Editing Unknown Armies (section)

=== Stress Checks ===

It's hard to stay sane when you get involved with the occult underground. There are five categories of mental stress that can and will affect your character: Violence, the Unnatural, Helplessness, Isolation, and Self. Each stress can gain both '''hardened''' and '''failed''' notches; the former are "successes" that deaden you to the stress, and the latter are "failures" during which you panic, freeze, or frenzy. Every stress check has a rank, and if your hardened notches match or exceed the rank, you do not have to make a check.

As you gain more hardened notches in a stress, you become callous and less affected by it, but with a price. You begin to lose your grip on what is normal, and even highly stressful situations will not get to you. With two full hardened bars or a total of 35 hardened notches, you become a sociopath and can no longer access your Passions. On the other side, as you gain more failed notches in a stress, you become increasingly paranoid or sensitive to it. Once you have five full failed notches, you automatically act as if you had failed the roll.

It is possible to remove notches with psychological counseling, but it is difficult and time-consuming.