Category Archives: Survival RPG

The Safehouse

Tarnoc was looking through the 3rd ed rough draft and turned his attention to the Scimrahn safehouse. We talked a bit about what they were and how to make them interesting. They are unabashedly the classic dungeon delve reskinned to fit in The Artifact. They are a series of tunnels filled with traps and mazes.

Tarnoc made a few lists of things that would be found in or near a safehouse, intended as a random generator for one. I knew it was a good idea to flesh this idea out for the players but it felt like it was missing something important. I realized that they should be built as a survival challenge rather than an ordinary set of random tables.

In other Survival Challenge posts, I’ve included basic ideas to make them more compatible for other games but I figure that this one is reasonably unique to The Artifact so I’ll leave it specific to the 3e rules. If you’re really sharp you’ll notice that I’ve gone from Surmount Points to Challenge Points (CP). This is to tie the points used in Tech Challenges in with the points in Survival Challenges. It made more sense to have a single term used in both instead of two separate solutions.

Scimrahn Safehouses

Scimrahn safehouses are fortified and camouflaged bunkers that Scimrahn run to when attacked and often store surplus they will not immediately need.

If a hex collapses, it often leaves natural voids in rubble that can form caves. This is a favorite location to carve out a Safehouse. These structures are designed to hide a tribe from the Chezbah and if discovered, give the tribe a strategic advantage in defending themselves.

Although officially any Scimrahn is supposed to be welcome to take shelter in a safehouse, this is not always followed by tribes that are storing their valuables. The fact that entire tribes are occasionally wiped out can leave these locations derelict and many Scimrahn seek out unused Safehouses either to use them for themselves or to loot them.

Surmount Method: Observing hidden hatches, symbols and noticing traps

Surmounting Attribute: Intuition

Full 1/2 1/4 1/8
1 2 3 4

10 CP for a new Safehouse (1-50 years)

20 CP for a older Safehouse (51-100 years)

40 CP for a very old Safehouse (101-300 years)

60 CP for an ancient Safehouse (301-800 years)

 

Hazards

Confusion

Just finding which crevice or chamber is the next stage of the safehouse is taxing. For every failed Intuition roll the characters face a confusion hazard. While moving through the safehouse the character has to search for small indications of traps or cues to travel further into the Safehouse. Failed Intuition rolls get 1 Mental stress point.

Random Hazard

For every survival round the GM should roll once on the following table.

Roll 1D100

1-25 Hidden door
26-40 Maze
41-60 Hound trap
61-70 Pit trap
71-80 Demolished
81-90 Decoy entrance
91-95 AI Trap
96-100 Unique

 

Hidden Door

A cleverly hidden door is used to make it harder find the next leg of the safehouse. Characters must make an Intuition roll with 2 50% Impairments to find the door. A character’s Scimrahn En skill may be used to add fractional successes to the roll. The player using the Scimrahn En skill should describe the symbols they found that leads them to the door.

Maze

A twisted knot work of crawlway passages with many leading to dead ends or looping back on themselves. Exploring the passages and finding the way out takes time and energy. Characters must make a Constitution roll or they take 2 Physical stress.

There is a 10% chance of a Chezbah hound in hibernation somewhere in the tunnels. It was sent in, got lost and shut down.

Hound Trap

These are traps meant to capture Chezbah Hounds. These often involve trapping a hound in a cramped tunnel between heavy doors (AR 50 200 HP) and then slowly crushing them in between the walls of the tunnel. The trap will wait for 30 seconds (3 turns) and then do 5d10 damage per turn for 5 turns. They are often well hidden and require an Intuition roll with 2 60% Impairments to see them before they’ve sprung. A character’s Scimrahn En skill may be used to add fractional successes to the roll. The player using the Scimrahn En skill should describe the symbols they found that warned them of the trap.

Only with a successful Scimrahn En skill roll can the trap be disabled for ten turns. The En are used to describe the solution to a combination lock that disables the trap.

To make the trap safer for a Scimrahn, there is almost always a release inside that requires a successful Dexterity check to disable the trap and release the occupant.

Pit Trap

These traps are used to catch Chezbah Warriors  and Hounds. Since Hounds can jump very high, they often are very deep any one falling down one of these traps takes 3D10 points of damage from the fall. There is a 10% chance that there is a hibernating Chezbah Hound at the bottom of the pit. They are often well hidden and require an Intuition roll with 2 60% Impairments to see them before they’ve sprung. A character’s Scimrahn En skill may be used to add fractional successes to the roll. The player using the Scimrahn En skill should describe the symbols they found that warned them of the trap.

Demolished

The tunnel has been demolished either by a cave in or by Chezbah collapsing the tunnel intentionally.

Getting past the demolished tunnel requires that it be cleared of debris and braced up. This requires moving heavy boulders, dust and in some cases cutting through boulders too large to move.

This task has a value of 1D10 Challenge points by itself. The surmounting attribute is Strength. Each failed strength roll means the character takes 2 Physical stress. Tools like hammers, pry bars and rope give a 30% Advantage to the rolls.

Decoy Entrance

The passage being investigated is a decoy. the passage abruptly ends. Hidden Scimrahn En gives a clue as to the real passage’s whereabouts. The characters must double back out of the tunnel and look for the new passage.

AI Trap

Part of an E-suit, usually the upper torso with no shields or weapons, guards the passage. The E-suit torso is usually fixed in place and powered by hidden electrical cable. It blocks the passage unless the characters can give it a message written in En. If anyone gets near it without giving the key phrase, it will attack with it’s fists. The AI’s Agility and Reflex attributes are 1d6x10 but has a 40% Advantage to hit because of the small space in the passage. The E-Suit’s AR and BP are all standard but HP are usually around half their normal amount if only the torso is in place.

With a successful Scimrahn En skill roll the trap can be disabled for ten turns. The GM can describe the En that the characters find and if they have passed a skill give a string of ideas they represent. To guess at the pass phrase the characters will have to combine the ideas into a one to three word phrase. In most situations the AI will answer if it will allow the characters to pass. If the characters give the wrong key phrase they can ask if they can pass and the AI will answer no.

Unique

A unique and unusual system is used to confuse or kill Chezbah, The more dangerous the trap, the more En warnings there should be.

The GM should design their own trap. It should be decipherable by interpreting a string of 3 to 5 ideas given in En.

 

Defenses and Weaknesses

30% Chance Weakness: Scout

Many safehouses have a Scimrahn scout that lives in the area. This scout may know some or all of a newer safehouse. A scout that knows a safehouse may lead the characters to an inner Poord chamber that has supplies like old blankets, some water, old provisions and some fuel and complain that his tribe is poor. This chamber is accessible from the outside and is used to hide the tribes vehicles while they are hiding from Chezbah but there are often hidden cashes and inner chambers to hide women and children in. The PCs will have to explore on their own after this and the scout may be unhelpful or misleading.

For older safehouses, the scout may have explored some of it but it is unlikely they would have reached it’s inner chambers.

30% Chance Defense: Inner Poord

After 1D10 CP have been surmounted, the characters find a minor chamber with supplies like old blankets, some water, old provisions and some fuel. There should also be 2d6 Plasma Guns with clips, 4d6 Laser Guns with energy packs and 1d6 suits of armor patched together from suits that were damaged. This is to make the curious think they have found the inner Poord.

These chambers are in fact used by any tribe making use of the safehouse. The chamber is often large enough to house the tribes vehicles while they are hiding from Chezbah but there are often hidden cashes and inner chambers to hide women and children in.

Inner Poords are not accessed directly by the tunnels the characters will be crawling through. Usually there is a trigger deep inside a tunnel that when activated opens a large camouflaged door most often made of a very large boulder 3-5 meters in diameter.

The Roke

Roke is the Scimrahn word for home. This is the furthest inner chamber of the safehouse. It is where the children are sent when the safehouse is under siege and it is where the tribe keeps all it’s goods that cannot be easily carried.

Inside the Roke there is often a storehouse of 1d10 x ¥1,000,000 x the CP of the safehouse in Scimrahn, Kelrath and Chezbah goods.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Survival RPG

Actual Play Report; Two Firsts In One Game

Yesterday was pretty special, I GMed a game of The Artifact with two completely new situations. The first one was we used only 3rd edition rules and characters. The second was that it was just my kids playing and it turned out really cool. They’ve sat in on games and had characters but this was the first time there was no one else to coach them along with what they should be doing.

The setting, a great rift where the underground structure has collapsed for hundreds of Kilometers. The rubble has formed a valley. Several landmarks in the valley include Reshrone Rochbareeth, the great stone of the Rochbareeth, a colony of Pteranodon like animals. The cave of voices on the edge of a region that’s covered in caves of various sizes. The Great Kelrath Quarry, an area that the Kelrath used a thousand years ago to mine for materials to build their cities. The Valley of the Zah, an ancient garbage dump where bacteria are still breaking down the chemicals left over from the Kelrath and a great mat of Zah (eatable bugs) are feasting on the bacteria. Finally, the Valley of the Kerdi, a forbidden area that the Kerdi defend but no one knows why.

The two players have their characters, one a Scimrahn E-Suit pilot named Enedger and the other an I-CA scout named Kagami. They are traveling with the Dreech tribe, a group of Carriers. The tribe uses this area to rest and has several safe houses hidden in the terrain. An I-CA platoon is assigned to the Dreech to help them. While resupplying, one of the other I-CA scouts named Habibe has gone missing and our two characters are sent to go out and retrieve him.

The two head off in Habibe’s last known direction and the E-Suit picked up a small object giving off a small amount of heat. They investigate and find out it’s an I-CA microdrone that Habibe must have launched. Kagami quickly figured out that it had run out of power and crashed and was probably flying in a straight line. They could follow it’s flight path back and track him.

Finding his footsteps they followed them to the mouth of a cave. The E-Suit’s sonar could hear faint sounds in the cave. This was a great chance to use 3e’s Survival Challenges and it all went really well. Enedeger considered just letting Kagami go in alone and he would wait outside but must have gotten bored with that idea because he locked his E-Suit and followed her in. There was a pit they had to jump over, a gallery of rocks that they got lost in, an underground stream that they swam through, and then a larger pit they had to climb around. They came to a squeeze in the tunnel that they had to disassemble their large gear and squeeze through. Neither was sure about this part of the cave and they considered doubling back but the physical stress was starting to make it too hard for Kagami to keep going and the two rested for several hours.

Squeezing through the tunnel Enedger panicked and had to double back. Kagami squeezed through and came face to face with a Gunthar (1.5 meter tall dinosaur like creature). It attacked her but she avoided its attack and then took out a knife and rolled her 1/8th which allowed her to stab it under the chin where its armored skin was weak. In one stab she had taken it down and had dinner.

Here the cave opened back up to the rift valley. Enedger finally was able to push through the pinch in the cave  and the two emerged only to be greeted by a warning shot and someone calling “Don’t follow me.” which Kagami figured out was Habibe.

We stopped there for the night. The kids had fun and I did too. I’m planning the next session and will post when we play again.

I found a few omissions and errors along the way and marked them for correction but otherwise the survival rules worked really solidly. It was also cool to see the fraction column rules come into play and work the way they did. The kids got real excited when they got a good roll. It was a great game all around, simple but with just enough challenge making it interesting.

3 Comments

Filed under News, Survival RPG, Transmissions

Survival And Stress Points

I’ve been thinking about using an expanded version of Stress Points in a third edition of The Artifact, let me explain why and maybe you can use a similar system in your own homebrew or houserule system.

In a survival situation, you have a certain amount of energy and ability. The environment can sap you of that energy and ability over time. The faster that happens, the more dangerous that environment is. Nearly everyone knows this, but it isn’t handled in most games because it’s difficult to simulate without the right model. I think most game designers would like players to simply narrate this kind of situation and have it be really interesting but as I noted in my original Survival Games post, that almost universally doesn’t work.

A Stress Point is one way to simulate that sapping action. My thought is to have three groups of points Physical Stress, Functional Stress and Mental Stress. The reason for the different categories are so that the points can play off each other. That heavy parka may be able to soak 5 Physical Stress a day from cold but because of its heaviness it gives the character 1 Functional Stress and the hood blocks peripheral vision so it gives 1 Mental Stress. The player must now decide if their character should go with a lighter coat, take the Physical Stress and avoid the other stressors. Wow! Stats on how a parka can work and why we don’t all walk around wearing them all the time in the winter. That’s some progress.

How a Stress Point works is different from a Hit Point. Stress accumulates, so at a relaxed and comfortable state, a character has zero (0) stress. This has the handy side effect that when a GM doesn’t want to use Stress Points in a game, there is no book keeping for them. If you don’t need them, they can go away and let the rest of the game go by.

When they are in use, they degrade a character’s abilities. Here’s where the rate that players get stress points has to be adjusted for each individual game. For The Artifact, the numbers are very granular so they can be thrown around relatively easily. Even still, I might not want to give a character a full stress point all the time, and this even more true in a game that has very low (1-5) values for attributes. The solution that I came up with was to roll a die, say a 1d10, with each roll representing a chance that the character could get a Stress Point.

So say I skip my Parka for a wool trench coat. The coat has a soak of 2 Physical Stress, but because of its length is could cause some Functional Stress by getting caught in the door of a car, or on branches, etc. It isn’t a high chance so I’d say, on a roll of 1d10 if the roll is under a 2, the character gets a point.

This works for more than jackets though. One of the perennial arguments about armor is when the player says that they’re sleeping in their armor, or sleeping in their vehicle. Armor provides protection from damage but heavy armor is taxing to wear. Sure that bomb suit protects you more than the flack jacket, but it also gives you 2 Physical Stress 3 Functional Stress and 1 Mental Stress for each hour you wear it. Now you know why you don’t want to wear it everywhere. Your character will collapse after a while from the strain of wearing it.

Using three different categories of points allows for trade offs between points, making solutions that soak large amounts of points to have downsides. This makes survival equipment a matter of strategy instead of “I’ll take one of everything.” A full hiking backpack now adds 1 Physical Stress point per hour (I haven’t playtested these numbers, I’m just guessing). Instead of encumbrance, each add on creates an additional tax on the character but has a practical benefit that the character may get more out of. One character may be able to take huge amounts of Physical Stress while another can take high Functional Stress based on their attributes. Each one is going to build their equipment list based on their own needs.

Is there anything you would add or change in this execution?

Leave a Comment

Filed under Experimental Mechanics, Survival RPG

Comfort

It’s snowing and that has me thinking about the weather. I find that it’s usually hardest to model subtle effects in an RPG. Systems are most often geared for big effects like a sharp piece of steel being swung around. One raindrop doesn’t even register in an RPG. Even when you scale them up to thousands of drops there usually isn’t any way to handle that other than to say “you’re wet”.

I guess that’s not that big a deal. Only isn’t it a big deal? When it’s pouring rain, don’t you pause before going out into it? You know it won’t really hurt you, it’s just going to make you uncomfortable. A character in an RPG doesn’t care. I have never seen a “comfort” mechanic (actually that could do wonders for a social conflict system) in a game, or not as such. There are effects for freeze rays and feeling severe pain but no comfort mechanics. Now we’ve made it this long without one, why am I talking about this now? Because characters are immune from small scale effects, things that cause trepidation in real people. Because the role played by the player of the character is significantly diminished by not having one. By treating comfort as insignificant, we are limited to only large grain effects.

As a result RPGs are limited to lava pits and sulfuric acid rain. That’s about the best we can do with what we have. Even those things tend to not have any effect on characters for some reason. I wonder if a hurricane would significantly slow down a lot of PCs. (That sounds really cool, I’ve never had a game where players had to deal with a hurricane as a complication.)

So what is comfort or more accurately, what is uncomfortable? How is it to be modeled?

Isn’t comfort being free of stress? Yeah, I’m going to call on Stress Points again. Unfortunately Stress Points in the Fraction Column system are still geared to large grain effects like the stress of severe conflict. When working on the system I was imagining modeling the stress of one day. I’m loath to say track fractions of a point. That’s not very elegant and it likely isn’t going to have an effect on a player’s approach to the game. So what can be done?

A way to simulate a fractional point is to give the characters a chance of getting a whole point. In a light weather event like simple rain, for every hour the players roll 1d10. For severe weather like strong wind and rain, heavy snow and the like, for every hour the players roll 1d6. If they get a one on the die, they receive a stress point.

At first look this may seem unfair. One or two players end up with a full point and everyone else walks way unaffected. My answer is that this is simulating when those fractional points have finally added up to one full point. Sure it could be the first game but statistically it should (eventually?) even out. I know, my players defy statistics too but I haven’t been able to design a fix for improbable players yet. ;P

You’re game doesn’t have stress points? Why in the world not?

Leave a Comment

Filed under Experimental Mechanics, Survival RPG

Hunting

In a survival situation hunting is often the first thing that people expect to get their food from. There are problems with that though. Hunting is not easy. It’s not easy to prepare an animal for eating. For an unskilled character, hunting is not going to be an efficient use of their effort. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means it’s likely to be a waste of time. For a moderately skilled character they may be justified in attempting to hunt in an unfamiliar environment but it would still not be easy.

The Challenges

One of the first challenges to hunting is recognizing whether there are creatures to be hunted in the area. Tracks and droppings are an easy way of telling for sure that animals exist in the area but can the character identify the tracks? What about the droppings? Going after any track you find could lead the character on a wild goose chase. A fox is very difficult to hunt because they know that you’re in the area long before you ever know you’re close. Skills like tracking are best suited to test for this but a successful roll doesn’t mean there are animals, it just means the character can identify if any travel through the area.

There are other signs that inform the trained eye how to hunt. Narrow paths cut through the woods show that animals often travel through an area. Setting up next to one has a good chance of getting the character close to the animal.

Next the hunter has to know if the animal protects itself and how. Many animals smell a human in the woods long before the human ever sees them. Some have excellent hearing, others rely on smell. This requires knowledge of the animals being hunted so a hunting skill check is in order.

Most RPGs already have fairly robust rules on figuring out if the character could hit their prey with a javelin, gun or bow. That can go ahead as normal if it ever gets to that stage but once the animal is down, what do you do with it? Field dressing and skinning an animal is not particularly hard but most people are repulsed at the idea. Some kind of willpower test is in order. If these steps are not taken, the meat will spoil quickly and possibly days of effort, wasted.

Beyond this, cutting up the meat so that it can be transported is a time consuming task but  wouldn’t take more than a few hours.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Survival RPG

Simple Tools

Have you ever had a player just decide they were going to build a raft? What about make a fire bow (the kind you use to start a fire by friction, not some +2 weapon)? How about making a spear to take down that bear?

These are “simple” tools that some players have announced that they were going to put together spur of the moment, with no experience. The thing is that they seem simple. Take a stick and sharpen it an you’ve got a spear right? Well maybe, but is the wood hard enough to stand up to being jammed through a bear’s hide without breaking? That’s not even touching the idea of throwing the sharpened stick and actually having it fly true.

And what about that raft? First of all where are you going to get straight and evenly sized logs? From driftwood? Okay I’ll concede that might be possible at the right time of year but it would help if one of the players have an axe or at least a hatchet. Once the logs are collected, how will they be attached? The most common response is vines if the characters aren’t carrying rope. Vines are not easy to work with and are not strong at all. Stone age cultures tend to make canoes before they’ll make rafts and if they were going to lash a raft together they’d probably use sinew. I remember trying to make a raft when I was young. Admittedly I’m quite confident I could do a better job as an adult but I don’t know if I could make a river worthy vehicle that would endure a trip of more than a mile. That’s even if I could run home and grab a tool or two when I needed one.

Making a fire bow is not as easy as it might sound. There are parts of the fire making kit that aren’t commonly thought of but are necessary to have it work. Even people that have made these in the past find getting one to actually start a fire a frustrating experience.

The point is that even seemingly simple tools are not as simple as they seem. They take a good deal of skill to work right and even when functionally made, they are difficult to use and probably will break after a use or two. It is usually the player that has never tried to make anything that would expect these things to be easy.

Making Simple Tools

So does that mean that a PC should never be able to make tools from primitive sources? No but it should take a lot longer to do than the player may be expecting.

If an inexperienced person started with very little specific knowledge of the task they’re setting out to do, they should expect to fail a few times before they’ve learned enough to get it right. After trying to use their first few failures they’d get a better idea of how to gather materials they’d need. They also will improve their designs as they go.

All told it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that after seven or eight days of consistent labor a character may be able to produce a working tool. I’d structure this by giving the character a skill at the lowest level available and let them develop it if they wish. Each time they want to start flint knapping (assuming that was the skill they previously learned) treat it like a regular skill check.

Some things like making a raft might take the form of a lashing skill or knots and ropes skill instead of a ‘Make Raft’ skill. Then the skill they learned will come in handy when they try to make a shelter by lashing poles together.

The point is that it’s not impossible but it’s still not simple. If the characters are stuck somewhere and need the tool, this is a good time for them to pick up a new skill and test out their survival abilities while they’re trying to learn.

What about you? Has a player ever said they were going to put something together that their character didn’t have any experience with and expected it to be easy?

2 Comments

Filed under Survival RPG

Shelter and Hypothermia

One of the first things that a human needs to do when in a survival situation is find shelter, but why?

The main reason is warmth and so by extension, keeping dry. I’m not aware of any RPGs that make being out in a drizzling rain a dangerous situation. This is probably because most RPGs only use hit points do track detrimental effects to the character and taking off hp because it’s raining is just silly.

What a GM needs to do is not to tell the players their characters need shelter, he needs to start simulating hypothermia. The players will figure out the need shelter on their own.  So how can you do that?

Hypothermia can happen at any temperature below 26 degrees Celsius (about 80 degrees F) but the person would have to be sweating or naked and it would have to be windy (70 km/H winds). Even then, at those temperatures it’s not likely to progress any further than the first stages of hypothermia which is shivering and a loss of dexterity.

Once it drops to about 15 degrees C (60 degrees F) is when hypothermia is more likely to progress to severe stages. At these temperatures it will still require a person to be wet or naked and wind will have a strong influence. In most RPGs I don’t expect most characters to be running around naked but wet is another story. Even sweating is a danger in these temperatures if a person is not going to find shelter any time soon.

But how long would it take to become hypothermic? That is to reach the first stages of hypothermia. There is no one answer so I’ll give some conditions. These are for a person in only light clothing. I know that players are likely heavily armored but that would probably have only minor if dubious insulation value.

Disclaimer: There are a lot of factors for hypothermia, don’t try using these numbers in a real survival situation! They’re good enough for an RPG but are on the generous side so that players have less to complain about.

15 degrees C – about 24 hours

0 degrees C – about 2 hours

15 C with sweat or rain or strong wind – about 12 hours

0 degrees with sweat or strong wind  – less than 1 hour

15 C soaking wet – about 2 hours

0 C soaking wet  – 2-5 minutes

There are three stages of hypothermia before unconsciousness. The first is shivering and a loss of dexterity, this usually lasts for about ten minutes to a half hour depending on how fast hypothermia set in. (-10 Dex -5 Agi)

Next, severe shivering and loss of coordination is likely to set in an twenty minutes to an hour after this. Again depending on how fast hypothermia set in. (-20 Dex -15 Agi)

Shivering stops and confusion and irrational behavior then sets in after another twenty minutes to an hour. (-15 IQ -20 Dex -15 Agi)

Lastly unconsiousness sets in after another twenty minutes to an hour. Death occurs in another after another twenty minutes to an hour.

So that’s hypothermia and why the characters should seek shelter.

Leave a Comment

Filed under GM Advice, Survival RPG

Survival Games Clarification

Right from the first Survival themed post here on the blog, I’ve struggled with something and it’s come into focus as I’ve tried to find other survival situations to give stats to. I’ve wanted to do a river passage stat block. I kept trying to come up with ways to include situations where survival is less of an issue. For example, you can walk along a river or you can ride a raft or a canoe or a speed boat. All of them are possible but at what point is it no longer survival and becomes travel?

For instance, what about the first set of stats I made up for a hot desert. What if the characters are crossing that desert in a car? How does the GM deal with that? If the dessert is large enough the characters could still be in a survival situation if they’re lost without adequate supplies. Now what if they’re on a horse or camel?

These travel issues change the scope of a survival situation. In many cases they nearly eliminate the danger of a hostile environment. When looking into the effect of riding a horse or a camel, I found that they travel about as fast as a human does over long distances. They primarily relive the traveler of exertion, which can have a significant impact on survivability. It’s only when man is unaided by motorized transport that a situation remains a survival situation.

When the Car Breaks Down

So what that means, in a modern setting as long as the characters have a vehicle, they are traveling. When the vehicle breaks down and they are in a hostile environment, they’re surviving.

I know that may seem obvious but I was imagining that survival was a sliding scale, which it is but the scale jumps when a motor vehicle is involved to a point where survival is such a small issue that it’s difficult to simulate. If it were a number from ten to zero on the survival scale, it’s a .4 and may as well be a zero.

So if the characters are accustomed to taking a car, if you want to introduce a survival situation, you have to make them get rid of the car. Maybe the car can’t go where they need it to go, maybe it’s an old clunker and dies on them. However you do it, if you want survival and not just travel, get rid of the motor vehicles.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Survival RPG

Survival Games – Playtest

We finally got to playtest the Survival Games premise and mechanics. We did a short trip through a Cold Dessert of only 20 km and then a 60 meter Rock Wall.

I don’t have the pacing right yet. I kept just letting the players roll repeatedly to progress instead of putting in the random hazards. Even then, I think a random hazard on every survival turn is a bit much. I’m not sure about all of them but especially for the Rock Wall obstacle, I’d only insert a random hazard once every 1D6 turns.

Still it did go well. The players kept expecting to handle things the old way we used to handle this kind of obstacle. One wouldn’t climb the rock wall after failing a few rolls because she was afraid that a failed roll would mean she fell. I think they got the idea after a while though. The fatigue seemed to happen at the right pace. It felt a little fast until I realized the players were still in all their gear climbing a wall. Maybe I should have a slower fatigue mechanic for if a character removes their gear and hauls it up later with a rope.

One thing that did throw me was the fickle nature of the dice. One player kept rolling very low and aced the rock wall with very little fatigue. Another player failed a few rolls right off the bat, got fatigued and then couldn’t make a successful Con roll to recover. Maybe recover should be one point plus the roll’s value? I’ll have to play with that.

I think that I’ll keep playing with it and see if there are further adjustments that need to be made. My playtesters weren’t the most cooperative group I’ve ever had. This was an experiment and it went reasonably well. I can’t expect more than that.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Experimental Mechanics, Survival RPG

Survival Games – Mountain

Excuse the pun but this is a big one. For an explanation on how to use these stats, check out the original Survival Games post.

Mountain
A mountain is a steeply elevated landform that rises into a peak. Tall mountains often have different environmental conditions at their peak than they do at their base. For game purposes, it may be that there is something on the mountain the characters must get to, or a mountain range is in their path. Going around may be a distance of dozens if not hundreds of miles.

Surmount Method: Hiking slopes of less than 40 degrees and climbing areas of greater slope. Slope starts off at 20 degrees.
Surmounting Attribute: Constitution (for hiking)

Full 1/2 1/4 1/8
1 2 3 4

Surmounting Attribute: Strength (for climbing)

Full 1/2 1/4 1/8
1 1 1 2

SP 1 per 50 meters of total elevation (usually much more than 300 m in elevation)

Hazards

Exertion
For every failed Constitution or Strength roll the characters face an exertion hazard. They get a -2 CDF to Str and a -2 CDF to Con (or 5-6% of the attribute).  CDF penalties accumulate until the characters can recover for a period of time. While recovering, the player rolls for the character’s Con. A Full result means 1 point of Str and Con are recovered. A 1/2 result means that 2 points are recovered. A 1/4 result means 3 points and a 1/8 result means 4 points recovered. If the CDF penalties exceed their Con the character must be rescued off the rock face or fall if they fail another Str roll.

Random Hazards 0-300 meters

For every survival round between 0-300 meters of elevation the GM should roll once on the following table.

Roll 1D100

1-25 5 Degree Slope Increase
26-40 Loose Rock
41-60 10 Degree Slope Increase
61-70 Vertical Climb
71-80 5 Degree Slope Decrease
81-90 Ledge
91-95 10 Degree Slope Decrease
96-100 Stream

5 Degree Slope Increase
The slope of the mountain increases by 5 degrees cannot increase more than 80 degrees

Loose Rock
Loose rocks of various sizes cover the mountainside. Traveling over them is treacherous. While slips and falls are minor hazards the injuries can build up over time. Characters must make an Agility roll. If failed they get a -2 CDF to Con (or 5-6% of the attribute).

10 Degree Slope Increase
The slope of the mountain increases by 10 degrees cannot increase more than 90 degrees

Vertical Climb
A vertical wall continues the route up the mountain either up or down for 1D10x2 meters. Use the Rock Wall obstacle stats for this part of the passage.

5 Degree Slope Decrease
The slope of the mountain decreases by 5 degrees cannot decrease to less than 20 degrees

Ledge
The mountain path levels out into a ledge that affords a good spot to camp and rest.

10 Degree Slope Decrease
The slope of the mountain decreases by 10 degrees cannot decrease to less than 10 degrees

Stream
Most rivers have a mountain as their source. At lower elevations this stream can be a formidable obstacle. There is a 50% chance that the characters will have to cross the river to continue up the mountain 2D10 meters or travel another 1D10 x 50 meters to get around the stream.

Random Hazards 301-1500 meters

For every survival round between 301-1500 meters of elevation the GM should roll once on the following table.

Roll 1D100

1-25 5 Degree Slope Increase
26-40 Rock Fall
41-60 10 Degree Slope Increase
61-70 Vertical Climb
71-80 5 Degree Slope Decrease
81-90 Ledge
91-95 Storm
96-100 Stream

5 Degree Slope Increase
The slope of the mountain increases by 5 degrees cannot increase more than 80 degrees

Rock Fall
All mountains are continuously eroding. Ice that forms at nigh may loosen rocks and as the ice melts the rocks fall away possibly knocking more rocks down the mountain. Characters must defend against falling rocks by dodging or protecting themselves or take 1d6 points of damage.

10 Degree Slope Increase
The slope of the mountain increases by 10 degrees cannot increase more than 90 degrees

Vertical Climb
A vertical wall continues the route up the mountain either up or down for 1D10x2 meters. Use the Rock Wall obstacle stats for this part of the passage.

5 Degree Slope Decrease
The slope of the mountain decreases by 5 degrees cannot decrease to less than 20 degrees

Ledge
The mountain path levels out into a ledge that affords a good spot to camp and rest.

Storm
An unexpected storm forms on the mountain. High winds, rain, possibly snow and hail make travel difficult. Characters take a -3 CDF to Con unless sheltered in a tent for the storm. The storm lasts 2d10 hours.

Stream
There is a 50% chance that the characters will have to cross the river to continue up the mountain 2D6 meters or travel another 1D10 x 50 meters to get around the stream.

Random Hazards 1501+ meters

For every survival round between 1501+ meters of elevation the GM should roll once on the following table.

Roll 1D100

1-25 5 Degree Slope Increase
26-40 Glacier
41-60 Altitude Sickness
61-70 Vertical Climb
71-80 5 Degree Slope Decrease
81-85 Ledge
86-95 Storm
96-100 Avalanche

5 Degree Slope Increase
The slope of the mountain increases by 5 degrees cannot increase more than 80 degrees

Glacier
Traveling over glaciers is dangerous partly because the ice is slippery but also because the glacier can crack, forming a crevasse. These cracks can be open or hidden by a snow bridge that conceals the crevasse. Without ice axes and crampons for boots characters get a CDF of -2 to CON due to the difficult terrain. There is a 60% chance of a crevasse in the glacier. Jumping over it requires a successful STR roll. There is a 20% chance that the crevasse is invisible due to a snow bridge. Using a pole or the shaft of an ice axe characters may make an INT to detect the crack. As  a precaution the characters can tie themselves together with a rope and the other characters must make a Reflex roll to stop themselves from falling in. For every character that falls in the crevasse one must pass to save them. Each character that falls in makes it more difficult to stop the rest of the characters from falling. Those that do fall take 3d10 points of damage and can either climb out themselves if they have an ice axe and crampons or must be pulled out by rope.

Altitude Sickness
Ascending a high altitudes can make a person sick because of the lack of oxygen. Symptoms include severe headache (-5 CDF to IQ, INT and REF), lethargy and nausea (-4 CDF to CON). Oxygen may be taken if available but the best treatment is to descend down the mountain. Not treating altitude sickness can lead to life threatening conditions within 24 hours (1d10 points of damage every five survival turns or 12 hours).

Vertical Climb
A vertical wall continues the route up the mountain either up or down for 1D10x2 meters. Use the Rock Wall obstacle stats for this part of the trail.

5 Degree Slope Decrease
The slope of the mountain decreases by 5 degrees cannot decrease to less than 20 degrees

Ledge
The mountain path levels out into a ledge that affords a good spot to camp and rest.

Storm
An unexpected storm forms on the mountain. High winds, snow and hail make travel difficult. Characters take a -5 CDF to Con unless sheltered in a tent or snow cave for the storm. The storm lasts 2d10 hours.

Avalanche
The mountain pass is covered in snow pack. If it is crossed there is a 75% chance of an avalanche. Traveling around the snow pack will mean getting back 3D10 SP to the total SP of the mountain. If an avalanche is triggered all characters take 2d6 points of damage and there is a 80% chance they will be buried and must be found and then dug out by another character. All INT rolls to find a buried character are at a difficulty of -30.

Defenses and Weaknesses
30% Chance Weakness: Huts
Many mountains have huts built on them that are intended for climbers to use and rest in. There is a 30% chance they are stocked with a small quantity of food, water and wood to start a fire. The characters may either stumble on the hut or the GM may have them make INT rolls to notice them if they are not on a regular trail.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Survival RPG