Updated:  2009-10-14

Occasionally a situation calls for a character to make a check of his sanity.  This typically happens in horror campaigns involving Things Man Was Not Meant To Know.

When a sanity check is called for, the character will roll a task against his Willpower asset.  The difficulty of the task will depend upon the situation and is determined by the referee.  A Success or Outstanding Success indicates the character retains his sanity.  On a Failure, roll on the Insanity Table, below.  On a Catastrophic Failure, double the roll.

Each of these mental maladies is usually capable of being solved with psychiatric assistance.  Unless otherwise noted, a character or NPC with Psychology skill can counsel the mentally-disturbed character on resolving the problem.  At least one hour a week has be be spent doing this to make any progress.  After each four hours of counseling, the affected character may test to see if he can shake the problem.  This is a Formidable vs. Willpower (plus the counselor's actual Psychology skill level) test.  Some mental problems have alternate methods of solution.  These are listed, with specific problems, as appropriate.

A sanity check should normally only be made if the character suffers a Catastrophic Failure on a Fear check, though the referee may determine an encounter so mind-bendingly alien that a sanity check be made on its own.

The sanity check should be made by the referee and kept secret from the player.  The referee should not reveal the result except during game play as it becomes appropriate.  For example, if the character develops a phobia of rats, this should not be revealed until the character encounters (or thinks of) a rat.  Some maladies may become readily apparent, others may take time to be detected — after all, the word "depressed" doesn't suddenly appear on the character's forehead.

Depression:  The character becomes depressed with life and the world around him, often seeing futility in all courses of action.  He suffers from regular bouts of hopelessness and fails to see any hope in existence.  Characters are likely to lose any interest in doing anything but moping; all tests are one difficulty level higher.  Curing this malady may be accomplished by psychological counseling, but an important success can restore confidence.  each time a character succeeds at an important skill test of Formidable or Impossible difficulty, the character makes an immediate Difficult: Willpower test.  Success means the character has cheered up, realizing his efforts can do some good after all.

Phobia:  The character develops an irrational phobia based upon the situation that caused it (the exact phobia is up to the referee.  Examples: darkness, spiders, heights, monsters in general, etc.).  When confronted with this situation the character will do anything to avoid it immediately, and if forced to remain in this situation, will panic completely as per the Fear rule.  Curing the fear requires psychiatric counseling, or the character can confront the fear.  Each time the character is exposed to the source of the phobia, the character makes an immediate Impossible: Willpower test.  Success means the character has beaten the fear and broken the hold of the phobia.

Compulsion:  The character suffers from an obsessive compulsion related to the situation that caused it.  This can range from a compulsion to defeat a certain person or creature or even protect something.  Whatever the compulsion is, it will become an overriding feature of the character's actions and will always be the most important thing in the character's life.

Dependence:  The character develops a dependence upon a substance of some kind.  This can range from alcohol to drugs to something as silly as hard candy.  The referee and player work together to determine what the dependent substance is, and what the effects will be.  Common sense should indicate the most suitable dependence.  This can sometimes become a dependence upon a specific person.

Amnesia:  The character suffers from instant amnesia whereby memories of past events are forgotten.  These might be recent events, events of long ago, or a combination of both.  Amnesiacs can even forget their own identity in rare cases.  The length of amnesia is up to the referee.

Treating amnesia is trickier than normal psychiatric counseling; usually each amnesiac has to recover on his own.  Recovering from amnesia is an exception to the usual Psychology counseling rule; each time the amnesiac undergoes psychological counseling for a period of a week (at least 14 hours during that week), or is confronted with great psychological stress or trauma, the amnesiac makes an Impossible: Willpower test for recovery.

Aggression:  The character becomes far more short-tempered and prone to violent behavior, often resorting to violence even when another course of action is more suitable.

Paranoia:  Paranoid characters believe that they are the targets of some heinous (and totally imaginary) plot.  The referee should assign a specific group or organization that the character believes is after him, based upon the situation which caused the disorder and the character's history (this can be a real organization or one made up solely for this purpose).  Paranoid characters will develop an unreasoning fear of "them" and will do anything to ensure their own safety, often going to great lengths to achieve this.  Paranoid characters will often construct ludicrously complex explanations to fit ordinary events into their world view.  Paranoia requires twice as much psychiatric attention (time spent counseling the patient) as normal.

Hallucination:  The character suffers from regular hallucinations of a distressing nature and often cannot distinguish between reality and a hallucinatory state.  The exact nature of the hallucinations should be assigned by the referee and involve something from the situation that caused the condition.  The hallucinations will often cause the character see things which are not there, even seeing friends as foes.

Delusion:  Delusionary characters believe themselves to something they are not.  This can range from being someone else, to the feeling of invincibility or the belief that someone else is actually non-human, etc.  The delusions do not go away and once defeated will shift to another target.  This requires twice as much psychiatric attention (time spent counseling the patient) as normal.

Multiple Personalities:  The character develops a number of personalities as determined by the referee.  Each personality manifests under certain conditions and will  be markedly different from the others.  The referee and the player should work together to determine the "characters" of each personality.  This state requires nearly constant psychiatric care, and the patient only tests every month for a cure.

Psychosis:  The character becomes very dangerous, losing touch with reality and often violently hostile to all.  To a certain extent, such characters will see themselves as invincible and will never believe they are doing anything wrong.  Unpredictability is the key word here.  This requires twice as much psychiatric attention (time spent counseling the patient) as normal.

Catatonia:  Catatonic characters lose touch with the outside world and completely freeze up, becoming trapped in their own minds.  This cannot be cured through psychology; only the individual can bread the barrier that makes his body immobile.