This is a “Feature” I wrote for Issue 3 of Session Zero.

This is a “Feature” I wrote for Issue 3 of Session Zero.

This is a “Feature” I wrote for Issue 3 of Session Zero. It’s meant to simulate a “fear track” that shows a slow burn from Courageous to Fearful (which is why is uses wisdom rather than WIS). It was changed dramatically and directly because of a move several people contributed to in a post by Robert Doe recently. Any and all comments and criticism are welcome, I just want to make it the best it can be for the issue.

Miasma of Fear

A strong sense of fear permeates the Dark Forest. Even those who are normally immune to such feelings recognize a growing sense of dread.

When you enter The Dark Forest, hold Courage equal to your wisdom.

When you have a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, your Courage becomes equal to your wisdom.

Whenever you roll 7-9 for a move, in addition to the normal outcome lose 1 Courage (courage can go below 0)

Whenever you roll 6- for a move, in addition to whatever the GM says, lose 2 Courage and then roll + Courage.

7+ You’re rattled but are otherwise fine.

6- Your fear has gotten the better of you, and it becomes difficult to concentrate on actions that were once second nature to you. Until you’ve had a few hours of uninterrupted sleep you roll + 0 for all moves, unless you would normally roll lower.

THOUGHTS: Courage is a resource. A GM can use it up, and something terrifying can decrease it. On the same note, something pure like a Unicorn may increase a characters Courage.

22 thoughts on “This is a “Feature” I wrote for Issue 3 of Session Zero.”

  1. This is cool – though I’m not sure courage = wisdom. What about the idiot barbarian who is too unaware to know he should be scared?

  2. That’s a good point Yochai Gal. I used wisdom in the “Spirit” sense. Is there a better way to pull that off that is a catch-all? Intelligence might work, but I still like the “spirit” connotation.

  5. I considered that based on your first comment, but I don’t see a Thief using his dexterity as a Courage analog, or a Bard using charisma. That said, can the resource Courage be renamed something different but similar that does capture the “spirit” meaning of wisdom? I originally thought “Composure”

  6. A Thief might gain courage from knowing that he can deftly dodge any danger that might harm him; a Wizard might know that her years of study have prepared her for whatever lies in the deep.

    Using WIS is probably a good bet; I just fear that a Barbarian with STR 18 and WIS 12 will be scared of a dark forest, which might make sense in some games, and not others.

  7. I agree with that completely. Even with a low wisdom a Barbarian would probably be less inclined to fear. I almost feel that “hold Courage equal to your highest statistic” sounds wonky. What do you think?

    If I didn’t use (wisdom and Courage) and instead used (highest statistic and something), what would make the most sense for something? Resolve, Composure… something else?

  9. Yeah, totally…

    The forest’s dark magic causes fear to seep into your very being. Even those who are normally immune to such feelings recognize a growing sense of dread.

  12. I really like this concept, I think it’s a cool way to add flavor to an encounter or area. Here are my thoughts:

    You might want to include a clause in Miasma of Fear where a 6- on that move doesn’t trigger itself. Otherwise someone with courage of -6 will be stuck in an infinite loop.

    I personally think using Wisdom as mental fortitude works fine for this thematically, but the numbers might not work.Even the lowest Wisdom score of 8 means that you’re rolling +6 on your first miss, which is crazy high. A Cleric with 18 wisdom would need to fail six times before their fear check roll can get anything less than a 10+.

    You might consider using WIS as starting Courage, or double your WIS. You could also have starting courage be your WIS added to another stat, such as CHA. It could even be up to the players.

    When you enter The Dark Forest, hold Courage equal to your WIS plus CHA.

    When you enter The Dark Forest, hold Courage equal to your WIS plus a stat bonus of your choice.

    Another thing to consider is what happens when you’ve already had your fear get the better of you and roll more moves. Do you keep subtracting from your Courage? There doesn’t seem much point. I’m not sure it needs to be addressed in the move, but something to consider.

    I think a -1 forward on 7-9 for the fear check move could also make it more impactful, but you risk it being a spiral of low rolls triggering more low rolls.

  13. I’m not really a fan of mechanics that have a miss trigger another roll automatically. There’s too much of a chance eschew the fiction and end up with results that don’t quite make sense.

    What if, instead of rolling +Courage after a miss, you had roll before any move. If your Courage is +8 or higher, no need to roll. But otherwise, you rolled and might do it but lose 1 Courage (on a 7-9) or freeze up (on a miss).

  14. Colin Kierans

    Yeah, there definitely needs to be some “cleanup” text about what happens when the fear gets the better of you so that you a) stop rolling and b) don’t have to worry about Courage anymore (until you rest, that is)

    I went with wisdom rather than WIS to make it more like a fear track or a slow burn. When you first enter the Forest it doesn’t affect you as much, but the longer you’re there the more it affects you. So yeah, you’ll start rolling high (even so high that the roll isn’t necessary) but the more rolls you miss the smaller that number gets, and by the end you start to really dread (no pun intended) that roll. So on that level it instills a little fear in you as well as your character (maybe LOL).

    My original pass at it was WIS and only a 1 on a 6 roll, but I felt it caused you to “freeze up” too quickly. I’ll run through some simulations with WIS + CHA (and other combination) to see how it goes.

    Jeremy Strandberg

    That’s a good idea! Rolling before another roll can clean things up quite a bit because you can say something like “While in the Dark Forest you must Defy Danger with Courage before taking an action”. Then the consequence of a 6- is the “freeze up”.

    Thanks guys! I’ll make some edits!

  17. For those of you interested, here’s a Google Sheets link that breaks down both methods:

    Tab 1: Courage = wisdom, -1 on a 7 to 9 roll, -2 on a 6 and lower

    Tab 2: Courage = WIS, -1 on a 6 and lower only

    It’s irksome that Sheets doesn’t have a “calculate now” feature like Excel does, but if you click in an empty cell and press the Delete key it recalculates the random numbers, giving you different results. It MAY not allow you to do that in VIEW mode though…

    docs.google.com – Fear analysis

  18. 8 seems to be a sweet spot for starting Courage. Any higher than that and you may never roll a “freeze up”, and lower than that is causing “freeze up” on the 1st and 2nd missed roll. And all of these rolls were bases on roll+2… that would change a bit with lower rolls.

  21. Courage is tough to pin down, when you mentioned tying it to wisdom, i thought it made sense, from putting fears aside based on your knowledge and experience. Likewise when INT was mentioned, having the mental fortitude to push fear away makes sense.

    But this is inspired by Harry Potter, right? I don’t see his stats maxed out in either WIS or INT. I would say he derives his courage more from CON, he just keeps going no matter what. So that opens it up to people deriving their courage from their top stat, I think. Maxed out STR or DEX would give you a confidence to physically face your fears. Even though fear is a mental force a case can be made to derive courage from physical force.

  22. I agree with that, as that’s what Yochai Gal was getting at in his comments. I have made several changes (you can see versions 2.0 through 3.1 here: https://plus.google.com/101824580455031797035/posts/QLu6qBqqQVM).

    Right now it uses WIS, but I never thought about what happens when a character has a -1 WIS.

    I could make it a specific number not tied to any stat. In version 3 and 3.1 Courage acts a little differently, but to use it you have to narrate how you are action courageously. So I could set it at 2 or 3 without loosing anything fictionally… Thanks Greg Jones!

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