WoD Sanity

Morality gets renamed to Sanity (no surprise); an associated new Advantage is created, named Stress. Stress is measured on the same track as Sanity, but starting from the other side. Gaining too much Stress can cause a character to suffer an Episode and potentially lose Sanity.

Stress points can be lost by tapping Vices and Virtues; whenever a character is eligable for regaining Willpower, he may instead choose to lose Stress. He loses 1 Stress for indulging his Vice, and 3 Stress for indulging his Virtue.

Mythos is a new Merit. Characters may not (usually) purchase this Merit at creation or with XP, but may acquire it (sometimes against their will) through researching Things They Were Not Meant to Know. It may be added directly to Occult rolls related to the Mythos, as well as rolls to activate or resist psychic powers, thaumaturgy rituals and other such rites; it is also added to Mythos-related Horror rolls.

Horrific acts and creatures have a Horror rating; such encounters cause characters to make a Horror roll with a dicepool equal to the Horror rating plus the following modifiers, where applicable:

+Mythos (if the Horror is Mythos-related) +1-3 (depending on how personal the Horror is)

Each success results in the character gaining a Stress point. Dramatic Failure on this roll means the character meets the shock with such strength that he loses one Stress point.

Episodes occur whenever a character records a Stress point that overlaps with a Sanity point (i.e. in maths, if Sanity + Stress > 10). The character is psychologically overwhelmed by Stress and deals with his accumulated tension by manifesting some appropriate derangement for a full scene, at the end of which his Stress falls to 0.

Additionally, the character must roll Resolve + Composure - the rating of the Horror that caused the Episode.

Dramatic Success / Success: The character is fine. Failure: The character loses 1 dot of Sanity and keeps the manifested derangement until it is treated by psychoanalysis (5 suxx over an extended physchotherapy treatment, one roll a week). Dramatic Failure: The character loses 1 dot of Sanity and gains the manifested derangement permanently.

bink 03-15-2007 11:22 AM Re: [nWOD / Cthulhu] My Sanity/Mythos mechanics

Toss out stress compleatly, just make some sights so horrible that it saps them of willpower, when they hit willpower 0 if they see something that would subtract willpower make them roll for insanity. I always imagined someone with low willpower to be very stressed person. And it would be odd to have a very confadent yet terrably stressed out person ready to snap at any moment.

Don't let mythos help resist anything, if anything they should be more vunerable. But allow it to be used to recognize what is happening and giving the player a chance to stop it in time. If your forcing it on characters dont make them pay for it.

I wouldn't even change the name of morality, just explain that in this game they can lose morality by witnessing extremely immoral acts.

Also this way you can run the game without telling them your going to be running hp lovecraft style, just tell them what type of characters you want and run. Don't be surprised if players descide they dont want to know whats in that creepy house anymore and go home to play playstation all day(sloth).

lericson 03-15-2007 12:22 PM Re: [nWOD / Cthulhu] My Sanity/Mythos mechanics

Quote: Originally Posted by bink (Post 7051451) Toss out stress compleatly, just make some sights so horrible that it saps them of willpower, when they hit willpower 0 if they see something that would subtract willpower make them roll for insanity. I see the logic of this approach, but Willpower is also used as a PC resource pool to give them an edge in important situations. Loosing Willpower when facing the Big Bad is going to take some wind out of the PCs' sails and IMO result in a less dramatic and exciting encounter.

I do agree that the Stress/Sanity mechanic is complicated, nWoD is intended to be a more streamlined storytelling oriented system. I suggest simply having characters make a Willpower check when faced with fear-inducing situations, with failure indicating penalities and/or fleeing. THen have a second Sanity check of some kind to determine loss of Sanity and gaining of derangements.

Temple 03-15-2007 12:43 PM Re: [nWOD / Cthulhu] My Sanity/Mythos mechanics

Why make it so complicated? Justrename Morality as Sanity, and change the Hierarchy of Sins to a "Hierarchy of Madness." Whenever a character experiences something that is potentially harmful to his Sanity, just referr to the Hierarchy chart and roll for Sanity loss as if it was Morality. :) Its really very easy. :)

aprogressivist 03-15-2007 01:16 PM Re: [nWOD / Cthulhu] My Sanity/Mythos mechanics

The concept of having "stress" sap at Willpower points instead of being a separate value certainly has merit. I'll have to think about it.

Quote: Originally Posted by Temple (Post 7051866) Why make it so complicated? Justrename Morality as Sanity, and change the Hierarchy of Sins to a "Hierarchy of Madness." Whenever a character experiences something that is potentially harmful to his Sanity, just referr to the Hierarchy chart and roll for Sanity loss as if it was Morality. :) Its really very easy. :) Mostly because Hierarchies mean you tend to stagnate at certain levels of Morality/Sanity until the ST decides to "crank it up a notch", literally; in other words, Morality 2 sins won't erode you at Morality 1, which is a dynamic I don't find appropriate for CoC.

Temple 03-15-2007 01:18 PM Re: [nWOD / Cthulhu] My Sanity/Mythos mechanics

Mostly because Hierarchies mean you tend to stagnate at certain levels of Morality/Sanity until the ST decides to "crank it up a notch", literally; in other words, Morality 2 sins won't erode you at Morality 1, which is a dynamic I don't find appropriate for CoC. I dont see it quite like that, but maybe we have a difference in playstyle that makes me misunderstand you.. Example, please?

aprogressivist 03-15-2007 01:55 PM Re: [nWOD / Cthulhu] My Sanity/Mythos mechanics

Quote: Originally Posted by Temple (Post 7052034) I dont see it quite like that, but maybe we have a difference in playstyle that makes me misunderstand you.. Example, please? Well, basically, it's pretty hard to hit Morality 0 with a PC unless you're a mass murderer; you can go around killing NPCs one by one and it no longer means anything much to your character anymore. That extends to every Morality N tier and level N+1 sins.

In short, higher level sins become common, meaningless to a character's Morality when using a hierarchy; this suits the nWOD's feeling of spiritual decay.

For Sanity, however, I don't think this fits; horror should be something that always shocks, always frightens; yet a hierarchy means some horrors will become common place, something to become complacent about. If that suits you, that's fine, but it rubs me the wrong way.

That's why I support a willpower sap. You can always keep knocking things down like that.

How about this:

You've got a Sanity meter, which replaces your Morality meter. When you lose all your willpower, you make a Sanity check based on the dice levels suggested in the morality meter (it's like 4 or 5 dice for level 7 or something). If you fail the check, you lose Sanity and check for an immediate derangement or a permanent derangement.

And, if this is a short term game (which is what I'm planning), you can trade in 5 willpower points to increase one dot on your Sanity meter. This may remove a permanent derangement.