I've mentioned items in the last two posts with the basics on how they interact with skill checks and one of the ways to get them. Here's the full treatment.
Item cards give you a wide array of bonuses and abilities that will help you deal with the environment and encounters of the north. Some items can only be used once, while others will provide you with bonuses as long as you keep them. You obtain items through encounters or by trading (see below). There are a few distinct types of items:
- Weapons: give you bonuses to combat and sometimes other skills.
- Clothing: protects you from damage, either cold or health.
- Food: replenishes your endurance.
- First aid: replenishes your health.
- Utility: a sort of miscellaneous category of stuff, like flashlights or matches.
- Trophies: used to buy other items.
Trophies bear elaborating. You get trophies from certain events, or from defeating coldbringers. Different types of trophy have different values - animal hides are the lowest, gas is moderate, and coldbringer trophies are the most highly valued. These trophies can be traded for items at the survivor camp (a green zone unique tile) or with rare travelling merchant encounters. Each item has a trade value that tells you how many trophies you need to trade for it. You can also trade in regular items for half their value, if you get something you don't need.
There is some restriction on how many items you can use. For the first version of this rule, you've got two hands and a clothing slot. If you have more of those kinds of items than you have slots, you'll have to choose which one is active. Every night (end of round) you can choose which of your items will be active. So let's say I have an axe, a knife, and two pistols. The axe is two-handed, and the knife and pistols each take one hand. I could use the axe and nothing else; I could use two pistols; or I could use a pistol and a knife. Let's say I choose the axe. Its bonus is active for the next round until night, at which point I can reconsider what I want to have active. Coats work the same way. The next day I could choose 2 pistols, and get both of those bonuses until the next night.
So that's all the core game mechanics dealt with. The next post will talk about winning and losing - what you need to do, and what you need to prevent.
_____________________________________________________________
PS: as a bonus in case you're interested, here's the list of items so far. I'll probably add more as I think of them, and rebalance some stuff (at this point I can see hand items being potentially unbalanced, especially axe vs. two pistols), but this is what I'm taking into the first playtest:
- Matches (single use, no hands): start a fire and lose no heat tonight.
- Lighter (permanent, no hands): start a fire and lose no heat tonight.
- Clothing (permanent, no hands): block different amounts of heat loss depending on quality
- Winter coat: when you would lose heat, lose 1 less than the effect specifies.
- Down coat: when you would lose heat, lose 2 less than the effect specifies.
- Heavy fur coat: when you would lose heat, lose 3 less than the effect specifies.
- Weapons (permanent): provide bonuses to combat. Different weapons provide different bonuses; for example, a gun is more useful than a knife.
- Hunting knife (one hand): +2 combat bonus.
- Axe (two hands): +3 combat bonus, +2 survival.
- Pistol (one hand): +3 combat bonus.
- Shotgun (two hands): +1d6 combat bonus.
- Hunting rifle (two hands): +5 combat bonus.
- Flare gun (one hand): +8 combat bonus vs coldbringers; otherwise, +2 combat bonus. To gain the bonus for this combat, discard one flare.
- Flare (single use, one hand): +3 evasion.
- Explosive (single use, one hand): roll survival, difficulty 15. Success: +10 combat bonus. Failure: lose 5 health.
- Lantern (permanent, one hand): +2 perception, +2 combat vs. coldbringers, -2 stealth.
- Flashlight (permanent, one hand): +4 perception, -2 stealth.
- Dog (permanent, no hands): +2 perception, +2 combat.
- Snowshoes (permanent, no hands): +1 speed; +2 survival on ice in the blue zone.
- Body armour (clothing, permanent, no hands): when you would lose health, lose 1 less than the effect specifies.
- Food (single use, no hands): restores different amounts of endurance depending on quality. Use at any time except during an encounter.
- Canned fruit: gain 1 endurance.
- Energy bar: gain 2 endurance.
- Meat: gain 3 endurance.
- Medical supplies (single use, no hands): prevents health loss or restores different amounts of health depending on quality.
- Bandages (single use): discard when you would lose health to lose 1 less than the effect specifies.
- Painkillers: gain 1 health.
- Medkit: gain 3 health.
- Trophies (permanent, no hands): can be traded for items at towns or with traders. Different types of trophies have different values; for example, animal pelts are easy to come across and are worth 1 trophy, but coldbringer teeth are much harder to acquire and are worth 3.
- Alcohol (trophy / single use, no hands): use to gain 2 endurance and lose 1 heat. Is also a trophy with a value of 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment