Firehawk Games
Firehawk Games RPG Products => Novus RPG => Topic started by: witchking20k on September 22, 2020, 07:50:40 AM
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Howdy. I'm preparing for a game where I want the PCs to be scavenging, foraging, scrounging and otherwise accumulating resources. Any suggestions on how to create a mechanic to simulate this?
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By resources, you mean things like food and water? or something else?
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If you mean food and water, here is some guidelines based upon stuff I had from another system I once worked on
In a moderate climate, a character will require the equivalent of approximately 1 gallon of water and 1 pound of food per day. These measures constitute one "ration" of each.
If the character does not meet those requirements, he will deteriorate and eventually die. Characters in an extremely hot climate will require an extra ration of water each day, while those in an extremely cold climate require an extra ration of food.
Starvation
A character can survive for about a month without food. For each daily ration that is missed, the character will receive a -1 modifier. When the character reaches -20 he will no longer be able to feed himself, and when he reaches -30, he will die.
Thirst
Dying of thirst is faster than dying of starvation. Each day without a ration of water will result in the character receiving a -3 modifier. As with Starvation, at -20, he will be helpless and when he reaches -30, he will die.
Half-rations
If a character is able to consume at least half of a normal ration, he will not deteriorate any further, but he will not get better either.
Recovery
The only way to remove the modifiers from starvation and thirst is by eating and drinking. Healing magic will not work. Each day that the character consumes a normal ration of food and water will reduce the modifier by the same amount that it would have increased without the ration.
Does this work?
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Yes & No. That is a "short term" mechanic for adventuring in the wild. I want the PCs to be collecting "resources" to rebuild an abandoned keep & essentially militarize a hidden valley.
So, I'm imagining a mechanic that works in a different time scale (hours-days) and yields a generic resource point that can be accumulated then used to say repair walls or produce tools etc. But, can be expanded into producing weapons, and magical items too.
I was just reading the Essential Salts rules to maybe adapt as a guideline.
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Big rules! Long term development rules.....
If you have a copy of Castles & Ruins from RM, you might want to see if there is anything in there that you can adapt for what you need.
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I have that book too. Thus far I am thinking of adapting the Base Difficulties as such for the amount of "work" required to repair/maintain something:
Routine (TN5)
Light (TN10)
Moderate (TN15)
Extensive (TN20)
Then requiring resource points of equal value to complete the repairs. Construction a new item would follow the same tiered system.
Time I think could be expressed in hours using the same value of the TN.
Performing a repair on "light damage" on a section of wall would require 10 Resource Points, 10 hours of work, and a Light Craft roll.
The other idea is to approach it more like healing in that you use resource points to restore the "health" of an object.....somehow...
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I think your idea is brilliant: simple and efficient.
The only thing lacking is a resource gathering mechanics... but that's your original post...
You can use the same scale and say that a work crew (10 people ?) are able to collect 1 resource point a day under normal circumstances or more if spending some fate points.
Then you can employ multiple crews, special crews (Dwarvish miners...) or spend gold to buy resources and increase your resource income.
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Revisiting this because it is going to become relevant to my current Novus game. I think you're right Fidoric. Use the same TN system as the time scale per person to collect resources. This would include covering ground to scavenge or locate resources. I think a Craft skill roll would be most appropriate? Also, so I don't forget, Boon points can reduce the time or increase the yield of the roll too.