Wilderness / Island Survival Horror?

[Necrozius]

The recent launch of the a Kickstarter campaign of shipwrecked island survival (Castaway) has triggered really fond memories of my times with a PC video game called the Forest.

All of this has made we wonder if there are any existing RPGs that could tackle this concept well?

The before-mentioned Castaway looks promising, but since it is a Mork Borg game, I know that it will be a little too rules-light in areas that I will want more depth (I find Mork Borg to be very pretty and inspiring but very shallow).

Specifically, or for those unfamiliar with The Forest, I would want to run a campaign with the following features:

• PCs are stranded in the wild and have to make due with their immediate environment to survive
• Systems to track hunger/thirst, fatigue, environmental heat and cold (made worse by being wet)
• Crafting and building mechanics (tools, weapons, clothing, traps, shelter and ultimately a home base)
• Cave exploration and spelunking
• Easy stats for scary cannibals and horrific mutants
• Weapon wear, tear and repair

Is there already something out there that you’d use to handle this?

Or, if you’d use a hardy generic system like Mythras (as I would) is there a good system for resource gathering and construction? Something that could handle things like:

- cutting down trees to gather enough wood to build a cabin
- hunting enough deer and boar to make clothing
- preparing and storing food (eg smoking and other methods)

The video games are great but I’m TTRPG guy, right?

 

[Teotwawki]

As for system, we just adapt systems we like/are familiar with to match the needs of the setting in which we wish to play. Some systems have baked-in survival mechanisms with resources dice or tracking boxes on character sheets. Mythras and BRP-type games are of course readily adaptable for such things.

- cutting down trees to gather enough wood to build a cabin
- hunting enough deer and boar to make clothing
- preparing and storing food (eg smoking and other methods)

Depending on authenticity desired in your games, these three things are more problematic than possibly imagined. Since many trees aren't proper nor plentiful enough for such things, after finding them, cutting fresh trees for a lasting cabin requires felling enough appropriate trees in early winter--or before the sap rises, in any case--for a spring build. Storing food would require either burying or having some kind of smoke house (presumably built from felled timber). Charcoaling is a great survival skill we've employed in several rpgs that would be most helpful for such living. And for an island population, hunting enough deer for clothing for more than a person or two would likely decimate the population (what are the boar going to eat next year?), with similar concerns for the boar population.

If the game being played isn't concerned with such details, then, of course, those details are meaningless. For any kind of horror/survival game, at our table, addressing such details would be the difference between having fun or not. Survivalism isn't subject to hand waving for us--but your needs and requirements may vary!

 

[Moonglum]

The sorts of challenges and events you have in mind have more to do with the way the GM handles ‘hex crawling’ than with core rules (stats, HP, etc.). But I can see why you would scratch your head over what game to use because there is surprisingly little out there for actively supporting this style of play, despite the fact that it has always been part of the ‘mix’ (recall that outdoor events and movement in D&D were originally suggested to follow the rules and even base map of Outdoor Survival, which is basically exactly what you are looking for).

I suggest you handle this yourself. A few years ago I created a ‘module’ for my home-brew rehash of The Fantasy Trip, where I specified a bunch of turn-by-turn rules, actions, event resolution mechanics, etc. for handling hexcrawling at scales down to a hundred yards per hex, which is sort of the scale you have in mind if you want player decisions rather than simple random die rolls to determine whether or not they find wood, track down game, etc. The end result was pretty good for the things you have in mind, and unlike any game I’ve seen (since Outdoor Survival!). It will be easier, faster, cheaper and in the end suit you better if you just write up the 5-10 pages of rules you want.

 

[Atelerix]

Forbidden Lands does the exploration, survival and base-building theme well, the emphasis is on attracting other specialists to your new demesne. There's lots of info on making goods, and the resources you need to succeed.

The wilderness travel rules emphasise condition deterioration if you don't stay warm, fed, watered and rested. Part of the tension, of course, is that's not always possible...

Survival horror may not work quite like that - your PCs are going to be braiding rope and chopping logs for buildings and traps (for food to begin with...), rather than smelting metals and farming. Means that you get into some interesting quandries - do you use knives and hatchets to survive and forage, or give them to defenders to protect you?

The hexcrawl rules to seed encounters, resources, interesting sites and clues are decent, although you obviously want the most interesting stuff sketched out. Again, FL does this well (there's even a random mythic story generator).

The stumbling block for me is player knowledge. Unless they're bushcrafters, or watch Bear Grylls or Ray Mears, you need a way to feed them information about resource-gathering, hunting, crafting and survival.

The computer game feeds you blueprints as you find things and improve your skill as you use them. Can you do the same, and seed the party with certain equipment to help.

The pocket version of the SAS Survival Guide is £5 or so, or maybe one of the characters is reading a Dave Canterbury book like Bushcrafting 101?

Canterbury lists the core elements that may help you get started. At the most basic level, you need 5 things to support you:

Combustion (fire for warmth, cooking, boiling water)
Cover (protection from the elements)
Container (holding water and cooking)
Cutting (to prepare wood and catch and dress game)
Cordage (rope helps with building, traps, carrying)

That's a start if you want to start feeding them clues about what they need to do next, or hints about weather and resources. The water smells bad, there's a storm brewing. Or foreshadowing - maybe a boat swinging loose and nearly knocking someone over is a hint for a trap later on. Do they barely survive the natives and learn to use their tools against them? Find safe spots to defend. Sorry, "safe"...

 

[Necrozius]

Great thoughts folks, keep ‘em coming.

The primary goal is fun and gaming, so while some resource tracking is wanted, some things would be abstracted to a degree. Trees and lumber, for example, or how much hide you can get from a deer. I’d probably exaggerate the practicality of such things to make the game fun.

 

[Atelerix]

FL does abstract resources a lot, so you're good there. You get 1 hide, 1 horn etc plus up to 1D6 meals out a big animal (works in this genre) or you can spend time prepping the food to add a step to your supply dice.

Supply dice are counted separately for food, water and arrows. The lowest is 0, then D6, then D8, D10, D12. If you don't have a fresh supply of food today, roll the die. As long as the supply is not 0, you always scrape together enough to eat today, but on a roll of 1 or 2 your supply depletes one dice step from tomorrow.

If you don't eat or drink, you get the hungry or dehydrated conditions. And various penalties start to apply...

Those final D6 rolls as your supply diminishes are scary!

There are also conditions for exposure and exhaustion, and they're equally brutal. You need to balance achieving your goals - travelling, gathering food, building stuff, watching and prepping camp - with getting rest and staying warm (or cool).

On the other hand, losing the last working lighter or the one remaining hatchet should also be a disaster for the party.

 

[Fenris-77]

Into the Wyrd and Wild is a system agnostic OSR supplement that precisely targets wilderness survival horror. It's quite good.

 

[ChalkLine]

This is the exact RuneQuest 3 Roll20 campaign I'm running now.

Players have to settle "no closer than one day's march to the nearest imperial outpost" and have settled on a stretch of the Zola Fel river in Prax. They have to cut trees to build a raft to get there taking their animals with them, when they get there there have to build a stockade/¹rath/²crannog/whatever and defend themselves from all comers while creating a settlement from scratch.

I've used the same system to run a Dark Sun game where escaped gladiators ran off with literally nothing more than loin cloths. They built weapons, found shelters and water and then realised there was a deeper mystery in the area that they were surviving in.

RuneQuest (all editions) has weapons and armour hit points, craft skills and various rules for survival in both the main rules and the location campaign packs. It lends itself well to gritty, street level fantasy.

¹ Rath: turf-walled hill fort. ²Crannog: stilt river fort