Fear and Loathing In TFT

[tbeard1999]

Originally Posted by JLV

To my mind, one of the weaknesses in TFT as written is that there is nothing in the way of a “fear and loathing” mechanism built in. While perhaps it’s not as suitable for a high-fantasy setting as it is for a horror/gothic style of play, there would still be plenty of things that would cause “fear and loathing” in people, even in a high fantasy setting. Besides, how do you make the “evil cult” really evil, if you don’t have some tool to cause the players to feel fear effects and see how that plays out on the game board?

Sure, I know, the GM should be causing the fear through his roleplaying and description — but how many GMs have you ever had that could do that so well that it actually affected the player characters on the battlemat/game board? Even if you make the PLAYERS afraid, there’s nothing happening in game terms that make the FIGURES afraid; they go right on exploring the horrific place and fighting the nauseating creatures without a break in the action…

In more "fear" oriented games, such as Call of Cthulhu, I could freak the players out with my descriptions, and mechanisms existed to cause their characters to break down, or flee in terror, or faint on the spot, or whatever, as well. It would be interesting to see some kind of fear mechanism added to TFT.

Since there’s no attribute that really covers courage, maybe a fear mechanic should simply be to roll 3d6 on a fear effects chart. The range might be “you laugh at it” to “you run away in blind terror”. In TFT fashion, low is good for the figure, high is bad. More frightening things might roll 4d or get a positive modifier. Less frightening things might get a negative modifier or roll 1 less dice. There could be a “courage” talent, which would let you roll 1d less.