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Post by Insano-Man on Jun 9, 2019 6:00:11 GMT -5
WHAT IT ALL ISThe Road Home uses a set of handy, generic, and purposefully-nebulous values to stand in for certain qualities in the campaign. This ranges from the team's stores of meat, to the meat on their bones and the murder in their guns. Everything is meant to be readable at a glance and flexible under pressure. Some are static, some fluctuate on a daily basis, and others might be here one day and gone the next. The following is a list of various qualities and other information that will be used in the campaign. Current values can be found in the #trh_database channel on the Erfbound Discord server. Some of these things are covered in greater depth in our information hub, or on the server itself. SECTIONS- Character Status- Vehicle Status- Breaking CampCan't figure out what all this stuff is for? Clicked the wrong link? Head on over to The Road Home's Introduction topic to school yourself one.
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Post by Insano-Man on Jun 9, 2019 6:03:05 GMT -5
CHARACTER STATUSStaying alive on the road means knowing yourself and knowing how many holes are in you. For that purpose, The Road Home features a few handy ways of evaluating a character's fitness, status, and quirks. Two of these are kept as Google spreadsheet documents with fancy formatting. Namely, these are our statistics sheet, that shows off simplified character attributes and current statistics, and our profiles sheet, that gets a little more in-depth with quirks and traits. The statistics sheet uses a simple attributes system known as M.E.A.T. M.E.A.T.The MEAT system is a quick list of simple character statistics meant to give an idea as to what a character's physical traits are like. Values in the MEAT system range from 1 to 10. For the most part, MEAT statistics are guidelines instead of rules. Situations involving their related qualities will be handled on a case-by-case basis. MEAT is derived from a character's baseline bodily attributes. It does not include equipment, injuries, or disease. Cybernetics and similar modifications are considered core parts of a character's physical constitution, and are therefore included here. - Might
How big a character's muscles are. Determines how much a character can lift and how hard they can shake a stick. - Endurance
How much meat is on a character's bones. Covers resilience to physical injury, illness, and fatigue. - Agility
How much a character's legs may or may not matter. Reflexes, dexterity, and mobility are all part of this value. - Tact
Eyes, ears, and brains. Perception is the primary focus here, with a side dish of object recognition and cognitive bandwidth.
SUPPLIESSupplies are broken down into four major types in portable, arbitrary units. Supplies are a little more concrete in function than other statistics, but they're just as open to interpretation as others when it comes to form. All supplies can be scavenged, traded, or tossed out the window as need be. Just remember that you can only carry so much at one time! A unique aspect to supplies, specifically organic resources, is the supply van's set of bioreactors. The supply van's bioreactors are a set of space magic meat machines that allow the team to grow food, medicine, and other useful supplies. They enable them to support aliens, spacers, and freaky mutants with congenital cholera. The bioreactors automatically produce a small quantity of food and medicine over time, and can be boosted up for enhanced output. Damage to the bioreactors can have extreme consequences for the party's spacers and aliens. - Parts
Scrap metal, tools, spare parts, and most machine-related supplies. Used for tinkering projects, vehicle repairs, and construction work. Running out of parts isn't a serious problem, but it puts the team in a bad spot if something happens to one of their vehicles. Mechanical characters or characters with extensive cybernetic modifications may need parts to recover from injuries. In some cases, parts can be assembled into ammo. - Ammo
Crab deterrants; magazines, live rounds, grenades, and more. Ammo is spent whenever the team is involved in a shootout or a hunting trip. On occasion, ammo might be spent on the road, or as part of a background event related to vehicle security. Running out of ammo won't kill the team - up until someone starts shooting at them. In some situations, ammo can be broken down into parts. - Drugs
Bandages, pills, scalpels, and other medical supplies. Drugs represent everything the team can throw at an injury or illness to make it go away. They can be spent to speed up recovery times for light injuries, and are absolutely vital in controlling severe injuries. In addition, spacers and other immunocompromised characters require drugs as part of their upkeep, in order to sterilize their food. Aliens that can't eat human food require drugs in a similar capacity. Some drugs can be transformed into food with the right expertise. - Food
Hardtack, crab legs, water - the party's most vital resource, bar none. Food is consumed daily by most party members. Running out means gradual starvation, leading to sour moods and poor performance for everyone. Extreme cases of spacers, aliens, and spacer aliens might cost more food to compensate for calories lost to disinfection and transmutation. Some forms of food can be converted into drugs.
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Post by Insano-Man on Jun 9, 2019 6:06:06 GMT -5
VEHICLE STATUSKeeping the cars fed can be just as important as keeping the party fed. Without a gassed-up vehicle, the team is stuck where they are, which could mean a long death to the elements. Likewise, keeping the wheels on the bus is just as important as keeping them turning. A totalled van isn't going anywhere. - Fuel
Simple, easy, and crucial. Fuel is the main source of motive power for the party. It's not easy to find, but it's absolutely critical for major road trips. Fortunately, running out of fuel has no effect on its own. It just means nobody's going anywhere until they can find more. A party without fuel is a party stuck at camp. - Battery
The stuff that machines crave - electricity. Without battery power, a vehicle has no communications, mobility, heating, or much of anything. Likewise, when a vehicle's fuel runs dry, it can spend its battery to move in short bursts. This will rapidly deplete the battery's charge, which might take a while to fill back up. The supply van has solar panels and ambient energy collectors to let it generate power when it's idle. The scout car has to recharge off of the supply van when it runs dry - which could mean trouble if runs out while it's away. - Storage
Nothing that's something. Cargo space, extra horsepower, and the team's combined creativity with rope. Storage is how much stuff the party can stash away in a vehicle, such as supplies, extra fuel, or even just the people onboard. While the team's camped, they have effectively unlimited storage space. When the team breaks camp, they have to figure out what'll fit in their vehicles. The rest gets left behind.
HARDWARE CONDITIONA vehicle's parts are broadly broken down into four major types. - The first type is wheels. Wheels hardware covers the vehicle's tracks, skis, or - you guessed it - wheels. Damage to a vehicle's wheels is easy to come into and easy to fix. Likewise, busted wheels have no effect on anything but mobility.
- The second is the engine. A vehicle's engine is its source of power, be it electricity or horsepower. Engine damage is the inverse of damage to wheels. It's hard to knock out the engine, but it is absolutely painful to repair. Similarly, engine damage may disable a vehicle's communications, heating, and other systems until it's repaired. On the other hand, if a vehicle's engine is damaged, but its wheels are intact, strong party members may be able to push it along.
- The third is sensors. Sensors covers everything from windows to rangefinders. For the most part, sensors only come into play in difficult conditions, such as harsh weather or dangerous terrain. Functioning sensors also boost up vehicle security, meaning less people have to stand guard.
- The fourth is weapons. Weapons hardware encompasses all weapon systems on a vehicle, whether it's as simple as a hull-mounted machine gun or as complex as a levitating gravity cannon. In addition, weapons include the controls, turrets, and other related systems. Damage to weapons can disarm a vehicle or make it harder for it to engage its targets.
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Post by Insano-Man on Jun 9, 2019 6:08:58 GMT -5
BREAKING CAMPWhen the party moves on to a new location, there's a small checklist of things to be evaluated to see how it goes. How they've handled themselves, their vehicles, and how much they've planned for the road ahead are all important considerations. What's been done before they've picked themselves up will have as much an impact on leaving as it will on getting to their destination. One important caveat to breaking camp is that the party cannot move on to another location without fuel. Battery power alone won't do for a long trip. JOBSSurviving out in the middle of nowhere means everyone has to pull their weight. While the party's parked and preparing for their next trip, each member will have a self-assigned task to help keep the team moving smoothly. Once they break camp, everyone's jobs will be checked and a result will be printed out to match. - The default job for everyone on the team is security. Characters charged with security will loiter around their vehicle and keep watch for thieves, monsters, and other threats. If there aren't enough people watching a vehicle, it could end in stolen supplies, vehicle damage, or even injuries to the crew.
- Team health falls on the shoulders of the characters assigned to medical duty. Characters in the Medical role will look after the sick and injured. Best practice is to have at least one team member on medical duty for every benched member of the party. If there aren't enough people on medical, ailing party members will recover slowly - or might even get worse.
- The health of the team's transportation goes to the characters assigned with repairs. Characters charged with repairs will try to fix any damage to their vehicle, provided they have the parts. If the party doesn't have any parts, the repair crew will try to keep their vehicle stable. On the other hand, if a vehicle doesn't need any work, there's no consequence to having the mechanics doing something else.
- Getting out means finding trails. Finding trails means navigation. Characters assigned to navigation will hunt down leads on how to get to their next destination. This can include a lot of things; asking around nearby towns, scouting the outskirts of camp, or just climbing a tree with a pair of binoculars. If no one's charting trails when the team leaves, they might not have any idea where they're going - which can be just as dangerous as having no security.
- Hunting is where most of the party's food comes from. Whether it's sniping crabs or plucking berries, hunting is the outdoorsman's trade. Hunting will take party members away from their vehicle, into secluded, far-off areas where the wilderness is heavy. Similarly, hunting depends heavily on the health of the land. No plants or animals means slim pickings. Rough weather or a hostile environment mean possible injuries. On the other hand, hunting is only necessary when the party's short on food. No hunters just means no food gathered.
- When you don't know what else to do, the easy choice is scavenging. Characters tasked with scavenging will go out looking for fuel, scrap, or anything valuable they can drag back to the van. This will take them just about anywhere that isn't around camp. Compared to hunters, scavengers are more likely to bring back supplies that aren't food, such as ammo or spare parts. At the same time, scavenging isn't a necessary discipline unless the team's strapped for resources.
NAVIGATIONOnce the team gets on the road, their progress towards finding a safe route will be checked out. Navigation progress is measured as a percentage, depending on how long the party has spent in camp and how much effort was spent looking for a trail. High percentages will mostly guarantee safe passage to the next destination. Low percentages will mostly guarantee an unexpected and unwanted stopover. Failing to find a decent trail will skew theme pie decisions towards the worst result - or might even detour the party into a slice they didn't pick. Multiple factors affect how effectively a party can stick to the trail. Riskier destinations and rougher weather complicate things. Vehicle damage can cause stopovers even with a perfect navigation score. Injured characters force vehicles to drive a little slower and a little more carefully. The same applies to vehicles loaded down with a hefty amount of cargo - which can be dangerous on delicate terrain. Agitating the local wildlife or highwaymen can lead to fights on the road, which can make things even worse.
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