This episode, Keepers Bridgett and Evan welcome bestselling creator, Mav Haenze, back onto the show to explore ways that mental health, sanity and madness are used and misused in horror gaming, and ways that Keepers, players and writers can use them in the future to maximize the fun and the horror!

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Main Topic

Tonight, we bring you PART TWO of March Madness, which is legally and ontologically distinct from any kind of sporting event you may be aware of. What did we do in Part 1?

In Part 1, we talked about ways that mental health, illness and trauma can be used and misused in horror gaming, with some expert advice from our friend Perry Clark. Now that we’ve set a baseline on the role mental health and sanity in general can play in gaming, it’s time to get into the game mechanics!

And as we mentioned, we are joined today by the extra-fantastic Maverick Haenze, beloved friend of the show. Can you tell folks where they may know you from, and what expertise you’re bringing to the conversation?

So: Let’s dive in to our discussion. Where have mental health and sanity mechanics been, where are they now, and where might they be going in the glorious future? Bridgett, can you kick us off? Do you have a favorite sanity or sanity-adjacent mechanic right now?

{For reference or review, some notable games with sanity/madness/mental health mechanics:

• Call of Cthulhu, 1981, seems to have introduced the Sanity mechanic
  • Experiencing horrors leads to a “bout of madness” and then, potentially, long-term effects such as phobias/manias
  • More recently – players/Keepers can select long-term effects, and writers like Mav are introducing custom bout of madness tables in line with the story
• Unknown Armies – get hardened by violence/horror, at a cost
• Stress mechanics
  • Delta Green’s Sanity; can burn connections to people (“bonds”) to cut down on stress; fight/flee/freeze as temp effects
  • Trail of Cthulhu/Fall of Delta Green splits up into two tracks, Stability and Sanity – Stability is more like stress/mundane effects
  • Alien has stress dice/panic rolls
  • Blades in the Dark – vices which burn off your stress points
  • Note that these systems all represent a particular narrative worldview about how to deal with your stress and trauma!
• Madness (more operatic/literary, less representative of real-world issues)
  • Trail of Cthulhu’s Sanity – affected mostly by exposure to mythos/unnatural
  • Vampire’s humanity/hunger
• Metafictional effects:
  • Fear Itself (secret instructions to GM/players)
  • Keeper tricks at the table (describing mundane humans as horrible monsters)}

Topics:

• Favorite current mechanics
• What supports realistic play? What is more fantastic/genre-leaning?
• Things to be avoided (e.g. some people don’t like the old-school random sanity effects)
• Things you recommend – what are effective, fun, supportive for Keepers/players?

Connect with Mav!

Name: Mav Haenze

Pronouns: They/Them

Mav is a prolific writer, Storyteller, and verbal purveyor of horror. Their AP work and scenarios can be found at https://linktr.ee/mavhaenze

Homework

What new mechanics or approaches will you try in your upcoming games? Do you mix and match approaches from different games at your table?