I am considering having a Chaos Space Marine as a 'big baddie' in my game. Maybe not something they would take on solo but a huge plot hook to toss at my rank 7/8ish PCs. I am wondering if it would have a fear factor and how much of one you guys would think it would rate. The various 40k books I have read seem to lend weight to the fear factor effect of meeting one of these forces of Chaos. What do you guys think?

Personally i wouldn't put it with a fear rating of more than 2 (or only 1), unless they have certain Marks or powers that give them a fearsome aura. There would be a high intimidation factor though, as would be the case with a 7foot tall monster in corrupted power armour.

They look scary enough, though it may depend on the individual - a Nurgle Marine with a tentacle arm, a single red eye behind the helmet slit and putrid ulcers all over their living armour might easily look a bit more terrifying than a Tzeentchian or Slaaneshi one who "just" look somewhat disturbing, though there would undoubtedly be many exceptions from this rule.

I'd say a Fear Rating of 1 or 2 (depending on the look) can easily be justified, at least for the first few encounters.

Lynata said:

You've reminded me of a scene from the first Eisenhorne book where an acolyte sees a chaos SM for the first time and the very symbols painted / engraved on the armour are enough to seriously disturb the viewer; maybe a Fear rating would be a good way to represent this.

DW

The Dan Arnett books various references to the Chaos Marines always seem to have some sort of fear or terror aspect to them. Well except for Gaunt, he is just too bad ass to be all that upset it seems.

Chaos marines are definately scary, they are up there with some of the ultimate "very bad things" to make angry in 40k and should not be used as mooks. They're ancient, smart, powerful and 100% geared to destroying people and things, with huge guns, immense armour and sharp objects.

PC's by the latter levels of their career will have have some resistances to fear, so they might not be as rattled as you hope, any allies they have which aren't 100% hardcore bastards will run screaming... and if your PC's aren't taking the matter seriously, a couple of bursts from an astartes bolt gun will soon have a few fate points and limbs missing. So, even if the character isn't rattled, the players might be after you convincingly wreck their ****

You could import the stats from Deathwatch, in which case they don't have a Fear Rating per se.

DW opponents are scaled up for DW player characters, though. But of course they still serve as good inspiration. Perhaps a combination of that profile and a weaker version of Brother-Sergeant Agamarr from PtU (given that he's a Veteran Sergeant) would do the trick, plus the addition of Fear 1 or Fear 2.

Lynata said:

Going by the OP they're not supposed to actually fight him, and they are Rank 7-8. I think it's fine.

Also Brother-Sergeant Agamarr is a Veteran by Imperial SM standards, Chaos SM in general have been fighting an awful lot longer than that so I'd maybe use his stats but keep them about the same or even slightly stronger.

scscofield said:

I would not give him a Fear rating. Otherwise (and especially considering many of the replies already given) you would also have to give most of the bigger Orks and any vile Sorecerer also a Fear rating, as they are rather "scary" as well. A couple of years ago while playing WFRP (as well as WFB) I wondered similarly why lowly Zombies with meagre stats caused fear, while deadly Chaos Warriors of Khorne and huge Black Orcs did not.

I would give him Intimidation +10 or +20 and think about some fitting effect (similar to the lower results of the Shock table) it could have on the PCs.

My Two cents:

Firstly there are many types of CSM, those that are pledged to the choas gods, those that are pirates such as the red corsiars, and those that are mercs for want of a better word. you need to be specific in what type of marine he is. The next thing that springs to mind is what sort of marine is he, (for those that do TT) Tactical, jumppacker, heavy weapons, melee specialist, sourcerer?

Even a 1000 year of choas worshipping tactical style marine while very skilled and quite scary looking might not cause fear but maybe very intimidating, where are a 1000 year old Sourcerer of Tzeentch with demonic pacts and investments could be very very scary and cause fear just by standing there.

second is the way they meet, for those that have the gamemasters kit should have read the adventure that is in there, the body piles in the mill cause fear 1 so the scene is just as important as the marine.

My 2 Thrones: I would only give a CSM a Fear rating if it was a function of a Mark, Gift, or mutation. Yes, they are very scary, but so are tanks, sharks, lions, any guy with a gun who has the drop on you, etc. There is a difference between triggering conscious self preservation instincts (what Acolyte wouldn't choose to run from a group of CSMs?) and triggering uncontrollable fear. That's my take on it.

Basic story background was they were looking into rumors of a lost Titan. They find that there is one, and that a heretical Magos has been attempting to get it functional again. They track down the Titan's hanger and seem to catch the Heretek alone at the hanger. It is funny that people mentioned the DW stats for the CSM and that they mentioned the Brother SGT from the DH adventure. I had told them the Brother SGT was available for support for the mission if they managed to actually find the Titan. They bust into the hanger feeling fairly confident that everything was going to be a simple matter with that kind of support. Most of their out of game comments were jokes about keeping the Brother SGT from killing the Heretek before they got info from it.

They bust into the hanger, the Brother SGT charges and I have them all roll initiative. They laugh at this and say they are just going cheer while the fight happens. The Brother SGT has first initiative, he starts to charge across the hanger. That is when the Magos yells out and the CSM charges from around the corner and engages the Brother SGT. I had them roll a Fear 1 test because of the shock of the moment and then the fight proceeded. For the most part the Brother SGT and the CSM became a background 'titanic melee battle' while they fought the Magos. I had pulled the Magos from the DW adventure and gave him his full stats so it was a fairly intense battle for the PCs.

I felt it turned out good, the PCs had been getting fairly arrogant because most of their prior combat situations had been against things they vastly overgeared like unarmored scum and what not. Two of them are dw pistol junkies and it was fun to see them falter because the Magos soaked a lot of their damage up and kept going. (I had increased it's AP some) The two space marines fighting in the backgroud made them sweat also because they knew that if the CSM won there was a good chance they were dead.

Hah, sounds like it turned out to be a fun evening for everyone involved, then. Congrats.