Help with a Grim Survival DF Setting

[The Benj]

Like I said when I first brought it up, it's not really relevant to a GURPS game. And of course they'll think it's good, it's their morality.

Getting back on topic: What will the PCs be doing once they've sorted out their hole full of tigers problem?

[DAT]

First let me appologize for derailing the thread I started.

The ideas of alignment pulled in from D&D is an interesting side topic to me, but as folks have pointed out, not applicable to this campaign or discussions on the GURPS forum.

I may try to start a separate discussion in the General Roleplaying forum.

Originally Posted by Joe

I'm not sure it matters much to your campaign, but for fun, I would have said clearly Lawful Evil. They obey the doctrines of their state religion to the letter (Lawful) and they enslave others and thrust them into pits full of monsters, never to come out again (Evil).

I don't think having old-school-feeling Paladins on their side matters - you're not playing D&D, you're playing GURPS, so you don't need to be beholden to that. It seems better to say that, in your setting, they're channeling the power of a pretty nasty divinity.

I would also say that the fact that they're nice to folks who share their religion doesn't really matter much - if "good" is going to mean anything here, I think it has to be an absolute rather than relative term, so they have to have a will to be good to everyone. (Though obviously there's a whole big philosophical problem here, raised mainly by old school D&D's oddly literal moral absolutism, with people speaking their 'alignment languages' and so on...).

Originally Posted by Andreas

What about Lawful Neutral? Giving them Evil aligment just because of the way they treat some of their prisoners might not be a good idea when the rest of their society appears to be Lawful God. Even the way they treat those prisoners might arguably be Neutral.

Originally Posted by Kenneth Latrans

I don't see how slavery is an Evil act. Nothing preventing someone from being described as both Lawful and Good; it may be against modern Western social mores to call something slavery but that's a horse of a different color.

Originally Posted by The Benj

Like I said when I first brought it up, it's not really relevant to a GURPS game. And of course they'll think it's good, it's their morality.

...

[DAT]

Originally Posted by Rasputin

If they're living off the land in the underdark, consider this just like being out in the wild and make them roll Survival (Underground) each day. Results are as in the first graf of the Survival skill on p. B223. Failure will result in possible resource depletion.

The idea is that they will start with approximately 480 man-days of food (4 days worth of food for a company of 120). With the initial casulatities, that may be extended to 6 to 12 days.

By that time, they will need to either "buy" more supplies from above (from monster ears or gold) or, as you suggest, start foraging in the underground. The only characters that may be able to start with Survival (Underground) will be a Dwarf. So most characters will be using default rolls.
-Dan

[DAT]

Originally Posted by Mister Negative

Just a suggestion on the 'battlefield scavenged' armor. Presumably, if this armor is scavenged from the battlefield, it was actually worn onto the battlefield, then scavenged by the survivors.

Yes, the majority of the armor and arms were taken from the dead, wounded, or surrendered soldier on the battle fields, or from the armories of the surrendered and fallen armies.

Originally Posted by Mister Negative

Rather than having genuinely random collections of armor, I would suggest everyone get an actual suit of very light, cheap armor (since that armor would be the least desirable, and the least likely to get taken earlier by someone else, and thus, available to be offered to rabble) and then have a random selection of better armor pieces that everyone can squabble over (one good helmet, one left pauldron, etc.).

I see what you are suggesting. If you look over the lists on the 4th post, the most likely armor is leather or cloth, with scale armor being the heavest that they could roll (for torso). I already assumed the better armors were separated from the available selection in the tables.

But the idea of making it easier is tempting. I would probably have lump torso+arm-limbs+leg-limbs as one set, but then make armor for head, hands, and feet separate.

Originally Posted by Mister Negative

To keep up the random, mismatched factor, you could also possibly roll (even on the hit location chart) for their basic armor to determine what was irreparably damaged (i.e., where the blow that killed the last wearer tore through the armor). Putting on armor with a gaping tear covered in dried blood might suit the genre.

I was assuming that the damages pieces were removed, which is why the random assortments. But the other way could be useful.

Originally Posted by Mister Negative

This would be easier to track and equip (you have leather armor, except on your left arm, and you have a steel pot helm) and also a little less subject to wackiness (one guy rolls and gets relatively good armor, someone else ends up with a left leather glove and a right boot).

I don't think the tables are quite that bad, but you do make a good point.
-Dan

[DAT]

Originally Posted by The Benj

...

Getting back on topic: What will the PCs be doing once they've sorted out their hole full of tigers problem?

I like to run open sandbox, so I will give them hints of things, but will not generally force them in any one direction.

If they act logically, their first act should be to find a safe refuge / base.

The journal entry (intro piece/vinnett) gives them a general idea of some local features around the landing area:
North – Abandoned town, Gloomlight Quay
East – Former Redeemer Camp, Graves, passage way up
South – stone bridge over an underground river
West – a forest of fungi trees, some showing signs of being harvested

There are a number of other nearby features that are not described in the journal entry if they go exploring elsewhere.

Gloomlight Quay offers the best immediate safe refuge they know about.

If they go there, they are likely to get more hints of other areas worth looking into.

After they establish a base of operations, then I assume they will start exploring, going on delves, meeting their neighbors, finding out about the local politics, and working on improving their lot.

At some point, if they survive and continue to search, they will find a way back to the surface. And if they get the right allies and patrons, they will be given a chance to take on/out the Faith of The Light.

That is the general plan.
-Dan

[The Benj]

Cool. Sounds like fun.

[The Benj]

Did you ever run this? How did it go?

[DAT]

Originally Posted by The Benj

Did you ever run this? How did it go?

No, I had to move for work and haven't gotten a new GURPS group together. The only in person games around here are D&D5e and Pathfinder. The only GURPS I've been running is at Cons, and I haven't decided if I could run this as a Con game.

Recently I've been thinking about what I would have to do to set this up as a VTT game using Roll20 or Fantasy Ground.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by DAT

No, I had to move for work and haven't gotten a new GURPS group together. The only in person games around here are D&D5e and Pathfinder. The only GURPS I've been running is at Cons, and I haven't decided if I could run this as a Con game.

Recently I've been thinking about what I would have to do to set this up as a VTT game using Roll20 or Fantasy Ground.

You could definitely run the initial insertion as a con game. Give everybody pre-generated characters, half with light armor and half with heavy. Drop the number of players down to no more than 10. Note that encumbrance affects how fast a character can move to reach the pile of weapons -- which is 25 yards from the insertion point.

Race to get there and grab a weapon before the white tigers attack. Do the fast, lightly-armored guys make it, or do the slower armored guys survive long enough, only to find the fast guys grabbed all the decent weapons, and all that's left are daggers and broken spears to fight with? Alternatively, do the the players with fast guys get to the pile, grab two weapons each, and then run back to hand one to an armored guy, and fight alongside him or her?

Throw in just enough terrain to make tactical choices meaningful (a few pillars and stalagmites, and maybe a stream with steep sides), and then run that baby!

[The Benj]

The high mortality rate and replacement characters could certainly be less of a pain with lots of pre-gens.