Expanded Fear

Expanded Fear

In heroic (and super-heroic) games, fear tends to appear infrequently and usually inconveniences characters only temporarily. Many characters in roleplaying games behave as though fear is absent from their psyche; they boldly descend into dark places where monsters are thought to lurk and take risks to body, mind and soul that could be damaging to a sane mind when merely considered. Even courageous characters from the most death-defying heroic settings experience fear, but the impact of fear on player characters is often minimized or downplayed (by players and gamemasters alike).

Usually, this is a matter of control. Players don’t mind having their character behave as though afraid, so long as they are free to choose how and when to respond to the source of their fear. When a poor roll causes a brave character to flee however, players may feel resentment and some consequently rebel. For this reason, using rules for expanded fear should be a group decision. They can be used for a single themed scenario or for an entire campaign, but in either case both the rules and the purpose behind their use must be explicitly stated… most of the time. If the campaign is described as being based on the Twilight Zone, horror anthology comics (like The Vault of Horror and other EC Comics offerings), or the works of H. P. Lovecraft this alone is sufficient warning that something is up and in a true horror game, the less explained the better.

In Mutants & Masterminds, fear is an (usually rare) effect descriptor and players are free to choose to make characters immune to it with a single character point by taking the Fearless advantage or immunity to fear effects. In campaigns with horror elements, fear as a descriptor becomes much more common and since the cost of immunity is based on the frequency of the threat, fear immunity should cost more. Taking immunity to a common effect descriptor costs 10 character points while an uncommon one costs 2. The gamemaster must decide whether fear immunity should be priced as common, uncommon or in between, but in any case the Fearless advantage will need appropriate adjustment as well. For example, Fearless could grant a circumstance bonus to resistance checks instead of immunity, or allow a reroll of a failed check (like Second Chance).

The expanded fear system adds the complication of tracking each character’s fear level separately and requires players to check their current fear level whenever a new source of fear come into play. The highest level of fear is the most important as the effects of each level supersede the one before it, however when a higher level of fear is removed, characters revert to the next highest level of fear still influencing them.

Fear Terminology

Fear Effect: Any effect with the fear descriptor. Alternatively, the in-game effect of a given fear level on a character.

Fear Level: Seven distinct conditions caused by fear. In ascending order they are; spooked, shaken, scared, frightened, panicked, terrified, and horrified.
Greater Fear: The final four levels of fear frightened, panicked, terrified, and horrified.

Lesser Fear: The first three levels of fear; spooked, shaken, and scared.
Source of Danger: Any creature or hazard capable of causing damage to the character (a character immune to fire will not regard a burning house as a source of danger).

Source of Fear: Any effect with the fear descriptor or any creature, object, or situation that adds a fear level.

Levels of Fear
Expanded fear has seven levels, each of which is represented by a combined condition and is divided into two groups; lesser fear and greater fear. In ascending order of consequence, the three levels of lesser fear are spooked, shaken, and scared. Lesser fear assigns penalties but otherwise leaves players free to choose how their character behaves. Greater fear, on the other hand, progressively removes choice from players with regard their character’s actions. The four levels of greater fear (in ascending order of consequence) are; frightened, panicked, terrified, and horrified. The effects of each level of fear are described below:

Lesser Fear

Fear begins as a shiver down your spine, but soon grows.

1. Spooked: The nature of your surroundings or events that you have witnessed makes you uneasy. You feel your skin crawl and see figures at the edge of your vision. You experience impaired Perception (-2 Perception checks) and impaired resistance against fear (-2 to resistance checks made against effects with the fear descriptor), however you receive +1 circumstance bonus to initiative due to your heightened state of vigilance.

2. Shaken: Fear has taken hold of you and you are no longer capable of thinking clearly. You are impaired, suffering a –2 circumstance penalty on checks.

3. Scared: You are noticeably afraid, jumping at shadows and easily startled by odd sights and unexplained noises. You are impaired and suffer impaired resistance against fear (-4 in total to these checks). In addition, if subjected to any lesser fear effect you are dazed for 1 round unless you choose to allow your fear level to advance (see Mounting Fear below).

Greater Fear

At these levels, your fear begins to overwhelm you.

4. Frightened: You are so afraid that you must flee from the source of your fear. You are impaired and behave as though controlled to move away from any source of fear you perceive. Once you can no longer perceive any source of fear, you can act normally. You can use special abilities to flee and must resort to such abilities if they seem like the only way to escape. If you flee from the source of your fear and it later reappears while you are still frightened, you must immediately begin fleeing again. If unable to flee, you can fight.

5. Panicked: This level of fear is identical to frightened except that you drop anything you are holding whenever you are forced to flee and you flee in a random direction. In addition, you treat all sources of danger as fear sources and must flee from them as well. If unable to flee, you cower in fear leaving you vulnerable.

6. Terrified: As panicked above, except that your intense alertness causes you to shy away from even the gentlest intervention. You do not treat any other character as an ally and must attempt resistance checks against all effects that allow them, even if that effect would be beneficial. Unlike being frightened or panicked, even after you have fled from any source of fear, you are unable to act as normal. Instead, you take a random action: continue fleeing; find a place to hide; attack the nearest creature; or do nothing if you manage to do nothing on two consecutive turns, you recover enough to act normally until confronted with a new source of danger or fear.  

7. Horrified: You are transfixed with fear and can take no actions. You are defenseless and stunned.

Mounting Fear

As characters are exposed to fear, their fear level either increases or remains the same and higher levels of fear supersede lower ones. For example, if a shaken character experiences a terrifying event, the character becomes terrified (the shaken condition is moot). Furthermore, characters do not become immune to the lower levels of fear as a result of taking on a higher one. Characters subjected to a fear effect of a level equal to or lower than their current fear level, usually increase their current fear level by one: A terrified character exposed to a frightening monster becomes horrified, for example.

There is, however, some limit to the effects of lesser fear. These effects do not cause characters to progress through the greater levels of fear. If a character is at the third level of fear (scared) or higher, fear that would cause a character to be spooked, shaken and scared cannot cause the character to become frightened or to advance their fear level further towards being horrified. Instead, any exposure to lesser fear causes the character to become dazed (limited to free actions and a single standard or move action per turn) for 1 round. Players can choose to allow their level of fear to advance, however, if they would prefer.

For example, a scared character stumbles into a bed chamber to find a group of three vampires standing over a recently drained corpse. Two of the vampires are accusing a third of being overzealous and leaving them wanting, when their hungry eyes spy the player character. The gamemaster rules that this situation carries a fear level of spooked, however the player is concerned that facing three vampires while dazed, even for 1 round, would be a risky proposition. The player chooses to allow the character to become frightened so as to move at top speed away from this grisly scene and the hostile creatures.

The Power of Fear

The gamemaster has great latitude when adding fear levels from sources other than powers. In general, a non-power source of fear is likely to last for the current scene and when the scene ends, the associated fear fades. In other cases, a source of fear may raise the fear level of characters interacting with it in some way. The location of a recent murder may cause characters to become spooked, for example. In this case, character might be able to remove their fear by withdrawing from the immediate location, taking a stiff drink, or covering the body with a sheet. Objects of fear might add levels of fear to all characters nearby or only to character’s handling such an object. Perhaps a seemingly innocuous tome of fear causes nothing unusual until it is read or only affects a character taking ownership of it, leaving other characters confused as to the fear affected person’s behavior.

Powers which generate effects with the fear descriptor require gamemaster adjudication to determine what level of fear they correspond to. In the case of afflictions, this is a fairly simple matter of determining what condition(s) the fear effect imposes on the target. A fear effect that causes a character to become impaired with one degree of failure on the resistance check effectively causes affected characters to become shaken until the effect ends. If a character fails to resist two different fear effects which cause the same condition, the character becomes scated until overcoming at least one of those effects.

Other types of powers which include the fear descriptor may cause characters to add fear levels, particularly environment and illusion. An environment of impeded movement caused by animated corpses reaching out of their graves and grasp at the feet of those moving by could certainly add a level of a fear. Carefully described illusions could do so as well, even in situations when the power used doesn’t include the fear descriptor normally. Using a light based power to create a hologram could add fear levels when used to show a terrifying image.

With these powers, the gamemaster should be careful to assign an appropriate level of fear based on the circumstances and (in the case of players using such powers) how the effect is designed and explained. In particular, clever players might try to achieve a greater effect from their powers without paying character points accordingly. This can be fine when done on occasion, especially if victory points are used, but players shouldn’t be allowed to regularly cheat the system by imposing conditions without an affliction power. In addition, in series where the characters are supposed to be heroes, using an illusion to display horrific imagery to terrify someone, even a villain, can have morally questionable implications and should carry the appropriate consequences.

Beyond fear powers, effects that influence emotions and mental states may be able to affect fear levels. As with fear powers, an effect with those descriptors that creates an affliction could have a fear level based on the circumstances. With regard to emotion control powers, any power that generates positive emotions (such as courage) might reduce or remove one or more fear levels while it is in effect. If used in opposition to a fear power, resolve the situation using the rules for countering. For other sources of fear, the gamemaster should compare the power and the source(s) of fear influencing the target character to determine if the current level of fear is reduced, removed entirely, or unaffected. 

Note: These rules are adapted from fear as presented in Horror Adventures for use the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

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