Reference: Fear

[Vutall]

Fear
Samurai are taught to be without fear, but they are human beings, and their spirit can give way in the face of terrifying phenomena or dangerous enemies. Any time a character is confronted with something which might make his courage falter, the GM can make him roll to resist a Fear effect. Fear effects are given a Rank, ranging from 1 to 10, to represent their severity.

To resist a Fear effect, a character must roll Raw Willpower at a TN equal to 5 + (5 x Fear Rank). Thus, resisting a Fear 3 effect requires a roll at TN 20. Those of high Honor, however, are better able to overcome this test – all characters may add their Honor Rank to the total of their roll. A character who fails to resist a Fear effect suffers a penalty to all of his die rolls equal to –Xk0, where X is the Rank of the Fear effect.

Thus, for example, a Fear 2 effect would inflict a –2k0 penalty on all die rolls. This penalty lasts until the end of the encounter, unless the source of the Fear is removed prior to that time. Characters who catastrophically fail to resist Fear may actually lose control of themselves and completely succumb to terror. If a character fails a roll to resist Fear by 15 or more, he is overwhelmed by fear and either flees or cowers helplessly, as the GM warrants.