CG: Will we see systems like insanity coming into play, where coming into contact with otherwordly creatures can have traumatic psychological effects on our characters?

Scott: Absolutely. The Sanity stat is critical to gameplay because of the subject matter. It is also unusual in that it must be carefully maintained. There aren’t any blue potions or post-combat regeneration in this game. A small amount of Sanity can be recovered through sleep. Other methods to recover lost Sanity involve drugs, which have side effects and are sometimes addictive, and staying at the Asylum, which is expensive.

There is another –and I think wholly original– system indirectly related to Sanity. Exposure to Mythos creatures and events earns (curses?) the player Mythos points. Mythos points have one effect, which is that once they exceed maximum Sanity, the player becomes Corrupted and is able to see through the tenuous tissue separating the world of men from other dimensions overlapping our own. While this means that more and different things are revealed to the player, it also can be very taxing on one’s sanity. However, a player who pledges his services to the Great Old Ones can avoid some of the harsher penalties of insanity while still being Corrupted. Mythos points cannot be reduced and Corruption is irreversible.​