I was playing a neat video game called Don't Starve and was wondering how pathfinder could capture the fun of that kind of game. Everything you encounter is a means of survival if properly handled, and there's as many ways to thrive as there is to perish. Is there some means to build that sort of game in Pathfinder? Many elements exist to try but it would take a lot of creating to make a world robust enough to turn the game into a survival one about the heroes and the wilderness. I'm hoping someone knows something I haven't seen or know about to make this kind of game. Are there any supplements on crafting from scratch and world building with those elements at the core?
I would not let the game go above level 7. Level 7 might even be to high. Realize that it will be hard to do. People will optimize for it, and at least 2 people will likely max out the survival skill.
This sounds like something from Dark Sun. I would look into that to get some ideas.
Most importantly make sure your group is on board before you even start to create this. Many people want to be heroic, and starving to death is not something many people view as a heroic death.
PS: Now that I am thinking about it this is a walk in the park at level 7. Purify Food and Drink and Create Water are both cantrips(0 level spells). You may have to ban these spells.
In general I'd say magic may be something you want to nix for the purpose of this game.
You might also want to go through the DCs for survival before you start the game. Have circumstance penalties pre-prepared since the base skill check for finding food is pretty low and a slightly skilled character can feed an entire party at base. Check out the environment section too since the highest DC is 20.
I recommend being cautious with the temperature rules since they can often be too dangerous. severe cold and heat can quickly kill low level characters and while there are mundane ways to increase the heat of an area (fire) it isn't easy to cool yourself off so unless you change the rules I would recommend not having it be desert based.
Crafting, especially mundane crafting doesn't have that much support in the core rules. There's not much survival equipment and there aren't really rules for portable traps besides one or two example which if your players are anything like me will be one of the first things they'll go to.
On the plus side there are many people who wrote homebrew examples of interesting plants and animals that you can incorporate into your game. There are also other people who tried making a similar campaign and you should also look up homebrew classes that better fit this style of game
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I am trying to write a campaign were the PC's won't have access to purchase anything (prison island type of thing). What I did was add two elements.
Firstly, finding materials. Since a PC can't buy the components needed to make a sword they'll need to be able to find steel, leather, and wood. Make a list of basic crafting materials needed, and have them find these materials as loots, and have them scavenge for them. I list them by weight and use the weights of the materials as the "cost" needed for creation. So for example, a Longsword weights 4lbs in the SRD, I'll say they need 3lbs of steel and 1lb of leather (for handle and sheath). Don't sweat the small materials like the small amount of wood needed for the handle.
Secondly, I add the ability to reclaim material from an item. This destroys the item and gives 50% of the material back. So if they wanted to reclaim that sword they made, they'd get 1.5lbs of steel and 1/2lb of leather as usable material. This provides the same function as the buying and selling economy. Namely that the PC's will receive a net loss if they aren't finding and bringing in more materials.
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Got you covered, fam: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA
Did something like this recently.
Some hints:
- Ban Druids.
- Remember that food from especially good survival rolls might not be conservable, or your players will start saving it up for later and soon the food will be a non-issue.
- REALLY think about the enemies you use. Having them be really low on food goes completely out of the window, if they fight only a single boar, whos weight is stated with 200 pounds (half or more of which is edible meat, based on my research). One Cr 2 fight and they have 100 pounds of meat, which feeds a group of 4 medium characters for 25 days, if they conserve it correctly.
You should REALLY try to use either undead or plant enemies or something else that they cannot eat.
- homebrew rules for sleeping. I had my players roll wether they were able to sleep well, based on their fear of being eaten, their hunger, the cold etc.
The game assumes you can just go to sleep and sleep for 8 hours straight, but if you are out in the wild, with no bedroll, no roof, no proper weapons etc, you should have trouble finding good rest.
just a few things from the top of my head
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Another point to remember, if nobody has a cooking skill then any food meat they gather will spoil in a day or two. Especially if it's hot out. Even then, it'll take a cooking roll to properly preserve the meat. Does anyone have knowledge in how to build a smoking chamber (in character)? If not, they can't smoke the meat to preserve it. Do they have enough salt? If not they can't turn it into jerky. So that 200 pound boar which could have fed them for nearly a month, feeds them for a day, maybe two. Then they have to dispose of the rest.
How did they store their food overnight? Scavengers may be attracted to the smell of fresh meat. Are they bathing regularly? If not, they are going to be getting rather ripe. Impose a situational penalty to their survival check on days with wind when they're hunting. Do they have access to sources of vitamin C? If not, scurvy is a real danger.