Will Rolls

When you are faced with a stressful situation or a distraction, the GM may require you to roll against your Will to stay focused. On a success, you may act normally. On a failure, you submit to the fear, give in to the pressure, are distracted from your task, etc. The effects of a failed Will roll in a stressful situation are often identical to those of a failed self-control roll for a mental disadvantage. This does not make Will rolls and self-control rolls interchangeable. Which kind of roll you must make depends on the cause of the stress, not on its effects. 

If a game-world event causes negative effects (distraction, stunning, etc.) for anyone who fails a Will roll, you roll against Will just like anyone else – even if your self-control roll to resist identical effects from a mental disadvantage would be easier or harder.
If a mental disadvantage causes a negative effect on a failed self-control roll, you roll against your self-control number to resist – even if your Will roll to avoid that same effect under other circumstances would differ. 

However, modifiers to self-control rolls and Will rolls to resist a particular effect are usually interchangeable. For instance, a drug that gives +2 to Will rolls to resist distraction would also give +2 to self-control rolls to resist disadvantages that result in distraction.

Fright Checks

A Fright Check is a Will roll made to resist fear. Fright Checks can occur as often or as rarely as the GM wishes. In a horror campaign where ordinary people meet shockingly gruesome Things, Fright Checks might be very  common! With only minor adaptation, the GM can use these rules for awe, confusion, etc. as well as fear. 

As a general rule, “ordinary” frightening things do not require Fright Checks. Fright Checks are for events so unusual and terrifying that they might stun or even permanently scar someone. 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. A battle-hardened commando in the same game might not have to roll for dead bodies. And in a fantasy campaign, all these things may be quite normal . . . threatening, but normal. On the other hand, a fantasy character might have to make a Fright Check if transported to the 21st century and given a ride down the interstate . . .

Fright Check Modifiers

The following modifiers are cumulative:

• Advantages and Disadvantages: Any Fearlessness bonus or Fearfulness penalty; 

• +2 for Combat Reflexes, or -2 for Combat Paralysis. 

• Other modifiers are conditional: -1 to -4 for Cowardice when your physical safety is at risk; 

• +1 for Daredevil when charging into a scary situation; 

• +1 for Higher Purpose when confronting threats you are sworn to oppose; 

• +1 to +4 for Xenophilia when confronting monsters. 

Unfazable characters don’t make Fright Checks!

Bodies: 

• +6 for a peaceful-looking body, prepared for burial; 

• +2 for a dead body with no signs of violence;

• no modifier for most victims of violence; 

• -1 to -3 for grisly mutilations. 

• Apply another -6 if the victim was your Dependent!

Heat of Battle: 

+5 if you are in combat when the terrifying thing happens or you first notice it.

Monsters: 

A given monster might give a basic -1 to -10 to Fright Checks.
For hordes of monsters, roll at -1 for 5 monsters, -2 for 10, -3 for 20, -4 for 50, and -5 for 100 or more.

Physical Circumstances: 

-1 if the body, monster, etc. touches you
+1 if you witness it at a great distance (at least 100 yards); or +3 if you view it remotely (using Clairsentience, closed-circuit TV, etc.)
-1 if the area is physically isolated
-1 at night or in the dark (or in daylight, if you’re a night-dweller!)
-2 if you are (or think you are) alone

Preparation: 

+1 if you have previous personal experience with this kind of threat;
+1 per exposure to this particular threat in 24 hours;
+1 to +3 (depending on the quality of the report) if you learned the details of this particular situation before you witnessed it.

The Rule of 14:

If your final modified Will exceeds 13, reduce it to 13 for the purpose of the Fright Check.
This means that a roll of 14 or more is automatically a failure.
This rule does not apply to other Will rolls (resistance rolls, rolls to avoid distraction, etc.) – only to Fright Checks.

Fright Check Table

When you fail a Fright Check, roll 3d6, add your margin of failure on the Fright Check, and consult the table below. This sometimes gives implausible results. The GM should either reroll these or change them to something more appropriate – especially for Fright Checks stemming from awe (e.g., divine beauty) or mind-warping complexity (e.g., otherworldly geometry or radical philosophical concepts) instead of fear.

Many of these results give a new mental quirk or disadvantage. The GM assigns this trait, which must be related to the frightening event. If possible, it should also be related to the victim’s existing mental traits! 

Traits acquired this way reduce the victim’s point value.