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I am trying to run a game where the characters are marroned on an island with danger all around them. I want some rules to make the game more realistic.
I have come up with the following rules:
1. When you roll a natural 1, you have a 50% chance of your weapon breaking. Magic weapons get a save against this.
2. When and opponent confirms a critical hit against you, your armour has a 50% chance of breaking. Magic armour gets a save against this.
Does anyone have any other rules like this to add to the realism of the game?
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Well u can use the old 2e crud that DMs used to f*** there players. Random rolls of disease and what have u from drinking water, breathing in a certain location, being stabbed, bitten, scratched, ext. Most adventures at that time did not die from the monsters directly but from the Tetanus off the undead's rusted sword or plague from the bite of a rat or my personal favorite that random roll of was the chicken cooked long enough to kill u or not. All valid ways to die in the real world and giant middle fingers to players of the fantasy world to force them to spend gold on resurrection. I know it got so bad in 1 game were i made a cleric that had the party give it all the gold to make scrolls of resurrection that she kept in her bag. Every one, even the low int fighter, had UMD maxed to its possible highest ability so that they can use the dam things just in case she could not use it her self they could.
There are already rules for the things you describe, check out the "fragile" quality for weapons and armor.
In general, you don't need to really make new rules to give the game the feel you want, you just have to look through the rules that already exist.
Another example is starvation and thirst. Look up Starvation and Thirst in the Game Master's Guide or the PRD. Look at the Survival skill and the DCs for finding food and water in the wild, and what kind of circumstance bonuses might apply in a deserted island enviroment. Also look up the exposure rules (such as taking nonlethal damage and becoming exhausted due to temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit).
Purify Food & Drink and Create Water are both 0 level spells, so if you have a cleric, druid or oracle in the party, it's going to make your survival theme a bit easier on the players.
Hostile natives, lack of food, the environmental exposure rules, and no way to escape will probably be the way to generate the biggest level of tension & excitement. Add fragile weapons into the mix, and it should be a wild ride.
Sounds like a fun game you have coming up, good luck!
A weapon breaking on a 1 is more realistic? If anything that just punishes the player. Wizards laugh at your puny fighter and his broken greatsword! Sure he can mend it when theres downtime, but that fighter is just out of luck. Sounds like a good time to be a spellcaster. Divine casting might help ward off any badness.
I'm rather against those 2 rules being used ever.
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Well u can use the old 2e crud that DMs used to f*** there players. Random rolls of disease and what have u from drinking water, breathing in a certain location, being stabbed, bitten, scratched, ext. Most adventures at that time did not die from the monsters directly but from the Tetanus off the undead's rusted sword or plague from the bite of a rat or my personal favorite that random roll of was the chicken cooked long enough to kill u or not. All valid ways to die in the real world and giant middle fingers to players of the fantasy world to force them to spend gold on resurrection. I know it got so bad in 1 game were i made a cleric that had the party give it all the gold to make scrolls of resurrection that she kept in her bag. Every one, even the low int fighter, had UMD maxed to its possible highest ability so that they can use the dam things just in case she could not use it her self they could.
I find it interesting that you are blaming 2e...yet you explicitly talk about how everyone had UMD. Yet another case of someone assuming that pre-d20 versions sucked, despite the quite obvious fact that you've never actually played one of those versions.
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Well u can use the old 2e crud that DMs used to f*** there players. Random rolls of disease and what have u from drinking water, breathing in a certain location, being stabbed, bitten, scratched, ext. Most adventures at that time did not die from the monsters directly but from the Tetanus off the undead's rusted sword or plague from the bite of a rat or my personal favorite that random roll of was the chicken cooked long enough to kill u or not. All valid ways to die in the real world and giant middle fingers to players of the fantasy world to force them to spend gold on resurrection. I know it got so bad in 1 game were i made a cleric that had the party give it all the gold to make scrolls of resurrection that she kept in her bag. Every one, even the low int fighter, had UMD maxed to its possible highest ability so that they can use the dam things just in case she could not use it her self they could.I find it interesting that you are blaming 2e...yet you explicitly talk about how everyone had UMD. Yet another case of someone assuming that pre-d20 versions sucked, despite the quite obvious fact that you've never actually played one of those versions.
Just to clarify 2E was the version that had Class Kits. If so then i meant to state 3e in the above statement. I definitely know though it was not AD&D because i remember the whole percentile crud from that and only being able to get 1 SA off in a single combat encounter. There were a lot of changes, most for the best, since then to now though i still refuse to play 4e just because of how bad a friend of mine said it was.
I am trying to run a game where the characters are marroned on an island with danger all around them. I want some rules to make the game more realistic.
I have come up with the following rules:
1. When you roll a natural 1, you have a 50% chance of your weapon breaking. Magic weapons get a save against this.
2. When and opponent confirms a critical hit against you, your armour has a 50% chance of breaking. Magic armour gets a save against this.Does anyone have any other rules like this to add to the realism of the game?
Darksun.
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Book 1 of Serpent's Skull is exactly what you're looking for. It's been fantastic so far (the rest of Serpent's Skull, not so much, but you can go anywhere from there).
A friend of mine is also running this style game, so it is for his benefit also.
In the game, the fighter may have his greatsword broken but the wizard still needs his spell components, which will put a cramp on his ability to cast high level spells.
At the moment we have the following characters which will need special attention:
1. Psion Dual Disciple (Shaper/Kineticist)
The psion can create matter and do lots of damage without material components.
2. Shinigami (Bleach Homebrew)
He has his Zumpukto which is a magical weapon he can reforge every 3 days.
How can we control these characters?
The advice has been great, especially from Psion-Psycho and Laarddrym
The wizard has a single pouch, or is this the kind of game where he's got to search for guano?
D&D/PF is a horrible system for these kind of games. Are you trying to make the game fun? Or aggrivating to play? Because punishing people for rolling a 1 in this manner is anything but 'fun'. Imagine playing a dual-wielding fighter, double the chance to lose a weapon.
.. and yes, I played Star Wars with a DM who'd make your battery run empty on the roll of a 1. It's a tiresome and rather stupid mechanic. Instead, make it so that the weapons deteriorate over time and through combat, forcing the players to take care of it and if they can't, they know they'll need to find new weapons eventually. At least this gives them a chance and choice in all of this instead of a random roll being the decisive factor :)
D&D/PF is a horrible system for these kind of games. Are you trying to make the game fun? Or aggrivating to play? Because punishing people for rolling a 1 in this manner is anything but 'fun'. Imagine playing a dual-wielding fighter, double the chance to lose a weapon.
.. and yes, I played Star Wars with a DM who'd make your battery run empty on the roll of a 1. It's a tiresome and rather stupid mechanic. Instead, make it so that the weapons deteriorate over time and through combat, forcing the players to take care of it and if they can't, they know they'll need to find new weapons eventually. At least this gives them a chance and choice in all of this instead of a random roll being the decisive factor :)
This is supposed to help people run this style of game not say it is a terrible system for it
This is the style of game where a wizard does have the spell component pouch, but will have to search for other materials.
For an E6 game I ran,to get the kind of grittiness I think you're going after, I made it into a resource management game. Track everything, including arrows, encumbrance, spell components (other than those readily available).
Watch some Survivor Man.
What Krass is saying is that DnD/PF is not well suited for this genre, and I agree. You want a system that has a rich wilderness survival system, rather than "I roll Survival. 16. This allows me to feed myself and my 3 companions for the rest of the day."
If you must pursue this in DnD however, I can suggest changing the weapon break (which it seems you consider integral to the feel you want).
Weapons having a 5% to break on every swing isn't realism, as I'm sure you must realize.
I'd suggest a durability/repair system instead. A weapon can only deal so much damage before becoming broken (and I mean http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Broken, not broken in half). Players can use Craft and materials that they need to salvage to make repairs.
Think weapons in Fallout3, or enchanted weapons in Skyrim. That way a player will feel responsible for letting his weapon break, rather than cheated by the dice.
As for the Shaper/Shinigami? Don't use 3rd party and homebrew. That's my personal golden rule, but your table is clearly different. If you want all classes to want for their tools of the trade, then you probably should disallow classes that are material independent.
Of course, you could read into what those choices imply: "I don't want my character to be denied of his shtick."
I suggest you seriously consider not denying your PCs what they need for their class features. Make survival about food and shelter and having to avoid/run from more dangerous predators.
Get a copy of the first adventure in the Serpent's Skull AP, titled "Souls for Smuggler's Shiv." (designed for levels 1-4)
If you expand the landmass a bit and add a few of your own tweaks, it's perfect for a Survival-like game.
It uses the elements as well as natural hazards, location, creatures, and other stuff I won't spoil against the PCs to make it a true test of survival. It includes a lot of rules for (redundantly) surviving in tropical climes.
Plus shipwrecks to explore!
Also, you can apply the Broken condition to a weapon to increase its fragility. And you can always have.... something take off with their stuff.
This adventure will provide with enough ammo in-text and ideas found elsewhere to have a good time of watching the party slowly turn on itself- or rise to the occasion and get rescued.
The Conan d20 rules have an actual system for weapons and armor taking damage, might be a better fit for you.
I am trying to run a game where the characters are marroned on an island with danger all around them. I want some rules to make the game more realistic.
I have come up with the following rules:
1. When you roll a natural 1, you have a 50% chance of your weapon breaking. Magic weapons get a save against this.
2. When and opponent confirms a critical hit against you, your armour has a 50% chance of breaking. Magic armour gets a save against this.Does anyone have any other rules like this to add to the realism of the game?
You realize number 1 means that the average weapon will only be good for 40 swings on average right? I mean what is the point of this exactly? Sure weapons break, but the vast majority lasted years on the battlefield without such issues, a 1 in 40 chance of breaking your weapon seems a bit much.
The problem with rules like this is the disadvantage particular kinds of characters more then others. Sure the wizard might have to search for matrials, but he can just take eschew materials (which the sorcerer already has) and not have to worry about hte majority of his spells. The fighter cant function without his armor and sword.
Basically in this game i'd play either a sorceror, oracle, druid, or summoner and call it done. None of these characters would be particularly concerned with this.
I strongly recommend you consider some of the above advice about it being about food, resources and shelter, and not about the equipment they need to do what they are supposed to do as a character. Because if you do, you are going to punish some characters alot more then others.