I am working on writing an adventure for my group and I have the players going through an ice cave. Now, I am intending to release this adventure for other people to play with once I get the kinks ironed out, but I want some thoughts on a part of this....

I am leaving part of this open for GMs to kind of mix and match events. One of them that I have done seems diabolical to the point of maybe being a little too far.... Considering this is intended to be used to help introduce players to the game (this part plays heavy on environmental interactions) I tried to create a couple of outs to avoid a player kill, but I am afraid of that one guy who freezes when things go bad getting this and having a brand new player killed and making them re-roll right off the bat....

Frozen Lake

As you proceed, a sharp crack breaks the silence. You stop moving and look down, seeing the ice at your feet splintered and crack, water leaking through it and around your boot.

Player should immediately step back. Any other decision should be met with…

The ice breaks around you, dropping you into the icy water. Your feet hit the bottom, keeping you from falling too far into the icy depths, but your clothes are already soaked.

Average Athletics check to get out of the water. If they fail, another player should come to their rescue. Easy Athletics check with a Boost die.

If a player ends up under the ice, have them roll an Average Resilience. If they fail, they have a set-back die on all rolls until they are back aboard the ship They also suffer 2 strain for each turn they were in the ice. If they succeed, they can ignore any Strain that might have otherwise been accrued.

If they do step back/after escaping the ice….

The ice does not seem capable of supporting your weight. However, you can see a light shining through from above. It seems to move visibly, and the parts of the ice that it no longer touches seem much thicker than the rest.

Players may choose to wait for the lake to freeze and proceed (2 turns) or search for another way. If they look for another way, have them roll Easy Perception. If Success, they find parts of the ice that seem thick enough to support them. Easy Athletics check. If Success and at least 2 Advantage OR Triumph, they find a way around the lake. A shore line of sorts that leads them to the other side.

Thoughts?

That's pretty tame, I don't think you need to be concerned with killing anyone. For the danger that scenario actually presents in reality in the wild you are pretty conservative, should be fine.

That's pretty tame, I don't think you need to be concerned with killing anyone. For the danger that scenario actually presents in reality in the wild you are pretty conservative, should be fine.

I thought I was being pretty nice about it, but it's nice to hear it from someone else.

Again, this is just part of an adventure designed to introduce teh nubs to the game. The first chapter has a heavy focus on environmental interaction. I didn't want to leave a way for a Player to die so quickly. Would kind of kill the buzz.

It's pretty tough to kill someone in the game but going under the ice in reality would be an extremely bad thing.

It's pretty tough to kill someone in the game but going under the ice in reality would be an extremely bad thing.

Oh so much.... I gave them the Adverse Environment Gear not too far into the adventure, so I want it to count for something. Not that a warm jacket will keep you alive in those circumstances, but we ARE dealing with a universe that has magic space wizards; anything is possible.

If they have specialized gear I can see keeping it toned down in regards to strain/wounds.

If they have specialized gear I can see keeping it toned down in regards to strain/wounds.

I account for the possibility of Strain accrual. I tried to run this scenario by my brother and was instantly reminded why I did not invite him in on this group....

I did notice that most of the rolls (actually, all of them except for the last one) only took into consideration success and failure. You may want to come up with more consequences for advantage and threat, and triumph and despair as well.

I did notice that most of the rolls (actually, all of them except for the last one) only took into consideration success and failure. You may want to come up with more consequences for advantage and threat, and triumph and despair as well.

I was leaving some of those rolls open for Players to be able to play with alternate options for using Advantage or Triumphs. Such as granting the next player a Boost on their next roll, regaining some Strain, or using them to notice something beneficial.

And likewise, Threat and Despair for the GM to introduce some different things that can be used against them.

When I feel it is important, I do outline what I feel should happen with those faces. Otherwise, I leave it open for their own discretion.

As 2P51 said, that's pretty tame. If you soak your clothes you don't have that long before you hypothermic. I've done this, luckily it was +5C (40F) and I could keep moving vigorously for an hour until my clothes were dry. My sister has done this skiing on our river, but it was -25C and she was able to run several blocks home (10 minutes) and get into a warm bath.

Good gear helps immensely. I was in jeans and a t-shirt and a light coat, and cotton will kill you real fast, I was lucky it wasn't colder. My sister said she was mostly dry by the time she got home (very good skiing gear), except her boots, but she was already fully chilled and shaking despite running the whole way.

I'm not saying to get all real-life on them, but a few more details might make it more interesting and might make the players more cautious...because if it were my players and that was the impact, they might go swimming just to see what I would do. So I'd make it multiple turns of impact after getting wet. Assuming they have good gear, set an amount of Strain they would take per turn if they do nothing (say 1), and a number of successes they need before the gear is dry (say 10). If they run around vigorously, let them roll Resilience against a difficulty base on the temperature. Each success goes to drying clothes. Each advantage reduces the default Strain effect, while each threat increases it. Others could Assist by wrestling with the wet PC or starting a fire, etc. Once they are dry, as per the usual end-of-encounter rules, let them roll resilience again to recover Strain one last time.