Guild of San Marcos Forum

I know about how to "set the mood" in terms of ambiance, atmosphere and word choice. But what I really would like is how to use it as a mechanic as it's presented in the rules...not to mention how to nip no-selling in the bud.

Seems pretty straight forward to me. Lemme quote

Game Master's Guide, p. 175 wrote:Fear
When Heroes encounter a creature with Fear, all who view the creature must make a Resolve Roll against the Creature’s Fear Rating x 5. Those who fail lose a number of unkept dice from each roll equal to the creature’s Fear Rating while facing it.

and there's an example on the next page

Game Master's Guide, p. 176 wrote:Example 3.11: Georges du Blanc encounters a ghost. The ghost has a Fear Rating of 3, meaning Georges must make a Resolve Test against a TN of 15 (3 x 5). If he succeeds, there is no effect. If he fails, he loses three dice from all of his rolls while facing the ghost (because the ghost has a Rank 3 Fear effect).

Just makes it a bit tougher to fight the critter.

Now for my question. "nip no-selling in the bud." Huh?

Basically folks who would refuse to acknowledge that their charactèrs would be afraid or weak or scared. From pro-wrestling, they don't "sell" ie, put over the threat their opponent is.

Ah ok. Never heard that term.

As a solution, there's always Episode 4 of Play Dirty...

I've encountered that a couple of times. Best bit of advice I could ever give (which is in the revised Play Dirty) is, talk to the player, ask them why they're playing that way, explain what you are trying to achieve. But Wick's advice is spectacular.

If they won't play scared, adjust descriptions to be both evident and embarrassing. Players will opt to do fine their own reactions to fear to avoid being told they have soiled themselves in front of the damsel in distress.

You're evil Dave...

As someone with a home group with a pair of players who were desensatized to roleplaying fear by a DM who overused dragons and the tarrasque, Ive done what dave advocates here. One of them actually walked out of the game, it was funny. the other guy got the hint.

I've also had a habit of learning personal issues for the players and incorporated them.

-Player has a fear of spiders, bad guy shows up with one crawling up his shoulder.

-Used to have a player that was rather homophobic, so I would circle the table and lean in behind him to whisper stuff in his ear when I needed him creeped out.

-Used to have a guy that had issues with pickle juice... no idea why but it came in handy when they entered an area and I could describe the sick/sour stink of vinegar and dill. Put him right on edge.


yeah, I am very evil.

Face to face/tabletop, I'm not so worried about. It's if I'm masochistic enough to GM a PBEM/PBP (where I don't know the prospective players well, if at all) that has me concerned. And unfortunately, it's a justified concern...

well, then you just have to drop them a post with an aside informing them that they needs to convey reactions fitting to the situation mandated by the mechanics.