Post-Apocalypse Campaign

[Frost]

Originally Posted by safisher

If the tables produced decent results? For instance, clothing might vary from handmade pants and shirt to brand new performance enhancing reversible camouflage with charcoal scent suppression technology. Or whatever. I'm not talking about where the roll for survival gear produces a bowling ball and an anvil.

I'm not so sure about the bowling ball, but the anvil would be prety useful to the kind of characters I go for in PA games.

Seriously, fair play to you if you can do it but I remain to be convinced. Even those tables that don't seem to be writen for comedy tend to show many of the same problems. In part because they don't and can't take into account the characters and their environment.

To take as an example a campaign I was a player in fairly recently, our randomly rolled equiptment included three gas operated firearms in as many diferent calibers with five rounds of useable amunition between them, a smoothbore musket and a bow that may as well have been a sapling with a string tied to it. Similarly it lacked several basic tools. This might work in some contexts but in a campaign set more than a century after the fact with characters who included indeviduals who might fairly be described as a gunsmith (and powderman), a bowyer, a toolmaker and a master trader.

If the random approach is something you are not willing to give up on try a compromise use the random roll to determine the equipment availible and then have the players chose by either price or weight from the list.

[safisher]

Originally Posted by Frost

If the random approach is something you are not willing to give up on try a compromise use the random roll to determine the equipment availible and then have the players chose by either price or weight from the list.

Actually, I am just trying to see if random WORKS. Most games don't use random equipment, but if there is a strong outcry, I could see using it. Like you, I think the fairest way is to buy equipment that is useful, and limit that to weight and price. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

Another question: given the choice between a book focusing on the disaster itself and the problems it causes (generic information and GURPS specific rules for various end-of-the-world scenarios), or a book which focused on the characters (templates, equipment, detailed rules for skills like Urban Survival), which would you choose? And yes, you must choose one or the other.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by safisher

Another question: given the choice between a book focusing on the disaster itself and the problems it causes (generic information and GURPS specific rules for various end-of-the-world scenarios), or a book which focused on the characters (templates, equipment, detailed rules for skills like Urban Survival), which would you choose? And yes, you must choose one or the other.

Hands down, the book that focuses on the characters, especially equipment and expanded rules. You can always come up with how the world ended through either inspirational fiction/movies/whatever but being able to put those ideas into game mechanical use would be much harder without something to build on.

Ghostdancer

[Kyle Aaron]

Characters.

We already have Y2K.

Anyhoo, so long as I get to playtest.

[sjard]

Originally Posted by Kyle Aaron

We already have Y2K.

And quite useful that book has been for my own post apoc game setting.

[Xplo]

Originally Posted by safisher

Actually, I am just trying to see if random WORKS. Most games don't use random equipment, but if there is a strong outcry, I could see using it. Like you, I think the fairest way is to buy equipment that is useful, and limit that to weight and price. Anyway, thanks for the feedback.

The way I see it, if you give some potential PC a random pile of equipment, then as soon as he gets the option, he's going to trade it for what he wants, or build something out of it, if he can. So unless you want to play that out for every new PC, you might as well give them what they wanted anyway. But if you do that, then it's like there's a Compleat Adventuring Shop in every settlement where you can buy all the ammo and toilet paper you want.

Perhaps you could let PCs buy common equipment normally, and then roll randomly for good stuff to reflect its scarcity.

Alternate idea: what about some kind of bidding system? Wouldn't quite be realistic to have players bid for PC equipment, but you could build out a list of all the good stuff you're willing to let PCs have, and then let them bid on items (using $, arbitrary "bid points", or even CP, or maybe a mix of all three?) Put enough things on the list, or give them a small enough amount of currency, that they can't get everything even if they work together.

Randomly giving out barter materials might be cool, but again you have the problem that they'd just barter for the stuff they really want. But, if you had a campaign setting that was built up enough that you had a selection of common barter materials, with different values established for different areas, then some PCs might get stuff that wasn't worth much where they are, but was worth more somewhere else. So they have to decide: spend it all here, or try to haul it to somewhere where it's worth more without the benefit of whatever they could have bought with it?

Another question: given the choice between a book focusing on the disaster itself and the problems it causes (generic information and GURPS specific rules for various end-of-the-world scenarios), or a book which focused on the characters (templates, equipment, detailed rules for skills like Urban Survival), which would you choose? And yes, you must choose one or the other.

I wouldn't necessarily want to waste a lot of words on different kinds of disasters, but the aftermath stuff might be valuable: how much food do you need to feed a settlement, how many people do you need to maintain a certain level of technology or run a factory, how long does it take for people to rebuild enough to allow specialization (and how much knowledge is lost or forgotten by then? Like, how common is illiteracy?), that kind of thing.

Likewise, I'm not a big fan of templates, but detailed rules for Urban Survival sounds cool.

Guess that's not a very helpful answer.

Y2K does cover some of the disaster aspect, so focusing more on character stuff is probably a good idea.

[safisher]

Originally Posted by Xplo

But if you do that, then it's like there's a Compleat Adventuring Shop in every settlement where you can buy all the ammo and toilet paper you want.

I think the assumption is that over the course of weeks of months, the PCs will scavenge the best they can find from the plethora of empty stores and homes. If anything, a PA setting could indeed provide survivors with a wealth of certain types of material culture. That is assuming that cities are not uninhabitable and that survivors can come out of their holes safely.

[patrulje]

I used to give my PC the option of using my random charts, they were over and above the normal purchasing ability of the PC. But once chose to use them they were stuck with them. They ranged from story hooks to tidbits of knowledge to physical items, however a limited number of them had negative consequences. I called them fate charts. One PC was stuck with a wagon load of high end teak lumber, he eventually was able to find a ship's CPT who traded it for passage for he and his party. A PA campaign lends itself to exploring and random loot is the best way to handle what may be found in that service station or out of the way cabin.

[Ed the Coastie]

I generally tend to prefer dirt-beneath-your-fingernails settings such as Aftermath and Age of Ruin, although I have also enjoyed playing stuff like Morrow Project and Twilight 2000. Gamma World is OK, but generally tends to be a bit too "wild and wahoo" for my tastes. Oddly enough, my favorite PA game to have played was based upon the old Gamma World adventure Rite of Passage...primarily because the GM had toned down many of the more fantastic aspects.

As for initial starting equipment, I tend to favor a random approach...perhaps based upon a Scrounging roll. The initial equipment represents what the character currently has at his disposal, rather than what he may have customarily carried. For example, let's say that the PC with the Guns (Pistol) skill wants to roll to see if he has such a weapon.

• On a Critical Failure, the PC does not have a pistol of any sort.
• On a standard Failure, the PC may have something like a Zip Gun, a .22 revolver, or perhaps a paintball gun or a ranged stunner...something that is of limited use, but can still be dangerous in the hands of a clever individual. The weapon comes with 1d rounds of the appropriate ammunition.
• On a standard Success, the PC has a "Standard" weapon of his choice (subject, of course, to GM approval) such as a .38 revolver or a .45 ACP pistol. The weapon comes with 3d rounds of the appropriate ammunition, or 2d rounds of "specialty" ammunition such as Hollow-Point or Armor Piercing.
• On a Critical Success, the PC has an "Advanced" or "Special" weapon such as a .44 Magnum revolver, an IMI Desert Eagle, or even a Gyrojet pistol. The weapon comes with 5d rounds of the appropriate ammunition, -1d for "specialty" ammo. Alternately, the PC may elect to have a "Standard" weapon with 5d rounds of the appropriate ammunition (-1d for "specialty" ammo) plus 1d-2 accessories (cleaning kit, pistol stock, etc) of his choice.

[safisher]

Originally Posted by Ed the Coastie

For example, let's say that the PC with the Guns (Pistol) skill wants to roll to see if he has such a weapon.

That's an interesting system, Ed, much like in Aftermath!, as I recall. Do you think the random equipment is necessary, or adds/detracts from the genre?