Official ICE Forums
Systems & Settings => Rolemaster => Topic started by: OG-GM on January 21, 2021, 07:07:33 PM
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So for years we have always played that if the players encountered an undead creature (such as a barrow wight) if they resisted the fear, they got a development box in "undead fear". So next time they would have +5 to resist the fear. So basically it was like a skill that got better every time you resisted.
Here it is about 25 years later and we cannot find the rule for this anywhere. Has anyone ever come across this. Some believe it might have been made up in a drunken night of adventuring 25 years ago. Some believe it is an actual rule. Can you help solve the mystery?
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We do something similar. All effects that can be resisted generate some sort of getting used to it.
I though it would be easy to find a reference, but I couldn't. So now instead of an answer I also have the same question. Thanks for that :-|
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It sounds like a houserule to me; we never played with any rule like that, and it seems to run counter to the RM design philosophy (in which you have to pay Development Points to gain skill bonuses). But I haven't gone through all the companions to say with 100% certainty.
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A house rule, not a bad idea, but not a rule that is in the game anyplace.
I suggest a modification where you have a chance of gaining a rank when exposed, not an assured every time thing. Otherwise it will not take long to grow immune to undead fear attacks.
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I believe that’s out of Companion II. It describes the varies form of fear of the supernatural and ways to handle it.
In our group the problem was how do you handle summoned creatures? Would the summoner need to check for fear too? Also, could you boost the skill by putting a creature in a closet and repeatedly open and close the door?
I believe we came up with a house rule which would make you immune to the fear of this specific creature as long as the encounter lasted and maybe even up to 24 hours if contact is broken.
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I do not remember a rule like that in RM but I would need to check out RoCo II to be sure.
I do remember from somewhere (Convention/Game Store/Home Game/Commercial Adventure) a situation in which you had to make 3 saves to not receive a penalty for something and I think that was for a fear effect and was modeled after 3 saves for poison to be gone from your system.
MDC
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I would have guessed houserule, but PiXeL01 is correct, it's in RoCo II, page 18.
If you used that optional rule, it would be reasonable to also apply the usual difficulty modifiers (easy, hard, sheer folly...) based on the situation. It's easy to overcome the fear experienced seeing a single creature at a safe distance on a sunny day. It's harder when the creature is half in shadows, close by, and you don't know how many there are. It's probably easier when you have cast a spell to summon the creature which gives you some control, and harder when you summoned the wrong creature and realize it's beyond your power level to control what you got.
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Technically, it's per specific type of creature, though, so ranks developed through resisting skeletons cannot apply when meeting wraiths. In fact, developing resistance to fear caused by lesser wraiths shouldn't help against greater wraiths! So, yes,when helpful, it's not really broken, in that one would quickly be immune to undead fear.
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In general.
1) Needs to be reworked and expanded to be effective, right now 1 column + 1 column chart, need to be 3-8 columns and redone chart.
Note this would also expand the options and examples.
2) Do not agree with long lasting bonuses to saves but ok with short term "repeated exposure" bonuses.
3) Requires extra bookkeeping by GM and or Players to be effective in any way.
MDC
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We always used this as well. I don't remember if we applied it to similar creatures or not (i.e. all undead or maybe all incorporeal undead). The party in my current game has only faced fear twice. One was undead and one was a dragon. I didn't allow those to be combined. I also didn't bother having them add the ranks to their sheets. "You get +5" is easy enough to remember.
They also ran straight out and found some anti-fear herbs as soon as the party failed and someone ran. Or in the case of the first undead: an NPC died instantly of a heart attack because they open-ended low. I invented one that gave +25 and required some work to get (a very small side quest which involved fighting a troll).
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There were other types of creatures the PCs needed to make a Fear RR on. Dragons is one that sticks out in my memory, and as stated, each of the types of undead to be encountered.
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We kept it to Demon /Dragon / Undead Fear though there may have been modifiers or thresholds based on Type of Undead and Demon.