I've heard some grumbling about the limited nature of the Genesys fear system. I understand some work has been done for specific settings, but I figured I'd give my take on a generalized version. I would like to introduce the Nerve system, meant to inject some extra tension to your horror settings. This is still very much a work in progress and open to feedback, suggestions, and changes.

Nerve and Insanity [V. 0.01a]

Nerve

The world is a rough place and we can often have a hard time coping with all the hardships of life. Especially when those hardships might include ravenous zombies, hidden conspiracies, or mad gods of death. Nerve is meant to track a characters immediate mental well being through the story. While nerve is tied to strain, and could largely be thought of as a critical injury system for strain, it is its own attribute. Characters will usually start with a strain of nine and everyone has the same maximum strain level of ten.

Damage

Characters typically lose nerve by gaining strain. starting at a loss of one nerve per strain. For every two levels of cool and/or discipline a character has increase the strain needed to harm nerve by one. So a character with three cool and two discipline will lose one nerve for every three strain taken. Certain events in the narrative may also result in loss of nerve, such as a particularly devastating revelation or rolling a despair.

Healing

There a few different ways to increase your nerve. Healing two strain always heals one nerve up to nine, unless specified otherwise in a talent. Characters can also do things like meditate, listen to music, or give each other a reassuring word to heal strain. This will usually only heal one strain unless it's something particularly epic. Characters are also reward three nerve for a good nights sleep.

Nerve Table

• 10 - Meditive (+2 boost on Intellect, Cunning, and will checks)
• 9 - Calm (+1 boost on checks)
• 8 - Uneasy
• 7 - Nervous
• 6 - Anxious
• 5 - Stressed (+1 setback on checks)
• 4 - Freaking
• 3 - Frightened (+2 setback)
• 2 - Panicking (Chance of psychosis on magic despair)
• 1 - Hysterical (+1 challenge)
• 0 - Completely lost it (instant psychosis, return to level 4)

Insanity

Sometimes we can't cope at all, and simply break. We stop perceiving the world as it is and our connection to reality might become lost. Insanity tracks the long term degradation of a characters breaking mind. Every time you gain insanity roll 2d10 and subtract twice your will power from the result. Add this result to your current insanity level and add any new psychosis you might have landed on. You do not loose a psychosis by gaining a new one.

Insanity Table:

• 00 Sane (No effect)
• 01-10 Cracking (No effect)
• 11-15 Obsession
• 16-20 Melancholy
• 21-25 Distrusting
• 26-30 Twitchy (+1 setback to agility and brawn checks)
• 31-35 Paranoia
• 36-40 Broken Heart
• 41-45 Delusions
• 46-50 Spasmodic Attacks (+1 difficulty to agility and brawn checks)
• 51-55 Phobia
• 56-60 Depression
• 61-65 Whispered voices
• 66-70 Palsy (+1 challenge to agility and brawn checks)
• 71-75 Hallucinations
• 76-80 Existential Dread
• 81-85 Split Personality
• 86-90 Frequent Seizures (+2 challenge to agility and brawn checks)
• 91-100 Coma

To do (suggestions welcomed):

• Work out how to heal insanity
• Add effects to all psychosies
• Create custom talents
• Fine tune
• Documentise?

I can understand the need to expand the fear/insanity rules but tbh i dont like this suggestion since it introduces a whole new stat players and GMs need to track and work out.

The sanity rules found on page 244 GCRB the PC gain a trauma when they roll despair or 5 threats. This Trauma is worked out between player and GM depending on the situation. Fear is a great and simple mechanic that you could make a way to have nerve as you describe it be the accumulation of failed or successful fear checks. Or in other words make it easier for the player to gain a trauma.

Maybe detach the trauma table from the fear check. Make a list like the one you give here and expand on the rules found on TABLE III.4–2: TRAUMAS AND THEIR EFFECTS on page 244.

Now for the list itself i would look at the crit table and make it something like a mental crit. So when rolling a despair or maybe a fear/threat has a mental crit rating. Like Zombies have a crit of 5 but eldritch horror has a crit of 2

and then they can roll on the trauma crit table. Just a suggestion.

I have to agree with @Archellus . Adding a entirely new stat seems a little much. I think expanding the Insanity list you made into a "mental crit" chart would be the best way to go about it. Maybe certain results from fear checks can cause these "mental crits."

Hmm, I do hear you guys. I tried to make the stat as easy to work with as I could, it was the only way I could think to track what I wanted...

It does seem strain is tracking a similar concept, so maybe if I reworked that system somehow? I also feel like the insanity table could use to be a bit more dramatic, I need some extra categories in there to spice things up. I might just have to play-test with what I have and see what my players have to say.