Category Archives: Survival RPG

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.