Fear Effects

[Prest0]

The "horror" check is an important mechanic in any horror roleplaying game. It's a mechanic that players have come to identify with horror gaming, and now 12 to Midnight is proud to contribute its own 100% OGL horror check system for use with any d20 roleplaying game.

The Fear Effects system is designed to be simple, keeping the emphasis on the adventure and not on burdensome rules. There is no sanity score you must track, and the Horror check is based on a single DC for all encounters. If the check fails, the fear effect is tiered based on the severity of the situation, ranging from anywhere from "weak knees" to coimetrophobia (fear of cemetaries), and even up to hysterical blindness (psychosomatic blindness).

However, the Fear Effects system is more than a single set of rules. It is also a GM toolbox for creating your own rules to fit your campaign, which is why it also includes nine rule options & variants. While Fear Effects was written with modern horror in mind, it uses nothing specific to one time period or genre. Use it in any campaign from fantasy to future to give your game a more realistic edge. Fear Effects reminds players that dangerous adventures can carry all sorts of consequences and helps stimulate role-play. At less than the cost of a matinee movie or a paperback book, there's no point in waiting. Add it to your shopping cart today and start feeling the effects of Fear Effects.

Brainwashed, an adventure written just for Fear Effects, is coming in July.

 

[Turanil]

Fear Effects, by Ed. Wetterman, is a small 13 pages PDF (for 9 pages of actual game mechanics) aimed at providing very simple rules for insanity and fear checks in horror d20 games. It is presented as a supplement for d20 Modern, but could be used with D&D or even other games such as C&C with much ease (In fact, I think it would fit very well with Castles & Crusades, but that’s not the point). Note for those interested, that it is 100% OGC.

Art and layout: This PDF is extremely well done, with good art and excellent layout. Of all the PDFs I have seen so far, it’s among the best. Nonetheless, this essentially concerns the cover art and the first five pages, as the remaining pages are just tables.

This supplement was obviously designed as an easy-to-use add-on that doesn’t require any modification to the d20 rules, and doesn’t require being an expert gamer to understand. In fact, the rules are basicaly as follow: The DM first determines if a monster is so horrible as to require an horror check, and the fear effect’s intensity that it induces. Then, the PCs must make a Will save at DC10; if failed, they roll on the appropriate table and get an insanity effect that the affected PC must suffer. This ranges from getting a –1 penalty on all actions for one round, to suicidal urges.

As much as the simplicity of use is a strong point, it also makes for simplistic game mechanics. For one thing, there are no true guidelines (just a vague indication) on how to determine which monsters and situations will induce such horror checks, and the level of induced horror. So on that point, it’s all about DM’s fiat. Then, the DC10 for all horror checks, regardless of what creature or situation induces it, is, IMO, really poor. It’s clear that at higher levels a character with better Will saving throws will rarely if ever fail a horror check, thus making this supplement quickly useless. Unless the DM decides to change the DCs, which however will require his own judgement. The small table detailing circumstances adjustments to the horror check, while useful in itself, won’t help a DM determine the horror DC of a lich compared to a ghoul for example. There is approximately a hundred horror /insanity effects in the table, some of which are easy to use and make sense, some others that again rely too much on DM’s fiat (particularly with many of the phobias). Lastly on recovery: there are guidelines for curing insanity with a psychiatrist. However, nothing about the effects of spells such as Heal on insanity, which would have been useful for using this supplement in a fantasy game, or even using it in a FX modern game.

My conclusion is that Fear Effects is lacking in content to be of real use, unless your style of DMing involves lots of adjudication on the fly (reason for which I said it could be used with C&C as well). In most cases, you will have to add your houserules, or use these tables as an addition to the CoC d20 / Unearthed Arcana sanity-insanity rules. I give it a 3 because I cannot give it a 2.5, plus for reason of good art and layout.

 

[Crothian]

[imager]http://www.rpgnow.com/products/product_5025.jpg[/imager]

Scaring people in a role playing game can be tough. It takes a lot of the right elements to make players experience the fear and it really does not take much to have them removed from fear. A simple car alarm going off, a player just not into it, a phone call; anything can really take the players out of the horror game at least mentality. They can play scared, but it just is not the same as actually being scared. Sometimes a DM needs to just place in rules to effect the characters knowing that bringing horror to the players might be too much to ask for. There have been a few different systems that have tried this like Beyond the Supernatural and Call of Cthulthu have used different rules to do this in the past. I think Ravenloft for D&D as well as D20 also had similar fear like rules in them. Fear Effects once again brings the fear mechanics to the game.

Fear Effects is by a small publisher who really has been making an effort to bring horror back the game. 12 to Midnight has a few really nice adventures and supplements that move in the more traditional horror ways. Fear Effects is written by Ed Wetterman and this thirteen page book is well laid out. There is not a lot of art in her and it does consist of about half table but it is nicely organized and easy to use. The PDF has two formats one designed for printing and the other for one screen use. This is my preferred way to see the books as it gives me the best of both worlds. The on screen on is nicely book marked and should be really easy to use at the gaming table from a computer or lap top.

The book is fairly simple. It introduces fear checks that are basically saving throws into the game. There are different levels of severity in the saves and the tables cover a lot of bad things that can happen to a character. The check can be modified by some options and I really like what they have there. One gets a bonus if they experience fear with others but a nice negative if they are alone. That is simple and makes a lot of sense. The tables of effects are pretty complete as it covers about six pages of the book.

This is a very simple book to determine if one needs it and that makes things easy. If one needs horror checks or wants to experiment with them in one’s game then the book is what one is after. On the other hand if one sees no reason for adding mechanical and rule oriented fear checks to the game then the book is better left on the self. The table are good for other horror games as ideas for what to do to characters that experience great fear. World of Darkness and Call of Cthulthu games can especially benefit from more ways to mess with the characters but of course one will need to do more converting and figure out how these will exactly work in other rule sets.

 

[Joël of the FoS]

Fear Effects - option for DMing fear and horror

Fear Effects
Author: Ed Wetterman
Type: Accessory – fear checks
Format: 13 pages, PDF netbook
Release date: 2005
Summary of content: a netbook developing effects of fear, based on a random effect table.
Distributor: it is available at http://www.rpgnow.com (2.50$).
Rating: *** 1/2

This short sized netbook is developing a tool for DMs – how to induce and manage fear effects on PCs. This is an optional tool, for DMs wishing to add the effect of fear or horror to players. Sometimes, a DM can be dismounted by players not showing fear (DM: “The priest finishes his summoning spell and the mighty Hastur makes an appearance in a frightful thunderclap! His 600 feet hulking shape towers over you!” Player of a 1st level fighter: “OK doke. I try to hit him with my sling”). Many people feel that realistically sometimes a PC should turn back and run. This tool should help them. It is of course a good idea to talk with your players about this new option. The main benefits are surprising and unplanned twists to the game, and more occasions of role play, something Ravenloft fans already are aware of.

The severity of the effect is depending on the fear type: minor spook, medium shock and great fright. These categories are simple and well explained, making it easy for a DM to sort the appropriate category. One thing that irks me is that fear and horror are mixed into one category; while for me they are two separate occurrences and should have different effects.

To see if your PC is affected or not by fear, in short, you get a Will save DC 10 (plus or minus check modifiers such as “being alone” or “seeing horrific things happening to a loved one”, etc.). If you fail it, you are affected by a fear effect and you should roll on the random table. One of the good ideas of this option it that if you roll “1” to your Will DC, your fear is increased by one category (a minor spook becomes a medium shock, etc.). On the other hand, if you roll “20”, you are hardened by your inner strength and get bonuses for the remaining of the session on fear checks (this last part is a good option for Ravenloft).

Then you roll a %100 and check the fear effect on the charts. Of course, there is a different column to check the chart according to the fear category your PC faces. The stronger the fear, the stronger the effects. The table lists effects are interesting, and really can enhance a game ex: “better you then me! Attempt to grab a random bystander or ally in an effort to place him between yourself and the object of the Horror check.”, “hysterical laughing” or “nightmares for 1-10 days”, etc. A lot of research seems to have been made to gather and develop these 100 effects, ranging from the mild spook effects to the heavy phobias, compulsions or mental disorder.

The bad part of random effects is that sometimes the effect has no link to what caused it, like if you see a gory scene and get “compulsion to eat only raw meat”. People would not react that way! This said, in the opening part, the author write that is aware that sometimes DMs should reroll since the “what you see is what you get” result would be silly. That’s the only bug with randomization: sometimes you have to roll again for something more appropriate. But it’s not a major problem for me.

A cool thing of this optional tool is the “recovery from permanent effects” discussion. It explains in length how a player can get rid of a permanent madness or compulsion by a treatment with a psychiatrist or a stay in an asylum. The mechanics to deal with these are simple and effective, and open a large range of roleplay opportunities.

For the Ravenloft setting (my area of DMing): the setting of Dread already has its own fear mechanics, for fear, horror and madness checks. This “fear effects” netbook could be a good addition to the fear checks effects, but not for horror or madness checks, since Ravenloft mechanics for these checks are better and more appropriate to the setting.

 

[MonsterMash]

Fear Effects
Ed Wetterman
12 to Midnight

PDF 13pp $3.50 pdf $- print

Complimentary review copy of pdf recieved.

Content
This pdf is mostly rules content to add the effects of various types of horrific shocks to the game, it is aimed at D20 Modern, but could be used with D&D or other D20 games with little modification, or even non-D20 systems. Two files are supplied: a bookmarked pdf for online use and a printable version with the art and sidebars removed. The print version comes out as 12 pages including one page for the OGL, with their being 13 pages in the online version. The small amount of content excluded from the printer friendly version is not something that would need to be frequently referred to, and does help save paper and ink.


Rule content provides a system to deal with horrific shocks of various types.These are:

• Minor Spook - witness paranormal event without specific threat
• Major Shock - e.g. close encounter with UFO or ghost
• Great Fright - paranormal attack or alien abduction
• Horrific Terror - criticla faliure on Great Fright check

The mechanics are simple enough using a horror check, which is a will save, which if failed requires a roll on the horror table using a percentile (1-100) roll. On a critical failure of the shock save the character will roll on the next highest type of shock, this being the only way that the horrific terror table is used. Effects can vary in duration from 1 round to the remainder of the encounter, up to permanency for compulsions and phobias which require treatment to remove.

An alternative chart and method of rolling is also provided, with this being customisable to be more random in its effects than the basic approach with the four types of shock. GM choice of effects could be used to make the effect more appropriate and obviously this gives a more controlled effect and reduces the impact on game balance.

Optional rules include alternative (fixed) durations for effects, DRM modifiers for horror checks and recovery rules for permanent effects.

Compared to a sanity point system this approach may use less bookkeeping, but it does add the possibility of very random effects in game, which may not suit all groups gaming styles.


Appearance
The design and layout is clear and there is not a large amount of art in either the printable or online versions. The online version has bookmarks, while the printable version removes the art and sidebars to make it slightly more compact and easier to print in black and white. Most of the pages are largely covered in text with little wasted space or filler. Probably about 90-95% of each page is text.


Pluses:

• Can be used with pretty much any RPG product or system for shock effects
• Clear presentation of charts and rules
• Small amount of book keeping required compared to Sanity point systems
• Logical order to the types of effects - these get more severe with type of shock
• Alternative mechanism provided.

Negatives:

• Can provide a very random set of events in game that could drastically affect the chances of character survival.
• Experienced GM could probably produce similar rules fairly easily

Downloads:
None at present.

Overall
I give it a 7 out of 10 rounding to 3 stars, I'd have given 3.5 if I could as this is a solid product, on Value for money at only $3.50 I'd rate it as very good value. Its a useful aid for a GM who wants to introduce horror effects, but does not have time to create their own system or use a sanity points system.