Is SAN Loss From Reducing Max SAN Special?

[Nick McKenna]

This started as a question in a Facebook group, and I don’t think I got a RAW answer... to understand the question, it’s important to read the errata for p.155 of the Keeper’s guide. This is the scenario:

Imagine that John Smith has Max Sanity 45 and current Sanity 45 (he’s been around a bit!). John reads Al Azif and gains 6 CM. His max Sanity reduces by 6 which means that his Sanity also reduces by 6 (they were the same). John succeeds on his Intelligence roll. This means that before we’ve even got to the usual Tome sanity loss, John has a bout of insanity!

So.... is the above correct and is John immune from the normal Tome Sanity loss because he is now in a bout of madness?

The crux of the question is understanding if the SAN loss due to the Max SAN reduction triggers the normal Temporary Insanity rules...

Does anyone have a RAW answer for this???

[Cloud64]

It might help if you tell us what the corrected rule says, with a comparison to the original. Anyway, seems to me the SAN losses are from the same cause, so effectively simultaneous. It’s reading the tome that causes SAN loss, not the change to MAX SAN. I’d apply the SAN loss from reading the tome first, and then change the MAX, and if that reduces SAN further, so be it. 

[klecser]

My answer to this is always the same. The Keeper makes a judgment call that places both MGF before RAW, and mutual communication with players above isolated Keeper decisions.

In this particular instance, I would weigh the other factors of the game and decide whether it "feels fair" for a player to be "double dinged" under the circumstances. Heck, maybe the best thing is to ASK the player, OOC,  what they think should happen under the circumstances. Making decisions like this is less about what the "right" call is for the Keeper to make and more about what the best call is, in consultation with the game group.

Edited January 12, 2020 by klecser

[EricW]

I think it is reasonable for someone who already has significant mythos knowledge to suffer bouts of insanity if they try to acquire more knowledge. I don't see any reason to go easy on someone who ignores the warnings and dives headlong into the nightmare. Bad things can happen to people who strive to learn secrets no man should know.

Quote

The nethermost caverns...are not for the fathoming of eyes that see; for their marvels are strange and terrific. Cursed the ground where dead thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil the mind that is held by no head. Wisely did Ibn Schacabao say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain, and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes. For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought hastes not from his charnel clay, but fats and instructs the very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption horrid life springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice, and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.

HP Lovecraft, "The Festival"

Edited January 13, 2020 by EricW

[Reaver]

If the players know that reading a mythos tome is going to lose them sanity, when they first inspect the book or time just give them a rough indication. "you can tell this time looks quite heavily related to cult/mythos type stuff but it's content appear to be of a bizarre nature that fills you with unease".... "are you going to Read the book" there's no need to go easy on them. It's Call of Cthulhu.... That being said for the sake of fun and your individual group, you can rulw that it takes a week to read and the San loss/mythos increase happens during downtime.