417 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
417 lines
34 KiB
Plaintext
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Episode: 2795
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Title: HPR2795: Dead Earth
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Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2795/hpr2795.mp3
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Transcribed: 2025-10-19 16:57:13
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---
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This is HBR episode 2007-195 entitled Never and in part of the series Tabletop Gaming.
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It is posted by Klaatu and is about 37 minutes long and currently in a clean flag.
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The summer is a renewment 20-year-old, GNU free documentation license, RPG about post-apocalyptic
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turmoil.
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This episode of HBR is brought to you by an honest host.com.
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At 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HBR15, that's HBR15.
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Bet your web hosting that's honest and fair at Anonesthost.com.
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Everyone, you're listening to Hacker Public Radio.
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This is Klaatu and in this episode, I'm going to review a little RPG game called Dead
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Earth.
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A few game systems match the apathy and brutality of Dead Earth.
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Now if you're a fan of Fallout, Rage, Mad Max and all things post-apocalyptic, this
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game is one you have to try.
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And I do mean try because surviving Dead Earth is by no means guaranteed.
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Dead Earth is just that cruel as the game intro states.
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Only one will mourn for your death and that is you.
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Take heed.
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Dead Earth is out of print and it has been for about, I don't know, 20 years.
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But it was released for posterity under the GNU free documentation license.
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Now that's probably not the optimal license for game materials.
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It was certainly never the intent of GNU free documentation.
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I don't think to serve as a game license.
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But that's what they had at the time and it is therefore free to redistribute.
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Now sadly, the copies that you're probably going to find floating around the internet
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today are often missing one thing or another.
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All the GFDL that is GNU free documentation license versions that I could locate had
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no artwork because they were just, I think they were stripped PDFs probably.
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And it makes sense because I highly doubt that the art has been licensed freely.
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It was probably just the game rules that they licensed.
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And generally these copies are missing little things here and there.
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Just like, oh, we've somehow, we lost the column for the damage die in the weaponry column.
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Or we forgot to print somehow the table for weight and height effect that the charts for
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weight and height are missing.
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There are just little bits and pieces just sort of that just didn't make it in.
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So they're gone.
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Compounding the issue of incomplete material is that the writing of the rulebook at its
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best was arguably ineligent.
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Part of that is the natural style of the game.
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Dead Earth makes no pretense.
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You're the scum of the dead earth and deserve to be talked down to taunted, ridiculed, and
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generally prepared for a quick and miserable death.
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That attitude sometimes extended from tone to grammar and spell checking, possibly not
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entirely intentionally.
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But then again the authors of dead earth had a lot more planned than they were able to
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accomplish in the end before they had to fold everything up.
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So maybe the writing would have gotten a little bit more polished eventually.
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And dead earth was one of those games that kind of coexisted in printed material and with
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their website presence.
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So I'm not even sure how much of the printed material was considered.
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It may have been very much considered a living document in spite of being dead earth.
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The game's amazing though and it's a very unique or at least in my experience.
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It's a unique experience.
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So one thing that I've done with the dead earth, Gnu free documentation license bundle is
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to instigate some critical updates to the PDF that you would need to actually play the
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game, which includes restored table layouts so that the charts are readable.
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Some of the PDF formatting had sort of decayed over the years due to presumably maybe changes
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in fonts or rather the fonts not having been bundled into the PDF maybe and just general
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shifts in the PDF format.
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Again, maybe and I restored some charts that were previously missing entirely and I even
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made some rule updates.
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So in one case a new rule kind of it was just being, it was begging to be created.
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So I mean I've included both the old traditional method, the one that's in the original text
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of the book but also an alternative.
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So in the original game you were told to roll 2d6 so that's two six sided die for each
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skill on your character sheet.
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If you rolled a critical success that would be a 12 then you gained some special benefits
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to rolling on that skill later in the game but if you rolled a critical failure which
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would be a two the lowest possible roll for 2d6 then you got some special disadvantages
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to rolls on that skill during the game.
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The problem is that there are literally 100 skills on the character sheet.
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So if you were to do what the rule book told you to do whilst building a character you
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are going to be rolling 2d6 100 times in a row and only marking down the twos and twelves
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that you roll.
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So out of 100 maybe that's I don't know.
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6 times that you're actually going to be marking something down.
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So you're rolling 100 times for six things of note, worthy of note and that's it.
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So I just couldn't, there's no way to make that entertaining in real life.
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I've tried.
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I did.
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I've tried it.
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It's not possible.
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So this free revision that I'm offering offers an alternative rule which is to roll a
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d100 to get a random skill from the 100 skill list and then roll a percentage die to
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decide whether you're good at it that is if you roll 51 to 100 or bad at it that is
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if you roll 0 to 50 rather.
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So you repeat this process for a total of 6 times and you have the average number of
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skills more or less that probably would have been affected by rolling 100 times.
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With some randomness thrown in to determine whether you had a net gain or loss.
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It's not an exact simulation of the original process and I'm certainly open to hearing
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back from any maths experts on ways to make that even better.
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But in practice I do find that it achieves a close enough approximation and close enough
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is the key phrase here, dead earth is is is brutal by default.
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So it's not entirely unintended that this alternative does lean toward more success
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than failure.
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So included in my revised edition is a digital version of the character sheet.
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It's a spreadsheet that I did in LibreOffice.
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So this is like one of the three spreadsheets I've done in the past five years.
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And it's available obviously for all platforms because it is just a spreadsheet and I'm assuming
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it would probably even work in an online spreadsheet.
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I have not tested it but I don't see why it wouldn't be compatible.
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Technically dead earth is actually pretty easy to manage on paper.
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So the digital version I wouldn't say it was necessary but it is a nice option to have.
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And there are some nice little features that I implemented.
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If you actually if you have a natural ability in your 100 rolls that I was just talking
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about then the skill that you have a natural ability in turns green.
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And if you have a natural inability to a skill then it turns red.
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And there's autocalculation for your maximum load based on your weight and your height
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and strength and a few other little conveniences.
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And yes you can download this whole thing if you go to mixed signals.ml and do a search
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for the dead earth post you'll find that there is a seven zip, a P7 zip bundle of dead
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earth, the revised handbook and then a bunch of other materials and then the character
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sheet as well.
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And believe it or not unlike my episode on PDF creation and stuff like that this is
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not a trick.
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There are no embedded secret files in this download it is purely for the fun of the
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game.
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So if you if you want a free copy of this freely distributable RPG then go to mixed signals.ml
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do a search for dead earth and you can find it.
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So what's it like?
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What's it like to play dead earth?
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Well I don't have any sample play for you but I certainly do have lots of thoughts on
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the game itself.
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So let's talk mechanics.
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Dead earth uses two kinds of die, a D6 for skill and damage rolls and a percentile die
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which a percentile die is either a special die with double digits on it, 0, 0 through
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90 and then a D10 you roll and the combination of those become your roll or just a 2D10 and
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you can kind of fake it you know make it a percentile that way.
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The difficult that's all you need those are the only kinds of die that you need.
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It helps to have multiple multiple copies of each die not maybe not the D10s you don't
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need that many D10s D6s you tend to need more than one but it's it's not there's not a
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whole lot of a die that you need it's really just the D6 and the percentile.
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So the difficulty of tasks during the game that are not specifically based on a skill is
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set by the GM in anticipation of a percentile roll.
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So there are six shades of difficulty and generally you succeed by rolling below 15 with
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24 being difficult 36 improbable and 51 being improbable.
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That sort of thing kind of annoys me I'll be honest because I think in a good gaming
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system everything should be should be pointed in one direction that is to say you should
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either always want to roll low or you should always want to roll high and in dead earth
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I will admit this is not the case sometimes it is better if you roll low and in other
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times it is better if you roll high.
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So in a non-skill based roll you want to generally roll low below 15 otherwise if you
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roll high things become impossible for you to achieve.
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Now skill rolls are different skill rolls are contested rolls usually against an enemy
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for skill based rolls and the skill based rolls I'm talking about the set of 100 skills
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that are specifically identified by dead earth as well special skills.
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If something falls within the category of one of those skills then you're doing a skill
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based roll probably and in these kinds of rolls you roll as many D6 dice as you have levels
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in a skill that you're rolling for.
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So if you're level three in a skill then you're going to roll three D6 and so on.
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So obviously as your compounding die your goal becomes to roll high rather than low unlike
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the other kinds of skill checks.
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Okay as I say I admit that's not my favorite thing about dead earth and it really is something
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about I think older RPGs that they just hadn't they hadn't all decided yet that you know
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what it would be great to standardize a crop you know within a game whether you want
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to roll high or low and the problem persists today there are still rolls in some game
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systems where just because of probability or whatever they've decided that's better if
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you roll low on this one that's silly to me.
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But anyway for instance let's say that a player is attempting to pick a lock but while
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they're picking the lock they've been spotted so some some Merck is running towards them
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angrily probably to to rough them up.
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So I might have the player roll their Jimmy lock die that's like a Jimmy Jimmy lock means
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to pick a lock.
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So they would roll their Jimmy lock die against a running roll from the from the Merck running
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towards them the highest roll wins.
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Now that I quite like I think that there is a lot of times in in in in game systems there's
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the expectation especially to new GM's there's the expectation that that sometimes the the
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roll should just be you against me and and and that's quite simple to understand because
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there's there's no difficulty class to set there's no there's no range of success to consult
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there's no table telling you whether you need to roll below or under a certain number
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it is simply take two people take the die that they that they should have in a in a skill
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and they roll it and whoever wins that roll off wins that encounter.
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And I think that's quite elegant I really really like that it honestly takes me time
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to get used to that because I'm so used to having some kind of table or some kind of
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number to equate a difficulty level to and and so it's it's funny that that the contested
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role is something that I have to get used to when I switch over to dead earth.
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So in cases where a task is obviously related to a skill but there's no one to roll against
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for instance when a player attempts to shoot a power switch from far away maybe they want
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to shoot out you know like a an alarm or something on the wall and it's it's far far down
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down the mountainside in a in a compound the DMG and PHP that's what they call the dead
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earth books the dead earth players handbook and the dead earth dungeon master guide I guess
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are vague on how to set difficulty so in these cases I just invent a difficulty level for
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the task in terms of die and then the player makes a contested role against me the GM.
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So for instance if a player has 3d6 in the weapon specialty rifle that's the WS rifle skill
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on the dead earth character sheet and they're attempting to shoot that that alarm or the
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the power switch or whatever from you know let's say 400 meters away we'll call it.
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Then I might set the difficulty to I don't know 4d6 that's 4 die per 100 meters seems
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fair to me and then the highest role wins you get skill points at the start of the game when
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building your character mostly determined by your character's age you use those points to gain
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levels in skills you can pick 10 skill points to gain an additional die in any skill so you're
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you're buying your skills with with 10 skill points now of course some skills have prerequisite
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skills so getting even one die in a skill could have a greater effective cost than just 10 skill
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points so you know if you if you want to be good at the investigation skill then you you have
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prerequisites and it's marked on the character sheet that you have prerequisites you have to consult
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the handbook to find out what they are but for for for the record it's search and reason so and if
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you want to be good at intuition for instance and save this page open you need to be good at
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senses and interrogate you need to have the outright lie skill and so on so and and and there are
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levels of dependencies so it can become complex you you may have to trace it back a couple of
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a couple of levels to find out what you need to to have in order to to get the ultimate thing that
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you actually want but that's just that's how it goes and instead of gaining experience points as
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you play you're rewarded with skill points so and those of course you can use to then improve your
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character so let's talk combat now the combat system in debt earth is it's precise and I like to
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say it's lovingly laborious but really the way I think of it is vats I mean if you're a fan of
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fallout this is kind of this is the for me this is more or less the RPG version of of vats I mean
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not necessarily and there's probably I know that there is actually a fallout board game I think
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out there so maybe it actually approximates this better I'm not sure but that's just kind of
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that's the that's the closest equation I could make for myself to to kind of understand what they're
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what they're driving at it's gonna seem pretty complex at first but once you get the hang of it
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once you do it it's actually quite a lot of fun so somewhat counter intuitively maybe the initiative
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role the role to see who goes first is better if you roll high now it which means that you go
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later so that's why it's counter intuitive and it but it makes sense if you think about it the
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lowest role is going to go first and making the first move in combat necessarily betrays your
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tactics and gives your opponent the opportunity to then counter move so you want to roll high which
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you might sometimes think is bad although in debt earth it kind of confuses that pretty pretty
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severely so you want to roll high you want to go later when you're when you're going into combat you
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do not want to be the first to make a move a combat round is variable depending entirely on your
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characters abilities some characters have only two moves in combat others have six another might
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have ten it just depends on your character build and your progression you know the way that you've
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you've leveled up at the start of a combat round the person with the lowest initiative role
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declares all of their intended moves during that round so you use up all your moves you have two
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moves you use them both right right away you you you announce what you're going to do you have six
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moves you do the same thing then the next lowest role does the same now some actions take multiple
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moves so strategy is a combination of good attacks balanced with freedom of movement all actions and
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their move costs and effects are on the back of the character sheet so you kind of choose what
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you want to do and you budget what you can do according to what's on your page it what's what's
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there right there it's a menu it's like a little menu for you to choose players who rolled higher
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than their opponent can adapt their actions to defend against attacks so your actions are never
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locked in until you've actually taken them again the higher your initiative compared to your enemy
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the better because you can then adapt what you thought you were going to do that round according
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to what actually happens there are skills for attacks defense and evasion so you can work your
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way up to being a better fighter by adding new tricks to your arsenal combat systems usually make
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more sense if you experience it or observe it so I'm just going to I'll give a quick little
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sort of an example so let's assume that Alice has four moves and Bob has two to keep it really
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simple they're fighting a large brute mutant who has four moves selecting moves from the character
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sheet the GM has the GM who is playing the brute obviously has rolled the lowest initiative so
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so the brute is going to attack first so that's good that he's got a disadvantage now he decides
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to have the brute do a hammer fist move on Alice now that costs three moves so he and he only has
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four to spend so he's just cost he's just spent three to do a hammer fist on Alice and he
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takes a jab which is just a one one move it's a little punch at Bob now unlike in dnd and similar
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combat doesn't happen in six second rounds in the game world time everything's declared by each
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player as an overview of their turn and then it's all kind of sorted out so this is why going
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versus is is a disadvantage so now Alice knows exactly what the brute is going to do she knows
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that her assailant is going to try to do a hammer fist move on her it costs the brute three moves
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to do that she can see that on her character sheet so she knows exactly what she's up against
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so she uses the special defend move from her combat sheet it costs whatever number of moves the
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attack that you're dodging costs but she figures is probably worth it so she still has one move left
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after that so she decides to do a turn which is one move in an attempt to get behind her enemy so
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in other words she's looked at what the brute is going to do she knows that he that her his move
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cost cost three moves so she spends three moves of her own to defend against it and then she spends
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the extra one that she's got to maybe duck and cover and maybe you know do a do a roll behind him
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or something like that I don't know so Bob has two moves right that's what he that's what he entered
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this combat with so he decides to take his chances with the jab from his foe he'll just take that
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he'll absorb it or whatever or take the damage from it and he's going to spend his two moves on
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a balanced check in an attempt to trip his enemy and that's the round of combat so once it's all
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declared then you go through each step of the combat and and announce how it how it actually
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works out for the person so the brute is first so he takes the hammer fist then we look at Alice
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and and we realize well that she's just she's defended against that successfully so that's
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that's null and void so that's three moves out of the way for for this round and then we look at
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as the next move next move which is jab at Bob so Alice succeeds in her turn I would say
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and the jab at Bob we would we would roll for to see if that if what happens there and once that's
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resolved then Bob assuming he's still up and okay can take his action which is to attempt to trip
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his enemy physically trip him to to to cause him to fall onto the ground and you can he would roll
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for that see if that's successful and depending on the state of things the next round begins
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and all of the actions are declared again starting with fresh you know with all the moves that you
|
||
|
|
have available for each round now it can get more complex from the players perspective sometimes
|
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|
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because when you're declaring your action you might get thwarted by an enemy who who rolled a
|
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higher initiative than you but if you declared that you were going to jump kick and then come down
|
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for a pile driver but your kick didn't meet its mark because your enemy defended your change
|
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can move to change you know to to suit to suit what you think has happened and that's again the
|
||
|
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advantage of going later because you find out how the the your enemies move resolves before you
|
||
|
|
actually have to commit to taking the move that you declared you you were going to take so it's
|
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really nice it's hyper-tactical it is it is very it lets you get it right in there and and throw
|
||
|
|
in and track just every punch that's being thrown and every kick that's being kicked and and every
|
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|
roll on the ground to avoid a swing you know you you get right in there and it's just a dynamic and
|
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|
and very kind of active combat system a lot of people complain I think about
|
||
|
|
combat systems like the D21 in D&D where a lot of times they feel like it's not very it's not
|
||
|
|
we're not really in there we're we're zooming too far out and we're kind of looking at the battle
|
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|
|
from way too far away whereas dead earth there's no way to do that it's it is it is exactly it is
|
||
|
|
what you are doing with every party of your body and how how long it takes or how many you know moves
|
||
|
|
it takes to to meet your mark and whether it succeeds or fails it is it is very up close and
|
||
|
|
personal so it's a lot of fun and and it becomes collaborative too because everyone at the table
|
||
|
|
then has to you know you break out your scrap paper and you figure out what how everything resolves
|
||
|
|
and there's no there's no real chance of someone just sitting back and sort of spacing out while
|
||
|
|
other people are in combat you know it is a very interactive process and it it is quite nice
|
||
|
|
okay so let's talk about character creation as I've said before I love character creation
|
||
|
|
I really do it's I think it's a blast so first of all the players handbook encourages you to
|
||
|
|
gather friends and build characters together now this is something that I've never done in RPG
|
||
|
|
playing before the I think the expectation in most RPGs at least now I don't know how it was before
|
||
|
|
but now it is I shouldn't say I've never done it before but anyway the expectation I feel like
|
||
|
|
in modern RPGs is that you bring a character to the game or you show up early to build a character
|
||
|
|
with the DM but and I have actually done character creation together I guess in a way I show I did
|
||
|
|
a I did a game at a game convention which was sort of a first edition D&D clone and and so I just
|
||
|
|
brought little character sheets with all like what six stats and an equipment a gear list pretty much
|
||
|
|
was all it consisted of and so and it was a high death count game so if you died in the game you
|
||
|
|
just rolled up a new character right then and there and and kept going so it was a very fun and
|
||
|
|
highly highly dynamic and and instant kind of kind of process but that earth encourages you to
|
||
|
|
actually make the character build sort of your the the the session like that's a good get together
|
||
|
|
build characters together as a gaming session and then on your next the next time you play use the
|
||
|
|
care use the characters that you have built I think that's a cool idea and the process is pretty
|
||
|
|
is pretty clear and simple to be honest you kind of it's maybe a two or three page process in
|
||
|
|
the player's handbook it steps you through it really really clearly I'm quite I'm quite impressed
|
||
|
|
with how with how explicit it is what you put put this number into that box you know there's
|
||
|
|
not a whole lot of flipping back and forth in the book you just go through a checklist you get your
|
||
|
|
numbers you put them on your player your character sheet and then you're done so you roll the number
|
||
|
|
of D6 prescribed in the handbook for each attribute you consult the tables there in the book
|
||
|
|
you calculate the results the player's handbook steps through the whole process
|
||
|
|
um and it doesn't really talk about it too much it just tells you exactly what you need to do
|
||
|
|
it's it's not quite as clear as something like dungeon raiders or you know first edition D&D
|
||
|
|
where you're just you roll a couple of die and you're done and you're you're off to a dungeon
|
||
|
|
but it is a lot clearer than than most modern D&D or Pathfinder or really modern game systems
|
||
|
|
than I've personally experienced skill points and renown are the main currency for players
|
||
|
|
in debt earth so the renown are sort of it's a hybrid of like D&D's inspiration points
|
||
|
|
and experience points while skill points are like Pathfinder's skill ranks both help you level
|
||
|
|
up your character and probably more importantly they help you well stay alive because now you
|
||
|
|
have more skills we should talk about radiation radiation is a big deal in debt earth so you first
|
||
|
|
roll against the radiation table during your character creation or you're likely to anyway
|
||
|
|
the number of times you have to roll is determined by your character's age because it is assumed
|
||
|
|
that the older you are the more radiation you've likely encountered in your lifetime makes sense
|
||
|
|
the the age you you you determine earlier in the process by a percentile die roll
|
||
|
|
as you adventure you have to roll against the radiation table depending on where you are
|
||
|
|
in the dead earth world coastal regions it is stated in the player handbook I think or maybe the
|
||
|
|
the dungeon master guide coastal regions in lowlands tend to have more residual radiation so you
|
||
|
|
might have to roll once a week for instance other areas are less affected so you won't maybe
|
||
|
|
roll on the radiation table as much but the radiation affects vary from like literal instant
|
||
|
|
death sentences like if you roll a 20 on the the radiation table decapitation radiation blows your
|
||
|
|
head right off 10 d 10 to your head okay so I mean that's it that's a death sentence for your
|
||
|
|
character to major upgrades so if you roll 11 crafty add a d6 to your jury rig skill well that's
|
||
|
|
great that's perfect that's brilliant so there are a staggering number of of effects something like
|
||
|
|
I don't know a hundred or two hundred or six hundred is it's a lot of of radiation effects on this
|
||
|
|
table now is it fun well radiation in dead earth is harsh it is unforgiving it is detrimental it is
|
||
|
|
powerful and yes it is really really fun everybody likes to roll die that's part of the fun of the
|
||
|
|
RPG and the process of discovering just what radiation can do always makes for a memorable game
|
||
|
|
night I don't care how many times you sit down to read the dead earth handbook you don't get the
|
||
|
|
full you don't get the full picture of what radiation can do until you experience it as a character
|
||
|
|
so it's very clear in the players handbook that you your adventurers are anything but normal you
|
||
|
|
venture into unknown territory you brave radiation you become mutated you are feared by normal
|
||
|
|
people radiation isn't just a game mechanic it it has in game like social repercussions
|
||
|
|
so you will you will be changed by radiation and and it will it will alter how the world treats you
|
||
|
|
now it does take getting some used to if you're not you know if you're if you haven't played a
|
||
|
|
20 year old RPG before if you're used to building characters with complex backstories and with
|
||
|
|
these these lofty dreams and high hopes for character development dead earth is different characters
|
||
|
|
and dead earth are disposable they're simultaneously the heroes of the story and the meaningless NPCs
|
||
|
|
meandering into somebody else's background they will die you have to accept that sometimes
|
||
|
|
without the chance to fight back you have to accept that there's a realism to it I mean to some
|
||
|
|
degree right death can take you by surprise oftentimes it does there's definitely an argument
|
||
|
|
as to whether or not that level of quote unquote realism is necessary in a game which you play
|
||
|
|
for entertainment so dead earth itself it says in the players handbook that this is a game so what
|
||
|
|
I add to that is just remember that it is a game if instant permadeath doesn't appeal to you
|
||
|
|
then you can and should change the rule if that doesn't fit your playing style then just
|
||
|
|
don't do that if your character would have died during character creation and that's not pleasing to
|
||
|
|
you then just reroll it's acceptable to do that I've done it totally I've done it I didn't regret
|
||
|
|
it either I've done it and I was quite happy with it if your character dies during the game
|
||
|
|
and that's not your style you don't want your character to die you don't want to be bothered with
|
||
|
|
creating a new character then just make a new rule you can impose a penalty like okay I didn't die
|
||
|
|
but I lost all my possessions or okay I didn't die but I lost a rank in this skill or in all my skills
|
||
|
|
or maybe you've lost a limb and now that's something that you have to deal with with in game this is
|
||
|
|
one of the inherent advantages of tabletop games they're easy to reprogram so take advantage of
|
||
|
|
the flexibility if you have to because I know that a high death count may be fun for one game or
|
||
|
|
maybe fun for one group it might not be as fun for other people or it might it might just be
|
||
|
|
too inconvenient you might not want to have to build a new character maybe because it is a lot of
|
||
|
|
rolling so it's it's a it is a job to rebuild I do think that debtors character build process
|
||
|
|
especially if you've done it a couple of times it is easy enough to do at the table though so if
|
||
|
|
you're if you're okay with a hike death count then it's not the most it's not it's not impossible to
|
||
|
|
sit down and say okay you guys play ahead I will be building a character and then we'll meet up
|
||
|
|
and we'll we'll keep playing so that's totally something you can do but if you don't want to then
|
||
|
|
like I say you can just say okay well we're not I didn't die that was an alternate reality we all
|
||
|
|
had a good laugh about the absurdity of my head being blown off by radiation but that didn't
|
||
|
|
really happen so let's continue it's it's fine to do that you can just re-roll something that
|
||
|
|
would have killed your character or you can just say okay well they're unconscious now and and
|
||
|
|
they will they will come back later you know it just it certainly there's an argument as well for
|
||
|
|
yes character death should happen otherwise what do you where's the tension right where's the risk
|
||
|
|
but how often you want that to be something that can just happen out of the blue is up to you
|
||
|
|
okay so I'm saying that because I heard some people critique dead earth for for how how brutal it is
|
||
|
|
really but but I love it so anyway let's talk about setting really quick there's not a whole lot of
|
||
|
|
world building that goes on in dead earth I mean there is a little bit there's a there's like
|
||
|
|
two pages of the sort of the history of the world like how how do we get here well this is how
|
||
|
|
now the beautiful thing is I think to me dead earth doesn't really need a whole lot of lore I feel
|
||
|
|
like of all the game systems out there this is one of those that is just in our common or at least
|
||
|
|
within my bubble of reality this is kind of common consciousness stuff we all know you know just
|
||
|
|
like we all know vampire lore or we know we know zombie apocalypse stuff that's what you know we
|
||
|
|
all know the stuff when you say okay this is a post-apocalyptic wasteland or post nuclear wasteland
|
||
|
|
you know what that means if you've ever played Fallout or you've Wasteland if you've ever read
|
||
|
|
Vonnegut or Philip Kiddick or Jack Vance or you've seen Mad Max or you've seen 12 monkeys or you've
|
||
|
|
seen I am legend or whatever it is we've all been there right we've all been in this world already
|
||
|
|
and so when you are when there's when there's this world that's being built dynamically
|
||
|
|
during the game then it's pretty easy for the players to just kind of make assumptions
|
||
|
|
it's a safe place to just say okay well there's probably a burned out car somewhere can I rummage
|
||
|
|
through the boot and see if there's a crowbar things like that you can just you can make quick
|
||
|
|
assumptions like that and and let the GM roll with it as as they will so it isn't like in a fantasy
|
||
|
|
game where you're not really sure whether well what kind of fantasy world is this are we are
|
||
|
|
is there a is there a ruin are there ruins of a temple over here in the mountainside but that
|
||
|
|
be a safe assumption or is that not really a thing in this world or you know do the do the doerves
|
||
|
|
dwell underground here they more like top ciders and how do I what what assumptions can I make
|
||
|
|
for dead earth all the assumptions are valid yes you're in a post nuclear disaster fallout zone
|
||
|
|
and and and all of the assumptions that you can make are valid it's nice you have a common
|
||
|
|
language that's it that's everything I have to say about dead earth as I've as I have stated it
|
||
|
|
is a fun game you should try it it is free to download and to redistribute so you can modify it
|
||
|
|
to your heart's content I have and yeah you should download it you should give it a go if you're
|
||
|
|
up for if you're up for a game I would love to do an hpr episode of of a playthrough of dead
|
||
|
|
earth but the logistics of course are are ever complex but shoot me an email if you're interested
|
||
|
|
because I'd be interested until such time have fun building characters avoiding radiation
|
||
|
|
and I'll talk to you next time
|
||
|
|
you've been listening to hecka public radio at hecka public radio dot org we are a community podcast
|
||
|
|
network that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday today's show like all our shows
|
||
|
|
was contributed by an hpr listener like yourself if you ever thought of recording a podcast
|
||
|
|
then click on our contributing to find out how easy it really is hecka public radio was
|
||
|
|
founded by the digital dog pound and the infonomicum computer club and it's part of the binary
|
||
|
|
revolution at binrev.com if you have comments on today's show please email the host directly leave
|
||
|
|
a comment on the website or record a follow up episode yourself unless otherwise stated today's
|
||
|
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show is released under creative comments attribution share a life 3.0 license
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