Sanity Scores (SS)

WHAT ARE SANITY SCORES?

If you were reading the Step-By-Step Character Creation Guide, you may have been wondering why you needed to add a section for Sanity Scores. Sanity Scores is something I added to the DnD 5e section to add to the psychological horror aspect of the game. Something that I have always found missing in the DnD system is a metric of the impact of a character's action. Because of this, I have developed a simple system to track it in Launtrel campaigns. Simply put, a Sanity Score is the measure of a character's sanity. Every character starts at 100 SS, or sanity score. This represents a normal life, seeing normal things. If you personally wish to have a lower score to reflect a character's background, you are free to do so after a discussion with me. After traumatic events in a campaign, a character may lose sanity to represent seeing or enduring a horror that is unimaginable. Sanity can be regained in a few ways which I will discuss later. SS adds a layer of roleplay for characters and paves the way for a natural character arch and progression. As a character loses sanity, the lower and lower they go, the more irrational, emotional, and unstable they may act. In this setting, sanity doesn't necessarily correlate with real world sanity and is not meant to completely. Instead of real world insanity, picture Lovecraftian sanity. While it does sound and may act similar, I urge you to disconnect it for the sake of being respectful to people who face it in real life.

HOW SANITY SCORES WORK

I assure you, the Sanity Score system is incredibly easy to follow. In this section, I will outline the system and how it will work in the campaign.

The Progression

As mentioned before, unless discussed prior, all characters start with a SS of 100. This represents the fact that they were normal people, seeing normal things in every day life. As your character learns more about the world they call home, see things that can break any mortal's brain, and even have curses bestowed upon them, their sanity scores will slowly lower. When/if a character reaches 10, they are deemed "Corrupted". Roleplay wise, the character should be acting unstable, unhinged, irrational, paranoid, ect. Depending on the authorities of the region the character is in, they may be imprisoned for the safety of themselves and others. Some regions may not care, and leave them free. At a SS score of 10, it is still possible for a character to regain sanity, but it is difficult and tedious. Once a character reaches a SS of 0, there is no hope for them. They are essentially dead; uncontrollable monsters. At this point, the character should be essentially a babbling mess or on a murderous rampage. Mechanically, a character will be removed from play. They may become an NPC for future plots, or they may just fade away as if they had literally died. If they do become an NPC, I will discuss with the role-player first. You can trust they will be utilized in an honorable way.

Sanity Score Loss

To determine if a character loses sanity after a certain event that occurred, I will ask the player to roll a Constitution Saving Throw against a pre-set (and unknown to you) DC. If they pass, they do not lose any sanity. If they fail, they will lose a few points of their SS. The amount of SS lost depends on the event. A more serious event will result in a larger SS loss, whereas a smaller event will result in less. You are free to roleplay how your character would react to this loss in anyway you think your character would. An example could be crying/sobbing, yelling out, or simply going numb. Once a character experiences a SS loss from an event, they are less likely to have to take another Constitution Saving Throw for the same or similar event to demonstrate their hardening soul to the horrors of the world.

Regaining Sanity Score

SS is allowed to be regained in a campaign or outside of a campaign by roleplaying it out in the Discord server (for those with less time on their hands, simply letting me know at the start of a session how your character regained SS). To regain SS, a character must make another Constitution Saving Throw against a DC of 17. If a character fails, they still regain SS but not so much as if they pass. If they fail the saving throw, a character will regain 5 SS. If a character passes, they will regain 10 SS. If the SS recovery happens in session, the roll will happen then. At the start of every session, we will take a few minutes to roll for regaining SS for actions taken off-screen.

Here are a few examples of how a character can regain SS:

• Visiting a psychologist and paying for a session to process everything that happened. (Most major cities have at least one.)
• Spending time with friends or companions in a bar discussing what happened.
• Visiting a healer that uses magic to help recover SS. (Much harder to find- but may result in additional SS gained.)
• Leaving a campaign and returning to normal life for an extended period of time. (Results in regaining additional SS, but means taking your character out of rotation and experiencing the RP effects of doing so.)
• Volunteer work.
• Creating art to use it as therapy to unpack what you have experienced.
• Extensive meditation.

CONSEQUENCES OF SANITY SCORES (Losing and Regaining)

The fun of SS is expanding your character's personality, creating a natural character arch, and experiencing the roleplay that comes with it. I don't demand extensive, drawn out roleplay around this (it is very much welcome on the Discord), but I urge you to use it to your advantage. I have outlined a few, generic examples of what the effects of SS can be on characters. Feel free to get creative, and react in your characters own way!

RP By SS Scale

• 100-80 = Perfectly fine. Perhaps a little troubled in thoughts, but still the same as they were before.
• 80-70 = Getting a little anxious and concerned, but still able to keep functioning normally.
• 70-60 = Perhaps, this is when mild nightmares start.
• 60-50 = The nightmares are getting worse, and you're very jumpy.
• 50-40 = The nightmares are constant. You begin to become paranoid and possibly over react to minor things.
• 40-30 = Everything troubles you. Sleep is becoming more difficult, and the trust you have in your companions is slipping.
• 20-30 = Sleep is nearly impossible. You lash out to the people around you and nobody can be trusted. You're in self-preservation mode.
• 20-10 = Always on guard, things seem to be happening to you but not to others. You're seeing and hearing things that are not there.
• 10 = You're losing it. Your actions don't resemble who you were before, the terror is constant. Violence is your go-to reaction.
• 9-1 = You're nearly completely gone and immersed in a world that does not exist. The monsters surround you at all times and you're constantly fighting them, unaware of your surroundings.
• 0 = You are too far gone. Your consciousness has been Corrupted and there is no returning.

Example of SS Loss

For the last couple days, Revelia Gronson (PC) has been traveling with Mint Moonherd (NPC). Over this time, the two have become very close. Sent out on this mission by the Atithe Center, the pair believed they were merely tracking down a gryphin egg. However, the last few nights have led them to believe a strange and unidentifiable creature had been following them. Uneasy, they continue on while keeping an eye out for this creature. A sudden shift in the light causes Mint to jump, startled. With a hand on their longsword, Revelia glances around to see the source of this disruption.
"Watch for any movement that way. We'll go back to back- this... creature can't escape our sight this way." Revelia orders, shifting to position their back against Mint's after a curt nod from the Horned One. The pair watches, on edge, ready to fight whatever comes their way.

A scream. One so sudden and sharp that Revelia spins around with their sword drawn.
Before the pair stands a creature they had never heard of. Nobody probably heard of. Certainly, one not documented before. The creature is resembles a rotting corpse of a bear with a dragon's head. Black ooze leaks from the decayed holes, spattering the ground around it. The height of the creature easily allows it to brush the tree tops, forcing it to hunch over to allow it to move freely. Together, the pair stand frozen as it snarls and hisses, displaying rows of sharp and molded teeth.

The creature doesn't hesitate though. With a gurgled snarl, the creature lunges forward to attack. With Mint in its sight as the closest target, it reaches them at an alarming speed. Picking Mint up in its massive talons, the Horned One thrashes about, screaming and begging for Revelia to do something as the creature lowers its jaws to their torso. With a final cry, Mint's voice pierces the forest landscape. With their own roar of anger, Revelia launches forward with their longsword and stabs it through the creature's thigh. Snarling, almost surprised, the creature drops Mint like discarded trash and scrambles off. Destroying branches in its wake, the creature is gone.
Kneeling next to the body of their dear friend... Revelia rolls a Constitution Saving Throw and fails the roll... the sobs begin to wrack their body. This is the first death they had ever witnessed, the scariest thing they had ever seen, and are now left alone defenseless in the woods with that thing. The horror of it all leaves Revelia sobbing until a passerby comes along.
Alternatively: After Revelia failed the roll- Revelia wanted to cry but they felt nothing. Numb, they stood. There was nothing else to do but return back home. Mustering all of their strength, they heave Mint's body to their shoulders. With a blank expression, they start their journey home. Mint deserves a proper burial.

Example of Regaining SS

When the passerby came along, they found Revelia sobbing next to the gore of Mint's body. Concerned, they try coaxing Revelia to share what happened. After calming them down, Revelia still had refused to speak. Coaxing them onto their horse, the passerby returned back to Citadelis with Revelia behind them in the saddle. There was no room for Mint, but the passerby assured Revelia that they would alert the City Guards or the Atithe Center to retrieve them. After being dropped off at the Atithe Center's gates, the shaken hero headed back inside. Once their Leader had been debriefed on the situation, they were told to visit Lillian's Psychiatry office. And so, they did.

After paying Lillian's hourly fee for two hours, the pair sat down and worked through what happened. Lillian does not believe Revelia- there are bears in the woods and such, it must be a sick one- but she is helpful none-the-less. When the time is up, Revelia leaves feeling stable and okay. Revelia rolls a Constitution Saving Throw and passes, regaining 10 SS. It was a bad situation and scary, but they did their best. Next time, they would do better.

QUICK NOTES:

• All characters start with a SS of 100.
•  Losing and Regaining SS is determined by rolling a Constitution Saving Throw.
• At a SS of 10, characters may become detained by authorities. They can still regain SS.
• At a SS of 0, characters are essentially 'dead' and cannot be played anymore.