Sanity rules for Savage Tide

[cthulhudarren]

I'm thinking of trying sanity rules in my Savage Tide campaign.

Sanity Rules

Has anyone else considered this or used this? What are your thoughts?

[Luna eladrin]

It is certainly a type of campaign where they fit. The rules would also enforce the atmosphere of certain scenes a lot.

Spoiler:

Such as the sargasso.

[Carl Cramér]

I don't think its really a good idea. Yes, there are sanity-blasting scenes, especially in the later parts. But Savage Tide is written for the players to win. Sanity rules are written for the players to lose in the end.

Still, you game, your choice.

[Luna eladrin]

But then again, there are magical ways to heal insanity.

[cthulhudarren]

Luna eladrin wrote:

But then again, there are magical ways to heal insanity.

Yeah, I don't want it all to just end up as "mental HPs", I'd want PCs developing nervous ticks, phobias, and other fun stuff.

[Triple20]

I think it can add some atmosphere if used sparingly.

Spoiler:

in ours i touched on it a little with Olangru and the fog (really just played up the Wisdom loss from the dreams etc)

Later on in Lightless Depth, i introduced some really basic rules when they first saw Golismorga -

SAN Check!

The sights, sounds & smells of this aberrant place are….reducing your calm

Make a DC 10 Will save, or take one point of temporary Wisdom damage.

If this is not the first time you’ve made a SAN check today, increase the DC by 1 for every other SAN check you’ve made today.

If you gain spells based on Wisdom and the drop in Wisdom reduces your bonus spells, immediately roll to randomly determine which spell slot you lose (it may well be slot you’ve used up already)

If the Wisdom reduction places your Wisdom below the required bonus to cast spells of a specific level, you lose all spells of that level. The minimum Wisdom required to cast Divine spells is 10 + spell level.

You can regain lost Wisdom by magic or by resting somewhere… safe. Note if you lost spells by Wis. loss, and regain it naturally, you do not regain any lost spells until you re-memorise (if restored by Magic, the spells are regained immediately).

Please inform the DM if your Wisdom is becomes 3 or less

They're prompted to make checks in the city when the building's start screaming, or when they see a Neh-Thalggu for the first time etc

Is not meant to be debilitating, just really to build up some tension.

Once they're back out of the city, i will no longer apply the rules (wel,, until maybe the Maw...)