Dark Ocean premade Campaign

[Shuckster]

Bump with the WIP progress for the notes for all the encounters, there'seasily enough for a session or two there already

You can find it here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...6A-uUEG2nP/pub

[Shuckster]

Update: the encounters are done and up (see the first post) and the monster list is a work in progress but you can see what I have so far here
https://docs.google.com/document/d/e...sVB3bi0sF7/pub

[ericthered]

I'm looking at the stats of the big monsters. Your ship has ST 400, but most of the big sea foes are in the 200 range. Any reason for this decision? Mostly I doubt the ability of the Kraken to drag the U-759 under.

[Shuckster]

So the monster list is basically viable now, I included some details on death and modifying the ship with gadgeteering in the players guide, and the campaign is going to be playtested soon enough, there isnt much need for a GM guide really apart from listing the relics I already named as well as this one:

Legba’s Hat
Description: A seemingly mundane old cloth top hat made of a thick, worn cloth in a fading brown color.

Location: Obtainable only by doing truly astounding at Legba’s games, or if the party manages to fully defeat all his zombies.

Relic Power: Bestows an advantage

Effects: Gives the following;
Alternate form: Legba Spirit Warrior (while wearing the hat) (Can be stolen/Easily snatched -40%, Unique -25%, Breakable (0 DR, -7 to hit) -25, Corrupting (11 points of corruption per use) -10%) [0]
While in Spirit warrior form: The character gains aged features, a white skull painted on their face and grows a bit physically larger with orange eyes and gains
+7 ST, +4 DR. Gains the quirk “Looks older than they are” and gains access to Lockpicking/TL6 at IQ +2 and Gambling at IQ +2 (or gains +2 to those skills if they already have them) while wearing the hat.
Transformation takes 10 seconds and starts the instant they put the hat on or has it removed by any means.

Drawbacks:
The player must make an IQ+5 roll vs being possessed by Legba when they wear it the first time, then each subsequent roll is at -5! When possessed by Legba the character gains all of the same benefits but is no longer in control and Legba will want to simply go back to his ship, forcing the party to fight the character in order to remove the hat, restrain them and successfully perform an exorcism in order to cure them. Otherwise the character will simply leave the party on any row boat or method of transport they can find if the party left on good terms with him, or openly be hostile toward them if they were violent!

---

also I made some mutations for possible corruption effects:

Chitinous exoskeleton [-2]: DR 5 (can't wear armor -40%) [15] Appearance (Hideous) [-16] unnatural features 1 (Crab shell skin) [-1]

Pincer hand [-2]: Striker (Cruising damage) [5] Unnatural features 1 (crab claw for a hand) [-1] ham-fisted 2 (one hand only -40%) [-6]

Eye stalks [-2]: Peripheral Vision (easy to hit, eyestalks -20%) [12]; Nictitating membrane 4 [4]; Appearance (Hideous) [-16]; Unnatural features 2 (Eye stalks) [-2]

Tentacle Arm [-2]: Extra Flexible arm (one arm only) [5] Long arm 1 (one arm) [10] Ham Fisted 2 (one arm only -40%) [-6] Unnatural features 1 (Tentacle arm) [-1] Appearance Hideous (One arm only, -40%) [-10]

Eel Mouth [-2] Sharp Teeth [1] Strong Bite (opposite of weak bite disadvantage) [2], Born Biter 1 [0], Unnatural features 1 (Sharp teeth) [-1] Appearance Unattractive (long face) [-4]

Fish Skin and gills (aka the Innsmouth special) [-2]: Amphibious [10], Doesn’t breath (Gills -50%) [10], Appearance Ugly (sickly and damp looking) [-8], Unnatural features 3 (Scaly skin webbed fingers/toes, gils) [-3], Dependency (Sea Water, Very Common, Weekly), Scruffy looking [-1]

Abyssal eyes [-2]: Nictitating Membrane 1 [1], Night Vision 9 [9], Color blindness [-10], Unnatural features 1 (pitch black shark like eyes) [-1] Photosensitivity [-1]

[Shuckster]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I'm looking at the stats of the big monsters. Your ship has ST 400, but most of the big sea foes are in the 200 range. Any reason for this decision? Mostly I doubt the ability of the Kraken to drag the U-759 under.

So basically they have 40 D-scale ST and 4 C-Scale ST each, and rather than dragging it under the kracken damages the ship in a quick contest of ST on a roll of 4 or less, but Im open to better ideas for how to work that

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Shuckster

So basically they have 40 D-scale ST and 4 C-Scale ST each, and rather than dragging it under the kracken damages the ship in a quick contest of ST on a roll of 4 or less, but I'm open to better ideas for how to work that

The constriction attack looks weird. You state that the constriction attack has a D-scale ST of 40, but The D-Scale ST of the Kraken should be 12, according to its basic ST.



You've got some errors in how a quick contest is run. If both sides fail (as 4 vs 4 almost always does), then the smaller margin of failure wins. So all that matters is the difference between the two scores, and there are no critical results. For constriction, the scale at which you run the combat matters in terms of damage. I would run the contest at D-scale.



Returning to the ST of the kraken, its quite low for a SM+9 creature. The typical SM+9 creature should weigh around 2 thousand tons and have a ST of about 310*. Or if it has ST 120, it should be about the weight of a blue whale (though longer, because squid are like that).



One aspect of the situation that is rather odd that the kraken will be attacking a submarine, rather than a ship. Kraken classically try to tip ships over or drag them down, and submarines are rather resistant to that. On the other hand, that means that the submarine won't have much resistance to be dragged under at all. So the Kraken squeezing it apart makes sense. The kraken can also theoretically destroy the craft if it goes below the depths the hull is designed for. For fights about depth, that's probably a contest of ST... but you may want the ST of the submarine to be a number based on its propulsion system, not its Hull ST.



*the most popular article on my blog is about building sea monsters, and it has a table of sea monster sizes, with suggested ST, lengths, and weights.

[Shuckster]

Originally Posted by ericthered

The constriction attack looks weird. You state that the constriction attack has a D-scale ST of 40, but The D-Scale ST of the Kraken should be 12, according to its basic ST.



You've got some errors in how a quick contest is run. If both sides fail (as 4 vs 4 almost always does), then the smaller margin of failure wins. So all that matters is the difference between the two scores, and there are no critical results. For constriction, the scale at which you run the combat matters in terms of damage. I would run the contest at D-scale.



Returning to the ST of the kraken, its quite low for a SM+9 creature. The typical SM+9 creature should weigh around 2 thousand tons and have a ST of about 310*. Or if it has ST 120, it should be about the weight of a blue whale (though longer, because squid are like that).



One aspect of the situation that is rather odd that the kraken will be attacking a submarine, rather than a ship. Kraken classically try to tip ships over or drag them down, and submarines are rather resistant to that. On the other hand, that means that the submarine won't have much resistance to be dragged under at all. So the Kraken squeezing it apart makes sense. The kraken can also theoretically destroy the craft if it goes below the depths the hull is designed for. For fights about depth, that's probably a contest of ST... but you may want the ST of the submarine to be a number based on its propulsion system, not its Hull ST.



*the most popular article on my blog is about building sea monsters, and it has a table of sea monster sizes, with suggested ST, lengths, and weights.

ooh this is just perfect! Ill totally use it, my only question would be "What if the ship is a u-boat and can submerge on purpose?" it has a maximum depth it can safely reach but obviously but thats 50 yards before it starts taking damage but that would take a long time to reach

[ericthered]

It sounds like you read the entire article then. I'm glad you find it useful!

A submarine won't have the firm resistance to being dragged underwater that a properly bouyant ship will have, so the 5% pull down rate should probably be increased to 10%, 20%, or even just changed to a number of yards. You've currently listed the rate at 9 yards/sec. I suspect this is quite high: a quarter of total speed 3/yards per sec is still very scary. Combat in gurps is fast, but that's only if everyone is already in position. Reaching a Kraken to attack it should take some time, especially if its under water.

While dragging the submarine a short distance underwater won't damage it, rolling it onto its side apparently will. The submarine will have decent resistance to this happening, and and skillful management of "trim tanks" will make it even harder (but have fun readjusting when the squid lets go). The penalties for having the sub flipped actually sound like a nice gameable situation. The wet batteries dump their acid into the bilge, and that apperently makes a poisonous gas. among other effects. I'm not sure what turning the disel engine upside down does, but I know I really messed up a lawn mower engine turning it upside down (rather than on its side) because the oil reserve dumped itself into the ignition chamber or some other nonsense.


Is there a reason the serpent doesn't have similar attack methods? it should also be able to grab and move: though its likely to be better at constricting than the kraken and worse at dragging down.

[Shuckster]

So if I have this right it would work something like this:

Constriction attack: A quick contest of ST, with the ship getting its stability rating as a bonus. With the Kraken dragging the ship down 5% per margin of success, the boat returns to its normal state at 10% per margin of success keep track of both separately, whichever hits 100 first wins the contest, if the kraken wins the ship is dragged down.

Dragging down:If the kraken drags the boat down 100% than it tips on it’s side, requiring an ST or ST based Boat! Roll to avoid falling overboard for those on the deck and a DX or DX-based Boat! Roll for those below decks.

If the boat gets dragged down roll 3d:
3-5: The radio and hydrophone crash against the far wall and are damaged (unusable till repaired)
6-8: A chair or crew member slams bodily into the ship's controls, damaging them (stability rating becomes 0 until repaired).
10-11: the ship's small glass windows are damaged and begin taking in water and flooding the torpedo room, requiring an IQ based Boat! Mechanism! or Mechanic roll to seal the leak. (floods the boat entirely in 60 minutes)
12-14: the conning tower is submerged and begins taking on water and flooding the main control room, requiring an ST based Boat! Mechanism! or Mechanic roll to seal the leak. (floods the boat in 30 minutes)
15-17: The fuel tanks tip and leak into the engine room, costing the ship fuel and requiring an IQ based Boat! Mechanism! or Mechanic roll to avoid a fire.
18: roll again twice and take both results!

[Shuckster]

So Im over halfway through the initial run of this campaign after about four sessions and my party seems to be enjoying it but I have some notes:

nobody has gone insane or suffered any sanity based disadvantages yet so the sanity system needs work, the madness system hasnt really come up at all so the fright checks may need to be retooled.

only one character in a 5 person party has managed to any points of disadvantage from corruption and nobody has gotten anywhere near full corruption despite doing basically whatever they want and getting points left and right, so that system needs to be more punishing just a bit since there seems to be no real drawback to corruption as it stands

the faith based character is way too strong and basically carries the team, implying there should be some sort of drawback to faith based powers, such as fright checks where they experience awe instead etc.

Nobody has received more than 2-3 points of injury in just about any combat at all and the u-boat has lost no HP nor have any of the crew died, gone insane or even been hurt despite several battles so again, the enemies could stand to be stronger.

Players havent really had to manage ammo, fuel or resources implying the amounts may have been too high for a "survival horror" feel. This may or may not need to change, if it doesn't Ill consider implementing the "unlimited ammo" cinematic rule instead.

The party was all for interleague and trying to discover eachother's secrets, but despite loads of hints every session nobody has so much as made an accusation, though this may be down to the group Im running this with.

Im considering fixing the corruption system by making it more of a running tottal with thresholds for things than the system used in Horror. Where characters are not corrupt, slightly corrupt mildly corrupt, corrupt, very corrupt, majorly corrupt or fully corrupted and having rules in place for that instead.

The sanity system seems very impersonal and not connected to the characters with no clear indication of when someone takes madness or not. I may consider creating a system where stress is more of an important factor and rework the insanity table entirely

This isnt to say my party is just bumbling through things and having their hands held through the story, but the few huge mistakes theyve made haven't been widely punished and they havent had to deal with consequences of failure very much, which sort of kills the mood where horror is concerend