Emotions are the sort of thing RPGs tend to leave to the roleplaying side of gaming. Your character is mad\/happy\/in love? Great, play them like that. There\u2019s one exception, though: fear. There\u2019s all kinds of rules out there for how to mechanically handle fear: saves, skill checks, deteriorating sanity, GM fiat, and more. \u00a0With all this mechanical support, roleplaying fear is often taken out of players\u2019 hands. Fear becomes an obstacle, something that prevents them from doing what they want. But it doesn\u2019t have to be that way. Fear can be an exciting, memorable, and fun part of a game. All it takes is enthusiasm, creativity, and understanding between everyone at the table.<\/p>\n
Fear sucks for characters, but that doesn\u2019t mean it should suck for players. Getting over that cognitive hurdle can be tricky for players and GMs who have spent years viewing fear as a bad thing, but it helps to look at a terrified character as just another chance to add depth and entertain. The easiest way to do that? Detail.<\/b> When the eldritch abomination corners Bob and Joe in an office and Joe fails his fear save (or your system\u2019s equivalent), describe it! Consider the following:<\/p>\n GM: Okay, so the corners of the room each somehow appear to be greater than 180 degrees, and a tentacle just smashed through the air vent. Fear checks!<\/p>\n Joe: [fails check] Alright, I scream, scramble on top of the nearest desk, and high-knee it to the far wall, and start kicking and clawing at it. I know it\u2019s cinderblock, but Joe\u2019s not in his right mind right now.<\/p>\n Bob: [passes check] I grab Joe and start shaking him, \u201cPull yourself together, man, I thought you were a cop! You\u2019re going to get us both killed!\u201d Then I\u2019ll fire off a couple rounds at the tentacle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Much more engaging than, \u201cWell, all I can do is move full speed away, so I go to the far wall, your turn,\u201d and \u201cLooks like I\u2019ve got to fight it alone, so I\u2019ll spend my action to attack.\u201d See, all those roleplaying tips you\u2019ve heard still apply when your character has to do something you don\u2019t particularly want them to. How<\/i> they do whatever is they\u2019re doing is just as important as what<\/i> they\u2019re doing, especially when they don\u2019t have much choice where the \u201cwhat\u201d is concerned.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t think of mechanical limitations imposed by fear as punishments. Instead, treat them like instructions from the director of your character\u2019s movie, narrowing the focus of your performance. For that matter, since you know your character better than anyone, feel free to volunteer fear.<\/b> It\u2019s easy to treat PCs as hardened, experienced adventurers, especially since they\u2019re often pitched that way. But does your fresh-from-the-academy, level 2 wizard really have the guts to calmly fight off a rampaging troll? Maybe monsters are fairly common in your medieval fantasy setting, but bears are fairly common in North America, and most folks aren\u2019t going handle their first encounter with one with the same casual attitude the average PC does.<\/p>\n So, when faced with something your character might reasonably be frightened by, play it up! Even if you haven\u2019t failed a fear check, you can describe your wizard as cowering, frantically shrieking magic words and flailing through somatic spell components. In some situations, you may even want to subject your character to a fear check. It\u2019s probably not something you should do terribly often, but if your fighter\u2019s history consists entirely of human opponents in urban fight clubs, it wouldn\u2019t be unreasonable for him to freak out if the men he just killed began to rise from the ground under a necromancer\u2019s control. Give him a fear check, or even skip it altogether and slap a penalty on his rolls (DnD 5E\u2019s disadvantage mechanic and FFG Star Wars\u2019s Setback dice are perfect for this sort of thing). Add some good, detailed roleplaying, and instead of Undead Church Encounter 1b, you have \u201cthat time Ulric the Mighty wet himself in front of the whole party and four novice nuns.\u201d<\/p>\n All this advice, like anything in gaming, is contingent upon your group. The best way to play is the way that\u2019s the most fun for everyone. But if you\u2019d like to try embracing fear as a roleplaying challenge in addition to a mechanical one, here\u2019s a few final tips.<\/p>\n For players: Go with it.<\/b> A lot of new gamers feel awkward trying to roleplay, but even experienced players can feel out of their element portraying their character in such a compromised position. But there\u2019s a lot of fun to be had in that direction, and you don\u2019t have to be playing a horror game or take your character into full-on Scooby-Doo mode to enjoy it. Give it a try, and you might even bring the rest of the table on board with you.<\/p>\n For GMs: Don\u2019t punish fear.<\/b> If you\u2019ve got a player who does a great job roleplaying their terrified PC, especially if they did so voluntarily, don\u2019t punish them for it. Remember, fear usually takes control away from players, so giving them lots of freedom within that smaller box is important. \u201cWell, you decided you couldn\u2019t fight back, so the tree demon engulfs and devours you,\u201d is not conducive to fun. \u201cThe party barely fights off the tree demon without Ulric\u2019s help, and now Prince Lumberjack is very suspicious of your willingness and ability to help with the tree demon infestation,\u201d adds a new wrinkle to the plot and another interesting roleplaying avenue as ramifications of Ulric\u2019s cowardice.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s it! As always, the goal of gaming is to have fun. The easiest way to have fun is to do your best to enjoy every aspect of the game, even if it means your 6\u20195\u201d Trandoshan bounty hunter spends a few rounds as a wailing ninny. Do it enough, and you might even start to look forward to fear. You\u2019ll be happy, comfortable, relaxed. Blissfully unaware of the shadow slowly spreading across the floor behind you\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"