| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hi everyone, first post evah.
Next session my players (Level 2 Warpriest, Fighter who's an ex-squid hunter, and a Druid/Ranger) will go white water rafting on an underground river, chasing a Troglodyte captain who got away. The point of the encounter is to make things exciting outside of combat and build suspense. I don't expect them to come close to dying from this, just be stressed out/laughing.
I'm looking for guidance on white water rafting rules as I haven't found much information online, on this forum and in Skulls and Shackles.
Here's what I've figured out:
One player to steer with a tied up oar (Dex check)
2 to help with poles (Strength Check)
1 to spot rocks (Perception)
Simply moving down the river: DC 5 - Dex check from steerer.
Moving to either side: DC 10 from both steerer and one of the pushers.
Losing a pole: DC + 5 to steer.
Spotting rocks: DC 10 (add darkness and underwater factors from time to time)
Hitting rocks: Reflex check not to fall off the boat/lose pole + damage to the raft (need help with this!)
It'll probably be too easy at first, so after a few rounds the speed will pick up and make every check +5
If THAT's too easy, I'll throw a Bat Swarm at them and everything will start at DC 20.
Any suggestions?
Thanks a lot!
From a white water guide, the most important thing is understanding currents. The river is stronger than you if you get into the wrong places. (I personally choose not to be on the river at all, I am too old to be that crazy.). Maybe Survival or Knowledge Nature?
This could be really cool or really dull. What I don't see from your description is any source of tension; what bad things happen if they fail all their rolls? Similarly what reward do they get for being super-successful?
Assuming that the rafts are actually similar to rowing boats (sized appropriately)then the vehicle combat rules in Ultimate Combat would seem appropriate as a starting place. From your description, the underground stream would have a series of rapids, in real life these are graded in 6 levels.
The first task would appear to be to map the river's course and note the speed of the river current at all points.
To navigate, each rapid would require a driving check, which for a rowing boat is the survival skill. A failure resulting the boat ramming the rocks. According to the RAW, this would damage the boat, cause the boat to make a sudden stop and injure the occupants. I think some granularity is required to make the chase more dynamic and interesting.
I would set the base DC at 5 per grade of rapid based on the boat drifting at the speed of the current. You may want to refine this by +/-2 for variation within each grade of rapid. If the occupants are paddling to increase the speed of the boat then I would increase the DC by 5 per 10' of speed above the current speed.
The Survival (driving) roll is made by the person steering, others can Aid Another to simulate pushing off of rocks, but everybody who attempts to aid another must also make an Acrobatics check - more on this later.
Driving DC Successful by 5 or more: Successfully navigated rapids and got a boost from the current, movement speed increased by 5' per 5 over the required roll
Driving DC Successful: Successfully navigated rapids
Driving DC Fail by less than 5: Hit a rock and roll for ramming damage, lose any paddling speed but maintain full current speed.
Driving DC Fail by 5-9: Hit a rock and come to a stop, roll for ramming damage but can continue again next round
Driving DC Fail by 10+: Hit a rock and become stuck. Roll for ramming damage. DC15 check required to become unstuck.
Successful Acrobatics and Successful Driving rolls: No effect
Successful Acrobatics and Unsuccessful Driving: Lose fending device (e.g. oar) overboard or it breaks
Unsuccessful Acrobatics and Successful Driving: Fall prone, must spend the next round getting back into position
Unsuccessful Acrobatics and Unsuccessful Driving: Fall overboard, reflex save to avoid taking 1d6 damage. Now the character is swimming in some rather unfavourable conditions....
Hopefully, this system will give the players some choices and allow them to make some tactical decisions