[Norseband] Should the Sanity stat be retained?

[ISNorden]

Ever since I decided to base Norseband partly on ToME (and I had done that before DarkGod was forced to use the name ToME by the McCaffrey estate!)...I have considered eliminating the Sanity statistic in my module/variant-to-be. How do you, the players, feel about that subject?

[Faeryan]

Definitely!
Maybe it might not fit into Norseband as it is now, but even if there were no Cthulhu monsters around people might still go nuts.
One doesn't have to see Shub-Niggurath to lose his sanity, but a swarm of gnats can do that also.
Normal hit from a monster can't drive you crazy, but there might be some traps that can. Dealing with gods and magic is certain way to make you insane. I really think sanity meter should be found also in Norseband.

[boucman]

I don't know of norsern mythology that much, so I can't really answer... It all depends whether insanity was common in that mythology. Do you have many legends where the hero turns crazy (even temporarly) or do you have a crazy god ?

[ISNorden]

If the effects of insanity itself were changed in Norseband (something more in-theme than silly hallucinations and combat messages), it might be worth retaining; effects like these come to mind:

1. Fear, confusion and/or stunning on the crazed character at random intervals, occurring in spite of ordinary resists to those attack forms.

2. Berserk rage and aggravation striking the character at random intervals--and a constant Charisma penalty until a cure is found for the madness.

3. Spell failure rates increased (someone who can't think straight may miscast a spell...)

4. More believable hallucinations, without the silly names and pop-culture references...and no name change without an image change.

As for whether characters in any Norse story go crazy--Scandinavian folk tales usually connect madness with curses, especially from the undead or malignant nature spirits. (Cutting down certain trees could anger the "occupant" enough to drive the cutter insane, but that might make gameplay unreasonably difficult in forest dungeons!)

Regarding the gods, Odin's own name is connected with Germanic words for madness; so going crazy might be a side effect of botching one of that god's priest spells. (If I implement that rule though, Odin's priests should have some very attractive benefit or nobody will play one!)

[Ben-San Arizona]

I am personally not a big fan of the SAN system being applied in basically any non-Lovecraftian game. If madness has the kind of defined effects you describe and is supposed to be the result of a curse, why not make it an on-off flag? I don't see curses as being likely to make you just a little bit crazy, with more curses coming in and making you more and more full-on wacko.
Also, using flags instead of a SAN scale would let you split up effects: "afflicted with a berserker madness", "afflicted by false visions", "taunted by unheard voices", or so on, instead of an insanity that sometimes does one thing and sometimes does something entirely unrelated. Plus, "Henceforth, mortal, shall your own eyes deceive you!" sounds better than "Henceforth, mortal, shall you be kind of crazy in a bunch of ways!" :P

[ISNorden]

You've got a good point, although replacing a quasi-Lovecraftian stat with a flag-based insanity system will have to wait for "full edition" Norseband. T-Engine 226 can't add new flags unless somebady hacks the source code...and considering my near-nonexistent skill in C programming, I'm probably best off waiting for T-Engine 3 to revise the system so drastically. In the meantime, Norseband Lite will at least edit the list of hallucination names to minimize theme-breaking silliness.