Spending Fear
Whenever you spend Fear, describe what changes in the world as Fear manifests. What interrupts the PCs? How does an adversary prepare for a powerful attack? What does it look/sound/smell like when an avalanche crashes down on the PCs?
When you spend fear, you can:
- Interrupt the players while the action tracker is out to make a move.
- Add two tokens to the action tracker.
- Use an adversary’s fear feature.
- Use an environment’s fear feature.
Tip: As with any GM move, spending Fear shouldn’t undermine the players’ fun. Fear is a tool for you to enhance the scene, create dramatic tension, and raise the stakes, not to outright shut down a PC’s heroic actions.
Interrupt the players while the action tracker is out to make a move.
You can spend a Fear to interrupt between PCs while the action tracker is out and make a GM move as if they had rolled a failure or with Fear. This is most useful when PCs have been rolling successfully with Hope for a significant number of actions and you want to act in response. For example, if the PCs have placed five tokens on the action tracker but you haven’t had a chance to spend them yet, you can convert two of those tokens into a Fear, spend that Fear to make a move immediately, and have three tokens left on the action tracker to activate adversaries during your move.
Add two tokens to the action tracker.
You can always spend a Fear to add two tokens to the action tracker. This is most useful if you have a large number of adversaries on the battlefield and a decent pile of Fear built up when play returns to you—you can spend a few Fear to put more tokens on the action tracker, and use them to activate those adversaries.
Use an Adversary’s Fear Feature.
In addition to each adversary’s standard features, some some adversaries have powerful Fear features (see “Using Adversaries” in chapter 4). You can use an adversary’s Fear features by spending an action token (as usual) along with the indicated number of Fear.
Even if an adversary has other Fear features, you can always spend a Fear to improvise a big adversary move that might otherwise feel overpowered or arbitrary.
Use an Environment’s Fear Feature.
Environments can have their own features that require spending Fear to activate (see “Using Environments” in chapter 4). You can use an environment’s Fear Feature by spending an action token (as usual) along with the indicated number of Fear.
Even if the environment has another Fear feature, you can always spend Fear to improvise a big environment move that might otherwise feel overpowered or arbitrary.
Improvising Fear Moves
When you’re improvising adversaries or environments or when you’re using existing ones, you might find a moment where you want to put your thumb on the scale to make something dramatic happen or to escalate the scene. You can always improve a GM move, whether it’s for an adversary, an environment, or otherwise, but there may be situations when you want to make an especially hard move. In those situations, you may want to treat it as a Fear move. You can spend Fear and declare the move, spending the resource to communicate and respect the scale of the action you’re taking.
A Fear move should redefine a scene, change the terms, raise the stakes, modify or change the location, etc.
Fear moves commonly include one or more of these elements:
- Introducing new adversaries to a scene.
- An adversary activating a powerful spell or transformation to deal massive damage or boost their capabilities.
- An environment taking strong action against the party.
For additional guidance on creating Fear Moves, check the existing Fear Moves included in the “Adversary Features” and “Environment Features” sections and stat blocks of chapter 4.