PDA

View Full Version : DM Help How in depth should I be with Survival Mechanics?



Rainman3769
2014-05-13, 04:18 PM
By this I am referring to mechanics that center around things like how much food and water PCs must eat a day to avoid exhaustion levels. Should I actually make the PCs roll Survival Checks against a Readiness DC to see if they get lost while traveling? Should they have to worry about having enough supplies to feed their NPC pirate crew? Should I actually enforce the rules on weight limits and what people can carry? Etc.


Longer Version: I asked my players about this issue and all of them said they didn't care what I did. So, here's the system I put in place. There will be two categories of "stuff" there will be Supplies (just generic food, water, and medical supplies) and Goods (this is spices, silk, sugar, things to be sold for profit) Each PC and NPC will go through 2 pounds of Supplies per day, half rations will be 1 pound per day, but this will have negative effects on morale. My intention behind this is to have the PCs find a balance between how many NPC crewmembers they can afford to have, the amount of Supplies they need to keep on hand to support that crew, and how much space will be left on their ship for Goods from robbing people. This system would also be used if they were, say, heading to remote castle ruins to extinguish a goblin infestation and the ruins were over a week's travel. Finally, I intend to enforce the rules on weight limits, since no DM in our group has ever done this before and I think it would be interesting to force the PCs to pick and choose their loot, or make multple trips. I guess you could say I appreciate realism :smallsmile:

So what says the Playground? Does this seem balanced? Am I being too heavy handed? Too light handed? Any input would help me out alot. This is only my second campaign and I want it to shine!

Hunter Noventa
2014-05-13, 05:01 PM
Your supplies versus goods idea is pretty sound, but the reason most DMs don't harshly enforce weight mechanics is that it bogs the game down with things like picking and choosing loot, and working extra hard to find ways around it like Bags of Holding and such.

Beleriphon
2014-05-13, 05:14 PM
So what says the Playground? Does this seem balanced? Am I being too heavy handed? Too light handed? Any input would help me out alot. This is only my second campaign and I want it to shine!

That seems pretty reasonable. Its easy enough to keep track of for the players, forces them them to make decisions about crew happiness and looks like it should work.

Thrudd
2014-05-13, 05:41 PM
By this I am referring to mechanics that center around things like how much food and water PCs must eat a day to avoid exhaustion levels. Should I actually make the PCs roll Survival Checks against a Readiness DC to see if they get lost while traveling? Should they have to worry about having enough supplies to feed their NPC pirate crew? Should I actually enforce the rules on weight limits and what people can carry? Etc.


Longer Version: I asked my players about this issue and all of them said they didn't care what I did. So, here's the system I put in place. There will be two categories of "stuff" there will be Supplies (just generic food, water, and medical supplies) and Goods (this is spices, silk, sugar, things to be sold for profit) Each PC and NPC will go through 2 pounds of Supplies per day, half rations will be 1 pound per day, but this will have negative effects on morale. My intention behind this is to have the PCs find a balance between how many NPC crewmembers they can afford to have, the amount of Supplies they need to keep on hand to support that crew, and how much space will be left on their ship for Goods from robbing people. This system would also be used if they were, say, heading to remote castle ruins to extinguish a goblin infestation and the ruins were over a week's travel. Finally, I intend to enforce the rules on weight limits, since no DM in our group has ever done this before and I think it would be interesting to force the PCs to pick and choose their loot, or make multple trips. I guess you could say I appreciate realism :smallsmile:

So what says the Playground? Does this seem balanced? Am I being too heavy handed? Too light handed? Any input would help me out alot. This is only my second campaign and I want it to shine!

For a campaign that focuses on the sorts of things you're describing, I think keeping track of weight is essential. Being a pirate is all about balancing speed with profitability. You want to be able to carry as much booty as possible while still being able to move fast enough to get away. As long as your approximations are somewhat realistic, I think it's fine.

Usually during travel, the terrain decides what kind of DC should be used for getting lost, or if a roll is required at all. If they are following an obvious environmental feature, there should be no chance to get lost. Walking along a road or river, following the edge of a forest or a mountain range, sailing with the coast always in view. Only extreme situations, like a storm, would knock them off course in that case. Survival checks are in order for traveling in forests, swamps, obscured landscape, or on open sea. I would definitely be using tables to determine weather, based on location and time of year. For a game all about sea travel, you need a way for storms and becalmed winds to happen outside of pre-planned plot devices. As long as the players know that the weather is caused by the dice, not your whims for story, etc, they shouldn't feel too cheated when their plans are dashed aground along with their ship. :smallamused:

You're not being too heavy handed as long as the players are in control of where they go and when. As long as they really have meaningful choices and are aware of how the world works and the risks involved in different endeavors. You need to be willing to let them learn the hard way sometimes, too, in order for this sort of thing to be rewarding. There is no point in presenting such scenarios if you are just going to fudge the dice all the time anyway.

Airk
2014-05-13, 07:16 PM
For a campaign that focuses on the sorts of things you're describing, I think keeping track of weight is essential. Being a pirate is all about balancing speed with profitability. You want to be able to carry as much booty as possible while still being able to move fast enough to get away. As long as your approximations are somewhat realistic, I think it's fine.

Usually during travel, the terrain decides what kind of DC should be used for getting lost, or if a roll is required at all. If they are following an obvious environmental feature, there should be no chance to get lost. Walking along a road or river, following the edge of a forest or a mountain range, sailing with the coast always in view. Only extreme situations, like a storm, would knock them off course in that case. Survival checks are in order for traveling in forests, swamps, obscured landscape, or on open sea. I would definitely be using tables to determine weather, based on location and time of year. For a game all about sea travel, you need a way for storms and becalmed winds to happen outside of pre-planned plot devices. As long as the players know that the weather is caused by the dice, not your whims for story, etc, they shouldn't feel too cheated when their plans are dashed aground along with their ship. :smallamused:

You're not being too heavy handed as long as the players are in control of where they go and when. As long as they really have meaningful choices and are aware of how the world works and the risks involved in different endeavors. You need to be willing to let them learn the hard way sometimes, too, in order for this sort of thing to be rewarding. There is no point in presenting such scenarios if you are just going to fudge the dice all the time anyway.

I kinda disagree; I don't think you really want to go there with speed vs profitability. There's a LOT of nonsense that goes in there that's not really any fun to deal with.

The system as set forth seems pretty decent, though you might consider moving to a heavier and therefore less fiddly weight. (Tons is traditional. :P)

If the game features a Navigation or Sailing skill, I would use that in place of 'survival', if it doesn't, you're stuck with what you have, I guess.

Rhynn
2014-05-13, 07:29 PM
Is it important to the kind of game you want to run / play ?

I make players track food, torches, water (where applicable), and so on in ACKS, because 1. it's not complicated and 2. that sort of thing is a big part of the strategic dimension of the game, organizing difficult expeditions to dangerous places. In my Dark Sun setting especially, getting lost in the desert and running out of water should be a big danger (it's basically impossible to carry more than a few days worth of water on your person without slowing yourself down, which means you'll need more water, etc.).

I also use checks for getting lost, etc., because the exploration and travel is part of the point of that game, to me. The players draw their own maps and all that jazz.

In other games, it doesn't matter any, and I rarely even remind my players to pay for food, etc.

Jay R
2014-05-14, 12:41 PM
Keep track of the details for a session or two until the players get good at dealing with it. Then say, "OK, you've pretty much solved the survival problem. I will assume you're doing the same things from now on and not spend time on it."

This is equivalent to doing it once or twice for challenge and flavor, and then dropping it when it gets boring.