Survival rolls for Cost of Living

[ArchonShiva]

The cnsequences for skimping on cost of living vary between DFA96 and DFE14.
DFA96: "each failure costs 1d HP. This is long-term starvation and exposure injury; curing it demands not only healing but also two days’ food and shelter per missing HP."
DFE14: "the GM can say “A week passes,” dock everyone $150 for cost of living (Adventurers, p. 96), and let them try again. To avoid this cost, each hero can try a Survival roll (to camp outside town) or an Urban Survival roll (to live like a bum). Failure means starting the eventual adventure missing 1d HP."

Key differences: The DFA HP loss could be healed before the adventure, at extra cost, but cannot realistically be fixed during the next adventure. The DFE HP loss is impossible to heal before the adventure, but a healing spell (and the associated FP and accumulated re-casting penalty) will take care of it. The question of which one is worse could have its own thread.

Is the DFA penalty for the first week after returning from an adventure and the DFE penalty for subsequent weeks after failing to find work? Are they meant to be the same and either simply needs errata?

[Rupert]

The Exploits damage is clearly just a summary of the full rule in Adventurers.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Key differences: The DFA HP loss could be healed before the adventure, at extra cost, but cannot realistically be fixed during the next adventure.

The assumption is that adventures start in town, so I don't see why you couldn't delay going to the dungeon (yes, there may be - possibly unpayable - costs).

The DFE HP loss is impossible to heal before the adventure, but a healing spell (and the associated FP and accumulated re-casting penalty) will take care of it.

SJGames rules don't tend to lend themselves to inductive interpretations based on what isn't there. It doesn't say that you can heal it with magic, so the general rule for Survival rolls still applies.

Are they meant to be the same and either simply needs errata?

"Summary not as complete as the full rule" isn't generally considered an erratum.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Rupert

The Exploits damage is clearly just a summary of the full rule in Adventurers.

Exactly that. That's why Exploits refers to Adventurers. We do this kind of thing to reduce excess word count.

[ArchonShiva]

So “starting the eventual adventure missing 1d HP” isn’t an actual rule, it’s just an off-hand summary: if you found nothing the next week either, you could pay Cost of Living and rations to regain 3 HP before the next adventure starts.

Thanks.

Reason I’m being so ridiculously nitpicky these days: I’m in a campaign with the intent “let’s play DF exactly as written and see how it goes.”

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Reason I’m being so ridiculously nitpicky these days: I’m in a campaign with the intent “let’s play DF exactly as written and see how it goes.”

We're doing that experiment as well, with the added wrinkle of generating as much as possible randomly :)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

So “starting the eventual adventure missing 1d HP” isn’t an actual rule, it’s just an off-hand summary: if you found nothing the next week either, you could pay Cost of Living and rations to regain 3 HP before the next adventure starts.

Thanks.

Reason I’m being so ridiculously nitpicky these days: I’m in a campaign with the intent “let’s play DF exactly as written and see how it goes.”

I don't understand why you aren't considering the following as valid:

1. At the end of the last session they tried to roll Survival to cover cost of living and failed.
2. At the beginning of this session they are down 1d HP that can only be healed with sheltered rest.
3. They have to choose between either delaying departure for any dungeons or adventuring with HP down.

[ArchonShiva]

The one that says “start the eventual adventure missing 1d HP” is for when you failed to find a quest using Carousing or whatever. The one for cost of living when you come back from an adventure is clear that it *can* be healed by resting with rations. Following the proposed flow of adventure, it doesn’t happen at the end of the adventure, always at the beginning.

At any rate, moot point, it’s just the DFA rule.