Will Saves against regular, SCARY stuff

[Byronus]

I've ready everything regarding Haunts, Sanity and Madness, the Fear Spell, Magical Traps, and the Paizo Messageboards, and haven't found ANYTHING regarding regular, conventional scary stuff.

What would be the DC for walking into a slaughterhouse? Or watching a loved on be murdered in front of you? And how long will the Shaken/Frightened/Panicked effects last for?

Is there a source I'm overlooking?

:Byronus

[GeneticDrift]

Nothing is attacking you in these examples. Although some might give an intimidate bonus, which has rules in the skill section, but it's a GM call on the bonus. Otherwise it is an RP opportunity.

[Imbicatus]

Look for some of this type of thing in the upcoming Horror book. Until then, just treat it as an environmental hazard. Set a DC based on how bad it is and how scared you want the PCs to be, and then set the effects of a failed save.

Generally, PCs shouldn't be panicked by much.

[Byronus]

So, and there's nothing in place for a terrifying RP scenario to impose Shaken/Frightened/Panicked penalties on the players?

EDIT: Are there any guide lines for setting these DCs? I'm kinda new to GMing Pathfinder... :/

[Sundakan]

No.

Which makes perfect sense. You need nerves of titanium or lack of wits to willingly become an adventurer.

[Byronus]

Sundakan wrote:

No.

Which makes perfect sense. You need nerves of titanium or lack of wits to willingly become an adventurer.

Which begs the question: If ADVENTURERS have nerves of titanium, what do the regular, NPC folk have to roll against when they see the swarm of zombies shambling through the mists towards them? :P

EDIT: I'm kidding, people. I guess I'll have extrapolate DCs based on a Fear spell Magical Trap... :/

[Sundakan]

Nothing, they're frightened with no save if the GM wants them to be.

You don't have to be fair and fully crunch-backed for random peasants like you do PCs and cohorts and whatnot.

When you make a house rule, your first question to yourself should be "What does this add to the game? Is it an improvement?"

I'm not sure adding mechanical penalties to what should be an RP opportunity is a good change, myself. Your group may think differently. Maybe run it by them?

[Byronus]

A shame. I like it when the PCs are scrambling in terror. :(

[Imbicatus]

Byronus wrote:

A shame. I like it when the PCs are scrambling in terror. :(

That depends a lot on the game. In Call of Cthulhu, that's appropriate. In Pathfinder, not as much. You can run it more toward the horror side, but the game doesn't support that out of the box right now. Horror Adventures will expand your options though.

[Kazaan]

Nothing hard so it would all be ad hoc. I guess you could have the "situation" roll an intimidate check against anyone present with some level of circumstantial bonus based on how horrific/personal it is, kind of like an "intimidate trap". So the group walks into a building and finds several people, some of which are children, torn limb-from-limb. The "situation" rolls d20 + 4(circumstance) intimidate (it has no inherent Cha score, so treat Cha bonus as +0), but, among the victims, is the family of one of the party members; it gets an additional +2 bonus vs that party member. But still, it's only going to be a few seconds worth of Shaken so, unless an ambush is immediately going to happen, you can handwave whether or not they were shaken by the sight. Now, when it comes to the gormless masses seeing the zombie horde coming, that's a straightforward intimidate check. Just have the zombies take 10 on an intimidate check against available targets. Some NPC villagers might get shaken and abandon the defenses. The rest will either stay or fall back depending on how many got scared and ran. Might be a good incentive to keep the people moralized if you want them to help you fight off a hoard of zombies.

[Ascalaphus]

You can look at D&D products like Ravenloft for inspiration for such rules. However, also keep in mind that most PF PCs see a lot more slaughter making it to level 2 than normal Western people do in their lifetime.

Example: an orc is worth 135 XP. For a four-player party, it takes 59 dead orcs to reach level 2.

You can increase/decrease the bloodbath a bit with lower/higher CR critters and perhaps some story ('gory') awards, but when you come down to it, PCs cause so many bloodbaths themselves, it'll take a lot to scare them.

[OldSkoolRPG]

Byronus wrote:

A shame. I like it when the PCs are scrambling in terror. :(

Good players will role play appropriately.

Spoiler:

I am currently running one of the adventure paths and one of my player's character died. He remade a new character and in order to explain why this character was in the town and get him involved quickly he decided the new character would be the brother of an NPC in town which the characters had already met.

It just so happens that in one part of that adventure path the NPC that he chose gets killed. I didn't have to have him make any rolls for anything but you would have thought that the player had really just had a loved one die because he perfectly played the part of a grief stricken/enraged brother.

I use the hero point system and award hero points when characters really portray their characters in a realistic way. This encourages the players to act their characters appropriately rather than me telling them how their characters react based upon a die roll.

[Byronus]

OldSkoolRPG wrote:

Byronus wrote:

A shame. I like it when the PCs are scrambling in terror. :(

Good players will role play appropriately.

** spoiler omitted **

I use the hero point system and award hero points when characters really portray their characters in a realistic way. This encourages the players to act their characters appropriately rather than me telling them how their characters react based upon a die roll.

Hero Point system? Sound interesting. Can you please elaborate, or provide a link?

[MichaelCullen]

hero points

[Leandro Garvel]

Byronus wrote:

OldSkoolRPG wrote:

Byronus wrote:

A shame. I like it when the PCs are scrambling in terror. :(

Good players will role play appropriately.

** spoiler omitted **

I use the hero point system and award hero points when characters really portray their characters in a realistic way. This encourages the players to act their characters appropriately rather than me telling them how their characters react based upon a die roll.

Hero Point system? Sound interesting. Can you please elaborate, or provide a link?

Hero Points

[Byronus]

This message board is GOLD. Thank you, everyone.