Into the Gloom - Sanity and Foibles

Sanity
Each character in Into the Gloom has a Sanity Points score, determined by the formula below in the same way as hit points. Each class has a Sanity Hit Die pe level and adds the highest modifier of Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma to their roll each level – just as Constitution determines a character’s hit points. Add the sanity hit die per level and highest modifier to a base of eight. (Eg a Warlock of Level 2 with 16 Charisma would have 2d4 + 3 + 10 Sanity Points – leading to a total of 19 is averages were taken.) Players may take the average as with hit points.  Some classes are more vulnerable or resilient to sanity depletion.  Sanity is recovered by a Long Rest.

D4	D6	D8	D10	D12
Warlock	Barbarian Sorcerer	Druid Rogue Wizard Ranger Bard Monk	Cleric Fighter	Paladin

Numerous things afflict sanity damage, as detailed below:

D6	D8	D10	D12
Being afflicted by a status affliction: Poison, Paralysis, Frightened, Charmed, Slowed, Possession, Exhaustion. Spending one day in The Gloom. Running out of light.	Being struck with an attack that has the Horrifying tag, eg a Banshee’s Wail or an Anophelli’s proboscis. Being hit by a brutal critical.	Being knocked unconscious. Failing a death-save. Running out of supplies or being engaged in a hopeless situation.	Witnessing a party member’s death. Engaging in a serious taboo eg cannibalism. Cosmic horror.

Hitting 0 Sanity will result in a breakdown, causing the acquisition of a Foible. These will have both role-playing and mechanical effects. If you work against your Foible, you will take D6 sanity damage. Working with the Foible will give you bonuses to sanity recovery and inspiration die. Should you hit minus half your Sanity Point Total, your character will die.

ROLL D20	FOIBLE
1	PARANOIA: “I trust my comrades less and less with every passing moment. They are madmen all, who dragged me to this place.” Your character must take all actions for self-preservation, hoarding food and trusting only himself. You automatically fail on saves against Fear effects – characters immune to Fear no longer are. You must argue against trust or diplomacy. Taking actions that harm the party in line with this trait will earn you inspiration and sanity recovery.
2	MAD BRAVADO:  “Three against one? Finally a test!” Your character cares not an inch for self-preservation and will throw themselves into any danger or challenge. You will gain inspiration for every risk you take and will take sanity damage if you attempt to mitigate risk at all.
3	FATALISTIC DESPAIR: “Why fight on? All hope is lost.” You have disadvantage on all mental saving throws. You desire only to give up and surrender yourself to an inevitable doom.
4	FAITHLESS, AT THE END:   “We are the forgotten children of dead gods…”. Your character has lost all faith. Clerics and Paladins lose access to their spells. You are now an Atheist convinced that you live in a cruel and unloving cosmos. You must tear down the faith of your party or risk sanity damage. OR PENITENTIAL: “Oh sweet gods shelter this unworthy form…” You are a fanatic. Only God has spared you from the horrors that abound so far, and only in that faith can you be spared. You must convert the others in your party or risk sanity damage.
5	THE HUNGER: “Just a few more mouthfuls…” You must make a WIS 14 saving throw to not eat and drink double rations whenever rations are consumed. You progress through exhaustion from starvation at double the rate of normal. It will never be enough.
6	CHEMICAL DEPENDENCY:  “A tincture to ease the pain…” Upon returning to town, you find solace in some manner of drug or alcohol. You must consume or utilise that drug every day with your rations of suffer withdrawal (use rules for exhaustion) or in moments of extreme stress. Choose/agree with DM: Laudanum: 5GP a dose. If taken immediately before combat, use the MAD BRAVADO rules to adjudicate the subsequent euphoria. Long-term use results in damage to Constitution (1point per week of addiction). Gin: 1gp a dose. If taken enough to become drunk, take disadvantage on anything requiring rolls link to Intelligence, Dexterity or Wisdom.
7	EATING DISORDER:  You are too shaken to eat, and sustenance does little to dampen your despair. You must pass a 12 WILL save to eat when rations are consumed. Normal starvation penalties apply.
8	BLOODLUST: “I will spill your intestines in the dirt and trample them, Gloomling!” You exult only in carnage and death. You only find peace in war, mutilation and combat. You do not recover sanity damage through rest, but upon killing a foe you may gain 1d4 sanity recovery. You may spend an action mutilating their corpse for a further 1d6.  You take sanity damage if you seek a peaceful or diplomatic solution.
9	THIS IS A GAME: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players…” You are a aware of living in a reality controlled by the rules of a mad and careless god known as DE-EM, and that you are merely the pawn of some otherworldly avatar. You hear all table conversation in character – adjudicate sanity loss or gain as appropriate.
10	Photophobia:  “Away from the burning light, a blanket of perfect night.” You fear the light. You gain the Bright Light Sensitivity of many Gloom monsters (disadvantage on attack rolls in bright light) but gain 20” of Darkvision. You can recover sanity by resting in perfect darkness.
11	Nyctophobia: “It is not the dark I fear but what lurks within it.” You fear the pervasive dark of The Gloom more than anything. You take sanity damage if in anything less than bright light and must roll a WIS 10 or become frightened of areas of severe darkness.
12	Pyromania: “A righteous fire would scour clean the world.” You are obsessed with burning things and the power of fire. You may recover sanity by burning objects, buildings, creatures and fellow adventurers. Magic you cast that does fire damage does an extra 1d4 damage.
13	Compulsive: “Eighteen times around the candle so the Grue doesn’t get us.” You develop a debilitating compulsion eg: You must open and close every door five times. You must have an even number of torches burning at any one time. You must be on guard in the same order each night. You take sanity damage if you fail to live up to your compulsion.
14	Anthrophobia/Introversion: “……….”.  Noone understands you, so increasingly you prefer solitude and silence and the self. You have disadvantage on Persuasion and Performance rolls and will rest physically removed from other adventurers, with attendant dangers. If placed in crowds of some kind, you take sanity damage.
15	Solipsism: “A dream within a dream.” You believe that you alone are real, and the rest are mere shades in an endless dream. You couldn’t be expected to take this charade seriously, or care too much for the well-being of the other ‘people’. You gain inspiration for foregrounding yourself and taking the stage. You take sanity damage if you become a minor character in your own dream.
16	Gallows-Humour. “First the physician told me the good news – they’d name the disease after me…”  You can find the mirth in the darkest quagmire and make others revel at the absurdity of the macabre. Once per short rest when an ally would take sanity damage, you may make a witty remark and reduce that damage by your Charisma modifier (minimum 1).
17	Masochist: “My tastes are…unconventional.”  Whenever you would take sanity damage from physical harm, recover that sanity damage instead.
18	Serenity:  “What is this but a quintessence of dust?”  You possess the unerring calm of a Bodhisattva. If you spend an adventuring turn in meditation, you recover your sanity. If at full sanity, you gain a buffer of temporary sanity points equivalent to your level.
19	Stoic:  “This too shall pass.” You have faced many horrors and survived. Every time you would take sanity damage, roll a d4 and subtract the result from the damage. If this would result in a minus number, you regain sanity.
20	Valiant: “Once more into the breach!” You are unbroken by the horrors around you. Recover to your sanity total. If you commit an act of self-sacrifice or bravery, you may recover 1d4 sanity for yourself or an ally.