Cosmic Horror and (In)Sanity

[Domigorgon]

I'm making a new campaign, and I intend to add a bit of Lovecraftian flavour to it. So, where might I find some inspiration?

Also, where might I look up rules on sanity and/or fear effects that might permanently debilitate PCs and result in a fate similar to death (i.e. so that it is 'game over' for players if they lose their sanity). I am aware that there are possible pitfalls, and that D&D might not be fully compatible (i.e. with spells like restoration and effects that make one immune to fear and so on), so I'm open to suggestions. :)

Edit: Yeah, I put this here in homebrew because I'd rather make my own rules on sanity to keep it simple and fully under my control.

[Djinn_in_Tonic]

Go to your local bookstore (or, with 4e on the market, the internet) and pick yourself up a copy of Heroes of Horror, one of the best two or three books ever released for 3.5. It has escalating fear rules, sanity rules, corruption and depredation rules, and tons of good advice for running a horror game.

[LurkerInPlayground]

I'm making a new campaign, and I intend to add a bit of Lovecraftian flavour to it. So, where might I find some inspiration?

Also, where might I look up rules on sanity and/or fear effects that might permanently debilitate PCs and result in a fate similar to death (i.e. so that it is 'game over' for players if they lose their sanity). I am aware that there are possible pitfalls, and that D&D might not be fully compatible (i.e. with spells like restoration and effects that make one immune to fear and so on), so I'm open to suggestions. :)

Edit: Yeah, I put this here in homebrew because I'd rather make my own rules on sanity to keep it simple and fully under my control.
Sanity rules can be found in the Unearthed Arcana SRD or in other HTML SRD's.

[Domigorgon]

Whoa! What Unearthed Arcana has to offer is exactly the opposite of 'simple'. Some good suggestions there, though, but there is no way I am ever going to adopt half of that.

I was thinking along the lines of 1 sanity point per level (minimum) plus Wis modifier. A DC is made when something horrible is encountered; saving successfully - nothing happens, failing - the character is shaken, failing by 5 or more - the character flees or cowers and loses 1 sanity point.

-1 points leaves him totally insane and as good as dead for roleplaying purposes.

Maybe needs some reworking, but I'd like to keep it simple along those lines.