Chapter IX: The Game Master
f ear When a character confronts a creature or scene that causes Fear, a Will Power Test must be made. A successful test means the fear is overcome and it has no further effect. A character that fails a Fear Test is said to be frightened. A frightened character cannot move, fight, dodge, or take any other action that round. On the following round, the character can make another Fear Test, with the same consequences. This continues until the character makes a successful test or the thing causing the fear is removed (the monster is slain, the hideous altar burned, etc.). T error Some monsters and scenes are so hideous as to be sanity blasting. When a character confronts something that causes Terror, a Will Power Test must be made. A successful test means the terror is overcome and it has no further effect. A character who fails a Terror Test gains 1 Insanity Point (see pages 200-209) and is said to be A s noted earlier in the book, Player Characters are a cut above the common Imperial citizen. Having the bravery to take on a life of adventure is one thing that sets them apart. Fate Points are another. Characters with Fate Points have a destiny. The Gods have marked them for greater things. Their ultimate fate is a mystery and there is no guarantee that it will be glorious, enriching, or pleasant. Nonetheless, the PCs have a certain something that allows them to survive dangers that would be the end lesser folk. This destiny is represented by Fate Points, which allow Player Characters to make miraculous escapes, as in all the best adventure stories. WFRP adventurers can dodge falling stone blocks by a whisker, survive slipping off a cliff by landing in convenient patch of bushes, run unscathed through a hail of arrows and so on. With skin-of-the-teeth escapes and twists of fate, players are willing to risk their characters, making for a faster and more exciting game than would otherwise be the case. As should be clear from Chapter 6: Combat, Damage, and Movement , fighting in the Old World is a nasty business. This is partly because combat is dangerous in real life, and partly because if combat is always the easy way out, players will be less inclined to try something a little subtler, like thinking! Obviously, there will be some occasions when fighting is the only course of action, and even in the ordinary run of things, characters can get killed very easily if the players don’t learn caution. Fate Points can give the rash player a second chance and the unlucky player an even break. Of course, if the players insist on rushing into every situation waving swords about they will quickly run out of Fate Points, and permanent death will follow with grim inevitability. Most players will get the idea fairly quickly, and realize that a gung-ho approach is not necessarily the best. u sIng f aTe p oInTs A Fate Point can be expended whenever a character is about to die—in combat, through traps or accidents, as a result of poison or disease, or in any other circumstances. Instead of dying, the character expends a Fate Point and then the GM has to devise some way of ensuring that the character survives. You may also allow players to use Fate Points to avoid being maimed. Many of the Critical Effects result in the loss of limbs, potentially crippling a favourite character. Using a Fate Point to avoid such debilitation is entirely appropriate.
terrified. A terrified character must run away at top speed until out of sight of the terror-inducing monster or scene. A terrified character who cannot run curls up into a ball in a near-catatonic state and counts as being helpless (see Chapter 6: Combat, Damage, and Movement ). On the following round, the character can make another Terror Test, with the same consequences. This continues until the character makes a successful test or the thing causing the terror is removed or out of sight. h orrors of The o ld w orld So what causes Fear and Terror? First and foremost, monsters do. This is always noted in the statistics of the creature, which is straightforward enough. The second category is much broader and requires some adjudication on the part of the GM. Examples of situations that may inspire fear include charnel-houses, blasphemous rituals, visions of the Realm of Chaos, and the like. Many of these scenes may also cause characters to gain Insanity Points (beyond that gained from a failed Terror Test). See Insanity on page 200 for more details. gm Ing f aTe p oInTs When a character expends a Fate Point, it is up to the GM to come up with something that will prevent the character dying. No doubt the player in question will be full of helpful suggestions, but you should be careful to ensure that the character is not too much better off as a result of expending a Fate Point. The character should survive the situation, but that’s it. It can sometimes be difficult to come up with a suitably tailored deus ex machina on the spur of the moment, so some ideas follow. C ombaT Here is an example of the wrong way to deal with Fate Points in combat: Example: Clem Shirestock is in a hard fight with a band of Chaos mutants He has been reduced to 0Wounds and the Critical Hit result indicates that be is about to have his head removed by a neatly swung axe. Clem’s player spends a Fate Point. The GM ignores the critical effect but Clem is still on 0Wounds so the next hit Clem takes is another Critical Hit. Clem’s player spends another Fate Point... At this rate, Clem will get through his three Fate Points in as many rounds; their only effect will be that he will die three rounds later than he would have done otherwise. Here’s an example of a more appropriate use of Fate Points: Example: Clem takes a hit that takes him to 0Wounds. It’s a hit to the body and the Critical Result indicates that he will die immediately. Clem’s player spends a Fate Point and is told by the GM that everything goes black. While the player is wondering what has happened the GM makes a note that Clem has been struck by the flat of the blade and flung against the wall, hitting his bead and knocking himself unconscious He may wake up several hours later (still at 0Wounds) to find himself being tended by his victorious comrades, imprisoned in the mutants lair with his defeated comrades, or left for dead, stripped of all equipment and valuables and all alone. The trick is to use your imagination. This can also provide an opportunity to direct things if the players have gone a little off the track. You, the GM, control when and where characters wake up, and you can use this to your
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