[Mechanics] Special Rules

[Carmac]

Fear and Horror Checks

Fear and Horror checks are a type of saving throw unique to Ravenloft. They indicate a situation (or situations) outwith the characters control, a situation not only terrifying and horrifying, but potentially deadly. The below rules are taken directly from the Ravenloft boxed set and are a guide on what situations would cause for one of these checks being made, and also what the consequences of failure are.

Fear Checks:

When to make a Fear Check:

A character must make a fear check when he faces someone (or something) who threatens him with overwhelming power or strength. The victim must know, suspect, or believe that he is overmatched. The danger must be imminent. And the threat must be active.

How to make a Fear Check

A fear check is a saving throw vs. paralyzation. This save applies because fear is an assault on the victim's mind, and it requires exceptional force of will to resist it. The "magical defense adjustment" for Wisdom automatically applies, accounting for the character's mental fortitude. The assault is not magical, however; natural resistance to magic has no effect on emotional fear.

Failing a Fear Check

When a character fails a fear check, he's likely to drop whatever he's holding. The base chance of this is 60% at 1st level (or at 1 hit die). Each level above the 1st reduces this probability by 5%. The minimum chance is 10%.

Whether or not he drops something, a character who fails a fear check is "fearstruck". The survival instinct takes over, and he has no choice but to RUN AWAY! He'll go anywhere, as long as it puts some distance between him and the threat.

Recovering from Fear

Once the source of fear is removed or no longer poses a threat, the fear-struck character regains his normal composure in 1d4 rounds.

Horror Checks

Horror is a broader emotion than fear alone, involving revulsion, anguish, or repugnance as well as a sense of terror. A character may not have to make a fear check when he sees a formidable creature - especially if he has faced that kind (or what he thinks is its kind) a hundred times before. But when he sees the horrid effects that creature has inflicted on his friends, and suddenly realizes his own vulnerability, that's cause for a horror check.

How to Make a Horror Check

Like the die roll for fear, a horror check is a saving throw vs. paralyzation. The character's "magical defence adjustment" for Wisdom also applies.

Failing a Horror Check

A character who fails a horror check is stunned for 1 round; he cannot move, attack or defend himself. The DM will also roll 1d6 to determine what happens next, as below:

1. Aversion
2. Revulsion
3. Obsession
4. Senseless Rage
5. Mental Shock
6. Fearstruck

I'll let you ponder over what each means until you encounter it in the game itself :o.

Removing Horror

The effects of a failed horror check usually fade in a month. Sometimes magic can speed the recovery. Repeated exposure to similar horror scenes might eventually numb the character to it, and eliminate the need for a horror check.