Maybe it's my luck--maybe it's me doing something wrong but whenever I play, I've never seemed to have an issue with the Terror Level. I've never seen it rise above 3. Knock on wood but it seems I'm doing everything right too--killing monsters, so no Terror level there. I've never used Charlie Kane in a single game, so it's not like I've kept it from going up either.

Now, it's not like I /want/ it to go up or anything but I have to wonder if anyone else has noticed this or if this is a regular thing?

Sometimes the terror level can be really active, and your chances increase with DH, KiY, or IH expansions.

I've played about 4 games of Arkham Horror (Base Game) so far. The terror track had only risen above level 3 in one game (game we played last night in which we got creamed by repeated monster surges). Besides that it had little effect on my games. This just seem so to be how it is with the base game. Like Tibs wrote there are expansions that make more use of the terror track but besides that it should just be a minor annoyance.

Ah, good to hear that. I was worried I was missing something. I don't use the extra boards often--I kinda get intimidated by them! ^^;

The last game I played, with Dunwich expansion board only, the terror level rose to 5 in a few rounds and crippled 2 of my investigators through failing their personal stories (curse has to be the nastiest, most debilitating game effect, ever). But yeah, usually it's quite stable. Just guard the vortexes!