Call of Cthulhu and "Fair"

This game wasn't designed for fairness. The rules weren't designed to create characters that have an even chance in the game. Situations that leave characters up to the whim of the Keeper are baked into the game. However, you the Keeper will probably encounter players that are used to games designed to be "tactically" interesting. In order for tactics to be engaging , games like Pathfinder (etc) attempt to create player characters that are "balanced" against each other. That way people can feel smart when they created a character they think is effective at "beating" encounters , skill checks, etc. Im inclined to turn my nose at that concept, but its a valid way to play an entirely different game. When I'm playing, if my character starts out with low CON I'm going to enjoy playing that my character suffers from a dramatic ague. If they start with a low POW I'm going to play someone unhinged, bound for the Looney bin or to become a cultist I'll get to fight later after he goes mad. But I'm going to run into these people a lot that want a fair game. You can't always choose the thespian crowd over the tradgamers. So ... The starting SAN should be divorced slightly from the POW. Thats the problem I'm running into now. A certain player began with 35 pow and its disproportionately difficult for him to pass a SAN check. Starting POW = N + POW/5 Easy: N=50 Med: N=40 Hard: N=30 At medium, with an average pow, SAN will be 50. This makes it so characters have maximum 58 SAN. How often in the game do characters get a chance to seek psychotherapy and raise their SAN ? Rarely enough that they'll probably die first. So a low starting SAN seems like a death sentence to those people concerned with fairness. I'd caution Keepers and players to remember that 0 SAN is not in all cases equal to character death. The keeper can still take mercy on a character that they feel didn't have a fighting chance and bring them back after a life changing episode.