Fear and Loathing In TFT

[Chris Rice]

Originally Posted by tbeard1999

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.

I don't think it's a weakness, it's just a feature of many RPG systems. In the past I've introduced additional attributes; Willpower was one of them. If a character wanted to perform an action that had a better than evens chance of failure, and where the penalty was serious, they had to make a Willpower check. Failure meant they couldn't carry out the action. It was also used for reactions to Undead etc.

Now this works fine, but changes the way the game plays as players are frequently unable to do what they'd like to as there were be a lot of missed morale checks. It gives a grittier, more realistic feel, but it's neither better nor worse. Some of the great moments in adventures come when Dildo the Hobbit decides to charge the Dragon single handed and is toast in 2 seconds flat. That sort of thing is largely done away with once you bring in morale effects.

I think this sort of thing is best left totally out of the Melee/TFT reboot and consigned squarely to the realm of House Rules. It's easy to tack on if you want it but once it's in the rules it's harder to take out or ignore.