Hey there, I'm currently planning for a game session in which my players will be fighting on a planet during a nasty winter, where they're going to have to hoof it across the wilderness to escape pursuers. I was tooling around with some rules ideas to represent them having to deal with exposure to the cold, blizzards, that sort of thing, and was wondering if any of you guys had come up with rules in that direction?
Rules for extreme cold exposure?
On a hunch, here are some ideas/options:
Cold/Snow
In
Narrative Movement
, characters that move through thick snow count their movement rate as 1 point below their actual Agility Bonus.
Characters moving through a zone of extreme cold use the rules for Forced Marching, as if they were already travelling for 10 hours. Note that the characters' Toughness Bonus still applies, granting them a few hours of safe travel. Also, protective gear as well as certain Talents may modify the difficulty of the Test. Wet clothing always imposes a -20 penalty to the Test, already including complete nullification of any bonus gained from Cold Weather Gear.
In
Structured Time Movement
, characters who attempt to Run or Charge through thick snow must succeed on a Difficult (-10) Agility Test or fall prone.
Blizzards
In
Narrative Movement
, characters moving through a blizzard count their movement rate as 2 points below their actual Agility Bonus.
Every hour, characters residing in a blizzard must succeed on an Ordinary (+10) Toughness Test or suffer the Degree of Failure in Energy Damage from the cold, regardless of whether they were moving or not. Protective gear as well as certain Talents may modify the difficulty of the Test. Wet clothing always imposes a -20 penalty to the Test, already including complete nullification of any bonus gained from Cold Weather Gear.
Every two consecutive hours of actual movement incur 1 level of Fatigue, which can be avoided only by at least 1 hour of rest after every 1 hour of travel.
In
Structured Time Movement
, characters have their movement rate halved. In addition, characters who attempt to Run or Charge must succeed on a Hard (-20) Agility Test or fall prone.
All Ballistic Skill Tests made against targets beyond Point Blank Range suffer a -10 penalty, cumulative with other modifiers. In addition, after the first hour of journeying through a blizzard, all ranged weapons that were exposed to the elements double their original jamming range until such time a suitable maintenance was carried out.
Frozen Rivers/Lakes
Characters traversing a frozen body of water must succeed on an Routine (+20) Agility Test (+30 for Ratlings, +10 for Ogryns and anyone carrying a Heavy Weapon). Failure sees the character crash into the icy waters, immediately suffering 1d10 Energy Damage (ignoring AP+TB) and a further 1d5 every future Round until they are pulled out.
Pulling another character out of the water is a Full Round Action that requires a Challenging (+0) Strength Test. Up to two characters or comrades may help, each providing a +10 bonus to the Test.
This challenge may occur only once per scene, for the character who first fails the Test. The order of Tests should be determined by Agility score, with the slowest/clumsiest character having to roll first.
... with this, you could give your players a fixed distance to one or more possible safe zones to escape to, and increase the likelihood of blizzards, wild animals, environmental challenges (cliffs, mountains, rivers to cross) or even enemy patrols depending on the route they choose. The shortest route offers the quickest way out, but is it also the safest ...?
Edited by Lynata
Dark Heresy v1.0, Haarlock Legacy Trilogy Part 3, Dead Stars, had some rules for intense cold exposure.
Any hit location not covered by armor that is considered insulating or cold-protected means the wearer is considered Exposed.
An Exposed character must make a Toughness(+0) test or suffer D5+1 Energy Damage ignoring armor and a level of Fatigue. Up to you to determine how often that test need be made.
A character with the Survival skill can make a Survival(+0) test to reduce this damage by Intelligence Bonus for himself or an ally.
Thanks guys! I'll use bits and pieces of both. Hopefully I'll have some good stories to tell about how somebody froze to death (or didn't).