Fearsome and it's uses

[Feeth]

I'm curious what folks ideas are on Fearsome. Personally I love the idea of a character strolling forward, scaring the hell out of folks and acting as a sort of 'no-go' area. What I find annoying though is that it has no effect outwardly. It's only if people want to charge that it has any flavour.

It actively negates peoples will to charge your guy. Ironically, this works better on guys designed to shoot, not melee. A Venator gang taking Ferocity and Shooting skills could effectively have a wall of fearsome characters that can shield the back lines from charging. That doesn't seem intended to me.

In my eyes, the rule should be a 4" bubble, if you activate within this bubble you need to pass x (cool or willpower) check with bonuses for friendly models nearby, if you fail you run d6" away from the model. Or move down to 1 activation.

Right now, you'd just shoot a fearsome model to pin it indefinitely. Once it gains some additional skills it might be really worth taking.

So, thoughts? Has anyone seen success from using this?

 

[Sordit]

Maybe you want to use the old rules for fear and terror (Where the check should be a nerve-test instead of leadership, I think), cause it has also a effect if you charge someone:

FearAndTerror

• Sordit
• May 25, 2018

 

[FerociousBeast]

Fearsome needs a complete rewrite. It doesn't work at all right now, because it only triggers when someone declares a charge against your Fearsome guy, but there is no "declare charge target" step in the rules. You could say that when someone engages your guy a charge has been declared, but Fearsome only stops movement before it happens. If the other guy engages your Fearsome guy, then the move has already happened.

I would also prefer that Fearsome have more of an effect than just stopping a charge. Perhaps a negative to all enemy Cool checks within X inches, perhaps a negative effect when the Fearsome guy charges someone else ("Run away! Run away!"), anything would be better than currently, because currently the rule has Zero effect.

 

[Vonvilkee]

We just decided for ease now to play it as complete the charge move, if engaged with a fearsome model take the test if you fail it fearsome model strikes before you get your combat action.

Fearsome alone is okay then but if you get some form of counter charge it is amazing. Also those models that choose to charge in and not take their combat action have to be careful as they may get clobbered anyway.

Fearsome models around here know how to take advantage of slight hesitations caused by their fearsome demeanor or physique.

 

[Feeth]

Reading the old rules, I don't know why they changed it. It does seem to have limited uses. I'll suggest the old editions version to my local campaign as it's just starting and it might make it a bit more attractive.

Hopefully the skills are looked over as more gangs appear. Right now there are cookie-cutter skills that are necessary/too good to miss so the more flavourful ones are getting ignored.

 

[Ikiry0]

Yeah, I'm getting kinda sick of seeing Overseer on every leader.

 

[EarthDragon]

Yeah, I'm getting kinda sick of seeing Overseer on every leader.

This is honestly inevitable in a "pick all your skills" system. Not particularly "Overseer" almost always being taken, but whatever the socially accepted "best skill" will be taken "on every __________"

I honestly wouldn't mind if advancements had a "flat" rate associated with them and it all went random again. Primary, Secondary, and Any skill categories just came up at different frequencies. I enjoyed gangs developing their own flavor, and I felt most players really got behind that in the old system. This is one of those "go with the status quo" that seemed like an improvement, but has actually caused Necromunda to take a step back in regards to it's "personality".

 

[EarthDragon]

We just decided for ease now to play it as complete the charge move, if engaged with a fearsome model take the test if you fail it fearsome model strikes before you get your combat action.

Fearsome alone is okay then but if you get some form of counter charge it is amazing. Also those models that choose to charge in and not take their combat action have to be careful as they may get clobbered anyway.

Fearsome models around here know how to take advantage of slight hesitations caused by their fearsome demeanor or physique.

Great adaptation my friend!