Fright Checks: Rule of 19

The GURPS Rule of 14 (p. B360) says:

If final, modified Will exceeds 13, reduce it to 13 for the purpose of the Fright Check. 

This means that there's no RAW way to ever not fail a fright check at least 16.2% of the time (unless you have Unfazeable) no matter how many positive modifiers apply.

 In a bloody mindedly literal interpretation of the rules this means that GURPS characters can get up to a 23 on the table (a -10 phobia or other disadvantage) from any scare no matter how harmless it is or prepared they are (and on the way to 23 there's several more likely outcomes that are cartoonishly absurd in the context of one of those joke snake cans or whatever, like fainting for 4d minutes). Obviously the GM can just not call for Fright Checks in situations where a failure would be absurd.

The bigger problem is that because of the Rule of 14 there are many situations in the rules where large bonuses to Fright Checks simply don't matter. Consider a PC with Will 13 +5 for Heat of Battle, +2 from Combat Reflexes, +2 from Fearlessness, +1 from prior exposure/combat veteran, +1 for earlier exposure the same day, +5 from attacking in ambush, with a plan, at more than 100 yards (GURPS Tactical Shooting p. 34) for a total of 29. With Rule of 14 none of those bonuses matter except to counteract penalties. This character is paying 4 points for Fearlessness that really only matters if the net penalty is more than -2, which often makes Fearlessness irrelevant. If this character then has to make even an unmodified Fright Check in this fight, they fail 16.2% of time, even from witnessing enemy casualties!

Rule of 14 also means that many efforts to mitigate a Fright Check are wasted. Consider a situation were the PCs are warned in advance of what they are going to see (+3) and are shown an photo (+3) of a murder victim (-0). The full +6 only matters if they characters have a base Fright Check (from low Will or disadvantages like Fearfulness and Combat Paralysis) of 7 or less. Characters with Will 10 needn't have bothered being warned they were going to be shown a crime scene photo, it makes no difference. Even a hardened homicide detective (+1 for prior experience) fails this roll 16.2% of the time, everytime they look at a crime scene photo, even if they have Will 14 and four levels of Fearlessness. 

This can be especially a problem if one PC has Terror. Even if their allies are fully prepared (+3), have seen it before (+1), and are in combat (+5) they can't ever escape that 16.2% chance of failing. This makes Terror very hard to use effectively, and creates the absurd situation where the other characters fail the check even though they really should be used to it by now. Although in this case, complete immunity to this is a reasonable perk.

My solution to these problems is the "Rule of 19". 

If final, modified Will exceeds 18, the character automatically succeeds on the Fright Check.