Séadna
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A little game I got recently. Stay Frosty is a roughly B/X or OD&D derived game for playing point crawl sci-fi bug hunts in the style of Aliens, Doom or Starship Troopers (the movie, not Heinlein's novel). It can work as an RPG or an RPG-lite minis skirmish game and can be played solo.
Quick Summary of differences from B/X:
- Lower attributes are better as it is roll over
- Your attributes function as your AC, armour instead subtracts damage
- Encumbrance is slot based, not calculated weight
- There is an advantage mechanic, mostly replacing modifiers
- There is a Tension system for how focused and nervous PCs are
- Magic is replaced by the small Psionic powers list, which require a check to work
- Items and weapons don't have a fixed number of uses/ammo, instead a descending die mechanic generates when they run out
- Assumed play is a point crawl
Resolution Mechanic and Attributes:
Checks are done as roll over attributes on a d20, so lower attributes are better.
There are three kinds of checks: To Hit, Skill and Saves with typical D&D meanings.
Attributes are: Brains, Dexterity, Brawn, Willpower
Dex is used for dodging, fall damage and firing weapons
Brains is for skill checks mostly (e.g. hacking colony security), getting into some areas of the military (e.g. Medical) or focusing in combat
Brawn is a combined strength and constitution, so it determines accuracy in melee, ability to withstand hunger and encumberment limit
Willpower is for resisting or making Psychic attacks, intimidation in fights and hooks into the Tension subsystem (see below).
There is no skill system, so for example repairing the colony's power unit is just a Brains check.
Most modifiers are modelled as advantages or disadvantages, roll 2d20 and take best/worst. Advantage and Disadvantage cancel when applied to the same roll.
Character Generation:
Attributes are determined by 3d6 rolls
You then choose a Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) and roll for Rank (1d6)
MOS typically gives an advantage on rolls related to that MOS and an item, e.g. Medical gives an advantage on healing rolls and a medkit
Some have attribute requirements, e.g. Medical needs Brains 9
There are three Ranks (Private, Sergent, Lieutenant) each with their own benefits, e.g. Private gives +1 HP per level and you get a combat knife
Health is rolled randomly, not based on attributes.
All characters start with a list of standard equipment
Levelling Up:
d10 extra health
d20 check on Attributes, roll under and they go down by 1. You can reroll two attributes determined by Rank
Levels 3 and 5 grant an extra action in combat and a new Psi-Power if you are a Psionic
Combat:
Melee is handled by Brawn, Guns by Dexterity
Combat proceeds as:
- Dex check, failure means you go after aliens, success means before
- You roll over your stat to hit aliens
- Aliens roll under your stat to hit you
- The PCs have Fumble and Critical tables for 1s and 20s
- Roll damage dice
- PCs roll Ammo dice
Aliens cause a -1 to both their roll and yours for every hit dice they are above your level. So an Alien with 5HD will give -2 to combat rolls against a Level 3 PC. This is to simulate powerful creatures like an Alien Queen and has quite a drastic effect statistically given the simultaneous increase in the chances to miss and be hit.
If you choose not to attack you can Intimidate (gives disadvantage to opponent), Focus to get an advantage, or use Psi-Powers via a Willpower check
Damage and Health:
Damage that reduces you to less than zero health is then applied to increase your attributes. If any attribute hits 21, you die. Armour works by subtracting damage.
HP is restored to its original maximum after eight hours rest. Attributes heal at one point a week, which to be honest won't be time you have in a typical scenario for this game.
Some aspects of the damage system return, I felt, to Gygax's original conception of HP. Falls and Tension damage do the base damage rolled times character level. Since HP reflects skill in a fight and being abstract "staying power" in a fight (AD&D 1E DMG), you wouldn't expect the HP increases you get from levelling up to help with falls.
Weapons:
Each weapon has an Ammo dice, e.g. Rifle has d8. Every time you fire it, you roll the dice and on a 1 or 2 it drops to the next dice level (d8 -> d6). When you drop below a d4 the weapon is out of ammo.
Guns have a disadvantage at close range and a disadvantage if fired one step beyond their listed range. Ranges are:
Hand-to-Hand -> Close -> Short -> Medium -> Long -> Extreme
However the implementation of ranges is purely GM/rulings decided.
They can also have up to three special abilities from a list of nine. Special abilities include typical things like armour piercing, being a heavy weapon or ignoring close range penalty.
Items, Hunger and Encumbrance:
Items have a Supply Dice similar to the Ammo dice for weapons and works in the same manner.
Encumbrance is slot based, you can hold 21-Brawn items.
Item list is quite short, twelve in total. It's what you'd expect from the genre: Rations, Medkit, Targeting Reticule. All work as you'd expect except Rations decrease Tension (see below). Also not eating rations and going Hungry prevents Healing and lowers Attributes.
Psi-Powers:
Make a Willpower check and pick from nine powers. These are typical ones like taking control of a living being or machine, healing others, telekensis, telepathy, pyrokensis.
On a failure you can take damage to get a success.
Point Crawl:
Every time you enter a new point on the point crawl you roll on a Danger table. This results in:
- An encounter with enemies or NPCs
- Simply a new location
- Increases in Tension
- End active effects (e.g. Psionic bonuses) and a check on the Supply Dice for consumables.
Vehicles have four relevant stats:
- The heavy weapon they carry
- Speed
- Armour
- Health
- Special stats
For comparison a typical starting PC has 8HP and 2 armour, a tank has 75HP with 10 armour.
Having a higher speed than another vehicle/alien gives you an advantage in chase rolls. People on foot are always Slow with a disadvantage.
How chases function beyond this and what exactly the speeds might mean beyond determining advantages is left to the GM.
The Armour MOS gives an advantage when operating or repairing a vehicle.
Tension:
This reflects how focused the PCs are, giving cumulative advantages (called Frostiness) as it increases. The danger table above can increase it and any combat will as well.
By maximum the Tension of 6, PCs are quite a bit more lethal having advantages of saves and initiatives, extra damage, ignoring the Close range penalty on guns and having an extra attack.
The Danger table can also cause Tension to explode, an emotional outburst. This is a Willpower save to avoid taking damage. If this causes HP to hit zero, the PC gets half their health back and rolls on the "Going Apeshit" table, which can give advantages or disadvantages that can last for the rest of the scenario.
Miscellaneous:
The game comes with a couple of random generator tables for NPCs, locations, monsters, complications and some funny ones (how the facehuggers get into you with results like "anus").
Overall the rulebook has a funny tone, the author giving up barely a page into spot rules (only giving Falls and Hunger rules), Fumble/Crit tables being called FUBAR tables, etc.
How to get:
Lulu for POD:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/casey-garske/stay-frosty/paperback/product-23093720.html
Drivethrurpg for PDF:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/206742/Stay-Frosty
I'll be running a game here on the Pub. At night mostly.
(Video has swearing in case any are at work)
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