Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

[Sean Waters]

Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

 

How about doing Fearlessness as Damage Reduction (Fear Effects)? Might be a bit dodgy, but it would enable you to reduce the effect of Fear, however it is built, based on SFX. It could cover everything from PRE attacks to mind control to transformations.

[Vondy]

Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

 

Pin regards to players not liking their characters to be "forced" to react a certain way' date=' well that's really a sign of players I'd avoid.[/quote']

 

Some of this depends on genre and character concept, which is a product of clear communication and setting expectations. If you build Dutch from Predator for an Action Hero game you don't expect the GM to tell you that bad luck on a roll means you acted like a girly man. Dutch clearly had fear, but he funneled it into his aggression it and kicked alien slayer butt. On the other hand, if you are playing a scientist of dilettantish society git such reactions may be apropos. A lot of people assume that "I don't want to be told how my character reacts" is a sign of bad role playing. I don't agree that is always the case. Role playing isn't always about "realism," which is overrated, IMO. If I want realism I'll walk out my front door. There are also questions of archetype and genre simulation. Some people are looking for certain genres and character types to play. And I think that's okay. Besides, if the dice decide everything you aren't role playing, either. You're roll playing.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

 

Some of this depends on genre and character concept' date=' which is a product of clear communication and setting expectations. If you build Dutch from Predator for an Action Hero game you don't expect the GM to tell you that bad luck on a roll means you acted like a girly man. Dutch clearly had fear, but he funneled it into his aggression it and kicked alien slayer butt. On the other hand, if you are playing a scientist of dilettantish society git such reactions may be apropos. A lot of people assume that "I don't want to be told how my character reacts" is a sign of bad role playing. I don't agree that is always the case. Role playing isn't always about "realism," which is overrated, IMO. If I want realism I'll walk out my front door. There are also questions of archetype and genre simulation. Some people are looking for certain genres and character types to play. And I think that's okay. Besides, if the dice decide everything you aren't role playing, either. You're roll playing.[/quote']

 

In Predator, Dutch was not subject to a 'fear' effect other than some sort of environmental PRE attack, possibly. That is probably how fear would work in a lot of situations. He 'felt' fear, but was able to control his reactions: he did not panic.

 

In Hero terms he was built with a high PRE. That makes sense for the character anyway. He might also have been lucky with his rolls.

 

Now there is a world of difference between a scripted film and a game. If you want a 'fearless' character in a game like Hero, you have to pay for a fearless character - but, like an 'invulnerable' character of any sort, it can cost a lot to cover all the bases. Unless the GM makes it clear from the start 'I will only be doing 'fear' as a PRE effect (or whatever) you can build your character to be largely able to ignore the effects of fear, but you would not end up with Dutch, you would end up with a 10 stone weakling with no useful skills because you have spent your points on 'fearlessness'

 

Role playing is not about dictating how your character will react in a given situation, it is about reacting appropriately for the character to the story elements that they come across, whether those story elements come from the GM directly or from a dice roll.

 

If you get PRE attacked and you are affected, the GM should let you decide, to an extent, what happens BUT the whole point of PRE attacks and similar effects is that they are a rules based way to remove player control over the character for a while.

 

In this sort of case if you are affected by a 'fear' effect, the GM might say, "You feel your legs begin to shake and you suddenly feel too hot. You can not think straight. You do not want to go near X, in fact you want to get as far from it as you can, but you are not sure if you can run feeling like you do. It takes every shred of self control you have left not to scream."

 

There you go: role play that...and I do not mean by 'role play' "think of a clever way to circumvent the situation". I mean, "put yourself in the position of the character and decide what the character would do in the situation." The fact that you are PUT in that situation by dice rolls does not mean that you only have no options as to how you cope with it.

 

Now some players will decide, dammit, I'm attacking X anyway. Cool. If I was GM I would certainly allow it, but I would make it clear to the player that I was imposing penalties to OCV (and maybe DCV) because the CHARACTER is subject to fear effects. If they still want to go ahead, they may be lucky, or they may be scragged - but that will become part of the character's story either way.

 

This leads to an interesting possibility: if you do 'Fear' by way of a description which involves a penalty for the character if they try to circumvent it (say -2 to OCV and all skill rolls per level of effect of PRE attack if they do something aggressive toward the target of their fear), then you could build Fearlessness as 'Overall levels, only to counter Fear effects'. There you have a character who feels fear but is not overly affected by it. It is also a reasonably cheap and graduated way of addressing 'fear' for the character.

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

 

When I was little, I used to catch a lot of random things and put them in coffee cans.

 

I also used to go around the neighborhood and remove pygmy rattlers from the porches of retired folks in the neighborhood. They'd frequently climb the stucco (this was in FL) and get up in the corner of the porch above the front door.

 

One day, I brought a can home with me, and my older brother was on the front porch. He wanted to know what was in the can, and I told him -- knowing he was afraid of snakes -- that he didn't want to know. Well, he was insistent. I dumped the snake out (not from a height, mind you, just popped the lid and slid it out of the can) in between us.

 

He turned, grabbed a broom propped up on the wall, pivoted back and smacked the snake square in the head, completely flattening it. In about two seconds. I've never seen anyone react that fast to anything, including being batted around by a friend who was a professional kick boxer when I was in the army. (He jokingly called it "sparring.")

 

So I'm guessing my brother got a DEX bonus out of his fear. He got an initiative bonus, and huge OCV bonus for the called shot to the head of an animal with several levels of shrinking.

 

He almost got a punch from me for killing an animal that didn't need to be killed, but frankly freaked me out with the display, so I guess he got a triggered PRE attack out of it too.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

 

He got a DEX bonus if he built himself with +3 DEX when afraid (-1), but more likely he just got a good attack roll. If he rolled 18 instead of 3, he might have missed and broken your foot by accident.

 

The problem with using anecdotal evidence from real life or from movies to justify doing something in the game is that the game has a set of rules that are not a perfect mirror of either form of reality.

 

If you think that Fear makes people react with uncontrollable violence for which they get bonuses, fine, but if you did the same thing ten minutes later he might have scrambled backwards, or attacked you, or something else. He is reacting because of fear, but how he reacts is not set. He is not always (I presume) reacting to the fear stimulus with violence.

 

You could build a little random table with 'run away screaming and micturating' to 'attack with +3 OCV', but that really does take control away from the player. Just because someone who is put in fear CAN react with violence is not carte blanche for that to become the standard reaction.

 

If that was how a player always insisted on his character reacting then there would be consequences, perhaps people who witness the reaction becoming disgusted with, or afraid of the character, and shunning them, much as you were upset with your brother for what he did in reaction to suddenly having a snake in front of him.

 

It is complicated.

[Christopher]

Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

 

Liek Sean says, the brother actually hitting the snake was pure luck. Maybe there was some training involved (baseball perhaps?) that made it easier to him. But generally the Adrennalin Rush is designed for flight, not fight.

I know that for precies weapon use the last thing you need are strong emotions. That is true for a Jetfighter-Pilot and for somebody flattening a snake.

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

 

 

The problem with using anecdotal evidence from real life or from movies to justify doing something in the game is that the game has a set of rules that are not a perfect mirror of either form of reality.

 

 

The problem with taking an anecdote meant to be amusing too seriously is that sometimes you end up preaching to the choir.

 

I agree with you. The game stuff wasn't intended to be taken seriously. =)

 

Edit: Of course, I'm not really that good at putting across humorous intent lately.

[Pattern Ghost]

Re: Fear Itself: How do you handle it in your campaigns?

 

Liek Sean says, the brother actually hitting the snake was pure luck. Maybe there was some training involved (baseball perhaps?) that made it easier to him. But generally the Adrennalin Rush is designed for flight, not fight.

I know that for precies weapon use the last thing you need are strong emotions. That is true for a Jetfighter-Pilot and for somebody flattening a snake.

 

Adrenaline rush certainly hinders fine motor skills, but it's certainly can help with both fight and flight. Being tool users with relatively weak bodies for the animal kingdom, we don't see the benefit of an adrenaline dump like, say, a big cat does, but there are certainly offensive benefits.