Fear Rpg

[tribble]

Anybody play FEAR? It's a system under that creative commons or whatever, you can download a pdf and play it for free. Claims to be super-duper realistic, despite being written for the bog-standard fantasy setting. I may very well be GMing a campaign under this system over the summer, so tips about the crunch and whatnot are most welcome.

Also, general FEAR RPG thread.

[DukeofDellot]

HAZARD: Ramblings of a fat GM... read at your own risk

I believe I have heard of it, but never bothered researching it. So the only "advice" I can give is that if it's free and you want to create a general thread about it, you should probably provide a link (http://www.fearrpg.net/) to where you can download this PDF.

And I may put a further look at it, but at first glance...

HAZARD: Ramblings of a bored GM... read at your own risk

It doesn't state the core mechanic(s) anywhere in the introduction. Does it have one (or several), or are we supposed to memorize a series of rules? I won't be referencing a book (much less a PDF) every time a player attempts to do something, that's not my style.

You have a choice: Randomly roll your race, or take a penalty if you want to choose one yourself!

Human Special Abilities: None.

Basic Attributes... Like that list... but I'm not sure what they do... at all. I've made it this far and I don't know what any of the numbers I'm recording mean. Why haven't they given me any knowledge of the system before telling me how to make a character?

Then again, I'm not sure how I feel about Luck and Magic as attributes. Though the Self-Discipline interests me. It sounds like Meat Heads have a mental stat to worry about!

... Halflings get a +25 Luck? I don't know what that means... but it's frightening. Maybe I should make a character as I go... Let's pick Halfling.

Uh Oh... first rule of combat... realism is looking bad.

Alright, so social status is where I get my stiff for chosing my race... okay... ha! There's another reason no one's going to pick Human, they have a chance to roll up a slave! Quick question, is there any reason I can't be a member of one race who was raised within another's culture?

Wait... Status effects your racial skill bonuses? That's kind of neat... but... oh, well it looks like having high status is usually better than having low... except in a few special cases... I guess I should choose one of those special cases... Being a Halfling seems to be one of those special cases. Score.

And... Classes? Fighter, Magician, and... Jack? I guess they're calling them "callings"... so you get Combat, Magic... or a little of both? Oh dear, as a Halfling it looks like I can't be a Fighter (that's weird, I get thrown weapon and staff fighting as racial skill bonuses)... I guess I'll be a Staff fighting Magician then.

I guess it effects my "Development Roll Modifier"... that sounds... like a bad rule... like... how skills develop in Basic (and why I usually don't play it) and FATAL... but in FATAL you also randomly roll your race, social status, and gender. In FEAR you get to choose two of those, but get penalized for making the wrong decision. Huh...

Neat, the spell casting school are introduced! But not explained... hm... I think I'll pick the Magic School of "Wizardry". I bet it does all kinds of stuff!

I'd laugh if it turns out to be all the spells they thought were cool ideas, but didn't fit into the other eleven categories.

Alright... now they're telling me I should choose Earth, Healing, or Nature... hm... I'm thinking of my character as a Peasant Wizard, not a Peasant Druid... come to think of it, Druids seem more Peasant-like... But I'll slap on Delusions of Grandeur... give my guy some characterization...

Uh oh... my character starts with only one spell memorized... I wonder what that means exactly... probably that I'm going to have only one magical trick to start with.

Now it's asking me to personalize my character class... but it hasn't yet told me how this mechanic that I'm messing with works... huh... I did mention that Core Mechanics should be explained in the Introductory chapter, right? Now that this DRM sounds like a core mechanic... whatever. I'll call my character as a sort of Charlatan. He truely believes he's a powerful Magician, but as my single spell memorized indicates, he really isn't. He knows his stuff and can talk people into things... so knowledge and social skills are my main bonuses... and I'll slap Wizardry in, just because I'd like to become a real Wizard later.

... You have three different Movement rates?

Reactions? What does that do?

Power Points... is abbreviated as POPs... that's hilarious.

LURPs is funnier... and that's why Halflings are scary! They'll get to reroll around a dozen or so dice rolls... which means... half of the time they roll poorly the first session... and it doesn't matter after that because I don't see this game being played much further if the DRM mechanic is what I'm assuming it to be... maybe I'm just being doubtful.

Background! "Name's Kudos Flunderfluff. I don't know where I was born because I don't know anything about the setting! My family was killed before my eyes by an angry bear, but I've learned to cope with it. I live on the road, selling fine magical items as a part of merchant caravan... assuming those exist in the setting. Of course as a con-artist, I get my income wherever idiots can be found... such as my fellow PCs... My caravan likes me, I do good work for them, and I have a close relationship with the troubadours especially, possibly because we're all artists, but really because I'm courting the girl that plays the bells. My enemies are numerous, it's a good thing they're all so gullible. Besides my family being killed by a bear, I guess getting adopted into the merchant caravan was a big event, and meeting these other PCs is likely to change my life as well. I love money, booze, babes and other manly things, but mostly I'm just afraid people will find out that I'm afraid of pain... even in the smallest amounts. I hate Bell Peppers, never cook them in my food! And my goal is to find a ring. A truly magical ring to present to my love, but not any will do, only the most powerful and protective..." Actually, their list of questions wasn't bad... This guy's pretty developed now. Let's drop his "Delusions of Grandeur" and replace with "Love-Struck Fool" and "Constantly gets himself in and out of Trouble".

... My luck stat determines my starting wealth? Score!

And now I'm ready to begin adventuring! ... Even though I have no idea what any of these numbers mean... also I've got money but nothing to spend it on... and I don't know what spell I've got memorized... or what Wizardry is... I must be a really good charlatan.

... it... uses... the DnD core mechanic? A little part of me has died inside.

They... built a chart... to... ... explain... basic arithmetic... ... ...

...

...

...

Last time my brain bled out my ears like this... I was reading FATAL... Was the author of FEAR also going through a midlife crisis?

Hm... I hope you're happy with your weapon decision, because your picks are pretty narrow... I don't know how I feel about that... apparently, if you can throw an axe you can throw a hammer, but if you can swing an axe you don't necessarily know how to swing a hammer. Weird design choice. I wouldn't call this realism... and I was hoping I'd find something I could call cinematic... but I'm not sure if I'd call it that either... but this is very much my own opinion. And I think they had a good idea at some point, but lost sight of it.

I like the Language skill breakdown... actually, I like that a lot. It's pretty awesome. They forgot to include a description of one of the languages... but it's obvious what they would have written there so no harm done... maybe they could have added a sign language of some sort... maybe I'm just being weird at this point.

Hey that asterisk some forty pages back is finally explained! It means illiteracy. I wish they would have mentioned that sooner.

Oh and there's a magic language! I guess you're ability in that is defined by your spell casting ability... hm... Magic is... "I speak and the world listens" in the FEAR setting... I wish they would have put more flavor for their setting around. I mean they're obviously going for something specific.

Page 76 is awesome, check it out! I bet there was going to be an awesome illustration there, but he couldn't find any friends with the skills to do one for him.

From now on I'm skimming... combat starts with a basic attack roll that dropped into an aiming scheme that has way too many charts... I skipped to the "example combat"... it fills nine pages. At least FATAL combats were short... FATALly short! ... then you die. Spend another nine hours building your character.

Magic... the author gives himself enough space to write out the full header of each part of the description, but abbreviates them anyways... moron. I know one spell, I can just remember what it does.

Just now realized there's no bookmarks... hm...

Okay, there's two types of magic... I guess I have to read some other chapter to figure out how Pious Magic works... and what it means that I've got one spell memorized... or which spell I can pick...

Unless it means I've got the first level spell in one school of magic... which I'll assume since I can't be bothered to care beyond.

I can cast... ... ... Detect Magic... wow... It works for my character... but that's pretty pathetic.

I like their explanation of casting spells. They give a chart for how you roll to succeed on the spell... and a second chart to show you how to roll to fail casting a spell... of course it's the same chart save replacing the "greater than or equal" sign with a "lesser than" sign... so... if you're reading this, yeah, it's retarded.

Oh, now it tells me, I can buy a bunch of spells with my wealth (which is high because of my Halfling Luck) and just memorize the best one... I choose Curse of Wild Spells... I'm not sure if I have the money for it... but I'm not going to look it up to make sure. I've already given up on this system.

I guess my skill probably isn't high enough... though I remember it saying my skill is based on the highest level spell I know... I must have misread something. Oh well...

Alright, there's Pious Magic... it's just another one of the magic skills... with another twenty spells? I guess there's nothing stopping a player from picking up both Prayer and other spells... unless I glossed over something that did... the thing is I remember one of the claims on the website was that characters could do whatever they wanted (but may or may not be any good at doing this)...

Hm...

Hey, It's the ADnD Alignment chart! ... wait a second... the author of this game... he has so far only used concepts I've seen from two sources before. DnD and FATAL... wangy.

Hey, they have three secret races in the middle of the book! You can play as a young dragon? Nifty. Wish I knew that before I picked Halfling.

And what I've been waiting for, the DRM...

Oh my gods...

This thing is radioactive!

Call the squad, we need to get this piece out of here!

Is it alive? Holy sh-


So it's d20... save that you choose your class skills (cool), randomly roll your race (or receive a penalty for choosing one), and every time you attempt a skill roll you have a chance to increase the skill... but you otherwise have no input on how your character develops...

...

I don't think I'd ever give it a chance.

I will state that he has a few refreshing and original ideas... a hundred or so pages in. But honestly, it just feels like a medley of D&D and Basic.

[The Glyphstone]

That sounds awful.

Point of order though - FATAL does not randomly generate gender.:smallbiggrin:

[DukeofDellot]

Point of order though - FATAL does not randomly generate gender.:smallbiggrin:

... Hey, you're right... I though you had to, but apparently it's optional (page 37) and declared as a "rare decision". That's pretty funny, because it's one of the things FATAL is infamous for... Granted, despite my protest, many of my players would flip a coin to determine the sex of their character. That said, I doubt any one of them would play a gender based on the roll.

FEAR on the other hand handles gender very tastefully: If you choose to play a female, you get a penalty to your Strength but have the opportunity to possibly advance in a few extra skills at a more rapid rate maybe.

Seriously though, feel free to ignore me and form your own opinions. I just like hearing myself type.

[The Glyphstone]

Well yeah - it's a running joke that the one thing Byron Hall considers unthinkable is forcing someone to play a woman.

[tribble]

Yeah, the system sounds dodgy to me too. The magic system in particular had my eyebrows raised. I should start looking for another system that won't be so needlessly complicated.