Fear and Sanity
Fear and Sanity are optional rules from Harker's Guide to Vampire Hunting. If you choose to use Fear and Sanity in your MythCraft game, you and your players can find the full list of Psyche Talents here.
Fear
Fear is a mechanic that represents the mental and psychological strain put on heroes for enduring horrific circumstances. At certain intervals throughout the game, you may be forced to gain Psyche talents. These are abilities that build upon one another and impose hardships on your character, potentially changing your playstyle.
Sanity
You gain a third Metaphysical attribute: Sanity (SAN). This represents your ability to endure terror. SAN modifies Sanity attribute checks (as with any other attribute check). SAN increases your Fear Threshold. For every 2 points of SAN, your Fear Threshold increases by +1.
With an extra attribute to manage, you gain additional Attribute Points:
- Begin the game with +1 Attribute Point.
- Gain +1 extra Attribute Point at levels 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 29.
Scaling Campaign DifficultyIf the MC wants to run a less deadly campaign, heroes may also gain +1 extra Attribute Point when they gain a Professional rank. If the MC wants to run a more deadly campaign, the heroes gain no extra Attribute Points at all. |
Negative Sanity
If your Sanity is -1, -2, or -3, subtract that number from your Fear Threshold. This will likely result in you gaining Psyche talents every time you Take a Rest.
Fear Threshold
Your Fear Threshold represents how much psychological strain you can endure at once. Your Fear Threshold is 1 + your SAN bonus.
You gain +1 Fear at certain instances:
- Failing a Sanity check.
- Fear-inducing abilities (from creatures, etc.).
- Witnessing something horrific (often a predetermined story moment).
- You Take a Rest without being in a Haven.
You remove 1 Fear at certain instances:
- Certain abilities (spells, class features, etc.).
- Godly or supernaturally powerful boons (often predetermined story moments).
- Providing an offering or sacrifice to a Shrine.
- Taking Psyche talents removes a set amount of Fear, but these talents have negative consequences.
- Lesser Restoration.
Greater Restoration removes all Fear, or removes 1 Psyche talent that does not have the soul scar tag.
If your hero has Fear, this doesn’t mean they are cowering and shivering in the corner. Heroes are dynamic characters, and fear can affect every hero differently. It can cause them to be irritable, paranoid, withdrawn, or even more determined and stubborn. Consider the Psyche talents that your hero has and how that might impact their behavior in various circumstances. A paranoid hero will, for example, be less likely to trust new potential allies in a social situation, but will be a valuable asset when leading a party through a booby-trapped ruin.
Exceeding the Threshold
If your Fear is greater than your Fear Threshold, you must resolve the excess Fear before you can Take a Rest. You can resolve Fear by taking Psyche talents or using other methods of reducing your Fear, such as Lesser Restoration. If you do not, you gain Fatigue and do not gain the effects of Taking a Rest.
Fear and the Frightened Condition
Despite their similar names, Fear and the Frightened condition do not automatically interact with one another. The Frightened condition does not cause you to gain Fear.
However, the ability to overcome the Frightened condition can allow you to withstand some of the ardor of adventuring.
If you have an ability that allows you to ignore or cancel the Frightened condition, when you would gain Fear, you may use your ability for its normal APC to cancel the Fear you would gain. You may use an ability that cancels the Frightened condition to cancel Fear 1/Rest.
This only works on you; you cannot use such an ability to cancel Fear for someone else.
Havens & Shrines
While Dracula’s domain is a terrifying place, there are pockets of light and hope where heroes may draw comfort. Havens and Shrines allow you to counteract the worst effects of Fear.
Havens: While in a Haven, you do not gain Fear from Taking a Rest.
Shrines: Providing offerings or sacrifices to a Shrine can remove Fear. Most Havens also have Shrines.
Provided here is an example of a Haven and three Shrines.
Havens
Havens offer your heroes a safe place to spend the night.This is an example Haven that you might use in an adventure.
Lowlyroot
Lowlyroot is a hamlet consisting of a single inn, one workshop that houses both a blacksmith and a carpenter, and one watchtower surrounded by a vegetable garden. The citizens of Lowlyroot all live in the inn, but there are a few open rooms reserved for weary travelers.
Lowlyroot’s population consists of eighteen people: two halfling families with two parents and three children each, and a large kleppin family.
Lowlyroot has a marble statue honoring a kleppin cleric named Acorn. Long ago, Acorn cast the Hallow divine ritual on this region, granting the following permanent effects within the watchtower and in the gardens around it:
Bounty: The garden magically produces enough food for ten people daily. Any excess food goes sour at the end of each day and is no longer edible.
Repel: Eldritch creatures can never enter the garden or watchtower.
Lowlyroot is considered a Haven. The MC may include a Shrine, such as the Wishing Well, in Lowlyroot’s gardens.
Shrines
Here are a few example Shrines that your party might encounter. These Shrines are generic enough to be used in any dangerous adventuring area.
Blood Altar
An old altar of rusted iron and burnished bronze is decorated with filigree, like ram’s horns. Using this Shrine demands a sacrifice of fresh blood. A hero may lose 1⁄2 of their current HP to remove 2d4 Fear and automatically pass their next SAN check.
Spider-Infested Gazebo
An old, run-down gazebo has the iconography of the Celestial Council carved into its posts. Perhaps you can find sanctuary here.
Entering the gazebo removes 1 Fear. However, there are also 2 Swarms of Scarabs and 1 Dire Spider that dwell in this gazebo. They do not fight the heroes directly, instead scurrying into tiny underground nests or climbing up nearby trees, rendering the area unsuitable to rest.
If the heroes manage to kill all the bugs, then the gazebo counts as a Haven. A hero that Takes a Rest in this Haven has a 75% chance of removing 1 Fear (roll 1d%).
Wishing Well
A crumbling stone well has glittering coins in its watery depths. A hero may throw between 1 and 100 sc into the well. Roll a 1d%. If the die roll is equal to or less than the number of coins thrown into the well, the hero removes 1 Fear and regains 1d10+5 HP. On a roll of 1, the hero may also remove a Psyche talent.
A hero may only benefit from this well once per week.
Psyche Talents
Psyche talents are talents that you may be forced to take in order to reduce your Fear. These do not count towards talent points from leveling.
When you start a Psyche track, you cannot willingly take Psyche talents from another track until you have reached the headstone of that track. Some character options, talents, and even specific Psyche talents may contradict this. Always defer to the most specific ruling.
Some traps, monster abilities, and story moments may automatically impose specific Psyche talents.
Check out the Psyche Talents page for a list of Psyche talents.
When do I take Psyche Talents?
You may voluntarily take a Psyche talent whenever you are Recouping or attempting to Take a Rest and you have Fear in excess of your Fear Threshold. You may take any number of Psyche talents provided that your Fear is in excess of your Fear Threshold. Your Fear can never be reduced below 0.