I plan on running a game soon that is based out of Caliphas in Ustalav. Long story short the PCs will part of the city guard, investigating crimes and strange occurrences. Think of X-Files meets pathfinder. Anyway I want the idea of fear and the mechanical use in game to be more interesting, I want it to be a central idea in the game. I wanted to post my ideas and get some opinions and suggestions. At the heart of the system is the fear chart, a % table to roll on when ever a "fear effect" hits a PC.
01-15: Insane Courage: Your mind refuses to allow the source of your fear to overtake you and sends you into a headlong charge at the source of your fear. You must immediately charge the source of the fear effect.
16-25: Muster the courage...: The source of your fear drives you back, but you prepare yourself to face it. You are shaken for 1 round. The round after the shaken effect ends you gain a +1 to attack and damage rolls (maybe scale by levels?) against the target of the fear effect.
26-50:Do not let the fear win: You fear takes hold for just a moment, you take hold of yourself and prepare to fight on. You are shaken for 1 round.
51-65: The fear takes hold: The subject of the fear sends you running. You are frightened for x rounds (x = caster level of effect or HD of monster)
66-75: Terror takes hold: Your mind snaps and you race from the source of the terror with all speed. You are panicked for x rounds (x = caster level of effect or HD of monster).
76-95: In the grip of terror: The subject of your fear becomes all encompassing and you lose the will to fight. You cower for 1 round and are then panicked for x rounds (x = caster level of effect or HD of monster).
96-100: Fear beyond reason: You give in to the source of your fear completely. You cower until the end of the encounter.
This is what I have so far. Make your save and roll on only the 1-50, fail and its a full roll. It would still be a WIS based will save. Same DC as the generating effect wild normally have.
Other points I am thinking about.
- Campaign traits to let you sub your Char, Int, or Str for Wis on fear checks.
-Dread Level 1-5, add 10 to the fear check per level. Locations would have a dread level based on setting and such.
-Feat to let you re-roll the fear check or automatically reduce the effect by one.
-Any PC generated effect which gives a bonus vs fear saves also gives a step reduction on the fear chart.
I would love to hear ideas, suggestions, concerns.
Thanks in advance everyone!
You might look into the Fear, Horror, Madness sub-system from Sword and Sorcery's 3.5 Ravenloft.
It was the best thing about their take.
Well, I guess I can try to track that down. In the mean time I'll expand on what I have here.
Traits
-Listen to logic and reason: You always try to think logically, even in stressful situations. You may use your Int modifier instead of Wis for fear checks.
-Always the bully: You were always the biggest kid on the block, your strength gives you an edge against the unknown. You may use your Str modifier instead of Wis for fear checks.
-Calm under pressure: You know others look to you in stressful situations and your strength of personality pushes you forward. You may use your Char modifier instead of Wis for fear checks.
-Accustomed to the blood: You have lived in the bad parts of town or worked a job where death was part of day to day life. Dread level 1 has no effect on you.
Dread Levels: Each level adds 10 to a fear check.
1: A normal murder scene, dead bodies but mostly intact.
A cemetery on a dark night.
Still mundane situations.
2: A particularly grisly murder scene, body parts strewn about and such
A desecrated church
The implication of supernatural involvement.
3: A murder scene with obvious supernatural involvement, blood drenched walls, partially eaten bodies, arcane symbols drawn in blood on the walls.Obvious supernatural involvement.
4: Large scale supernatural activity.
A graveyard that is teeming with reanimating undead.
5: Supernatural involvement on a grand scale.
Undead plague carrying through the city
So, you make your save but are effected anyway? No thanks.
And, Adventurers are heroes, there's nothing more annoying than running away all the time.
This is a Bad idea.
Well, no. You make your save and are most likely just shaken. Which is the same as making the save against the spell. The poibt is that will be alot of fear effects in the game and I dont wang ut to just be the same effect over and over.
I have the Heros and Horror on the way, but I want to start a skeleton for the rules. The idea us fir there to be some small ositive effects if the save is passed as well as the minor negative effects.
We've been working on some fear mechanics for monsters in Primeval Thule, and they're tricky.
Taking away player agency (for example, with a rule that mandates you flee at top speed) is something you don't do lightly--it works best if everyone at your table "buys in" to that beforehand.
The more you can create fear consequences that preserve at least some player choice, the happier players are going to be (even if their characters are scared, not happy).
There are other ways to skin the cat, of course. But no matter what rules you use, make sure you've got buy-in from the table. Get that, and you're golden.
--Dave.
Twitter: @davidnoonan
I disagree with Dr. Deth, I think this is a Good Idea. Keep rolling with it.