A Mechanical System for Stress, Fear, and Terror.

"The youth are often warned of the great physical dangers of adventuring, but I often find that the mental toll is just costly.  Poor Blake.  They still wake up screaming and it's been five years..." ~ Sister Abigail, of Our Lady of the Light Parish.

 As one would expect with the name of this blog, I'm a big fan of adding horror elements to my fantasy role-playing games.   I'm especially a fan of gothic horror   While the weird and the cosmic have their place, there's just something about the characteristic oppressive gloom that just gets to me.

This system is designed to invoke that feeling with a relatively simple method, while also reaffirming an important tenant to the OSR; adventuring should be dangerous. 

 This was largely inspired by the game Darkest Dungeon, which I feel had a wonderful mechanical system for fear and stress.

 

Part I: Fear

This is done with the accumulation of Fear.   Each point of Fear imposes a -1 penalty to attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks.   

Fear can be potentially gained through a variety of methods and what exactly causes it could vary from game to game, but some potential examples include.

•  Finding out that you don't have any way to damage a foe that you're currently fighting.
• Being forced to retreat from combat.
• Witnessing a the death of another party member or an NPC than the character is close to.
• Running low on resources in a dangerous place, such as only having a couple of torches left in a dungeon.
• Being in dark in a dangerous location.   Of course, races with some sort of vision that allows them to see in the darkness usually won't be impacted by this.
• Seeing a truly horrific creature for the first time.   What counts as truly horrific can vary from campaign to campaign, but should genuinely should be a creature with more than one hit dice.  
• Stumbling across a dead body in places were one shouldn't be, or mutilated corpse even in places were death might be expected. 
  

 Fear gain should rarely be automatic.  A character can resist Fear by passing an ability score test, usually Intelligence (by  rationalizing what is happening) or Charisma (by having self-confidence), although the referee might rule that other ability scores could be used.   A fighter with 15+ Strength but feel that even if they are uneasy they could easily just break whatever is putting them on edge, or a cleric with 15+ Wisdom might have faith their god would protect them.

The referee can impose any sort of penalty or bonus to this role they see as fitting for the situation.  

 Part II: Terror

If a character has four points of Fear and fails a check to gain that would gain a fifth point of Fear, they instead break.  They are overcome by sheer terror.   Roll d10 to determine the result. 

1. The character is so overcome by fear that their heart gives out.   They character must make a death saving throw or die. Alternatively, the character falls unconscious and will die in 1d6 rounds without some sort of medical treatment.
2.  The character needs to get away.  For the next 2d6 rounds, they will flee from the source of their terror.  If they are a safe distance away, they will attempt to hide.  If they cannot escape or hide from  the source of their terror, they will simply cower.
3. The character is utterly frozen in fear.  For the next 2d6 rounds, they cannot take any action. Getting attacked will allow them to act normally again.   If a character's companions attempt to slap them to break them from the fear, they must make another Fear test, with another Terror roll if they fail, ignoring a result of 1.   
4. When the character fails any future Fear tests, they tend to break out in laughter.  This does not have any more side effects but may call for the rest of the party to make Fear tests when when their companion is cackling like a fiend at the most inopportune and should call for a penalty to the character's reaction rolls in an area if it becomes known.
5.  While the effect of terror isn't readily apparent, the encounter left permanent scars on the character's psyche.  When they sleep, there is a 5% chance they will have a horrific nightmare, which will call for another Fear check.   Whether the character is fails or is successful, they cannot regain any lost hit points and if they are a spell-caster, they cannot prepare new spells.   If the character has the Sleep spell, or similar effect cast on them, they can sleep peacefully.
6. In the moment of terror, the character somehow manages to find hope and clarity.  They recover one point of Fear.
7. The character's methods of self-medication start to become rather, extreme.  The thief that has spends a night own the town might drink a bit too much and find that their coin purse has been lifted, or the pious adventurer might begin some questionable methods of self-reflection.  If a character attempts to recover a point of Fear from something other than rest, something happens.  What that something is, is determined by the referee. 
8. The character suffers no immediate effect from the terror, but develops an obsession with the source.  For example, a character who witness a vampire feed on someone might start wondering what its like to have that happen to them, or a character who witnesses a werewolf rampaging through their village might develop an unhealthy obsession with killing such creatures and willing to take great risks to do so.  This is largely role-playing, but become part of the character's personality, at least for a while.
9.  Fight or flight kicks in and the character chooses to fight.  For the next 2d6 round, the character can do nothing but attempt to kill whatever caused their terror.  If their companions try to hold them back, they will fight them to (but probably won't try to kill them, although who knows with some adventurers).
10. The character's mind is changed by the encounter and they develop a great fear of  the object of their terror and similar things.  When encountering something that reminds them of their source of terror, they gain an automatic point of Fear.  For example, if a character's Terror was caused by seeing a man shifting into a werewolf hybrid form, they would gain an automatic point of Fear at the distant howling of wolves.

 

Part III: Recovery From Fear

Fear is genuinely requires at the rate of one per week, provided the character isn't actively adventuring.  Additionally, characters can recover an additional point of Stress between adventurers by doing things that relax them.  For example, one character might spend some of their hard-looted gold an a couple rounds of top-shelf alcohol in the local tavern, while another might find solace in faith.   No more than one point of Fear can be lost this way.

The wise adventurer takes long breaks between excursions.  Of course, sometimes fate is cruel and doesn't allow rest for the righteous. 

 Part IV: Recovery From Terror

 The effects of Terror never truly vanish, but three to six months of rest should make it manageable, provided they are in a safe and positive environment.  A character who suffers from nightmares isn't going to get much better if their so-called loved ones get angry with them.