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Genre Conventions as Game Rules
Years ago when I ran an RPG campaign called “the Masked Alliance,” (an alternate-history pulp masked-men campaign set in the 1930s on the cusp of the arrival of true powered superheroes), I borrowed from a lot of different game systems to create Detective! as a feat. (The core system was a no-Jedi Star Wars Saga kludge).
With Detective!, if you made an investigation check the worst result you could be stuck with was to figure out a location of another encounter that would give you more clues. No matter how badly you rolled, you got that at minimum.
So, if you rolled well, you might figure the whole thing out, and know where the main encounter was that would end that part of the plot. “This isn’t a typical stain. This is a splatter of Falernian wine, also known as “Cult Wine.” No one makes this anymore, except members of the Pantheon crime family. The pottery shards are new, made from clay available to the north of the city. A movie producer with suspected mob ties built a huge Greek temple out there he claimed was for an upcoming movie, but clearly it’s a Pantheon front. That’s where we’ll find the hostages.”
If you rolled badly, you at least figured out enough to get to another encounter (possibly just with thugs – masked pulp heroes do well with thugs).
“This is ‘Old Meadow” tobacco, which isn’t sold here. There’s only one importer in 200 miles that handles it, and they went out of business last month. They DO have a warehouse in receivership down on the docks… “
Only one player took that feat, for the Great Detective Vigilante character, but all the players loved it. The plot always moved forward, and no one complained if I had to come up with another colorful pulp-era encounter on the fly.
Last last bit it the rub, of course. Since I was kitbashing a game and I am comfortable with extemporaneous creation of new ttRPG scenes for my players, I was okay creating a system that depended on me being able to do that at the drop of a hat. But it does put a lot more work on the GM, and in a polished, professional release of the same idea I would feel the need to have a lot more guidance on how to do that (likely with tons of examples).
But it worked well in the game I used it, and it continues to be a thing I keep in the back of my mind.
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Intimidating in the Really Wild West (for Starfinder)
When you expand a game’s rules to cover specific tropes, you want to make sure you don’t take options that should be available to everyone and make them character-specific or class-specific feats and features. It’s okay if the same trope can be produced using more than one set of game rules (as long as all the options make sense), but you don’t want to end up with only soldiers being able to do something as basic as twirl a pistol.
Or dishearten a frontier town beyond the reach of quick or reliable assistance (a favored tactic of everything from bandits to rakshasa)
And that brings us to Intimidate in the Really Wild West, where the skill has a few additional tasks available.
(Art by Дмитрий)
New Intimidate Tasks
Dishearten
Disheartening is showing such superiority that creatures are unwilling to be caught taking action against you, though they certainly won’t move to help you. Disheartening is similar to bullying (and has the same DC), but the effect only brings the target up to indifferent, and the effects last for 1 week, +1 week per 5 you exceed the DC. You can dishearten a target as a full action, normally as a show of force (shooting at someone’s feet to force them to dance, smashing your fist through a wall, lifting someone with one arm, and so on).
You can dishearten a group as an action that takes one minute, but only after disheartening a member of that group. This only functions if no member of the group has a CR that matches or exceeds your own, or the group as a whole has a CR below that of you and your obvious allies.
While disheartened targets are likely to be unfriendly or hostile, but will take no action they believe can be traced back to them, publicly acting indifferent.
At the end of a dishearten duration, the targets can act as their true attitude dictates. However, you can extend a dishearten (the duration of a new check replaces the old duration), or even re-dishearten an individual or group.
(art by Helen_F)
Hold at Bay
When dealing with creatures with an Intelligence of 3 or less (modifier of -4 or less) or with no Int score at all, you can’t make threats with words—but you can sometimes still make a threat. If you have something the creature instinctively avoids (fire, for most animals and vermin, for example) as a standard action you can use it to hold the creature at bay. The target must be within line of sight and line of effect, and the DC is 13 + 1.5x the target’s CR. This even works for creatures immune to mind-affecting effects and swarms (the classic scene where the mass of scarabs are kept back with a torch), as long as you have something they can perceive and instinctively avoid. You can use this against a group of similar creatures (that all instinctively avoid the same object), but the DC is increased by 2 per creature beyond the first.
On a successful check, the target creature will not come within 15 feet of you for 1 round. For every 5 by which you exceeded the DC, the range increased by 5 feet. This is a sense-dependent ability.
This task can also be performed against outsiders and undead, but normally requires a source of supernatural dread. This may include holy symbols, depending on the creature. Some special relics may have the power to hold creatures at bay that typical examples of such symbols cannot (such as using the Crystal Ankh of Saint Frasier to hold giants at bay, even though giants are not normally subject to this task).
A successful Recall Knowledge check regarding a creature will normally tell you if a specific object at hand will function to keep them at bay.
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Survival in GammaFinder
One of the core concepts of any post-apocalypse RPG is survival. This is definitely true in GammaFinder, as the world is full of poison earth, acid rain, toxic water, deadly environmental effects, baked earth, rusted, twisted metal… it’s harsh. Just traveling beyond a settlement, even if nothing rises to the level of an encounter, is dangerous.
And, as it happens, Starfinder has a Survival skill.
But making Survival rolls daily, and making people think about where their character sleep, find water, hunt, how they avoid heatstroke, dodge poison ivy, and so on gets boring.
So GammaFinder has a Weekly Survival Check.
Weekly Survival Check
Each group makes a Survival check each week. The DC is equal to 15 + 1.5 x the average CR of hazards and monsters in the area, +1 per person in the group. (When in double, if there is a titan nearby, the GM can assume the average CR is within the Titans range. Otherwise if the area is not known to be particularly hazardous, assume an average CR of 2. Yes, 2. GammaFinder World is rough).
If multiple people make Survival checks, the highest check result is treated as the primary result, and each character in the group after the first who succeeds adds one to that highest result. The following additional factors modify the roll, as can previous rolls (see results, below).
Weekly Survival Check Modifiers
Group begins week out of food and water: -5
Group has no wilderness gear: -2
Group has at least 1 piece of survival gear for each member: bonus equal to the highest item level of such gear every character has. (For example, if 4 people have a piece of 5th level survival gear, but one person only has a 1st-level piece of gear, the bonus is +1. If six people all have a piece of 3rd level gear, the bonus is +3).
Results
You not only need to know if the group succeeded or failed, but by how much.
Success by 5 or More: Things went very well! You slept in protected spots, avoided unpleasant allergens and minor hazards, and found plentiful and quality food and water. You do not use up any of your carried food or water resources, and everyone in your group gains a +2 bonus to the next week’s Weekly Survival Check.
Success by 4 or less: You use up resources (such as food and water) normally, but manage to avoid being run down by the constant dangers of the GammaFinder World.
Fail by 5 or less: You didn’t manage ideal conditions, but it’s livable. You might be sleeping in a cold, cramped space under a large rock, eating grubs, drinking water that’s slimy but not poisonous, or just dealing with gnat bites, rough terrain, sunburn, weariness, and so on.
Everyone in the party takes a -1 penalty to skill checks, including next week’s survival, until you succeed at a weekly survival check or you get a good night’s sleep and food in a settlement. This is cumulative if you fail by this amount in consecutive weeks.
Fail by 6- or more: Why did you ever leave your hovel?
Everyone in the party takes a -2 penalty to skill checks, including next week’s survival, until you succeed at a weekly survival check or you get a good night’s sleep and food in a settlement. This is cumulative if you fail by this amount in consecutive weeks.
Everyone temporarily has their maximum Stamina Points reduced by 1 per character level. This lasts until the group succeeds at a Weekly Survival Check by 5 or more, or get 2 good night’s sleep and food at a settlement.
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I now depend on my Patreon for more of my income and support than I ever expected to. If you find any value in my blog posts or videos, I could use help with the Patreon. If you can spare a few bucks a month, it’s a huge help. If not, even just sharing and linking to my blogs, videos, and the Patreon itself is a huge help that just takes a moment of your time.
Thanks, everyone.
Social Distance Thoughts. GM-less 5e Gaming: Part One – Skills
Pandemic changes things. For everyone’s sake, we need to adapt. For our own sakes, we need to stay sane.
At least for the next few weeks, a lot of us aren’t going out and doing the things we normally do. That leaves us with only online options to interact with friends.
RPGs are a great way to spend time with friends. And if you are willing to go theater-of-the-mind, it works great just via chat or video conference.
But, no one may be in the mood to act as GM.
So, a group of 2-4 friends sure CAN run through a pre-generated adventure without a GM, or a map. Just treat it as a board game, deal with one encounter at a time, roll targets of attacks randomly, and don’t get too hung up on things like tactics or worrying about player knowledge. One Facilitator reads each encounter as you run into it (and maybe that role rotates), and players agree to deal with things cooperatively.
You can even use these ideas to run yourself through adventures on your own, a kind of Gaming Solitaire.
But… it might be nice to have some guidelines for things like skill checks interacting with encounters, when you don’t have a GM to make rulings. So:
GM-less 5e Skill Rules
This is just the beginning of a potential ruleset for playing through a published 5e module with friends, likely online and without a virtual tabletop, and without a GM. This is a first set of thoughts—the beginning of this idea, rather than the end.
Group Skill Decisions
When you want to try something the text doesn’t give you guidance on, the group needs to decide on a DC for the effort. The player proposing the action suggests an ability and related skill, and describes how the action would work. The group then sees if they can agree that the thing being proposed would be Very Easy to accomplish, Easy, Medium, Hard, Very Hard, or Nearly Impossible. The default DC of anything the group can’t decide on is 20 (Hard).
Ability Checks Table: Typical Difficulty Classes
Task Difficulty (DC)
Very Easy (5)
Easy (10)
Medium (15)
Hard (20)
Very Hard (25)
Nearly Impossible (30)
Each ability score lists the skills associated with it, along with typical results for success and failure of skill checks that aren’t specifically outlines in the adventure. Have fun with these checks. Describe the attempts, discuss how the story plays out. It’s a different kind of roleplaying, but no less fun or effective for being more cooperative.
For example, the adventure says there is a locked door. Kyla suggests her barbarian should be able to shoulder the door open with a Strength (Athletics) check. The group agrees that’s possible, but given it’s a sturdy, well-maintained door, it’ll be Hard. Kyla attempts a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check. If she succeeded, she could bypass the obstacle (forcing the door open). As it happens she fails. The typical failure for Strength Athletics) is to take Damage equal to DC -20 -2d6. That’s a base of 10 (DC 20 -10) hp of damage. Kyla rolls 2d6, and gets a 7, which she also subtracts. She ends up taking 3 (10 -7) points of damage, and the door is not open.
Strength
(Athletics) – Success: Overcome one obstacle. Cause one monster to be unable to act for 1d4 rounds. Failure: Take damage equal to task DC -10 -2d6 (minimum 0).
Dexterity
(Acrobatics) – Success: Overcome one obstacle. Cause one monster to be unable to affect you for 1d3 rounds. Failure: Take damage equal to task DC -10 -3d6 (minimum 0).
(Sleight of Hand) – Success: Take one item of fist-size or less from the encounter. Cause one monster to be unable to use an item for 1 round. Failure: Disadvantage on defensive rolls for 1 round.
(Stealth) – Success: Escape an encounter. Examine an encounter without triggering it. Failure: Trigger an encounter, lose turn failing to escape the encounter.
Constitution
Endure a hazard or circumstance for 1d4 rounds without taking additional damage or penalties.
Intelligence
(Arcana) – Learn the details of one magic creature, effect, trap, curse, or similar item. Failure: False information causes you to be at disadvantage for your next check against the magic examined.
(History) – Learn the details of one ruin or established settlement, or item pertaining to it. Failure: False information causes you to be at disadvantage for your next check against the place or related item examined.
(Investigation) – Learn the details of one location you can examine unhindered. Failure: False information causes you to be at disadvantage for your next check against the location or a related item examined.
(Nature) – Learn the details of one natural creature, effect, hazard, location, terrain, or similar item. Failure: False information causes you to be at disadvantage for your next check against the natural creature or phenomenon examined.
(Religion) – Learn the details of one religion or a related creature, effect, trap, curse, or similar item. This specifically includes angels, demons, devils, and undead. Failure: False information causes you to be at disadvantage for your next check against the religious subject examined.
Wisdom
(Animal Handling) – Success: Overcome one animal-based encounter that has not yet become a combat without it becoming one. Cause one animal to be unable to affect you for 1d3 rounds. Instruct a friendly animal to take a specific action. Failure: Bad interaction causes you to be at disadvantage with your next check with the relevant animal.
(Insight) – Success: Learn the true intentions of one intelligence creature. If the creature intends to attack you, you may take an action to begin the combat before the creature does. Failure: Bad conclusion causes you to be at disadvantage with your next check with the relevant creature.
(Medicine) – Success: Learn the nature of one disease or poison. Stabilize a dying creature. Prevent a disease, bleed, or poison from affecting its victim for 1 round. Failure: target takes 1 hp.
(Perception) – Success: Learn all elements of an encounter. Failure: No penalty.
(Survival) – Success: Live off the land without using up supplies for 1 day. Avoid one natural hazard. Locate a natural encounter and observe it without setting it off. Failure: One random party member takes 1 hp.
Charisma
(Deception) – Success: Overcome one non-combat encounter with intelligent creatures. Gain advantage on your next check with one creature in a combat encounter. Failure: You are at disadvantage on your next check with the creature you attempted to deceive.
(Intimidation) – Success: Overcome one non-combat encounter with intelligent creatures. Gain advantage on your next check with one creature in a combat encounter. Failure: Creature attacks you.
(Performance) – Success: Gain advantage for the next check a party member makes in a non-combat encounter with intelligent creatures. Failure: Suffer disadvantage for the next check a party member makes in a non-combat encounter with intelligent creatures.
(Persuasion) – Success: Overcome one non-combat encounter with nonhostile intelligent creatures. Failure: No penalty.
A Request
I now depend on my Patreon for more of my income and support than I ever expected to. If you find any value in my blog posts or videos, I could use help with the Patreon. If you can spare a few bucks a month, it’s a huge help. If not, even just sharing and linking to my blogs, videos, and the Patreon itself is a huge help that just takes a moment of your time.
Thanks, everyone.
Owen K.C. Stephens 