of her antique shop's library.

Quote from: LiferGamer;1145720In the last two days I've gone from not actually noticing Sine Nomine to wanting to buy his whole goddamn catalog.

Kevin seems to be a constant, high quality provider that always delivers, and without sharing his personal life complications. They guy should get an industry reward as the king of indies.

I get the feeling some of the people on this thread are going to like my current project.

Quote from: LiferGamer;1145720In the last two days I've gone from not actually noticing Sine Nomine to wanting to buy his whole goddamn catalog.

As someone who has either Kickstarted or purchased all his books via other channels, it's money well spent. I'll never use most of it (especially not interested in an Asian-flavored fantasy game), but he demonstrates quite succinctly how to create a coherent game world and system using easily understood mechanics.

That said, I've played CoC for years, and the best part of the game is going crazy. I'm a fan of Lovecraft's writings, so I suppose that makes sense.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1145876I get the feeling some of the people on this thread are going to like my current project.

Well share some info, ya big tease.

Quote from: LiferGamer;1145720In the last two days I've gone from not actually noticing Sine Nomine to wanting to buy his whole goddamn catalog.

Yes. They homerun it near every time.

Quote from: Bren;1145731Sanity in CoC doesn't much bother me as a mechanic. The way D&D hit points and character classes work bothers me far more.

I guess thats taught me that different people are bothered by different abstractions more or less. The more you know I suppose.

Quote from: Shrieking Banshee;1145954I guess thats taught me that different people are bothered by different abstractions more or less. The more you know I suppose.

People do like and dislike different things. Hit points and character classes were among the reasons that switching from AD&D to Runequest 2 was so enjoyable and refreshing for me way back in the day.

Quote from: Thornhammer;1145947Well share some info, ya big tease.

[video=youtube_share;plLLEcYHlIo]https://youtu.be/plLLEcYHlIo[/youtube]

Quote from: trechriron;1145543In the US, our mental health policies are abysmal to non-existent. We treat mental health patients like 3rd class wards. It's an adjunct to body-horror --- mind-horror. The fear of losing oneself. Alzheimer's is a slow painful progression for example; one many of us fear. These themes are horrifying in their own right, and the fact that Things Man Was Not Meant to Know can rip your sanity away, just increases that dread.

Being the local agoraphobe I call this spot on. Mental health practices take years (more than a decade in my case) to come anywhere close to normalizing a person. Whatever normal is. At times it's a drug induced slumber for 14 hours a day and walking around like a zombie with your mind slowed down so far you question yourself constantly over if this is any better. Totally not fun.

And to debunk the old complaint that SAN loss to seeing or experiencing things is "unrealistic".

Then youve never actually seen this in action. I have, on more than one occasion, and wish I had not.

Slow madness from isolation, Gradually increasing madness from a horrific sight. Instant madness from receiving bad news.
This on top of drug and alcohol induced madness
And two instances of madness from accidents.
And one who would go temporarily homicidally insane without warning. One minute shes normal. The next her eyes are these black pits and shes coming at you with a pair of scissors.
And more.

Worse is that you never know what will crack a person or how badly they will crack.

Quote from: Omega;1146629And to debunk the old complaint that SAN loss to seeing or experiencing things is "unrealistic".

Then youve never actually seen this in action. I have, on more than one occasion, and wish I had not.

Slow madness from isolation, Gradually increasing madness from a horrific sight. Instant madness from receiving bad news.
This on top of drug and alcohol induced madness
And two instances of madness from accidents.
And one who would go temporarily homicidally insane without warning. One minute shes normal. The next her eyes are these black pits and shes coming at you with a pair of scissors.
And more.

Worse is that you never know what will crack a person or how badly they will crack.

You raise a good point; I'm in favor of SAN loses being random, perhaps make it -possible- for it to be zero such as making it 2d6-4, and in addition, making your SAN score known only to the Keeper, with the player getting an idea of it from description and game effects.