might occur are unpleasant and likely fraught with
other damaging effects).
SANITY
In the Hero System, Sanity (SAN) becomes a
new characteristic that represents a character's
mental health and grip on reality; more specifi-
cally, the mundane reality that allows most of us to
live comfortable lives in blissful ignorance of the
cosmic terrors that impinge upon our world.
SAN (Sanity) Characteristic
Base Sanity is: INT + (EGO x 2)
Extra Sanity can be purchased at the cost of 1
point of Sanity per 1 Character Point, and may
only be purchased at character creation time. Extra
Sanity may not be purchased once the character
enters play.
A character's total effective SAN score is cal-
culated as:
SAN = Base Sanity + Extra Sanity -
Forbidden Knowledge - Drains
Forbidden Knowledge
Forbidden Knowledge is a virtual stat that is
only calculated and tracked for the purposes of
determining a character's SAN score. A character's
Forbidden Knowledge score is the cumulative sum
of all Character Points in the KS: Forbidden Lore
skill category and in Arcane Languages.
Forbidden Lore knowledge skills and Arcane
Languages are acquired by characters who
read/study/learn such knowledge from dark tomes
of eldritch lore, arcane spellbooks, and mind-
altering artifacts. The GM will state when a book
or artifact contains Forbidden Lore and/or is writ-
ten in an Arcane Language. Players are, of course,
free to take any Forbidden Lore knowledge skills or
Arcane Languages they wish up front as part of
their character concept, and those Character Points
subtract from their SAN score just like Forbidden
Knowledge acquired during play.
Many encounters with Otherworldly Horror
produce a SAN Drain with very long recovery
times (SAN Aid/Healing in the form of psycho-
therapy can help speed up recovery; see section
later), temporarily lowering a character's SAN
score. Forbidden Knowledge is not a Drain, but
rather a permanent by-product of having knowl-
edge Man Was Not Meant to Have. The only way
to eliminate its negative impact on Sanity is to
remove it from one's character sheet, something
that can only really occur as a result of amnesia
(the knowledge must literally be stripped from the
character's mind, though most of the ways this
SAN Thresholds
Here are what various SAN levels mean:
20-30 (or above) SAN is complete sanity; full
psychological health.
10-19 SAN means a character is beginning to
slip mentally and lose his grip on reality; characters
involuntarily obtain a new 5-pt Psychological
Limitation (Uncommon, Moderate) each time
their SAN goes from above 19 to below 20.
1-9 SAN means a character is becoming com-
pletely unhinged and is barely functional; one ex-
isting Psychological Limitation is made worse (by
5 points) each time his SAN goes from above 9 to
below 10, which means its Situational frequency
OR its Intensity worsens by one level.
0 SAN (or below) means a character is stark-
raving mad and beyond help; simply retire the
character (it effectively becomes an NPC).
Note that a character with a SAN score above
30 isn't really "more sane" than a character with a
SAN score of 20. The extra Sanity points merely
provide a buffer, forestalling the consequences of
losing SAN to Forbidden Knowledge and Other-
worldly Horror.
Otherworldly Horror
Most monsters have an extreme form of Dis-
tinctive Feature (Not concealable, Extreme reac-
tion) called Otherworldly Horror. Any character
that encounters such a creature for the first time is
immediately subjected to a Presence Attack based
on the monster's PRE score. The attack will typi-
cally get bonus dice due to violent and horrifying
actions by the creature. In addition to the normal
effects of the Presence Attack, all victims are sub-
jected to 1d6 of SAN Drain for every 10 full
points that the Presence Attack exceeds a charac-
ters' PRE or EGO (Power Defense applies nor-
mally, if a character has any).The recovery rate of
this Drain will be specified in the creature write-
up. It is important to track all SAN Drain points
separately according to their recovery rate. Note
that if more than one monster is part of an en-
counter, only the single highest Presence Attack
among them is applied.
Power Defense
As a general rule, Power Defense is not avail-
able except in some very rare forms. There might
be a spell of protection, or an amulet of warding
that offers some small amount of Power Defense
against Otherworldly Horror (the Drain compo-
nent of it). Certain powerful psychotropic drugs
might also have a similar effect. It is up to the GM
to decide to what extent Power Defense against Limitation: Substance Abuse to "suppress" an
Otherworldly Horror exists in his game. equal number of points of SAN-induced Psycho-
logical Limitations. Players may add no more than
Psychotherapy 5 points of Substance Abuse to his character at the
Psychotherapy is a SAN Aid tied to a PS: Psy- end of any given game session. A particular sub-
chotherapist roll that restores Drained SAN points. stance (alcohol, heroin, etc.) must be chosen, and
The amount of time required for each SAN Aid over time, different Substance Abuse Limitations
effect roll depends on which "pool" of drained based on different substances can be taken (though
points the player chooses to treat (SAN Drains characters can quickly become useless if this is
with a given recovery period are in the same pool). taken to an extreme). To make things interesting,
A therapist may attempt their PS roll once per players are encouraged to re-arrange the way in
time period that is one level quicker on the Time which the Substance Abuse points are allocated
Chart than the normal recovery rate for that pool. towards suppression from game session to game
If the roll is successful, the Aid dice are rolled and session.
applied to the drained points for that pool. A criti- Note that this mechanic is based on Physical
cal failure on the PS roll pushes that pool of points Limitation rather than Dependency because the
down one level on the Time Chart, possibly merg- latter is extremely debilitating, and the idea is to
ing them with other drained points already in that provide role-playing fodder, not kill player charac-
pool. ters.
Example: Joe Adventurer encounters a Tomb
Gaunt in Egypt. The Otherworldly Horror Pres-
ence Attack exceeds Joe's PRE by 21, and the re-
sulting 2d6 SAN Drain drains 8 points of Joe's
SAN with a 5pts/month recovery rate. Joe visits a
psychotherapist who may attempt a PS: Psycho-
therapy roll once per week (1 Week being one
level quicker on the Time Chart than the 1
Month recovery time period of the Drain). Upon
making a successfull roll, the therapist rolls the
Aid dice and restores that many SAN points, up
to the 8 that were drained. If there are drained
points still left to be restored in that pool, therapy
can continue, and further PS rolls attempted
each week.
The character being treated must spend the
entire therapy period in a sanitarium under close
supervision of the therapist.

Long-term Benefits of Therapy

Each time a therapist makes a successful PS
roll, the treated character earns 1 Character Point
of Long-term Therapy which can be used to re-
duce Psychological Limitations acquired from loss
of Sanity (these points are discarded if the charac-
ter has no such Limitations; they can't be saved for
a rainy day). These points may be spent at a rate
no faster than 5 per month, and no Limitation
may be reduced by more than 5 points at a time. A
5-pt Psychological Limitation (Uncommon, Mod-
erate) can be removed by spending 5 Long-term
Therapy points, and is replaced by a lingering
remnant of it that haunts the character forever,
though never in a debilitating way.

Coping By Self Medicating

Once a character has accumulated 25 or more
points worth of Psychological Limitations due to
Sanity loss, he may elect to take points in Physical