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As you hopefully know, there are abilities in Sburb that influence mental health. There are plenty of them, you probably used them at least once, without even knowing. There is a good reason they are there. Probably there was once a competent person up there, and they had a bright idea that an apocalyptic game that makes you fight for your dear life and watch those close to you die may not be healthy for children (fun fact, according to data we collected, the mean age of a Sburb Player on her first run is 14,5 year or whatever alien equivalent you are using). That bright person coded those abilities into game, and is the only Coder that I would not rip to shreds should I meet them.
The truth is, Mental Health Abilities saved more lifes than even [This is not how it happened]. Without them we would all descend either into suicidal depression or gamebreaking megalomania. I will try to sum up our current knowledge of them: how to use, which Aspects are better at using them, which ones are the best, etc... I gave myself the liberty to group them by Aspect and group Aspects into three categories: Best, Good, and Bad. Obviously, Best Aspects dish out Support like a little hug machine, Good will do in most situations, and people with Bad Aspects are not equipped with them, or they are really shitty.
Best Aspects include: Hope, Might, Heart, Mind, Light, Blood and Rhyme.
Good Aspects are: Rain, Mist, Rage, Breath, Stars, Life and Flow.
Bad Aspects are: Time, Space, Void, Doom, Dream, Fate, Law and Sand
Sand gets a special mention. It embodies weakness, not only physical, but also weakness of the spirit. Those who wield Break like a sword or armour should not even talk to people, who need a Mental Support. Their mere Whisperings will weaken their mental health even further. Also, Sand is the only Aspect completely lacking Mental Support Abilities. They can be good friends, but they are shitty at consoling other people. Sorry, Sand Heroes, but this is a hard, nasty truth.
Best Aspects for Mental Support:
Hope: If you are the Hero of Hope, congratulations! Half of your abilities make you a competent Strifer, and the other half consist of the shitiest duty in the game. The Heroes of Hope should, according to a scrap of game lore courtesy of robustPhantasm, "give an arm to cry on, be a stable beacon of light on the ocean of grief". That more or less means that you have to be a therapist, and hear out all the complains and so on. You will not like this, but someone has to do this and you are made for this, believe me. The best, pluck efficient ability of Hope is [Wind of Hope]. You will learn it very early, and will use it till the end of the session. It is like a second wind of hope that will inspire someone else to keep going. Other neat abilities are [Make to Believe], or costly, but good [Wellspring of Inspiration] – save it for an rallying cry before final fight, when everything seems lost, and half of your team is permadead.
Might: Yes, those guys. Their whole action hero schtick makes them an ideal target for hate, do you agree? Yet, at the same time they are inspiring and interested in teamwork like the cast of "Squiddles" (I can't believe I liked that cartoon as a kid). They will do friendship speeches. They will say things about fighting as one, respecting each other strengths. The best part? They really mean it, and it actually works. Might is an Aspect of strength of the team, of mental fortitude, an opposite of Sand. You will have to keep your Sand Hero away from the troubled Player, and you will want your Mighty to take care of them. Enter [Broseidon, King of the Brocean]. Yes, this is the name of this motivational atomic bomb. Yes, it is pluck-costfree. Yes, the sessions with a good Might Hero have second to none chance of Aggrievance among the Players. You would also like [Smells like a Wave Spirit], that removes (!) minor mental disorders after few uses.
Heart: That should be obvious. Heart Heroes are very empathetic, thanks to their Soul Whisperings. They can modify your feelings, extinguish hate, dry tears and so on, as long as you allow them to mess with your shiny stuffing. Their most interesting Support Ability, [Heartlines] has an unique advantage that it can be chained – that means a Heart Player can use it on every other Player they have contact with. This is quite weird ability to distribute feelings equally to all Players in Heartlines network. If one of your Players borders on MeGaloVania, and the other suffers from clinical depression, linking them may actually do the trick, at least for a while. Heart Players have the knack for this feelings second market, so don't be scared if you are a newbie. You will get it after a while. Other useful abilities are: [Dawn of the Soul], [Heartiful Cry] and [Aria of the Soul], all of them worthy your attention.
Mind: Or Hello Freud. They actually don't have support abilities that are comparable to [Broseidon], or [Wind of Hope], but their main advantage on a field of helping people is in attitude. They really are good with this therapy stuff. Mind Heroes are analytical, constantly looking inward for clues or inspiration. If they so choose, they can turn their [Blue Eyes] at your head, and pull some nasty shit from your past. Heirs and Wards are a Mind Hero field day. They are not the ones to go about Game Disorders, but the true life ones, like phobias or psychoses. And if you really need a Support Ability of a Mind Aspect, well [Stratosphere] gets a cake, as it makes you focused on a game goal, and not a mopey bullshit.
Light: I kid you not. They are annoying and self-absorbed, but if they are sufficiently motivated to care, they can work wonders. Their Psych Support abilities are all useful, even if not plenty. And they have sick graphic effects, like pillars of Shine from the heaven enveloping both Players. Their best one is Pluck-costly, but highly efficient [Daylight is Never Wasted], a spirit lifting wave across the Medium (it also raises morale of either Prospitians or Dersites, depending of their Dreaming Moon, so try to restrict the use of this ability when your Light Player dreams Derse, or Black Side gets a bonus, and that is a big no). The close second is one Player only [Hello, Sunshine], that is quite funny, if a bit awkward to watch. It also endears the recipient of this ability to the Light Hero, that may be useful if dealing with a PK, so they may be not willing to kill. This is an obvious opening, and you should instantly launch [In Fading Lights] to make them kneel (and do other productive activities one should do to a Player Killer). [No one left behind] is a good team builder in absence of a Might Player. [Kiss of Lady Luck] is also a good support.
Rhyme: They have [Ice Cream In The Veins]. That alone puts them in one league with Might and Heart. Yet they have other stuff useful to keep everone chill. Speaking of which [Chill like a Glacier] lowers Atomyk Meltdown counter (that is totally a thing that exists, it should be somewhere on our boards), while calming down hotheads like Flow Players. [To Cool To Cry], despite the douchey-sounding name is a good ability for reducing survivior guilt after loss of a coplayer. You will need it a lot, believe me. [Insanely Cool Posse] equalizes your group Chill Level to that of a Rhyme Hero (the Chill Level is a custom stat of Rhyme. Probably. Or maybe it's So Coooool stat, I don't know). As they are constantly calm and keep it cool, you will be grateful for this.
Next part comes in the next timestamp, good luck with your sessions!