Structures of the Demi-Monde

To evoke the feeling that I want and to begin designing for my game specs, I have a fair number of game structures that I want to employ, at least to begin.

The first is a series of changes to the player characters themselves.  The easy thing to do is remove the Magic-User and Cleric from LotFP - they do not belong within the modern world (just as the Halfling, Elf, and Dwarf don't belong either, but I've never used them anyway).  But two classes is too few, so I'll add in replacements.

The Witch (or Warlock) replaces the Magic-User.  Witches have an innate talent to gain mastery over other people and may create a Charm Person effect 1/day/HD by making prolonged eye contact with their target.  They can only try to beguile another once per day.  They also gain other abilities as they level, in line with some of the things Vanessa Ives and the other witches from the show can do.

The Luminary is a religious leader of any tradition (although it is more in line with an Abrahamic spiritual guide such as a priest, rabbi, or imam).  The Luminary uses their faith to inspire other humans to hold strong in the face of such deep darkness, granting them the ability to reroll failed saving throws 1/day/HD.  They, too, gain other abilities as they level, in a similar vein.

Sanity
The next structure to employ was a way to evaluate a character's Sanity - I wanted horror to matter, to be trackable right there on the character sheet, for my players to have a number for just how bad the situation has become.  Sanity functions just like HD, but each class has a different SD than their HD, and characters gain bonus Sanity depending upon their Wisdom modifier.
Fighters have a d8 HD but a d4 SD.
Specialists and Luminaries have a d6 for both.
Witches have a d4 HD but a d8 SD.

When your character hits 0 Sanity, they become catatonic, and if they hit -3 they become incurably insane (and likely psychotic).

Now, the loss of Sanity can also be traumatic.  If a character loses half of their SD in a single assault, they gain a phobia related to the trigger - so if a 1st level Fighter with 3 Sanity is ensnared in an illusion that makes it seem like the room is slowly filling up with spiders and the Fighter lost 2 or more Sanity as a consequence, then (assuming the character survives) the Fighter would gain a phobia of spiders.  If confronted with spiders in the future, the Fighter would lose 1d4 Sanity in the first round, 1d6 in the second, and so on until the spider issue was remedied.  Phobias are not permanent - time and a good therapist can cure them.

Unlike health, Sanity is restored not through rest but through recreation - drinking, playing football (the good kind, not the American one), visiting a museum or watching a film all replenish Sanity.  Depending upon how the game goes, the creatures of the yellow wallpaper might make an appearance to plague those who sit and recover for too long.

This also suggests a rule for physical injuries, but LotFP is lethal enough that I'll let it alone for now.

Alignment
Sanity brings us to the next game structure: Alignment.  I have not used alignment as it has been presented in any D&D book (or Pathfinder or whatever) in years.  However, here I think some version of it makes sense: humanity or demi-monde.  All classes, except the witch, begin with the humanity alignment - they still have it.  Those who are touched by the darkness of the demi-monde, who lose that humanity, gain the demi-monde alignment, which has a benefit and a penalty.  The benefit is that once your soul is shattered, losing little pieces of it matters less.  This manifests as a resistance to Sanity loss of 2.  However, regular humans can tell that not all is right with someone of the demi-monde, making it very difficult to make connections and form relationships.
Losing a character's humanity and gaining the demi-monde alignment should be a big deal - again, going back to Penny Dreadful, **spoilers** all of the protagonists have the demi-monde alignment - they can function in the outside world, but only cursorily, and those whom they do get along with end up being part of the demi-monde as well.

These are the main ways in which I am augmenting the LotFP machine.  There are a couple smaller structures to discuss later, and then I'll move into talking about game functions, i.e. the ways in which I expect my players to interact with the world.