Sanity
A downloadable game
Investigate and solve horrifying mysteries in a world whose deeper truths you cannot possibly fathom.
Sanity features:
- 2d6 resolution that will change you, as does knowing the horrors of the world
- colaborative mystery mechanics (may thus also be played solo)
- tables!
The system is inspired by the Sanity stat of Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, the simplicity of Cthulhu Dark, the improvised mystery of Brindlewood Bay, and the one stat idea of Lasers & Feelings. The ethos is Free Kriegsspiel Revolution peppered with the cinematics of Grimwild.
Art is modified public domain art (by seedling). Splatters in the background are by Aaron King. The title font is a GOZR-inspired font made by rthorm.
Sanity is licensed under CC BY 4.0 and was made for the One-Page RPG Jam 2025.
The folks over at First Floor TTRPG have made a Ukrainian translation of Sanity for those who could use that. Thanks!
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Comments
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Hi! This is a really cool game, and I'd really like to GMed it someday. Can I translate it into Russian and post it on itch? I'll be sure to credit you as the original author.
of course, you are very much welcome to do so! Thanks!
I really like that players have the choice to lower or raise their sanity on a change. There is a lot more flexibility here for the group to keep things from getting offensive or to prevent the narrative from ending in an anticlimactic disaster only because of bad rolls.
This might be the first sanity mechanic that I would like to try at the table!
The one thing I'm missing is a big spark table for more character-, clues-, and especially weirdness-inspiration.
Maybe with the same multifunctional structure like the big table in your game Dark Designs.
So, if you'd ever decide to make a one-page supplement for Sanity, that would be my pitch.
Thanks a lot! Really glad you like the stat-changing bit. That's my favourite part as well and was indeed an attempt to solve such flexibility issues, as you mention.
Also, thanks for the pitch! I agree that this could be great to help the group lift the rather heavy narrative weight that the game imposes on its players. A grand, multifunctional table ala Dark Designs (happy to hear that title mentioned as well) is hereby on my list for future projects!
I never play Grimwild, what are the mechanics of Grimwild?
Thanks for the comment! Grimwild is DnD meets Blades in the Dark. For my game here, I was not inspired by the mechanics as such, but rather by Grimwild’s emphasis on cinematics which was very much with me at the time of designing Sanity. It is somewhat reflected in the Principles of Play section of the game.
It's an interesting hack of Brindelwood Bay ! Not really sure abt the Sanity, it feels to vague, but the investigation part looks very simple and "elegant", getting rid of the Difficulty rating of a typical BBay Mystery !
Thanks for the feedback and checking the game out!
Glad the investigation mechanic resonated. Sanity is definitely very open to interpretation. In addition to the admittedly slim guidelines, I would generally give players the power to define themselves whether their Investigator is acting sanely or not in risky situations. For clues, Sanity is mainly there to make sure some clues appear weird and horrific.
Hope that makes some sense!