Each character in Ascendancy LRP has three different Mind/Sanity Point numbers:
- Mind Points – These are the most common ones to be affected by encounters. Your Mind Points start at 5, this is also the highest your Mind Points can go. When your Mind Points reaches 0 you lose a Sanity Point and your Mind Points are reset to 5. These represent smaller traumas or mental damage, and can be ‘healed’ at an event with the assistance of a psychologist. For nastier encounters you may be told to lose 2, 3 or even more Mind Points at a time.
- Sanity Points – The number of Sanity Points you have, when your Sanity Points reaches 0 you lose a Maximum Sanity Point and your Sanity Points reset to the new Maximum. You will also gain a permanent flaw, normally of a psychological nature based on the cause of your Sanity Point loss. These can be recovered up to your Maximum with the assistance of a psychologist at a rate of 1 point per downtime or a reward from completing an event.
- Maximum Sanity Points – This is the Maximum your Sanity Points can ever be. You cannot ‘heal’ Maximum Sanity Points. There may be in game encounters that can recover your Maximum but these are extremely rare. If your Maximum Sanity Points ever reach 0 your character is no longer playable – at best they will be taken over as an NPC – at worst they are now completely insane, their mind shattered.
These points can be lost during traumatic or horrific moments, or as a result of direct mental attack. These Points do not automatically ‘heal’ over time, but some can be recovered through use of the Psychology Skill.
When a Mind or Sanity Point is lost it is usually due to some mental trauma so it should be role-played appropriately (Mind Point loss is less severe than Sanity Point loss), however, you are not completely insane when this happens.
If your Mind or Sanity Point score went negative, then continue to lose Points after resetting. So if you were on 1 Mind Point and lost 3. You would lose 1 Mind point bringing you to 0, lose a Sanity Point, reset to 5. Then you would lose the remaining 2 Mind Points to put you on a new total of 3.
Taint
There are a number of different ‘Taints’ that your character can encounter during the game, some may be personal to your character. These Taints are never a good thing and will have increasingly detrimental effects the higher the level of Taint you have. Each different Taint you encounter needs to be tracked separately. Whenever you reach 10 points in a specific type of Taint you need to let a Ref know immediately as there will be some permanent debilitating effect from this in addition to the normal detrimental effects.
There may be ways to remove some types of Taint, but you will have to discover these In Game.
Horror Taint
A Taint rightly feared by all beings of the world. It relates to exposure to the beings known as the Horrors (who can exist only within the realm known as the Netherworld) or people/items who have been exposed to them. By tainting people and items, the Horrors gain some form of entry into this world, affecting it in some way.
Horror Taint works slightly differently to other forms of taint and has a smaller ‘scale’ before it starts affecting your character. The effects of Horror Taint are shown in the table below.
| Horror Taint level | Effect |
|---|---|
| 1-4 | No effect other than Role Play. |
| 5 | Character gains a horrific disfigurement |
| 6 | Character can no longer use level 5 Talent abilities |
| 7 | Character can no longer use level 4 Talent abilities |
| 8 | Character can no longer use level 3 Talent abilities |
| 9 | Character can no longer use level 2 Talent abilities |
| 10 | Character dies/is taken over by the Horrors |
Any character that has 5+ Horror Taint has a chance of spreading it to those around them – the chance of this happening is based on the amount of Taint and the situation. A Ref will inform you should this happen.
Depending on the nature of a disfigurement, it may or may not be healed/fixed should the characters Taint be reduced below 5. The longer you have taint in excess of 4 points, the more likely for the disfigurement to become permanent or spread. A Ref will inform you of the nature of any disfigurement at the time.
With the Talent ability restrictions, the character does not lose the levels, they just cannot use them, this includes abilities that are permanent or do not require HAP to use. Should the Taint be reduced, the abilities will be useable again. Skills/Spells are only affected if they require a Talent level to use them.
Any character that reaches 10 Horror Taint will either die or be taken over by the Horrors and no longer playable.