My Players always miss their Fear rolls, and many career paths don't have much in the way of beefing up will power or fear resistances. They are on their second career, about to start their third, and Fear seems to be a big party disabler.

And it's not fun for the player huddling in the corner, while the Fear Immune Sister of Battle wades in with the one or two others that are still in control of their character. Yes, they spend Fate Points, and then miss again.

With 30 as an average starting point, do other groups have this same issue? Or do your players not mind?

I have the same issue. Thus far I leave them huddling in fear, the setting is meant to do that. If, however, a player seems to be getting discoraged then give him a few opportunities to shine. If he can prove he's an integral part of the team despite ocasionaly freezing up he'll like his character even more then one that just bravely stares down everything.

The easy answer is, don't use fear effects against them. Whether the creature, place, scenario, whathaveyou would normally call for it or not, just ignore fear rolls until they become important to the scene. This way you aren't punishing people who roll poorly, and you are making the instances when fear does come into play all the more important.

Alternately, you could allow them to continue fighting while affraid, but give them negatives to their actions. Tell them that so long as they role play being affraid you will not force them to huddle in the corner blubbering all over themselves.

Or, you could allow them to ignore fear checks by spending a fate point. I realize that, normally, this would require a burn, but if it is that much of a problem you may need to make an exception.

Or the three, though, I think the first suggestion the better.

You should also be asigning them Insainity Points for such trauma, after a while the acruing IPs will make them more resistant to Fear as it all begins to become 'old hat' and all that. Also you might allow them to by some Fear related talents as Elite Advances, or perhaps allow the non-frightented PCs to bolster their mates letting them retest each round someone encourages them (meaning they are adjacent and spending a Full Actio to console them) with a cumilitive +5 / +10 to their Test for every round spent being coddled.

Personally I've not had such an issue but maybe its the types of threats you're sending them against, if eveything they are facing has Fear Ratings then they should be failing such checks and its more an issue with the thereats and circumstances than with any inhereent weakness with the mechanic. Maybe allow Elite Advances for the Fear related Talents or rethink their adversaries.

I have a confession to make. When my PCs fail their fear tests I will often fudge rolls away from the more severe results or downplay the effects slightly, especially if it's an important scene. It's really, really boring for a player to have their character miss out on an important moment because they passed out or ran straight out the door. I also try to let players keep control of their characters, just have them act within the parameters. If a character fails his Fear test and must flee, for example, I'll let the player run and hide somewhere of his choosing and allow him to try and snap out of it.

Another thing I do is let people conquer certain Fears. For example, after their first encounter with the body-snatchers in Edge of Darkness (in which most of the acolytes failed their fear tests but managed to put their attackers down) they became immune to the Fear they caused because they had fought and then examined the things, thus taking a lot of edge off their horrific nature. Some things, of course, will be terrifying every time you encounter them: daemons are a good example, as are other terrible things like Necron Pariahs and the larger varieties of Tyranids.

Fear is (in my opinion) a good reason to give a cleric "his moment".

If the group knows they are going "into the devils den", ask the cleric if he would like to round up the group to lead them in a prayer of faith to the emporer or give them a short but rousing sermon on a certains saints deeds.

If he passes a check for ..let´s say "orator" or "singer" (perhaps "assistet" by a former check for "Common Lore (Imperial Creed)" ´the hall group might benefit from a bonus on fright checks (+5; +10 or a re-roll). This last for a a special task, but pc loses this bonus if he "snaps" the first time.

In addition, allow a cleric (or any other pc learned in "imperial creed") to check for willpower when "frightend". If he passes, he will start to repeat some prayer as a "reflex action". This should give all the other players hearing it a "recover roll" or anything similiar.

Using this options gives some psychologic uses to "imperial creed"...

Snidesworth said:

Same here. I did allow it to happen a few times but some players with low Willpower are just cursed to run away every time they encounter something with a Fear-rating. I also let them conquer certain fears as well after a while. I use the Fear-system very open and increase or decrease the results as I see fit; the rules aren't set in stone for me because IMO I need to put down an entertaining adventure and not a "run away from the baddies" or "stare down the daemon" show which can lead to some very frustrating or stupid adventures.

Great ideas. I'm going to be testing out these house rules, as well as letting them get "used to" some of the Fear (1) creatures.

Fear and the Imperial Creed

Prayers before Battle . If an acolyte skilled in Common Lore (Imperial Creed) takes a full action and succeeds in Orate or Singer, this gives everyone in earshot a +10% on Fear tests for the next encounter. The encounter must be within the next hour.

Other group members can assist with Common Lore (Imperial Creed) rolls.

Prayers in Battle . Once per encounter, acolytes may attempt to pray in battle as a free action by making a Common Lore (Imperial Creed) roll. If they have already failed a fear test, they must make a Willpower check first to being praying reflexively. This gives all acolytes within earshot an immediate extra recovery roll even regardless if their fear effect allows recovery or not.

They may continue to pray out loud each round for the same benefit as long as they make their Common Lore (Imperial Creed). They gain a + 5 cumulative bonus to this roll as they become filled with the spirit of the Emperor.

Other group members can assist with Common Lore (Imperial Creed) rolls.

Remember the way rolls work in dark heresy is that rolling is HARD. Even with a few buffs a 50% chance is still a tough as hell roll to make. Think about situations and fear tactically. Fear tends to induce a fight or flight mechanism. As acolytes are already a cut above the rest of humanity, that would make them less likely to flee. Instead I'd stear away from them huddling in a corner and have them fire off wildly at whatever approaching gribbly is coming at em. Remember the "KILL IT NOW!" response to fear is just as apt as the "RUN AWAY!" response.

personally, i'd have the players make a list of all the freaky stuff they have come up against. and tick them off.

mundane horrors like grizzly murders, mutants etc, should be 1 shot things. initially mutants are scary but after a while they are just freaky.

Supernatural horrors should always be scary but only based on the scenario. Some Xenos thing walking slowly towards the group while laughing is not as scary as being jumped on by something from the shadows.

If in doubt, ignore the rules.

Nojo509 said:

You might want to allow Common Lore Machine Cult to join the party.

In the same line of thinking, Common Lore (Imperial Guard) could probably get you some morale boosts among Guardsmen. However, I'd be more inclined to put this down as a Command function with an assist from a Perfomance skill rather than base it on the CLs.

Are none of them spending xp to boost WP?

Don't forget the 'Only the Insane Shall Prosper...' boxout (p237).

As the PCs accrue IPs they become increasingly immune to Fear Ratings...