How do you prefer your sanity / stress mechanics?
I like short-term, intense stress over "sanity" implying long term crazy.For investigative games, I like that the detective might see a gruesome scene and lose their lunch, or freeze up. I can get behind a debilitating during-adventure buildup of stress too. Going permanently nuts halfway through the campaign is kind of lame.
Something simple, maybe like hp, where you start with few points, you might lose them if you fail fear checks or whatever, but you might recover them over downtime.Maybe you're visibly a bit crazy when it's very close to zero, and useless if you're out of sanity points, but it should be possible to heal with enough downtime.
>>94839238The way I handle this is, every so often, I pass you a note.Most of the time it's bullshit. Sometimes it's for real.
>>94839238>stressI never actually thought about that in a TTRPG, all I've ever experienced is the CoC or FFG 40k Sanity systems, the idea of a easily healable but also easily damage represenative of a mental stat that can have severe concequences without a outright game overs but could easily lead to one is actually really really cool.and I fucking love darkest dungeon and emulating that is something I already in alot of games I run, and having a stress mechanic for running a project moon ttrpg would also be awesome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RijB8wnJCN0https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-N4jf6rtyuw
>>94839238Nonexistent, I've never seen them done well and don't see any reason for them to exist.
>>94839238
>>94842540That's not a bad idea, actually.>>94842070This is the best version of things. If you've ever dealt with someone who is actually out there, this is exactly how they think.>I know X is true because I have unique insight into Y, and nobody else sees it but me.
>>94839265>Going permanently nuts halfway through the campaign is kind of lame.It can be annoying, but it perfectly fits in with Call of Cthulhu. As your character starts going too crazy, you need to back the fuck off. No, my dude isn't going to read the eldritch tome like he did before. No, someone else can interrogate the cultists. I think Jimmy should be the first one through the door into the room we think is being used for a horrifying ritual.
>>94842540Like when you start talking with a Southern accent again after a few days at home, but much worse. I love it.
>>94842743>perfectly fits in with Call of CthulhuIt doesn't though. At least not if you want it to be at all consistent with Lovecraft's work. The Color Out of Space drove one family mad over about two years of mutating the surrounding wildlife. Otherwise most characters are just treated as mad because they're seen horrible things the rest of the world doesn't believe are possible.
>>94842751I actually do RP her with a thick southern accent. I even poisoned two players at the table and they started talking a bit southern too.>>94842597I also have Avernus version since we're stuck in hell
>>94842743Problem with CoC's sanity mechanics is that everyone who rolled 70+ on POW practically gets to ignore the system while the sub-50 players are getting mindraped. 7e made this even worse by basing indefinite insanity on the last 24 hours.
>>94842920>Otherwise most characters are just treated as mad because they're seen horrible things the rest of the world doesn't believe are possible.Makes sense. Wouldn't it be better then, going by that approach, to replace it, mechanically, with some sort of reputation or some other slowly-accumulating disadvantage?You go from a queer kind of fella, to a raving lunatic in dire need of a good bedlam, to a man that looks as if he just escaped from said bedlam.That's social, economic (who'd hire a schizo?), and then finally the legal repercussions respectively, as you now need guardian to sign off on everything you do.If the world is mad, then any sane person will look mad as well. However, if you really ARE mad, well, you really do need the help then.
>>94839238Having a simple point system with different degrees of fright/stress that deplete the points less or more is fine, I think.Depending on the nature of the game, having the rioleplay change the degree of "damage" done to the points can be pretty fun too.Also, that manga is fucking dope and everybody should read it. The unofficial translation comes with a bunch of notes on language and shit and it's a great learning time.I want a prequel manga with the doctor going to another word and getting it on with the she-werewolf.
>>94843317What would be fun about that?
>>94843317>reputation or some other slowly-accumulating disadvantageNot really. You have a harrowing experience which nearly kills you and teaches you something that by conventional wisdom isn't only untrue but nonsensical. If you tell anyone they'll put it down to the stress of your near-death experience and tell you to take time off. You can press the issue and be dismissed as mad, or live a lie.Neither of which need game mechanics because your adventure is over either way.
>>94844224Rather than a boring "oops, your sanity dropped to zero, better call Niggerman! :^)" you have a more engaging depiction of going off the deep end.On one side, there's the normality, the mundane you're used to, on the other — horrors beyond description, to whose reality you can attest.But when you hear your own ravings hurled back at you and asked to listen to them as if you were the old "you", you'd sound to yourself like a crackpot off his meds.Instead of just going loco on the spot, it shows the disconnect between you and the rest of the world through the reaction of other people to what you do or say.And when you can no longer find anyone who could agree with you on what reality is, you can no longer be certain what is true, and what may be the result of stress, drugs, or some underlying mental condition.Basically, you lose touch with reality and the perspective that other people provide, which in itself is traumatic.But worse still, it often exacerbates any preexisting condition, however benign, which makes madness a slowly metastasising malignancy.>>94844313I was thinking more of going insane during the "adventure" and trying to do one's job in spite of it.
>>94842540>>94842946This explains orcs.
>>94844313>Neither of which need game mechanics because your adventure is over either way.Great game where your adventure ends right before it could get interesting for once.
>>94839238I don't.
>>94844480Yeah, but how is "you played too much, now you have to stop" fun? Health is a risk-reward thing, stress is another risk-reward thing. Sanity is a time limit on your investigative career and you can't do fuck all to stop it ticking down.
>>94842540>fetish shit
>>94844959>"you played too much, now you have to stop"Because it makes you realize that you do need to touch grass every now and then.What do relatively-normal people do when they get stressed the fuck out?They take time to unwind. Go on a pub crawl, seek therapy, just sit the fuck down with glass of something and do nothing.Having a healthy and supportive relationship between player characters serves as a bulwark against the madness, and helps people cope with the unwholesome reality.When (in)sanity comes a-knockin', it's a sign that you are running too hot and need to chill the fuck out, lest you explode.It's called a role-playing game, so play the role and do normal people things until you no longer look like a mass shooter in the making.>inb4: "it's a horror campaign and monsters are closing in on the survivors"Do what real people would actually do in such situations. Small things, anything from quietly humming favorite song, to cracking jokes and bantering with other survivors, to arts & crafts with whatever stuff you have available, to even just tidying the place up as best as you can.The solace people find in such things may well be the difference between them losing it completely and going off to take on the big scary thing by their lonesome, or soldiering on long enough to make it out alive.
>>94845505CoC doesn't allow for Sanity gains that get anywhere close to the amount you lose. over the course of the average scenario you probably stand to lose three or four times the amount you can regain.
>>94839238I want them as intrusive as possible, I want them to rip away player agency until the game is reduced to a flowchart.
>>94839238I prefer to play games, not improv theater systems.
>>94844959Many games or all kinds have time or turn limits.
I really like Mothership.I relate to each failure adding a little bit of stress and in critical scenarios having to surpass your collected stress. I understand that it's extremely hard to lower to speed up dead and disuade from longer campaigns, but that's a bit too rough.>>94842199You might want to check Liminal Horror.HP is very low and further damage is deduced from either strength or control (the mental stat)
>>94839238After realizing vast majority of players are incapable of differentiating between in character and out of character perspective I started going meta - to traumatize the character, I must traumatize the player. It takes quite a bit of effort, you need to really know your players and find their mental weakspots to make it work, but once you make that effort the results are spectacular, so far I've had three resignations, one onset of nervous tics, and one emotional breakdown at the table.
as a push your luck mechanic that can kick in during combat if left unchecked for too long
