Regarding Sanity and Spell-casting

[MedievalMan]

This is just a question, no subsystem. No optional rules. Just a question.

How would you guys treat rules for sanity in a horror game? More specifically how would you handle having magic-users having some sort of sanity system tied with their spell-casting? Like magic is bad and hurts your connection to reality sort of thing.

[Sir Bedivere]

I like the old Call of Cthulhu system where every character begins with a sanity at or near 99 and then, when certain kinds of events occur, have to effectively make a % save or go insane for a period of time and lose sanity points. There were other ways to lose points as well, like adding to one's knowledge of Cthulhu, etc. I don't remember the mechanic right now; it's been a long time since I played. But, basically, everyone dies or goes insane in the end.

Sorry if that spoiled it for you.

For BF, I don't know. Maybe you could tie it to Wisdom?

[MedievalMan]

Well I have this system already that I got from an OD&D house rule sollection (I updated it for BF). Though it doesn't have anything to do with spell-casting.

Sanity:

Wisdom score as a measurement of his/her sanity. A character with a Wisdom score of 18 has a firm grasp of the nature of reality, considerable self-discipline, and remarkable strength of will. In contrast, a character with a Wisdom score of 3 is barely lucid, easily confuses reality with fantasy, and is on the border of lapsing into madness. Characters with Wisdom scores of 2 or lower are utterly insane, and must be treated as non-player characters. (If this Wisdom loss is temporary, as explained below, the character is under the control of the Game Master until he/she regains his/her sanity.)

If a character witnesses an unspeakable horror, the Game Master may require the player to make a saving throw versus spells. The saving throw should be modified by the severity of the horror in question. If the character fails his or her saving throw, he or she loses points of temporary Wisdom. The exact amount should be determined by rolling 1d6. If a ‘6’ is rolled, the character also permanently loses one point of Wisdom (i.e., one permanent point of Wisdom and five temporary points of Wisdom). Temporarily lost points of Wisdom may be regained at a rate of one point per day of complete rest.

But I am looking for something more along the lines of casting spells causes some sort of temporary sanity damage or something.

[Dimirag]

I play CJ Carella's WitchCraft and it use a simple fear table: you make a Willpower roll and in the case of failure you roll again and use a table that give effects like temporary penalties to lasting mental disorders.
For BFRP... Maybe roll d20 + Wis/Cha (strong personality) +/- mods like spell level, terror effect based on situation/monster and the results on a table goes from "shaking legs, -2 penalty to physical actions for d4 rounds" to "complete panic attack, you end with white hair and a drooling mouth".
Some effects could (or should) give temporary or permanent fear modifiers so even little scares can add up to create a bigger effect.

Another way of using Sanity/Insanity....
Each time something perturbing happens to a player roll a die (size depending on how disturbing it is) and add it to a "Tension Pool", at a stated value (maybe based on character level and/or class?) make them roll a Saving Throw so they don't suffer a minor mental instability (or if they already have one it can increase to its "next level" or add a new one). The points on the Tension Pool can be reduced by sleeping on a "safe" place, having a relaxing time, etc.

So lets say a Level 3 fighter has a Tension Threshold of... 12 (Level x4 or equal to HP or based on Hit die) he has have a though night so he currently has 20TP accumulated (he made a successful ST), when confronted with an horrifying spider-creature he gains 6TP so he needs to make two ST (or one with a penalty) or suffer a spider related mental instability.
Lets suppose he fails this time, and to make matter worst he already have a spider-related mental instability (which at the GM option could have given an extra penalty to the ST...)
So, the character will ad a new mental instability or increase its fear towards spiders (so, depending on the choice made he will have two mental drawbacks that causes minor problems or one fear/mental drawback that can put the character at mental and physical risk more easily).

BTW with this message the General Discussion area has reached its 4000 messages!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MedievalMan]

Thats cool about 4000 messages.

You know that tension pool idea reminds me of an optional rule from Barrowmaze. It was something like every time a character encountered the undead or whenever a companion fled in fear (their were lots of things to make flee in fear) you added 1 to what the author called "the fear factor". Once you reached your Wisdom score in points you would basically flee like a madman for a certain period of time. If I remember right you could reduce the points at a rate of like 1 per week or day or something. Heavy drinking was optional. It was both funny and appropriate at the same time. I of course haven't read the book in awhile, but it was pretty close to what I just described.

EDIT
Alright it was 3 points for a whenever a companion flees in fear and 1 point for whenever you encounter a group of undead.

[Joe the Rat]

You could also mine whatever it was they used for horror in Ravenloft (the setting). Charisma could come into play here as well - strength of self-concept.

Do you want to give them a natural buffer, or start plinking coins into the fountain of madness with every spell? For the latter, you'll need more granularity than a 3-18 stat.

[MedievalMan]

I am not really sure. See its a friend of mine who has been asking me a lot about horror stuff lately. He only really specified that he was looking for some sort of system for sanity and spell-casting. I will ask him next time I see him what he is really looking for.