Quote:
Originally Posted by lordabdul
As it happens, I'm in the middle of running Masks :) And so far, my experience doesn't match with your experience. What happens is that Fright Checks are generally for immediate threats -- as opposed to stressful but otherwise nonthreatening situations (like seeing a corpse).
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Our different experience may come from here. In my games, seeing a corpse triggers a Fright Check. I follow the rules described in
Basic Set, page 360, very harshly.
"What counts as “ordinary” depends on the characters and the setting. This is one place where a character story can be helpful! An ordinary, 21st-century American might have to make Fright Checks for encounters with monsters, dead bodies, and the supernatural."
I also use a lot of negative modifiers, as described page 360, especially:
"Apply -1 if the area is physically isolated, -1 at night or in the dark (or in daylight, if you’re a night-dweller!), and -2 if you are (or think you are) alone."
Quote:
Originally Posted by lordabdul
So in the vast majority of cases, failed Fright Checks result in the character being stunned or otherwise freezing, and then being gravely injured (and taken out of the campaign for a long time, or for good) or killed on the spot.
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Being stunned is also what happens most often in my games. And here, I have to admit that much as I am harsh with Fright Checks, I am cool with freezing effects. I avoid killing characters when it happens.
Actually, I may have chosen GURPS rules because the lethality is very low compared to Chaosium’s rules. There is a high probability of unconsciousness between 0 and -HP. And when a character is unconscious, I consider that the monster or foe doesn’t kill him. Either he believes that the character is already dead, or he prefers fleeing discreetly (not being noticed is important for Cthulhu Mythos creatures; otherwise, they would have whole armies against them).
Likewise, I am very happy that my player characters don’t become too crazy too fast. As you noted it, getting mental problems is quite rare: Fright Check results of 13, 16, or 22 and more. But, as I said it, when it happens, characters cannot anymore get rid of it. Unless having a very long course of therapy …
Thus, our different experiences may mainly come from my very specific manner of running games. If you consider that seeing a dead body is not the same kind of fear than seeing a Cthulhu creature, I warmly recommend you the
Stress and Derangement rules (
Horror, page 141-142). I didn’t use it yet, but I am thinking more and more about doing it.