FFS: Fear (Unisystem/d10)

The following is taken largely from WitchCraft, p.138 (though heavily modified). UniSystem is available for free online, although I do not know the nature of their agreement. When I find out more, I'll post it.

1 Heebie-Jeebies: All the character’s actions suffer a -2 penalty for 2 Turns.

2 Shaken: Fear causes a messy physical reaction (often involving bodily functions best left to the imagination). Not only is this embarrassing, it imposes a -1 penalty to all actions for d5 turns. Lose 1 SAN.

3 Rattled: Victim flees screaming for 1 Turn. If cornered, the victim may fight. Lose 2 SAN.

4 Paralyzed: Character cannot move for D4(2) Turns. He stands and stares, bug-eyed, as the action continues around him. Only intervention by other characters (who may shake him, slap him, push him, or otherwise force him to act) can break this state. Lose d5 SAN.

5 Faint: The shock and fear are so severe that the character collapses, falling unconscious. A Difficult Constitution Test is required to recover consciousness. This can be attempted every round and when somebody stirs the character. Luckily, he missed the absolute worst part and loses only d5 SAN.

6 Total Hysterics: The character becomes a screaming, babbling, totally useless maniac for d5 Turns and loses d10 SAN.

7+ It Gets Worse: Higher results are left to your imagination. They may include life-threatening effects like heart attacks and comas (persistent catatonic state), or a bout of temporary insanity lasting hours or longer, or even worse! -2d10 SAN. 

I don't suggest asking players to roleplay insanity or disabilities; instead, tell them to act frantic, anxious, nervous, harried - all good ways to communicate the message that the character is losing their SANity to the rest of the group (hopefully) without offending others. Specific Phobiae can be applied and roleplaying those is often easier and, again, non-offensive. People with certain sensitivies and proclivities do not make good fits for these types of games and should not be exposed to them.

The SRD_CC has good Fear Tables and Phobias lists that you can use, but I did not reprint them here due to formatting and the time it takes to edit those types of posts. It is also available for free online. These posts, and this system, uses Conditions included in that document along with some that are not. I may include some of these in future posts, but this one is already long.

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