The Lonely ShoreAn island shipwreck RTDA roll-under d20 + RtD d6 game about a group of seaman trying to survive on a tropical island in the early 19th-century. Highlights include: random character generation, possible murder-cultist characters, and some rules that make it a bad idea to kill the captain, but kind of okay to off the stow-away.
Prologue:The Golden Dawn struck some time in the night. Your sleep was cut short by a sudden crashing that twisted and cracked the timbers all around you. Thrown from your rough-canvas hammock into a stinking slick of last night's dinner, you groped around for a lamp, your trousers, anything solid, as the rough floor-boards shuddered under your bare knees and began tilting rapidly. Your seeking hands found some of your belongings, at least, and you gripped them tight as though your life depended upon it. You heard a sudden roar of water and tumbled head-over-heels into the in-rushing sea. For a moment, all was confusion, a hairy leg bashed against your chest, a pair of hands grabbed hold of your arm, you found yourself kicking madly to get back to the sultry air you just left behind, but your finger-tips bashed against solid wood...
But then, a red blaze caught your straining eye, and you struggled free of the melee and the water. Some blessed soul, it is the captain! had kicked open the cabin door and stood with fiery lantern, gesturing madly with his free hand and shouting amidst the cries and the storm thundering above-decks. By the time you clambered out the hatch, the slick deck rose above you, and below was only the hungry surge of sea-water, dark-red in the light of the burning lamp. Shading your eyes from the driving rain you saw another pair of red lights flickering above the ship's long-boat, some five lengths distant. As you were about to dive forward, someone shoved you in the small of your back, sending you flying into a dark wave.
And, for a moment, in the relative quiet underwater, you saw another glow. This one was pale green, like the creeping mould on a forgotten cheese, or the pale discolouration on the rotting soldier's cheek. Deep beneath you it was, swirling around the sinking prow of the ship: rising from the darkness beneath, fingering the ship's timbers as it came. And... a strange thought spoke in your mind, as air bubbles flickered upward past your eyes, what would it mean if one dove down to that light-beneath-the-sea? Perhaps it would feel wondrous good, you thought, as sinful fancies fluttered through your mind. A lifeless figure, heavy-weighted by a jagged rod piercing its frame, slipped free from the submerged deck and sank toward the welcoming green light. The corpses pale face turned as by accident upward as it sank, its head unnaturally bent. If those dead eyes should glowing-green open, you thought, and a soft panic flip-flopped in your heart.
But then a pair of gnarled hands grabbed under your arms and heaved you out of the quietus water, back to the roaring of the storm and the calls of desperate men and onto the red-lit longboat.
The ship sank, the survivors kept the long-boat turned into the swells, and eventually the storm grew less. Towards morning, the sky greying in the east, the boat wrecked upon a sudden reef, kin no doubt of that which sank the Golden Dawn. Twice-wrecked now, you rode enormous waves toward a long wide beach. Rimed with salt, you stand in the shallows and look around. The red rising sun shows a beach that stretches east and west and, before you, long grasses. Beyond that, a line of trees, and a distant peak of bare-stone rising up against the orange sky...
Note: the game has already begun, to join, simply post a new character and you will "wash up with the tide" during the next round.
To begin, roll up your class on the following list using a d100 (
http://www.brockjones.com/dieroller/dice.htm). This determines your starting fictional social position amongst the survivors (higher number, higher "rank"), as well as some starting equipment. If you roll a (unique) class when someone else has already gotten it (I will cross it out as an option, or else check above in the thread), then you may choose any available lower class.
| 1-5 | Stow-away | a good-luck charm, a meal of biscuits (stow-aways die at 7 levels of exhaustion,not 6) |
| 6-10 | Cabin Boy | a meal of salted pork, your mother's locket |
| 11-20 | Ordinary Seaman, former pick-pocket | a coil of rope, a knife |
| 21-28 | Ordinary Seaman, former soldier | a coil of rope, a dagger |
| 29-34 | Ordinary Seaman, former slave | a coil of rope |
| 35 | Ordinary Seaman, former lawyer | a coil of rope, birth certificate |
| 36-38 | Able Seaman, former smuggler | a coil of rope, sturdy shoes, a knife, a dark cloak |
| 39-42 | Able Seaman, former farmer | a coil of rope, sturdy shoes, a knife, a bag of grain |
| 43-47 | Able Seaman, former rope-maker | two coils of rope, sturdy shoes, a knife |
| 48-50 | Able Seaman, former lumberjack | a coil of rope, sturdy shoes, a knife, an axe |
| 51-54 | Ship's Carpenter | an axe, can of grease |
| 55-58 | Ship's Cook (if cook exists, galley boy w/ ladle instead of pot) | 5 meals of citrus and vegetables, cooking pot |
| 59-61 | Head Gunner | 20 units gundpowder, pistol with 5 units gunpowder and shot, fire-starter |
| 62-67 | Soldier (passenger) | musket, 5 units gunpowder & shot, sabre |
| 68-70 | Baker (passenger) | 5 meals of bread, yeast, fire-starter |
| 71-73 | Merchant (passenger) | 10 meals of salted pork (barrel), 10 pieces of gold, ledger book & pencil |
| 74-77 | Explorer (passenger) | spy-glass, oil-skin coat, 5 meals jerky, a sense of adventure |
| 78-81 | Farmer (passenger) | bag of various seeds, hoe, three chicks in a wooden box |
| 82-84 | Upper-class Civilian (passenger) | fine clothes, 40 pieces of gold, snuff-box, meal of candied nuts |
| 85-87 | Ship's Doctor (unique, officer) | surgeon's tools, 10 doses of medicine (various applications) |
| 88-89 | Bosun (unique, officer) | sturdy shoes, national flag, block & tackle |
| 89-90 | Third Mate(unique, officer)Taken! | sturdy shoes, depth-line, 10x10 sail |
| 91-92 | Second Mate (unique, officer) | sturdy shoes, compass, chart of this region of the sea |
| 93-94 | Chief Officer (unique, officer) | sturdy shoes, 4 rockets, book containing information on all passengers/crew, spy-glass, 5 meals of canned ham |
| 95-97 | Ship's Captain (unique, officer) | Wellington boots, spy-glass, sabre, 5 meals of canned sardines, gold pocket-watch, charts, tricorne hat, pistol (5 shots + powder) |
| 98-99 | a minor noble, secretly a murder-cultist (noble) | fine clothes, garrotte, 5 doses of poison, totem of an elder god |
| 100 | secretly telepathic, secretly sentient animal (something appropriate), loved by all | you're an animal |
Next, roll 3d6 for each of the following stats, in order:
Physique, Wit, Personality, LuckFinally, give your character a name, and briefly describe their appearance. Your final entry should look something like this:
Captain Jacksentient, telepathic parrot
Physique 8, Wit 14, Personality 10, Luck 18
A scruffy, lovable bird with an unnerving habit of giving knowing glances when noone else is watching, its whistles and mimicry are not always heard by all...
This is a roll-under d20 game. Whenever your character attempts to do something, I will roll a d20 and compare it against the appropriate stat. If the roll is equal to or less than your stat, you succeed. A 1 is an automatic success, a 20 is an automatic failure. I'll also roll a d6 and use it to modify how well or poorly your attempt goes using the regular RtD rules.
If the action you are performing is something your character would be reasonably "proficient in" on account of your class, then I will deduct the result of the d6 roll from your d20 roll. For example:
Captain Jack attempts to find a fruit tree. This is something a parrot should be good at. He rolls against his Wit and gets: d20: 9 - (d6:4) = 5. A perfectly good success!
Tools, weapons, etc. are not required to attempt any kind of action, but will grant increased effect. An axe makes it much easier to cut down a palm tree, for example.
Luck is used when no other stat is appropriate. When, for example, we wish to see whether the character has a lucky break.
The game is divided into Days of 4 rounds (each round is a typical RtD round of actions). At the end of the 4th round of actions that make up each Day, you must possess a meal or suffer one step of Exhaustion. At the end of a Day, I may announce that a horrible storm will blow up the following day. If you do not have access to a sheltered place during the following Day, you will gain a level of Exhaustion. Other special events with similar effects may take place.
You eat 1 meal at the end of a Day, if you have it. Otherwise, you gain a step of Exhaustion.
You can give a meal to any number of other fictionally-nearby characters for free as part of your action. If you do so, you gain +1 karma for each character with which you have shared a full meal. e.g. Captain Jack shares his three full meals of berries with two other characters. Captain Jack earns +2 karma.
You may spend 3 karma to automatically succeed on an action as though you had rolled a 1 on the d20, and a 5 on the d6. This does not make impossible actions possible, but is generally very effective.
You lose all your karma when you roll a 6 on the d6 "fate" die and at the same time fail a check by 5 or more.
At 6 steps of Exhaustion, your character dies of starvation/exposure or goes mad and kills themselves. All of your exhaustion goes away if you choose to consume three meal's-worth of food as part of your action. This will replace the 1 meal of food that is automatically deducted from your inventory at the end of the Evening turn. Alternatively, you can choose to permanently "burn" 1 point of Physique or Luck to remove 1 level of exhaustion. You can do this as part of another action, and can choose to burn multiple points. That is, if you wish to remove 4 levels of exhaustion, you could burn 2 points of Physique and 2 Points of Luck. If you drop to 0 points of Luck, your fate die will automatically result in a 1 on every action, and you will auto-fail Luck checks. If you drop to 0 points of Physique, you are effectively too weak to move, and will auto-fail Physique checks.
If you have eaten food that day and spend a restful night in a shelter, you automatically get rid of one level of Exhaustion.
If you kill another character, you can take their belongings. Additionally, I will make a luck check for the victim as if the victim were proficient (d20-d6). If successful, the murderer will gain steps of exhaustion corresponding to the identity of the victim, as follows:
1. Stow-away: 0
2. A banished character: 0
3. Cabin boy: 2
4. Ordinary seaman, Able seaman, passenger: 3
5. Officer: 4
6. Murder-cult Noble: 6 (If the temple has been discovered, reduce the exhaustion one would have gained from killing a secret murder-cultist by 3 points.)
7. Ship Mascot: 6
8. For every point of karma the character possesses: 1
If your character is killed, you may roll a new character and re-enter the game as your action in the next round. At first thought lost in the shipwreck, your new character was just washed up further along the coast! Take a +1 to their luck score.
The leader of the survivors (this is automatically the highest-ranked character currently in the game, but can change (see below)) will be labeled golden by me every round. That character can take the following special actions:
Banish: Make a Personality Test (proficient only if you are used to public-speaking/giving orders). If successful, you can choose to banish one character until the end of the following Day. A Banished character cannot enter the common shelter, cannot attempt to Take Command, cannot be given food by anyone, and can be killed without giving any steps of Exhaustion to the murderer. Additionally, at the time of banishment, a character gives all of their food to the one that banished them.
Order of the Day: During the first round of a new day, specify an action. Anyone who succeeds at this action during the day gains +1 Karma. If no-one succeeds at this action by night-fall, everyone gains a level of exhaustion. This action can be taken for free, i.e. in addition to a regular action.
Any character (as long as they are not currently banished), may attempt the following special action:
Take Command: Following a round in which you successfully completed an action and rolled a 4 or a 5 on the d6, or if you have at least 3 Karma, you may attempt to take over the position of highest-rank amongst the survivors. Make a Personality check as normal, but add +1 to your roll for each character on the island of higher rank than yourself (if you are higher rank than the current leader, deduct 1 from your roll). If you give a compelling speech explaining why you should be the new leader, you will make the Personality roll as though proficient. This action can only be taken once per day, by anyone (i.e. only one change of leadership per day).
SMCs do not gain Exhaustion from killing anyone (even other SMCs)
SMCs, when killed, simply revive near their elder god's totem the following night, unless it has been destroyed.
An SMC can commit a murder instead of eating a meal or taking shelter during a storm. The darkness of their deed pleases their dark god, and nourishes their dark soul of darkness.
Once an SMC commits 3 murders, they are transported to the hidden shrine of their dark god, and become one with its eldritch tentacles. Immediately roll a new character. The new character, in addition to its normal abilities, is also an SMC and gains a cumulative +2 to their Luck score.
Once the hidden temple is discovered, any character can travel there and attempt to join with the elder god to become a Secret Murder-cultist.
Player-made goals are, of course, appropriate. If a goal is very complex (like making a hang-glider) then I will inform you of your progress.
And, of course, gaining food is an important and ongoing goal.
In larger terms, however, the following goals can be attained in-game. Each requires a certain number of "checks". These are earned by specifically working towards that goal. A single action can result in more than one "check", if one rolls well...
1. Locate the Hidden Eldritch Temple. A difficult task, this goal requires a total of 10 checks toward achieving it. But, once discovered, every non-cultist character gains +2 to their Luck scores. To work towards, tag an appropriate action with TEMPLE. (Appropriate actions would be: any that involve exploring the island upon which you find yourselves, communing with eldritch spirits, etc.
2. Build Shelter. Requires 10 building supplies checks, and 8 successful checks building it, fits up to 10 survivors during storm.
3. Build a Life-raft to Escape the Island (can fit up to 5 survivors, highest ranks get out first): Requires: 20 food, 10 checks, chart of surrounding seas, a sail, and a spy-glass. If you wish to spend an action working on the raft or give food to the cause, tag your action with RAFT or say you are giving food to the RAFT.
A brief note on character creation:
I will roll all the dice during the actual game, but character creation is up to you. Don't just choose your stats, roll them honestly please. The game is more fun that way.
If you really, really want to play as a certain class, you can choose, but please state as much in your post, and take a -2 to your Luck score.
Also, this is my first Roll to Dodge on this site, apologies in advance for any mistakes or clunkiness.
Those who have passed on:
-Fritz "Old Man" Williams, a goodly carpenter. Was messily devoured by a tiger while out looking for food in the jungle. Coincidentally, the tiger was also out looking for food in the jungle, but this common goal was not enough to unite the two in friendship.
Author
Topic: The Lonely Shore: a shipwreck RTD (Read 21684 times)