Survival: Topic discussion

[Lighthawk]

As this doesn't really fit into any of the current RP sub sections we have, I'm putting it here since it uses the 40k RP system.



The darkness lifts as you come to, your head throbbing slightly. As consciousness returns, you find yourself laying in a small room you've never seen before, with no memory of how you arrived there. A single fluorescent bulb lights the tiny space, revealing the scarce features; a single metal door set into the far wall, a backpack laying on the floor nearby, and a long, metal floor locker wedged into a corner. As you get to your feet there is a static crackle, and a computerized voice spills from some hidden speaker in the ceiling.

The calm, soothing female voice states in precise, clipped tones, " Beta test initiating, batch one activated, subjects have two minutes to prepare. Look for the circles. Good luck." As the voice fades, a digital display lights up on the electronic lock set in the door, a bright red 2:00 appearing. As the numbers begin to count down, a new sound reaches your ears, a low, menacing growling, coming just from the other side of the metal door. A sudden blow makes the door ring like a dull gong, and the sharp scrapping sound of nails, or claws, drawn across metal follows as the numbers continue to count down





Your Goal: To survive as long as possible. Death will stalk you from every direction, it will come in numerous forms, violence, thirst, starvation, insanity If you live long enough, perhaps you might find some way to escape, or even discover who has kidnapped you, and to what purpose.

If you die: Feel free to start a new character, to be released into the experiment during the next batch of subjects.





Rules: The game will use the WH40k, Dark Heresy system, with a few modifications.

Character creation: Follow the steps outlined in the Dark Heresy rule book, with the following modifications.

1) Home world: Choices restricted to Feral or Hive.
2) Generate Characteristics as normal
3) Career Paths: Choices restricted to Arbitrator, Assassin, Guardsman, or Scum.
4) Determine Wounds and spend starting 400xp as normal, you do not gain any Fate Points.
5) You will start with no money (and never need to care about it), and with the following gear
a) A backpack (your choice of color) with the following: A chrono (keeps military time) 3 MREs, 3 8oz bottles of water, a first aid kit( 1 roll of gauze, a bottle of pain killers, a 30 pack of band-aids, and some disinfectant), and one object to be randomly generated by me at the start of the game. You backpack can hold 15 items (large items may be ruled to take up multiple spots). All items to be carried except weapons, ammo, and armor must fit in the backpack.
b) A weapon of your choice out of the following options: Any of the SP weapons except the Heavy Stubber, or any two of the primitive weapons (ranged or melee)
c) A back up weapon of your choice out of the following options: Any of the SP pistols or a primitive weapon (ranged or melee)
d) Ammo for weapons that use it. You start with one clip or a dozen rounds for each weapon, whichever is greater.
6) Determine your character's background and appearance as desired ( and only if so desired).
7) Roll for your divination and apply the results as normal.
8) Prepare to fight for your life!




Playing the game: While survival is the core point of the game, combat is not the only element that will matter. Granted, being able to fight your way out of the clutches of the hideous creatures that are thirsting for your blood will go a long way towards keeping you alive, but being able to avoid being caught in said clutches works as well. Giving thought to stealth or trickery can allow you to avoid combat, and successfully slipping by your enemies, or ensnaring them in a clever trap, can be worth just as much xp as blowing their hideous heads off.

Aside from bodily harm, you will need to worry about food and drink. You'll need to eat at least one meal and drink 8oz of water per 12 hour period, or you'll start to weaken from hunger and thirst. For every 12 hours you go without food or water, you'll take a -5 to all tests. The effects are cumulative, so not eating for 24 hours, or not eating and not drinking for 12 hours, would provide a -10. You may go three weeks without food, or one week without water before you die of hunger or thirst (Assuming you can survive that long with the massive test penalties.)

Another supply you should watch closely is your ammo. While you can find more scattered about, it is much easier to find more foes than more ammo. Be careful engaging in unnecessary combat, or you might find yourself forced to turn your gun into a club.

Keep an eye out for Safe Rooms, which will be marked out by their heavy metal doors and green, glowing palm scanners. Your right hand print will unlock the door for you (so try not to lose that arm if you can help it) and allow you to enter. The door will lock automatically once you are inside, and will only be able to be opened from the inside. Once inside, a timer will begin to count down, when you leave it will pause. This timer never resets, so consider wisely how long you spend in each safe room, especially if you plan on returning to one again, and be very careful not to let the timer count all the way down. Be sure to check the timer in each room as soon as you enter, you don't know how much time the last person to use the room left.

You will need to sleep, which is best done in Safe Rooms. You can go 24 hours without sleep without suffering any ill effects. After 24 hours, you will take a -5 to all tests, and an additional -5 for every 12 hours afterwards until you get at least 6 hours sleep.

Good things come to those who find the circles

A note on weapons and weapon talents: I will never give you a weapon you can not use. This is not to say I will immediately hand out a weapon of the type you just took a talent to be able to use, but if you have any interest in a chain sword, you'd better take the appropriate talent, or you'll never find one.

A note on skills: The following skills can be safely ignored: Ciphers, Common Lore, Evaluate, Forbidden Lore, Invocation, Navigation (stellar), Pilot, Scholastic Lore, Psyniscience, and Secret Tongue. If your chosen career path starts with any of these skills, you may trade them in for 50xp apiece. This trade in may only be done during character creation.

Healing: Wounds will be healed as per the Dark Heresy rules, with the following addition: a wound left untreated (no band-aid, no disinfectant, ect.) has a percentage chance of becoming infected. For every 12 hours a wound is left untreated, it has a 10% chance (subject to circumstance bonuses) of becoming infected. An infected wound takes twice as long as normal to heal, and imposes a -5 to all tests. The effects of multiple infections are cumulative. If the number of infected wounds ever equals or surpasses your toughness bonus, you are at risk of falling ill, and must make a toughness test, with all current penalties. If you pass, you suffer no further disabilities. If you fail, you become ill.

Ill: After any strenuous activity (combat, running, lifting more than your carry limit), you must pass a toughness test or gain a level of Fatigue. You remain ill as long as you have any infected wounds and for 1d10 hours after all infected wounds are healed. Certain contagions or toxins can also render you ill.

While you will begin the game alone, you might just run into other test subjects. While there are benefits to teaming up, there are also risks. Some subjects are not to be trusted, and if you lower your guard you might just find yourself all alone, and missing your gear. Also, some subjects have been driven mad by the horrors of the testing, or are just mean spirited bastards, and might attack you on sight.

Posting format. The game will use the same system being used by the WH40K game, a thread for the actual game, a thread for discussion and die rolling, and a character sheet thread.

The GM: For a large part of the game, I will be using d% dice and item/enemy/weapon charts to randomly generate your gaming experience. While I can and will make tweaks as needed, I will restrict myself to doing so only when common sense dictates it. Important: I WILL BE TRYING TO KILL YOU ALL, so don't take it personally. That said though, I promise not to drop your characters into overwhelming, hopeless situations by default. Rather, I will play your adversaries to the best of my ability (and their ability), and will not hold back or fudge die rolls, every creature you face will be doing it's best to kill you. If the luck of the roll is against you, well you're just SOL.

While charts and d% will account for a big chunk of the game, I do have several special situations in mind, and have seeded them into the testing area. Such situations may include "boss" monsters, caches of supplies, hazardous terrain, special weapons, or other extra dangerous or rewarding finds.

Combating the horror: You can, and likely will, gain Insanity and Corruption points.

Combating the monsters: In order to keep things streamlined, combat will have a few special rules.
1) You win initiative. Unless surprised by a lurking beast, you get to take the first move in any combat. If you are teamed up with an NPC, you still get to go first by default. If you are teamed up with a PC, roll initiative between you. (the monster still goes last)
2) Stats on display. All relevant monster stats will be provided, so that on a hit you can determine damage and injury to your target right away.
3) Critical damage. Monsters will suffer critical damage, and will not just drop dead at 0 wounds. However whenever a critical damage result calls for a test to avoid further harm, the monster automatically fails.




If you are interested, whip up a character and post it in the character thread. The game begins as soon as the first person posts a character, and you need not worry about what anyone else is doing unless you run into them. You may join the game at any point. You may die and rejoin as much as you want, or quit at any point (a suitably brutal end will find your character if you do). Play as much or little as you like.

Edit: Rules for secondary (and beyond) character creation
1) Homeworld restrictions removed.
2) Career path restrictions removed
3) On top of your starting 400xp, add in half the xp earned by your previous character
4) Your weapon selection is limited only to what you have the talents to use. You still get one primary weapon unless you choose two primative weapons instead. You get one backup weapon which must be primitive, melee, or a pistol. You may also select one weapon upgrade or full clip of special ammo per rank increase your xp has earned you
5) You will start with armor. Your method of armor selection works as follows: You may have a full covering of primitive armor, or flak armor that leaves one location unprotected, or mesh armor leaving two locations open, or carapace armor in one location. Armor you find as loot will follow your armor type until you have a full suit, so consider risk vs reward in your selection.

[Tyyr]

Well I'm in, you know that.

This could work as a WH40K thing well enough. It's not big in the story but some background about being some kind of twisted experiment by an Inquisitor or AM big wig could make sense. Hell, even call it a particularly sick and twisted for of entertainment in a hive.

[Tsukiyumi]

So, it's like Saw 40k. Cool.

I'm in.

[Lighthawk]

Well I'm in, you know that.

This could work as a WH40K thing well enough. It's not big in the story but some background about being some kind of twisted experiment by an Inquisitor or AM big wig could make sense. Hell, even call it a particularly sick and twisted for of entertainment in a hive.

Interesting thoughts...actually, that gives me an idea...

So, it's like Saw 40k. Cool.

I'm in.

Saw+Cube+Portal 40k more like.

[Tsukiyumi]

Saw+Cube+Portal 40k more like.

Even better.

[Tyyr]

It should be amusing. Also a chance to test out alternate classes and weapons as opposed to the ones we've got in the other RP.

[Lighthawk]

Well Tyyr's already ready to go, I guess I'll get his doom rolling...

[Tyyr]

Well I've known this was coming for a while to be fair.

[Lighthawk]

True enough, and thanks for the help with it...just don't expect special treatment

[Tyyr]

Well that's reassuring. I was certain you'd try to find some REALLY painful ways to kill me.

[Aaron]

I of course shall sign up, shameless WH40K whore that I am.

[Tyyr]

Is the footlocker nailed down?

[Lighthawk]

Is the footlocker nailed down?

Nope, but it is heavy. Probably a good 200 kilos

And welcome aboard kendall...you won't take it out on Haxta is anything unfortunate should happen to you, right?

[Tyyr]

200 kilos? What the hell is this, a depleted uranium footlocker?

So what kind of strength test would it be to drag the thing to the door? I've got a 180kg push limit.

Never mind, got the rules.

[Lighthawk]

200 kilos? What the hell is this, a depleted uranium footlocker?

So what kind of strength test would it be to drag the thing to the door?

Sometimes for the sake of the test, unusual materials or odd factors may be included...

Well according to the lifting chart, you could drag 180 kilos. Since this is just a bit over that, make a basic strength test to over come that extra.