There are role-playing games (RPGs) designed to take horror as the main theme, like horror novels. Games designed around the concept that there are events and things making people jump, or squirm, or go mad. However, there are elements of horror in most stories, those we read, see, hear, and play. Elements of horror are important in storytelling because they help in creating the mood for the people experience the story as it unravels to them. A problem with many RPGs is the elements of horror aren't used, skimmed over, or, even more common, missed by the players.The party of adventures break through the doors of the unholy shrine after fighting through the cultist minions. They are facing the evil high priest who is standing behind a sacrificial altar. Spread before the priest is a scene of gruesome proportions: blood and body parts spread out and beyond the altar—blood has splattered to the corners of the room. The iron scent from the blood mixes with the incense and charcoal burning in the five braziers set at the points of a pentagram. And, the air is full of the moans of more cultists chained to the walls on either side. The wails take on an unworldly proportion. Each moan escaping their lips comes out a black wisp moving and curling together to make a cloud above the sacrifice.
The next move is, the party attacks the priest and dispatch the chained cultists.
The element of horror designed into the encounter becomes lost on the players as they are involved in the building of the story. The goal here, therefore, is to provide a mechanic allowing players to experience some level of the horror without slowing down the action or story building taking place.
This mechanic is based on a d20 system and it can be easily translated over to other systems. It is designed to give guidance and not to be an absolute rule.
A Character's Sanity Score
The Sanity score is an independent score that is adjusted like hit points through game play. The score reflects the mental health/strength/sanity of the character at the given moment in time.
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| From Night of the Living Dead |
Characters start with a sanity score of +4. A game master (GM) can start at a higher level if they feel the characters have a better grip on events. The basic of the discussions held on the starting points is summed up here.
The argument for higher scores is that adventuring characters are subject to the horrors of adventuring so they are not as easily affected.
My argument for a lower starting number is most characters are not used to seeing these types of horrors. Further, in the discussions I noticed the argument was based more on what the players and GMs noted they had heard and faced over years of gaming from the viewpoints of different characters. Descriptions are given in adventures, but the full impact of the visual, odor, feeling of the scene is not as easily represented when players are focusing on the strategic elements of the upcoming battle.
As characters advance, their sanity score increases by 1d4 per level. This reflects the increasing mental fortitude of the character as they have become exposed to more horrific events and scenes. This combined total is the maximum sanity of the character. More on this when talking about recovery of sanity.
Creating a Horror Rating
Encounters are given a horror rating by the GM. This is purely a subjective number. At first, I put together some guidelines for how to score this rating. But, after discussions, it was easy to see each GM had a different concept of what they classify as horrific for the campaign they were running. For example, orcs are raised to a different level of brutality than merchants in colonial America. This also allows for the use of a lower starting number of points because the GM can moderate the horror rating of the encounters
Not every encounter needs a horror rating. When running an adventure and the scene is fitting to the campaign, the characters would probably not consider it to be horrific. Placing a slaughter house in an adventure would have very different impacts on characters from different eras.
Exposure to more horrific scenes will always have an impact on a character. This means any horror rating of 15 or greater will always have some effect on a character. Whereas, lesser scores may not.
Sanity Score Versus the Horror Rating
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| From Nosferatu |
If the horror rating is equal to or less than the character's current sanity score, there is no affect. The character is mentally strong/sane enough to deal with the encounter. If the horror score is greater than the character's current sanity score, a check is required. Roll a d20 and add the sanity score to the roll to determine if there is an affect. When the combined total is equal to or greater than the horror rating, there is no affect. Otherwise, the character loses 1 point to their sanity score.
Any encounter that has a horror check of 15 or more always takes 1 sanity point from the character when they succeed a check, or 2 if the check fails.
If a player rolls a 1 on the d20 it is an automatic failure.
Example
The party rushes into the room encountering the evil priest amidst a sacrifice. The GM has decided the mixture of sight, sounds, and odors are enough to warrant a horror rating of 20.
Diane, playing a fighter, has a current sanity score of +25. The scene shakes her up a little, but because her sanity score is higher than the rating, she doesn't need to make a check. She loses 1 point and her sanity score is now +24.
Bob, playing a wizard, has a current sanity score of +16. He makes a check. The d20 rolls a 15. The 16 is added to the 15 for a total of 31, success. But, since the scene is so horrific his sanity score still goes down by 1 point to +15.
Dave's character comes into the room with a sanity score of +15, and he rolls a 4. Dave missed the check. He loses 2 point (1 for missing and 1 for the scene being above a 15) and his score adjusts to +13.
What This Does for the Players
This is not an absolute rule, or table to check against, telling players what is happening to their character and how to play them. It is provided as a guideline: a score to help them stay in the storyline with what the characters are encountering.
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| Film festival of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror |
Consider any positive score as maintaining a sane state of being. The higher the score the more grounded the character is in their reality. The closer to zero the score gets the less stable they are becoming. The stresses of adventuring is slowly and steadily wearing their mental state down.
If a character reaches zero on their sanity score, their mentally state is in question. The further in the minus they go the worse they become. At -10 they are insane, which can only be cured magically, or through serious therapy.
Each player decides for their character how the character reacts. This might sound a little loose, but everyone responds differently. One person might develop a phobia, while another might do the opposite and embrace what they are seeing. Character quirks and flaws can develop over long or short term. They might go quieter, hoping to hide away from more encounters, or get louder. Giving the players the liberty to develop how they play allows the character's individual "sanity" to play a part. In playtesting one player started using it to argue for the group to turn back, even though most everyone else had been unaffected by what they had encountered.
Regaining Lost Sanity
Regaining points to a character's sanity score requires the character to spend time doing something to get balance back in their life.
Personal activity can be done to restore a sense of well-being, or balance. Exercises (like yoga, mental exercises, performing kata, martial training) or mediations (spending time in a comforting surrounding) or common forms dealing with stress. The surrounding would be a place the character is comfortable. This provides 1 point over 4 days of rest or activity where a least 2 hours a day are spent on the activity. This type of activity is individualized. What some people find relaxing others don't. The idea is to have the characters take some down time, relax, and deal with some of the stress they have been living through.
Counseling can be done in a group, or individually with a trained counselor. Counseling sessions are at least 1 hour in 1 day. And, a character needs 2 sessions (2 days of counseling) to regain 1 point. This is with a group, or counselor, who understands that what the character is seeing is in fact real. If the group or counselor don't believe the character, then the number of days is doubled (same as doing it on your own, but with less time each day).
Some activities can combine the personal and group activity and the best of the combination would help restore a person.
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| A recent horror read (review) |
When dealing in magical settings, clerics could be used as counselors and spells can be used to restore sanity. This can be done along the same lines as curing wounds with spells designed to help the mental state instead of the physical (i.e., Cure Light Mental Infliction, Calm Nerves).
This sanity score works in different settings equally well and can be easily added in at any time. Along with the player who was trying to talk the party to retreat from possible more encounters, another play-tester used their misses as a guide to how they responded in the encounter. Both players used the score in different ways to enhance their role-playing.
The party advances into the room. The fighter charges forward letting out a war cry of her Amazonian tribe. The wizard steps to the side of the doorway and starts casting a spell targeting the evil priest. The cleric enters and stumbles a little from the scene. While the cleric gathers himself to focus on the gathering dark mass above the altar the thief pushes around him. The smell rocks him back on his heels for just a moment and he stuffs a cloth in his mouth to breathe through as he moves towards the cultists on the right wall.
Originally published on Stuffer Shack.
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