Fear and the horrendous, unexpected effect it can have on combat. Solutions?

By Ghaundan, in Only War

****, did I?

How so? From how I understood it, Jaded made PCs immune to any Fear inducing creatures save for Warp Terrors.

This makes Jaded characters at least succeptible to fear inducing creatures that are not of the warp.

This does not apply to Warp Terrors - they still function as normal to a Jaded character. I probably should have added that.

My intention was to Nerf it down so it was no longer an excuse to say, "Well that creature is not of the Warp, so my PC is not scared at all..." regardless of the fact that it is a Squiggoth with a hard on.

Anyways, I think maybe my wording made it confusing. It should function as such: any creature, warp or otherwise with a Fear (3) or Fear (4) trait will still force jaded PCs to test against fear. Warp creatures with fear (1) and (2) still function as normal.

Edited by pearldrum1

General consensus is that Jaded only makes you immune to Fear (1).

Seriously? Where's that from?

That is the first I am hearing of it as well.

I can't give a definitive citation at current but there is a table in the fear section that describes Fear (1) as mundane horrors. I was under the impression a lot of people used this, and the fact things like chaos spawn and minor daemons tend to be Fear (2), to determine that Jaded is immunity to Fear (1).

Could have sworn I'd seen others posting along similar lines.

Either way, that's how my group runs it, and I certainly find it balances it out a lot better.

That is a much easier way of handling it than the, slightly convuluted talent amendment I created. I am going to run it past my group, and if they dislike it, then I suppose I will simply drop a Carnifex out of the sky onto their heads.

...GrimdarkISdarkAndGrim.org

If you want to house rule it I prefer the version where you reduce the Fear-Level by one or two steps. That is pretty much the very same mechanic Dark Heresy 1.0 PCs from the Feral World Dusk had and it worked pretty well.

Fearless though should stay as it is. You might make it harder to obtain but some character concepts simply go that way and even though the PCs are soldiers of the imperial guard, that does not mean they have to stay simple grunts.

Also I tried another appraoch with Jaded for once though that was imho to much "stat stracking" so I stopped it. If my NPCs had bought Jaded they were not automaticly immune to all mundane horrors. They had to "earn" their resistance meaning that only newer and bigger bugs would demand fear checks from them though the third or fourth whatever-bug with a fear level would not shock them like he did at their first encounter. "Killed him once, will kill him again". Especially for campaings that have one main enemy it is just stupid to roll for some creatures the squad already stomped into the ground on several occasions.

Daemons on the other side are never really the same and a complete different story at last for me. So they had to be actually fearless bastards to smile back at them.

Also at some Level, when NPCs kill minor Fear causing enemies in one combat round alone, their "fear" seems not so shocking after all.

Edited by FieserMoep

Seriously? Where's that from?

It's from RT. In that game jaded is defined as preventing the effects of lvl 1 fear. Somehow that part got slipped in OW.

How do we know it was slipped and not intentional then? I can't remember seeing it in the errata, which is where slips are put.

Refer to my former point concerning rules as written. I'll try to get a citation after work.

Defineatly looking it up when i get home from work too, just nice to see the rules instead of trying to discern what the authors intented with a rule and pass it off as as RAW. Way too used to rulelawyers from tabletop.

That's weird, I just looked it up on my Electronic copy and it's not there! I remember it being from RT! Maybe my print copy is different but I'm currently away from home!

"Jaded

Tier: 1
Prerequisite: Willpower 40
Aptitudes: Willpower, Defence
The character's wide travels have shown them both wonders and horrors beyond the ken of most. The galaxy has thrown it's worst at the character and they have yet to flinch. Mundane events, from death's horrific visage to xenos abominations, do not force the character to gain Insanity Points or make Fear Tests. Terrors of the Warp still affect the character normally."

On page 305 there is a small table that categorises things by their fear rating. Fear 2 is equivalent to "meeting a dead man, skies raining blood...major supernatural or psychic phenomena..."

And it only gets worse from there.

Arguing that Fear (1) is therefore a mundane event, and Fear (2+) is a supernatural event or equivalent, then the argument of Jaded making you immune to Fear (1) makes a considerable amount of sense.

However, it would appear that there is no categoric definition of what a "Mundane Event" is, or what a "Terror of the Warp" is.

It would appear to me to be another matter of GM discretion, in the end.

Okay, so it's a reasonable house rule, and quite possibly RAI. Good catch.

I would wager that a mundane event would be someone getting blown apart on the battlefield, a nunnery burning to the ground, kittens being hit by a bus...

Terror of the Warp, in my humble opinion at least, regards ANYTHING from the Warp setting foot in the material plane of reality.

Because things from the Warp are fukked up. Period.

The fear system in Only War has been imported pretty much wholesale from Dark Heresy. The problem with this is that Dark Heresy has far more of a Call of Cthuhulu feel to it and revolves around small groups of investigators suddenly encountering horrific things which might make them run off.

In Only War you might be part of an entire company or even reigiment engaging said horrific things with artillery and armoured support. An Ork Nob is scary if encountered by yourself when investigating a farmstead, an Ork Nob charging same framestead when you have 50 of your buddies dug in with Heavy Bolters not so much.

I would simply make the Fear checks much easier if the fear causing creature is clearly outmatched, outnumbered or in a tactically inferior position.

I would possibly also modify the effects of failing a fear check in some circumstances. So for example a character might be forced to only fire at the fear causing creature ignoring other threats, potentially he must shoot at the creature for several rounds after it is dead representing 'making sure'.

Characters can spend a fate point to take double insanity points in exchange for deferring the effects of the fear until after the combat enncouter.

Finally I would be hesitant to apply these rules to demons of any type. Demons are not aliens or beasts but completly unnatural. Their fear should be an important weapon.