Symptoms of SAN Loss in Delta Green (Patreon)

Losing 5 Sanity Points or more in Delta Green has an obvious impact. The game explicitly says your Agent loses all self-control and either flees, goes berserk, or collapses. But when the loss is less than that, we tend to take shortcuts. "You lose 3 SAN." "Got it. OK, what do we see next?"

In my home games I have made a point of pressing players to explore those lesser losses. After all, losing even a single point of SAN means long-term trauma. It's psychic scarring that will not recover unless an Agent gets unusually effective treatment. 

Handlers, slow things down. Ask the player to describe that fear.

I use the Fight/Flight/Freeze model of temporary insanity as a guide. Start with one of those three reactions. 

• A loss of one or two is a distinctive response. It's usually obvious to everyone unless an Agent can fool them with a Persuasion check. 
• A loss of three or four points is just this side of a complete breakdown. There's no disguising it.

My players have responded really well to this. Just taking a moment to say, "What does that loss look like to the others?" adds depth to a terrifying or horrifying scene and context for an Agent's ongoing dissolution.

Illustration by Dennis Detwiller. Delta Green is © and ™ the Delta Green Partnership.