I been reading and reading the part about space marines and fear. How is it supose to be understood? can a space marine be feared? If yes do I use the "fear" list in the book and if so aint it a bit comical sins we had one of my players run for around 4 rounds from a creature with fear 1 (yes, he was raped by the dices but still). I see the ieader of a marine having som kind of fear but not the kind where he pees in his power pants & cry like a newborn.

PS: If a power armour have "power pants" do sisters of battle's armour have power panties???

I though fear only lowered marines willpower and gives insanity points towards the primarchs curse? I could be wrong though.

I would ask FFG

As written, it can be interpreted one of two ways:

1. Marines suffer a WP penalty when in the presence of fear causing creatures while in solo mode, and while in squad mode the leader must make a WP check to make sure you don't lose cohesion.

OR

2. Marines make a WP check with appropriate penalties to see if fear impacts them as above. If they pass this check nothing happens (no WP penalty). If they fail, they suffer a penalty to WP as appropriate.

Squad mode remains the same in both scenarios.

Most folks on the forums use number 2, I think. Most fear inducing creatures DO NOT give insanity points to marines as per RAW. A lot of GMs use other things in the world, like viewing the inside of a hive ship, really bad stuff on the battlefield, betrayal, etc. to give IPs rather than leaving it up to rolls or fear checks.

Space Marines know fear, they know it well, it is their best friend, and so it does not frighten them. The just don't panic, they've been extensively trained for nearly every possibility...

Except Angron leaping from a lander and charging them.... apparently then they panicked.

So, if a marine fails a WP fear test he gets a penalty to his tests in degrees equal to the "fear rating" fx. Fear 2 = -20%

And a fx. a normal human roll on the "fear" list?

As per the rules:

When confronted by a fear causing enemy a battle brother in solo-mode automatically suffers a penalty to all willpower tests equal to 10 x fear level of the source of the fear.

If the battle brother is in squad-mode the squad suffers 1 point of cohesion damage for every degree of fear the creature has unless the leader passes a Willpower test (including wp modifiers from the creaters degree of fear).

So: single marine in solo mode comes up to a Tyranid Warrior (Fear 3). Since the marine is in solo-mode while near the warrior he suffers a -30% (10 x fearl level 3) to all of his Wp tests.

A 4-member kill-team comes accross the same warrior. Unless the Team-leader passes a Wp test at -30% (10 x fear level 3) the team will automatically lose 3 points of cohesion. The team leader has Wp 40 and rolls a 32 which is a failure. The Kill-team looses 3 points of cohesion. Unless a new more terrifying creature shows up the kill-team takes no further penalties as long as they remain in squad-mode.

Note: It is very possible for fear causing enemies to break a kill-team out of squad-mode if it deals more cohesion damage than the team has at the time. When this happens the marines are then subject to the Wp penalty as they are then in solo-mode.

Since I can't edit my previous post...

The team leader's penalties are based upon table 9-6 of the rulbook on page 277, not the 10 x fear level (although for all intents and purposes the penalties come out to be the same... semantics).

As far as I can tell as long as the battle brothers remain in squad mode they do not suffer the Wp penalty, other than the team leaders Wp test to avoid cohesion damage.

But what about the "fear" list. Can A marine die from fear and do he take any penalties (besides wp) if he fails a fear test? Qurrently if they fail they roll onthe FEAR tabel (1d100 + 10 pr. Degree they failed)

No, Marines do not suffer from fear in tha manner others do, and the fear chart will never be used by a Space Marine. The Fear list in that section was included to give GMs and players the rules in the event enemies (when the PCs have ability to cause fear) or allies who are not immune to fear come in contact with fear causing things.