I know this has been talked about before, and I am probably the one who has brought it up countless times, but I can't peg this down.
In the Core Rule Book, the rule for Fear is that once a PC is intimidated, the penalty effects last until the source of the Fear is slain, or goes away. Other PC's can make an Inspire test to bolster his/her companions and thus give them a chance to make another Willpower test.
So, a question: What do you do as a GM when it comes to something such as Fear and persistant effects?
Case in point... a pack of mewlips (ghouls) are attacking my party of players in our ongoing game. I have house-ruled that all undead have the special ability of Terror just due to the very nature of what they are. This Terror has no effect on Elves, but all other races must make a Willpower test to overcome the effect, or be penalized by Fear.
Because they are not high on the Terror chain of fell-creatures - in comparison to a Balrog or Nazgūl - they do not generate a high number (due to it only being 1/2 of their skill rank in Intimidate (Fear)) to overcome the Terror.
This is fine. I do not have a problem that the TN for the opposed Willpower is not to high - my issue is, because it is a persistant effect, should the PC's have to test for it each round? Or, once the Terror has been overcome once, they are no longer vulnerable to the effects of Terror in this encounter?
I have read GoB's rule option in the HOF of waning effects as a character is exposed to these horrors - i.e. the PC slowly gets used to what these fell-creatures are like and the Terror is less with each exposure - thus the PC gains a bonus to his opposed Willpower tests. I like this idea and will incorporate it into our game.
But my question remains - should a character not have to test for Fear (or persistant Terror) once he/she overcomes it? I think about this in terms of a Balrog... if you win the opposed roll by blowing all of your Courage to do so, are you no longer afraid of the Balrog?
The trilogy always describe the fear generated by minions of the Shadow as an oppressive, most times over-whelming effect, like a physical wave that blankets all. So, I don't believe that once you shake off the Terror or Fear of a Balrog (or any other terrifying creature), that the PC is immune, but I'd like your opinion.
I use a real life example here - if a great white shark was swimming towards me and I muster the will to punch it in the nose and thus turn it away for the moment, I would still be scared as crap until I got out of the water.
This might be one of those things that kinda break the suspension of disbelief a little. It comes down to a balance of does making this test every round get in the way of the game and making it fun vs. remaining true to Tolkien's work. IMO its up to you. With a gradual lessening of the effects you can keep the feel while remaining true to the mechanics along with not having to worry about rules for an entire combat. Of course, a creature can take an action to use its fear directly with its full might to re-up the effects against targets. And other encouters with the same creature or others of the same type would still start the process all over again -- each encounter is unique.
I have always handled this a bit differently, as I too struggled with how it was worded or laid out in the core book. So I have always treated it like so:
I make the players roll when initiating combat with said creature. ( I treat this more like giving terror a static range. If you are shooting into the back of a creature that is attacking your companion with a longbow, no need to roll vs terror. But it turns and runs at you and gets close enough.. you roll)
I make each player roll once for each creature they put themselves in range of.. but once in range as long as they made their rolls I do not make them repeat it each round. If they were to run, or back out of melee/combat and then come back into the creatures range. I make them roll it again.
The ranges vary as per how terrifying the creature is.. a ghoul has a much smaller range then a balrog for instance.
Another option, to keep the fear there is to force another check if something bad happens like the characters take damage or something along those lines. That way, you don't have to keep checking every turn, but it is still a threat.
I would also either give a bonus, or reduce the severity of the threat if they have succeeded before. The only time that I might not make them roll again is if they had a superior success.
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