Or, how does Fear, Insanity and Corruption really work in DW?

"And they shall know no fear"... has been taken to the extreme. Space Marines in DW are not affected by Fear as mere mortals - instead of rolling on the Shock Table or gaining Insanity points from failed Fear tests, they either get -10%(fear rating) to WP tests in Solo Mode, or risk losing Cohesion if in Squad Mode.

Not that is all well and good when facing Nids, but what does this actually mean? When does a typical Space Marine need to make WP tests? Does this affect the Librarian's Focus Power tests? How does the Space Marine gain IP and CPs? And they are not immune to those even if the effect on their psyche is very different than from normal humans...

It seems odd that the character that is most affected by the Daemons and horrible Xenos are the ones often used to combat them - Librarians. Sure they often have good WP too, but that penalty in Solo Mode is harsh as it affects all their Powers, potentially reducing them to normal space marines again.

Also, how does Space Marine react to weird happenngs, Warp incursions, Haarlock stuff, cosmic mind numbing horrors of doom.. well you know, those that normal mortals go batshit crazy for? They might be used to fighting ugly things that makes normal people in catatonic states, but I'm talking about the stuff that makes Inquisitors cry and renounce the Emperor...

So for the most ultimate horrors of the galaxy - what gives? The rulebook says only "The GM decides" but I would like some guidelines on this, or some hint of mechanics. This applies to Fearless characters from DH and RT as well.

It works exactly as stated in the book.

When in solo mode a space marine has a -10 Wp penalty per degree of fear when a fear causing enemy is near.

When in squad mode a kill-team will take 1 point of cohesion damage for every degree of fear a fear causing enemy has when they first encountered unless the teams leader passes a Wp test with a -10 Wp per degree of fear. If passed the squad is fine, their faith in their brothers allow them to tackle the enemy with no issues (they do not suffer the solo mode Wp penalty in squad mode). If the leader fails, the team looses the cohesion. If they still have enough cohesion to remain in squad mode they fight on with no penalties other than the lost cohesion. If their cohesion drops to 0 the team is no longer in squad mode and every marine then suffers the Wp penalty for being in solo mode.

The errata states Wp penalties from fear do not affect focus powers. So, evidently, a librarian fighting back the insane and disturbing visage of something truly terrifying has no problems whatsoever using his psychic power. He might fail a Wp test but emperor be damned if anything will stop his avenger!

Space Marines still suffer from insanity or coruption. Although, something would have to be increadibly horrible to give marines insanity or corruption. A Marine's mental fortitude and purity is above and beyond any mortal man. Somehting giving a normal man 1-2 points of insanity wouldn't even phase a space marine. Something giving many more, 1d10 or the like, to a normal man would give a marine 1-2. If the scenario states an event would give marines insanity/corruption, go with the scenario of course. Generally the book doesn't give a hard-fast ruling on the things that would give marines points, or how fewer they would get compared to normal men. Thats where the GM's perogative comes in.

When a space marine sees something weird he's likely to block out or not think about the "impossibility" or "insanity" of the situation. Instead he would focus on his duty and mission. Doesn't mean he isn't affected a little bit, he just wouldn't let it interfere. When a space marine starts to get affected by they things he's seen he will develop a battle trauma. After continual exposure to things that actually unhinge a space marine's mind he will start to suffer from his Primarch's curse. These aren't as obvious as a normal man gibbering aloud whenever he sees a shadow, or growing an extra arm, but it can still be pretty serious. Either complicating or threatening a mission depending on the circumstances and which Trauma/curse was triggered.

Well thanks for the answer, didn't know it didn't affect Focus Power test.

I'm still not happy with the lack of rules/guidelines for insanity inducing situations. After all there are talents etc that reduces the effect but very seldom those come into effect. My experience with previous DH modules makes me think these situations will be very rare in modules, and as GM it is easy to forget to implement it while insanity/corruption for Fear tests are the norm.

Anyone here have a game where someone in the kill team has reached his first level of Primarch's Curse?

Friend of the Dork said:

Not here. I have been given some Insanity points for the gruelsome trip onto a Hive Ship in Oblivion's Edge.

Alex