If there’s one mechanic most people know about the Call of Cthulhu TTRPG system, it’s that investigators have a tendency to go insane and die from witnessing eldritch horrors and learning horrific truths mankind was never meant to know. It’s practically a selling point, I know that was the primary reason I excitedly leapt into my first ever campaign back in undergrad. If you for whatever reason are worried about your player character dying a horrible premature death before you were done playing them, this sadly is probably not the right system for you.

But to those people, I wholeheartedly encourage to instead embrace the mechanic, to recognize that HP Lovecraft’s world is a humbling break from the power fantasy tendencies of the hobby, an opportunity to lose yourself in a dangerous and dismissive world that will happily dispatch you without another thought. Yet this pervasive vulnerability can lead to incredible moments, can be the source of some of the highest highs you’ll ever experience by overcoming the odds…or at getting further than your Keeper ever thought possible.

I’m recovering from jetlag after 20 hours of flights from an international trip, so forgive me if this article isn’t quite as polished as my usual

However I know not everyone thinks like me, and so here are some ways you can thumb the scale to mitigate your character’s adherence to the most iconic feature in the game. I do not actually recommend following this guide, it’s not really in the spirit of the system, but you do you. Caveat lector!

1. Pump your POW.

Your character’s POW is their force of will, their ability to resist mind control or fear or harmful spells or any sort of effect trying to corrupt their mind. It’s also the stat that calculates your starting sanity, so getting your starting POW as high as possible is a great way to help pass those sanity checks. Sanity in CoC is a “poor get poorer” situation in that failing checks lead to lowering your Sanity stat which lead to more fails etc, so you’ll want to start off strong. The max possible value (via point buy) is 75, so even with this trick you’re going to fail 25% of your Sanity checks on average. So maybe consider comboing with:

2. Dump your INT.

INT is arguably the most important skill in the game as it determines how many starting skill points you get. Dumping INT is gonna hurt. But when your character fails a Sanity check, they must then roll an INT check they are hoping to fail, as doing so means they don’t actually comprehend whatever horrors just broke their brain, letting them continue on in peaceful ignorance. A min-maxed 75 POW + 40 INT character honestly has some pretty insane mental fortitude, you’re gonna get way further than a typical investigator will in matters of the mind. But what should you do after you’ve already gone insane?

3. Pump your Psychoanalysis. 

I’ve mentioned Psychoanalysis on my article on underused skills, and it absolutely belongs there for its game-changing abilities to talk insane investigators off the ledge and back to the realm of clarity. This skill is pricy and very rare, but 100% worth it if you’re ready to burn those few skillpoints you still have after dumping INT. Once again the max starting value is 75, which will leave you very good at returning deranged investigators back to the real world. And the game takes pains to note that the skill is usable even when you yourself have gone insane!

4. Get Therapy During Downtime.

Lastly, I feel a need to discuss one of the few ways to regain sanity in the CoC system, often overlooked due to taking weeks in-game. Usually adventures will not realistically have time in them to hire a shrink and attend a month of sessions, but it’s an option in the rules and something to consider anytime there’s a timeskip. It can be a free and recurring little method to restore some of that mental chip damage you’ve almost certainly lost even if you did absolutely everything on this list.

And there you go! Again, I want to stress I don’t think you should do any of these things. My favorite part of this game is going insane and doing crazy stuff, you’re really missing out if you’re trying to avoid become the center of everyone’s panicked attention. C’mon, embrace the chaos and live a little! Much like most of the chthonic tomes in this game, this guide feels like something you should have never read, for it’ll lead you only down roads you’re better off avoiding.