Fellow Game Masters!

I'd like to invite my players for a friendly visit to the planetiod Kessel and I'm trying to prepare the numerous environmental hazards that this planet has to offer.

Lower than normal gravit y -> 1 boost to brawn based checks (except resilience) and coordination by the rules
Darkness in the mine s -> 3 blacks or treating the players as having the blinded critical effect (or both 😈 ), not sure yet
Thin atmosphere -> This is the one I'm struggling with. Suffocation would be a bit harsh condition, especially that per novels they make the prisoners work without masks, so it shouldn't kill them, just make things harder. I'm leaning to let them make a Resilience check (probably hard + setbacks per critical injuries) and only penalize them if they fail. However I'm not sure what would be appropriate representation of this effect.

Anyone created this one before? Or maybe there's already a sidebar somewhere I'm not aware of? What would you do in this case?

Thanks in advance!

Sounds like a cool scenario, @Rimsen

This is Star Wars, so physics are pretty optional, but "thin atmosphere" could mean several things, I guess. If it means "low atmospheric preassure", then the boiling point of water would be lower and things like that (although such concerns aren't very Star Wars'y, so I'd describe that for flavor only and leave the rules out of it). If, however, you mean "thin air", (and let's not get into what constitutes "air" in Star Wars, heh heh), then physical feats should be more taxing, possibly costing 1 or 2 Strain every time they perform a Brawn or Agility based check without wearing a breath mask?

3 hours ago, angelman2 said:

Sounds like a cool scenario, @Rimsen

This is Star Wars, so physics are pretty optional, but "thin atmosphere" could mean several things, I guess. If it means "low atmospheric preassure", then the boiling point of water would be lower and things like that (although such concerns aren't very Star Wars'y, so I'd describe that for flavor only and leave the rules out of it). If, however, you mean "thin air", (and let's not get into what constitutes "air" in Star Wars, heh heh), then physical feats should be more taxing, possibly costing 1 or 2 Strain every time they perform a Brawn or Agility based check without wearing a breath mask?

Yes, the latter. I mean in legends it can't hold it's on own atmosphere so factorys generating it, still it's O2 is lower than normal.

I like your idea, basicly everything is difficult terrain while you don't have mask

6 hours ago, Rimsen said:

Darkness in the mine s -> 3 blacks or treating the players as having the blinded critical effect (or both 😈 ), not sure yet

This depends on how dark. 3 Setback is night-dark. Night-dark is nowhere near pitch-black. When there is truly no light, Blinded would make more sense. How dark is it in the mines?

6 hours ago, Rimsen said:

Thin atmosphere -> This is the one I'm struggling with. Suffocation would be a bit harsh condition, especially that per novels they make the prisoners work without masks, so it shouldn't kill them, just make things harder. I'm leaning to let them make a Resilience check (probably hard + setbacks per critical injuries) and only penalize them if they fail. However I'm not sure what would be appropriate representation of this effect.

The atmosphere is Type III, so it says "breath mask required."

In the novels, was it a point that the prisoners didn't wear masks or just that the prisoners didn't have masks? If the latter, I'd chalk it up to inconsistency and make breath masks required.

Without breath masks, if you don't want to use the dangerous atmosphere rules, I'd suggest Strain for the same checks that get a Boost from gravity and 1 point of strain for a second Move maneuver in a turn.

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

T he atmosphere is Type III, so it says "breath mask required."

In the novels, was it a point that the prisoners didn't wear masks or just that the prisoners didn't have masks? If the latter, I'd chalk it up to inconsistency and make breath masks required.

I imagine it's like being on high altitude. You try to breath, but just not enough oxygen in the air. Not lethal, but difficult.

I think in the novels, it's just wears down the prisoners.

1 hour ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

This depends on how dark. 3 Setback is night-dark. Night-dark is nowhere near pitch-black. When there is truly no light, Blinded would make more sense. How dark is it in the mines?

No light. Any source of light would activate the glitterstim and render it useless before consumption. The guards would use some night-goggles, the prioners should operate in blindness.

4 minutes ago, Rimsen said:

I imagine it's like being on high altitude. You try to breath, but just not enough oxygen in the air. Not lethal, but difficult.

I think in the novels, it's just wears down the prisoners.

Then yeah, I'd suggest Strain on checks that get the Boost from low gravity and additional strain on Move Maneuvers.

4 minutes ago, Rimsen said:

No light. Any source of light would activate the glitterstim and render it useless before consumption. The guards would use some night-goggles, the prioners should operate in blindness.

Then I suggest Blinded. Don't stack Setback on Blinded, that's overkill.

Thanks. @P-47 Thunderbolt ! @angelman2 suggested the strain too, i think it will be good representing that the characters get tired soon. Also, rewards higher strain threshold!

5 hours ago, Rimsen said:

I imagine it's like being on high altitude. You try to breath, but just not enough oxygen in the air. Not lethal, but difficult.

In very high altitude, like when climbing the over 7000m tops in the Himalaya, the thin air could be lethal.

7 hours ago, WolfRider said:

In very high altitude, like when climbing the over 7000m tops in the Himalaya, the thin air could be lethal.

I'm aware of that, but it wasn't that serious case in the novels.

On 8/31/2020 at 9:33 AM, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Then yeah, I'd suggest Strain on checks that get the Boost from low gravity and additional strain on Move Maneuvers.

Then I suggest Blinded. Don't stack Setback on Blinded, that's overkill.

My only concern with this is what if someone activates a light source? Like a glowrod which gives off localized light?

Then blinded doesn't make much sense. Unless at that point you ditch blindness and go to setbacks.

Imo it may be better to go with setbacks and then if a light source becomes available at all the setbacks can be removed to an extent for things that are close.

Just now, CloudyLemonade92 said:

My only concern with this is what if someone activates a light source? Like a glowrod which gives off localized light?

Then blinded doesn't make much sense. Unless at that point you ditch blindness and go to setbacks.

Imo it may be better to go with setbacks and then if a light source becomes available at all the setbacks can be removed to an extent for things that are close.

At that point, you'd have light so you revert to the normal rules for darkness as it isn't complete anymore.

14 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

At that point, you'd have light so you revert to the normal rules for darkness as it isn't complete anymore.

I was thinking the same. They wouldn't get the crit, just the effect