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Originally Posted by Nightshade
I think this makes big assumptions; many combatants may well have had little exposure to combat outside of some militia training before the events of a campaign. After that they get used to it of course, but that's just as true in the firearms case. Take a look at the occupation tables in RQ3 some time and ask yourself how many of those professions are _really_ "conditioned for personal combat". I suspect, especially at the Barbarian and Civilized levels, the answer would be "not many". The professional combatants and no others.
Running like hell may well, however, when you see him charging you in the first place. The fact the survival techniques are different doesn't matter; the fact standing and fighting isn't usually the ideal for either is.
I'd be really interested to see if its actually worse than it was with weapons. With artillery I can believe it, but I'm honestly unconvinced an experienced soldier reacts any more badly to bullets winging past than an arrow storm or just the sight of a charging mass of enemy.
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All valid points, though I think we are talking about a slightly different things. What you are describing is pretty much like Morale to me. Morale is actually rarely modelled in RPG's (old D&D had it though). I'm talking about more of mental discipline under fire. The two are similar but different. I'm not talking about modelling fight or flight, but the ability to overcome fear and chaos in battle. Most soldiers can pop up from behind cover and fire at an enemy, but not everyone can pop up, take a careful bead on their target, and squeeze the trigger evenly while being shot at - that takes one hardened MF.
Actually, on that note, I forgot to add suppressive fire to aspects of modern combat that are not modelled in BRP. Suppressive fire is effective partly from this hard to overcome sense of self preservation.
Certainly any optional rules that model combat psychology could be used in medieval type games, though honestly I have never missed them in those type games, just as I don't miss better penetration modeling in fantasy games. Where I miss them is in modern, firearm intensive games. BRP as is is fine for CoC because the focus isn't on guns. But when I want Mossad* commando raids I do miss them.
*Did I say Mossad? My bad, I can't possibly prove that, as these people who infiltrated a Pakistani Military base and assassinated their top Nuclear Physicist couldn't possibly be traced to Israel, as they have no discernable background at all.