Hoth: Blood and Ice

Survival on Hoth as far as the characters are concerned will be tracked through their use of power at Echo Station and if the group chooses to expand the station it will take more power to allow other facilities to come online. Hoth is a dangerous world for sentient beings and extremely hostile to most life with it’s extreme cold and weather conditions. Travel is extremely dangerous even utilizing technology, and the vast frozen graveyards of ships dotting the planet attest to the myriad dangers.

For the purposes of this game Survival at Echo Base will be focused around one factor: Power. Players will have a chance through role play, events, and direct player action to affect the increase or decrease of Power. There will also be daily events that have minor or major affects on daily survival, these will start on Day 2 and run through Day 9.

Power is rated rated by grades from worst to best; Depleted, Critical, Inadequate, Nominal, and Surplus and the ratings can change at the end of the game day. Echo Base begins at Depleted.

Depleted: Power is nearly non-existent, and basically provides no benefit or service and in fact due to the deficit is providing a hinderance to the players and denizens of Echo Base. Fixing this shortfall in Power should be an immediate priority. Power at this level applies an increase of three to the difficulty, to a max of Formidable then apply upgrades as normal and upgrades the difficulty once to affected rolls that take place around the base and on patrols due to lack of power for external sensors.

Critical: Power is in dire straits and is probably dangerously close to be exhausted or failing. Fixing this shortfall should be high on the list of priorities of the expedition. Power at this level apply an increase of two to the difficulty, to a max of Formidable then apply upgrades as normal and upgrades the difficulty once to affected rolls that take place around the base and on patrols due to low power for external sensors.

Inadequate: Power is not in abundance but there is ample amount for emergency reserves and has a minimal effect on the survival of the expedition. There is a matter of concern, but it is not immediate or pressing. Power at this level apply a single increase to the difficulty, to a max of Formidable then apply upgrades as normal to affected rolls that take place around the base and on patrols due to lack of power for external sensors.

Nominal: Power is in abundance and easily accessible. No penalties are applied to any rolls as long as Power stays at this level.

Surplus: In this rare case there is more than enough Power, to the point that there is little danger of exhaustion. Power at this level applies a single free decrease to the difficulty of checks/rolls that take place around the base and on patrols due to an abundance of power reserves for external sensors.

Living Conditions

Inside the Echo Base even with power the conditions are cold and spartan, for the most part the major concern for keeping life support running is to keep temperatures high enough for most sentients to survive the deadly freeze of Hoth.

When power is less than Inadequate, i.e. at Depleted or Critical, cold weather gear is required even indoors or start taking 3 wounds every time slot due to extreme cold.

Being exposed while outside the base without adequate protection will lead to death within a time slot, a Daunting Resilience or Discipline check with three setback dice can be made to stay conscious and continue, assume that the character is at 0 Wounds at this point until they find someplace warm and have adequate protection for at least two time slots to recover.

Challenges and Opportunities

Players can engage in opportunities to affect other aspects of survival to make life easier around Echo Base or maintain basic operations through group activities. Challenges and Opportunities are similar to events but are limited to three to five players completed a role play and skill-based challenge. Challenges are usually from events generated by the GM while Opportunities are player driven, players can engage in one Challenge per game day while Opportunities are limited to two per session, which is three game days.

Challenge: A challenge will list a specific event or situation that the team at Echo Base needs to overcome and will list which skills are usable for said challenge. Players will need to get four successful rolls out of seven chances to complete the challenge successfully, coming up short may still complete the task but have unforeseen side effects or create new challenges for the expedition.

Opportunities: This is player driven such as going on patrol, or hunting, or maybe trying to repair or fix up a ruined area of Echo Base. Like challenges it requires three to five players who will need to complete five out of seven skill checks successfully.

• Patrols: Patrols can be done on foot or mounted or with vehicles, usually consisting of checking external sensors and checking for enemies. If vehicles are used then one of the rolls must be a Mechanics check if the vehicle is not properly shielded and modified for Hoth or risk mechanical failure. For nominal security is recommended that two patrols per session be completed. Skills Utilized: Athletics, Computers, Cool, Coordination, Leadership, Mechanics, Medicine, Pilot (Planetary), Stealth, Survival, and Xenology.
• Hunting/Gathering Foodstuffs: This opportunity can give a small morale boost by providing more food than just military long term rations which is not the most enjoyable food to have day in and day out. This covers both hunting and perhaps trying to do trade with the few groups that call Hoth home. Skills Utilized: Athletics, Charm, Cool, Coordination, Education, Negotiate, Outer Rim, Perception, Resilience, Survival, and Xenology.
• Base Renewal: This covers clearing out new areas or doing general base maintenance and keeping things running and can even negate potential future Challenges due to preventative maintenance. Skills Utilized: Coerce, Computers, Discipline, Education, Leadership, Mechanics, Negotiate, Perception, Skullduggery, Vigilance, and Xenology.

For both Challenges and Opportunities, the base difficulty is Hard for all skill checks, and no skill check can be repeated, even if that roll is failed. This means that a team probably wants a good spread of skills and abilities but that is up to the group. Players are encouraged at role play together and use the rolls to guide that role play. Advantages can be used to generate boosts for allies at a rate of two advantages to a boost to an ally. While Threat generates a setback for every two threat generated on the rolled.

Triumphs can be used to add some good affect to the roll, players choice with GM approval, while Despair will add some deleterious happening to make things more harrowing.

Rules Adjustment: Should read Formidable instead of Daunting.

Bonus: The Empire brought several advanced probe droids and surveillance equipment that will grant a boost die to all Patrol rolls or Rescue rolls and reduce the successful rolls needed to complete such Opportunities by one.

Clarification

So just some clarification for Opportunities that they were always intended to be player driven with minimal GM intervention. I don’t mind adjudicating uses of Triumph for fun stuff but the way I see it they should be used to help the players in the thread, upgrade their next skill check for a better chance or some advantage for players in that thread and then if nothing else maybe some benefit outside that.

Cool stuff should be agreed upon by the group and hopefully focused on the scene, they don’t need to be gear or a place with stuff in it but anything that could generate a fun scene for the players that are there is the best. Or maybe shows inspiring cooperation, and if you need GM help feel free to run it by me.

I will of course adjudicate Despairs if you want me to otherwise just assume they upgrade the difficulty by one for the next check, if there are no other checks, I can step in.

I do request that if you want me to look at the Triumph or Triumphs or whatever have an idea in mind of what you are going for, I can sometimes create on the spot but not always. Knowing what you want in advance is very helpful. I would steer away from mysterious place X or Force thingy Z; Hoth isn’t super Force heavy and places tend to have be cool for multiple visits for other players. Again stuff that could enhance the current scene without being some item or tangible thing are best.

Anyway, I love the work people are ding with them and have fun with them.