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STRESS AND CONSEQUENCES

Unlike Fate, in Fear the characters start the game with 3

stress boxes (each worth 1) and three spaces for
consequences (a mild one worth 1, a moderate one worth 2
and a severe one worth 3).

Furthermore, unlike the normal Fate rules, to absorb a

single blow it is possible to mark multiple stress and
consequence boxes at a time.

Healing from a consequence

Healing works exactly like in Fate Sistema
Basic and therefore requires two things:

• succeed in an action that allows you to justify the healing;

• wait a certain period of time for it to take effect

fect.

The action in question is an action of overcoming an

obstacle; the difficulty is based on the success level value
of the consequence you are trying to cure (so +1 if you are
healing from a mild consequence, +2 for a moderate
consequence or +3 for a severe one).

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OBJECTIVE
After creating the characters (and every time you have
completed a mission), the GM will put the PCs in a difficult
and dangerous situation and immediately after will cut the
scene with a flashback. During the flashback, the players
and GM will work together to set a scene that answers the
question "What is the team's goal?"
The scene will almost certainly be set in the briefing room,
with the communication of orders and the definition of the
mission. Remember, however, the question you are called
to answer through the scene; therefore be imaginative,
since the definition of the objective could also arise from
an initiative of the PCs.

At the end of the flashback, players will write together the

Objective aspect, an aspect that reflects the objective
assigned to the team. Each PC can invoke the aspect
(and the aspect can be attempted by the GM, granting 1
fate point to the player of each character involved). If the
PCs manage to complete the mission, this is an
achievement (whether significant or greater, depends on the fiction).

The Objective aspect is the starting point for the creation

of the mission by the GM (Running the Game, p. 53).

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As soon as they disembark, the troops enter the jungle.

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DRIVE
THE GAME

«Matterhorn is my metaphor of the Vietnam War –

we built it, we abandoned it, we assaulted it, we lost,
and then we abandoned it again.»
– Karl Marlantes

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A set of games of Fear follows the typical pattern of Fate

(in brackets you will find the name used in this world of
Fate adventures):

• Campaign (Campaign): a long and intricate plot with an

overarching theme, made up of various narrative arcs
interconnected and told in sequence.
• Story arc (Operation): a complete plot with themes,
situations, antagonists and conclusion, made up of
several scenarios (usually two to five).
• Scenario (Mission): a unit of game time lasting
approximately one to four sessions, made up of several
scene.
• Scene: A unit of game time that can last from several
minutes to half an hour or more, during which players
attempt to achieve a goal or accomplish something
significant to the scenario.

CAMPAIGN
Multiple operations interconnected and played in sequence
- with a central theme acting as a common thread - form a
campaign. Campaigns are usually quite long and can take
months (or even years) to complete.
If you decide to embark on such an adventure, take care
to build one narrative arc at a time, since the people at the
table tend to change the cards on the table quite often.

OPERATIONS
An operation is a set of missions that have common
themes, situations, antagonists and conclusion. In the
military context, operations work the same way: a group of
missions with mission objectives and a common objective,

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bigger. You can decide to play a single operation and then move on to
something else, or decide to end one operation and start another; in that
case you will have decided to play a campaign.

MISSIONS
Now that the group has set up the game, defined the problems and
created the PCs, you have a list of aspects waiting to come to life. All
you have to do is put the PCs in a tense and problematic situation, and
then play the flashback useful to create the Objective aspect. At that
point it will be time to create and play missions.

A mission is a unit of game time that typically lasts from one to four
sessions and is made up of several scenes.
The end of a mission should lead to a significant achievement (if you
just finished the last session of the current operation, this is a major
achievement).

MISSION CREATION IN 30 SECONDS

1. Decide on the Objective aspect
2. Find the problems
3. Ask yourself questions about the story

4. Score the characteristics

5. Create opposition

Fear uses a different procedure from Fate for the creation of scenarios,
inspired partly by Ryan M. Danks' Fractal Adventures (you can find it in
the Fate edition of Jadepunk: Tales from Kausao City) and partly by the
story creation system

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adventures of War of Ashes: Fate of Agaptus by Sophie Lagacé.

Basically the mission is treated like a character and is assigned
aspects and approaches (called characteristics).

Each mission has an objective

To start creating the mission you need an objective; it is the
problem (or problems) around which the story revolves. What do
the PCs want? Rather than inventing a skin that represents the
objective, you already have the Objective skin chosen by the
players ready and made; this aspect is a bit equivalent to the
basic concept of the mission.

Find the problems

Now that you have an objective, you need to find a couple of
problems that the PCs will have to deal with.
As per the Fate rules, a good problem is relevant to the PCs,
cannot be solved without their involvement, and cannot be
ignored without tragic consequences.

Fear adds an important rule: at least one of the problems must

arise from the third side of the coin. You will surely have already
set your sights on two or three aspects (whether they are
aspects of the PCs or aspects of the game, it doesn't matter)
that present a fantastic third side of the coin. Well, choose the
one that intrigues you the most and turn it into a problem.

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Ask yourself questions about the story

Perhaps the pivotal moment in the creation of a mission has

arrived. Think about what you have written so far and start
asking yourself some interesting questions for the story; in
fact you will play to find the answers to these questions.

Keep in mind that it is best to ask yourself simple questions

that are capable of receiving yes or no answers; the generic
form (also recommended by the Fate rules) is «Will
(character) be able to achieve (goal)? At what cost?"
Obviously you can build different formulations.

Two or three questions are great for one session, four to eight
questions might require two or three game sessions, while
more than eight or nine questions are enough for the mission
(and maybe you will have some left over, but that's not a
problem) .

Assign scores to characteristics

You have a goal, some problems and a handful of questions.
Now it's time to define the characteristics of your mission, i.e.
the elements that will help you manage the next sessions,
ensuring coherence to the story. The missions use the
following characteristics: Charlie, Jungle, Intelligence and
Strange.

Charlie is the feature that manages NPCs and their ability to

attack, defend, and create advantages using combat
maneuvers. It comes in handy whenever the GM introduces
one or more NPCs and makes them act in a military context.

Jungle is the feature that manages the environment and helps

the GM set the difficulty of the PCs' attempts to interact or
move in a given environment. This is regardless of whether
the opposition comes from an NPC or another type of
obstacle. (Jungle is not to be understood in the sense

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I know literal, it also applies to villages or cities; it's just a term

to keep the flavor of this world of adventures for Fate.)

Intelligence is the feature that manages non-violent interactions

between NPCs and PCs.

Strange is the feature manages everything that does not fall

within the canons of normality; can come to the GM's aid to
manage non-standard NPCs or obstacles.

To choose the mission characteristic scores, set one equal to

the highest PC aptitude score +1, then choose one equal to the
score -1, one equal to the score -2 and finally one equal to the
score -3. For example, if the PCs' highest aptitude is +3, you
would have this set of scores: +4, +2, +1, and +0. If instead you
are faced with PCs with the highest aptitude at +4, you will have
this set: +5, +3, +2 and +1.

Choose the scores in such a way that they reflect your idea of
the mission. If you think that the environment should have much
more weight in fiction to the detriment of the combat, then give
the highest score to Jungle and the lowest one to Charlie.

For each NPC and obstacle that comes into play against the
PCs, you will need to determine which mission feature is most
relevant. At that point you just need to roll the dice and add the
score of the chosen characteristic.

Create the opposition

Finally, the last thing you need to do is create opposition.
There are two types of opposition in Fear : obstacles and NPCs.
These are two types of opposition that are not mutually exclusive,
in the sense that sometimes you will find yourself with an idea in
your head that could easily fall into both.

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well the types. In this case, let instinct guide you in choosing
between the two types.

Obstacles represent everything that in one way or another

could hinder the PCs from achieving the mission objective.
These can be natural obstacles, obviously, but also a minefield,
a particularly hostile village, enemy patrols and so on.

NPCs, on the other hand, are non-player characters who are

particularly important for the mission. It can be a tough enemy,
ferocious soldiers or terrifying creatures. These are antagonists
in all respects and in the round, important even individually.

Obstacles

When you create the mission, you already know what the PCs'
objective is; you just have to think about what might stop them
from getting there. The obstacles must be treated as if they
were characters: you will have to write one or two aspects for
each obstacle. Unlike NPCs, however, obstacles have no
talents, stress boxes or consequences.

Main and secondary NPCs

There are two types of NPCs in Fear: primary NPCs and

secondary NPCs.

Main NPCs – When you create a main NPC, fill out a sheet
exactly as if it were a PC, with aspects, talents, stress and
consequences. The only difference lies in the absence of
Attitudes: the NPCs, in fact, roll on the characteristics of the
mission. You should only create main NPCs for important and
recurring adversaries - you certainly won't need more than one
or two for each mission.

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Secondary NPCs – Other NPCs are secondary; they can be

nameless soldiers, terrifying creatures or simple extras united
with the aim of making the PCs' lives a little more difficult.
Secondary NPCs must have two or three aspects, one or two
stress boxes, but no consequences.

Countdown

Furthermore, if you deem it appropriate to introduce an

obstacle little by little (as if it were an looming threat), you will
have the possibility to assign it a countdown. The countdown
simply serves to show the signs of an approaching threat and
helps the GM to mark the presence of an increasingly
concrete danger.

It's important that your players are aware of the danger, so

write the name of the obstacle on a post-it and place it in the
center of the table. Don't add the aspects yet but simply draw
some boxes that mark the emergence of the threat.

There are two types of boxes: the simple box and the
checkpoint. The difference between the two types is that the
checkpoint is attached over an aspect of the obstacle, which
is revealed in play when the GM marks the checkpoint.

The GM can mark a space by giving up a fear point

just conquered (to understand what fear points are, go to p.
62). It is important to note that the marking of a
box must be contextual to the moment in which the GM re-
give up fear; in other words, fear points cannot be accumulated
and later spent to mark one or more boxes.

Obviously players have the opportunity to hinder the progress

of the countdown with actions to overcome an obstacle (as if
they were in a competition), justifying them by making their
characters act

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in history. If successful, they clear the boxes starting from the

bottom: one box if successful, two boxes if successful with
style. Deleting a checkpoint means eliminating the aspect
connected to it and weakening the obstacle created by the GM.

When all the boxes have been marked by the GM or deleted

by the players, the GM will have to make the obstacle clear or
- if he no longer considers it relevant, because perhaps it has
been excessively weakened by the players - leave it alone.

SCENE

A scene is a unit of game time that can last from several

minutes to half an hour or more, during which players attempt
to achieve an objective or accomplish something significant to
the mission. Taken together, a group of scenes form an entire
gameplay session; by extension, they form your missions,
operations, and campaigns.

Set the difficulty

If the opposition is passive, you will have to decide what
difficulty the PC will have to overcome to succeed in the action.
What in Fate is almost an art (which the GM is forced to refine,
in one way or another), in Fear is pure common sense. When
you are asked to set the difficulty of a shot, look at the
characteristics of the mission and choose the most pertinent one.
nent.

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The fear points

The fear point is a free invocation of a horror aspect. The
GM earns fear points in two ways:

• if a player pays a lower cost, the GM can choose to

gain a fear point as a cost;
• If a player pays a higher cost, the GM gains a fear
point in addition to the higher cost.

The fear points thus earned will remain at the GM's

disposal until he has spent them all or until the players
have reached a significant milestone.

Each fear point provides the GM with a free invocation of

any aspect (therefore also game aspects or aspects of an
NPC) as long as the invocation is in a horror key. Precisely
because these are free invocations, the GM can spend
more than one fear point to invoke the same aspect.

The GM also has the possibility of immediately giving up

the fear point he has just earned to advance a countdown
linked to an obstacle (pp. 60-61).

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