Editing H.P. Lovecraft (section)

== Lovecraftian Horror and Sanity ==
One thing that Lovecraft sort of pioneered is the idea of sanity breakage; that the mind is ruined before the body. This is particularly important for /tg/, since an incredible amount of books, movies, games and shows has taken inspiration from Lovecraft's sanity-drained protagonists (or taken inspiration from another source who took inspiration from Lovecraft). If a game has a [[Arkham Horror|pile of blue tokens to measure mental health alongside the normal red for physical health,]] it dis.

In the original short stories and novels, the protagonists' minds usually breaks due to realizing the grander ramifications of whatever eldritch nonsense they have been dealing with. They'll confess to this by writing a sort-of epitaph to themselves where they explain how mad they are in perfect english, sometimes before offing themselves or being taken by some horror. Occasionally people also faint when they see something weird or alien, but it's worth noting that, in the original stories, insanity came from the knowledge of Deep Ones, Old Ones and cults existing just beyond sight, not necessarily that they were so horrible that they drain sanity to just look at. Sure, those gripplies are horrible but in most cases, it's the ramifications of their existence that gets to the people in Lovecraft's stories, not just a sanity drain - at most, protagonists have a momentary lapse of panic or indecision as they grapple with the fear of death.

In a lot of games, this has been gamefied and turned into a mechanic; a sort of separate health bar that makes players feel vulnerable to the mere sight of a tentacle. In some games like the [[Arkham Horror]] series, enemies can drain sanity through their attacks or players can drain it themselves by using certain spells or abilities.