Does having a Fear Rating as a character have any kind of effect, in terms of modifiers to having to roll Fear Checks against lesser Fear Ratings than your own? It would seem logical that it would but I can't find any ruling on it. If a character with Pseudo-Daemonhood sees Fear (4) everytime they look in a mirror, they should have bonuses, if not be immune to lesser Fear Ratings because they themselves are more scary, and are used to it.

A house rule that I use is to reduce the fear ratings of enemies by your own fear rating - that is, if a character with Fear (2) runs into an enemy that causes Fear (4), they treat it as if they had run into an enemy giving Fear (2). The enemy with Fear (4) of course isn't scared of the character with Fear (2) at all.

There are Gifts of the Gods that gives you fear rating and there is one that reduces enemies' fear rating for you.

In your houserule the second one is obsolete. While I'd say that your own fear rating might give you bonus to fear tests it shouldn't reduce fear ratings because in your example it would reduce fear(2) to noting which will give it to much power.

fear rating, fear rating, fear rating

But there are some extremely mundane things than give you a Fear Rating. Why would a powerful Psker with Pseudo-Daemonhood be scared of a Horror, when that's what he looks like himself, and is himself far more scary than the Horror is.

Some of the Gifts of the Gods are just flat out better than others, that's true. As one of my gaming buddies is fond of saying, "That's Chaos, baby!"

So, does a character wit Pseudo-Daemonhood risk killing himself whenever he looks in a mirror? What penalties should be placed on Operate tests because he'd have to remove the rear-view mirrors? Can he even look out of a window if it's brighter outside than in?

WP: 24, Inf: 31

Johnny rolls a Fear Check with a -20 penalty for seeing himself in a mirror for the first time after being blessed by the Gods. He rolls a 78. 7 degrees of failure. He suffers -10 to all Skill and Characteristic Test which involve concentration for the rest of his life, or until he gains Illusion of Normalcy. He also suffers a disorder and the GM rolls 1d4 + 1d100 to determine the table and result and rolls Table 4, Result 32. Johnny now Frenzies as soon as he thinks he's in combat.

Makes no sense!

Five years later, Johnny still gets twitchy, but he's come to terms with his affliction. He's gained Illusion of Normalcy and his life has been getting back to normal. He knows that whenever he wants, he can show people his true form and horrify them, so long as he doesn't see himself in the process (we've houseruled that Illusion of Normalcy can be "turned off" as per Icon of Blashemy that says "Once per session, the character may unveil or unleash his blasphemy upon his foe." ). Although Johnny is the most horrific and terrifying thing he has ever seen, he has now just recieved a Minion, Barry. Barry appears normal enough, a bit fat maybe and has a strange stare in his eye. His voice is slightly monotone and husky. Barry has Fear (1). Upon Johnny's first meeting with his new servant, Johnny rolls a Fear check because Barry is scary. He rolls an 85, 5 degrees of fail. Johnny suffers -10 to all Skill and Characteristic Test which involve concentration while Barry is around and suffers another Disorder. This time the GM rolls Conspiracy Theorist. Johnny now has a 25% of gaining a new disorder everytime he meets with Barry. He has another six meetings in the next fortnight alone.

Johnny resigns himself to his fate; resolves that the Chaos Gods are out to get him and brains himself with a Bolt Pistol.

Just got clarification of our house rule on this:

A creature that has a Fear Rating is implied to be immune to the effects of said trait.

It'd still be nice to know how canon works this though. Not just through Gifts of the Gods but even with a Talent; War Cry for example. Do they roll a Fear Check for being within a 50m radius of themselves and hearing their own supernatural voice?

Just because you're scary-looking doesn't necessarily mean you don't think others might be scary.

There has to be some measure of control over it though, otherwise every game would just end up unplayable after a very short period of time.

Yes. It's called "Fearless", "Frenzy", "Infernal Will" and so on.

It'd be unplayable far before anyone has enough XP for them. Fearless is 1750XP Opposed, Frenzy is 500XP Opposed and only gives you the benefits at a huge cost, expecially to Psykers. And you'd need to offset them with True Advancements to recover the alignment balance. There's only a 2 + Inf Bonus% chance of getting Infernal Will, it comes at a huge cost and the higher your Inf Bonus, the more likely you are to roll a Reward rather than a Gift; unless you delibrately bend the rules and metagame to gain Corruption as a Failing, just to better your character.

The better way is to create a hard and fast house-rule, which works equally for both sides. I've used the following rules:

Game Balancing

When a new house rule is agreed upon between the player party and the GM, the rule should apply to DPCs and NPCs under the GM’s control, as well as the PCs themselves. This helps to stop controversy over balancing issues as what benefits the house rules give the player party; it will also give to their enemies.

Illusion of Normality

Any character with the Illusion of Normality Gift of the Gods may make an Easy (+10) Corruption Test as a Free Action to “turn off” the illusion for one scene or encounter. The character may turn the Illusion of Normality back on at any time during the scene or encounter as a Free Action. Any character that has any Gifts of the Gods which give them a Fear Rating or other beneficial effects that rely on the outward appearence or perception of the mutation itself do not gain these bonuses when the Illusion of Normality is active. Whilst inactive, the bonuses and benefits from Illusion of Normality become inert.

Fear Ratings

Any PC with an active Fear Rating is immune to the effects of Fear from any mortal creature with a Fear Rating equal to or lesser than their own. They are however, still affected by Fear from Psychic events, Daemons and truly disturbing scenes as the GM sees fit.

One of the house rules is a gift (you just argued they are too hard to get to be reliable) and the other doesn't help vs. higher fear ratings anyway (which are the only ones you really care about).

One house rule allows you to understand how the illusion works; and it blocks the Fear Rating when you have it activated, but doesn't give you the bonuses of the illusion when it is deactivated. The canon rule would render a great number of the Gifts of the Gods and Rewards of the Gods pemanently inert.

I'm not bothered about via higher Fear Ratings than you are, they are by definition more scary. It was only how to handle Fear checks for mortal creatures with a lower Fear Rating than oneself.

With Pseudo-Daemonhood you become Fear 4 (the scariest any scary thing could ever possibly be in the mechanics of the game), but you're expected to still be scared of the random human guy beside you firing his gun (there is one Talent or something I seem to remember that gives you Fear 1 for a round if you fire on Full Auto, you get the idea). The minion above is probably a better example. You can gain Fear 1 very easily for a huge number of very mundane reasons. This shouldn't affect someone of Fear 4 as much as someone as Fear 0.

Again, just because your appearance change to resemble something scary as **** doesn't stop you from being scared as **** by scary stuff. A fear rating doesn't imply you became less sensitive to fear inducing things. It's just not logical on any level. Look at yourself in a mirror and you'll probably freak out too (probably even more if you weren't expecting it).

Maybe so, but for that to work in the context of a roleplay game, mechanics have to be added so that you don't have to retire a character whenever you gain something which is supposed to be a reward within the game, say like the Face of <X>. By that logic, once you have a Fear Rating, you'd have to effectively put your character into solitry confinement in a building with no glass and metagame until they grind enough XP to buy Nerves of Steel and Fearless; often going against the whole ethos and concept of the character. Considering that could be the case from character creation, what's the point in playing the game?

Would you have a padded room where you just throw characters as soon as they gain a fear rating? Keep a constant turn around of characters on the go. A four player group with 20 characters between them? It doesn't work. The logic is opposed to the concept of playing a fun, long term game.

So a house rule is set in place which allows a player,who has spent a long time writing a back history, genning the character and is really looking forward to playing it to actually play a character without some seriously restricting arbitrary loosely fitting rule completely disabling their character and leaving him alive, fully functional, but completely unplayable in a social roleplaying game.

Meh. I don't think a houserule is needed since the Fear rules only refer to events and adversaries. Though the saying "You're your own worst enemy" may be apt in the context of quite a few Heretics, I don't think that's what the designers had in mind here.

For everything else, there's Jaded, a tier one talent that several archetypes start with and that immunizes you against every non-warpy source of fear.

So, would Jaded stop you rolling fear against a mortal source of Fear 4? It reads more like it immunises you against an unwritten Fear 0, mundane everyday fright.

Yup, anything that's not of the warp holds no terror for the character any longer (excepting perhaps powers like Pure Faith).

Ok, thanks. I had never read it like that before. I may have to preceed my house rule with "For characters who do not possess the Jaded Talent, "

*shrug* I don't see how that houserule is really necessary. If I had a car-crash tomorrow and turned into Two-Face's twin brother, would that preclude me from being squicked out by other mutants and the like by itself? I see no reason why it would.

If, on the other hand, I dwelled on my appearance for a while and finally decide that there's no uglier thing than me anyway so screw them, why wouldn't I use that opportunity to buy Jaded? At worst, it costs me 500 XP and sets me back an advance towards a mark.

Fear ratings are pretty powerful by themselves and the Gifts that grant them are already among the best. I see no reason to strengthen them further.

Because it's a social tabletop roleplaying game. You come back to the padded room unitl you've ground enough XP to get Jaded. And Fear 4 doesn't mean ugly; it is the scariest of any possible scay things in the mecahnics of the canon of the game. There is nothing you could ever see or hear or experience in the entire universe that could ever be scarier than Fear 4.

What's with the padded room?

You are affected by the fear ratings of adversaries and events (core rules, page 277). As long as you don't consider yourself (or your fellow Heretics) one of the two, you never roll a single fear check against them.

Would a Khornate with Hatred (Everyone) and Enemy (Everyone) ever class anyone as not an adversary; would anyone consider him as not an adversary? During a heated argument between lifelong friends, where real strong issues are being discussed; for thepurposes of that conversation or event, they are adversaries. If you have the Conspiracy Theory Disorder, everyone in the universe is an adversary.

The guy above said that seeing yourself in a mirror would trigger the effect, and that Frenzy, Fearless and Infernal Will were the only ways feasable to stop it. Hence the padded room, grinding XP to gain the Talents while you character is unplayable in a roleplaying game environment. For the world they live in, they are still fully viable, but for the game they exist in, they are not.