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CherryC0p
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Joined: Tue 29 Dec 2020, 00:08

Lets Talk About Radiation

Fri 04 Jun 2021, 04:58

Now that the game is "Released" how are people liking the Radiation rules?

My previous post on the topic was this: viewtopic.php?f=131&t=7217, where I expressed concerns on the apparently extremely deadly amount of Rads that would be gained in a short time.

That was in Alpha, but the rules regarding Rads have changed very little, if at all.

Getting Rads in game is a lot of dice rolling for even the simplest encounter. A Strong Hotspot like the one in the encounter Armageddon will require anywhere up to 30-60 rolls to try to prevent radiation positioning if the player continuously succeeds and another roll every stretch if the player is wearing a Hazmat suit. 60-120 rolls per Shift (shifts are 5-10hrs) for this, plus the 1-2 rolls to scavenge a single vehicle, all multiplied by 6 (one set for each vehicle). And that's only for one player! How is that fun?

I'm interested to hear any homebrews people have been using for the rad rules.
One I have been considering is to not have the player roll for radiation poisoning until they leave the hotspot. Just tally the rads up and have a single roll at the end to see if they get infected.
I do this in real life for fun on the weekends. #SurviveOmega #DoMoreWithLess
 
Jeremysbrain
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri 21 Sep 2018, 05:15

Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Fri 04 Jun 2021, 07:38

I think once you fail that first Stamina roll you become sick and you shouldn't need to roll Stamina again until the 1 Shift incubation runs out. So that should reduce some of the rolls.

If you want to make the Rad rules closer to the MYZ rot rules and more deadly, then have them roll Stamina anytime they take a rad and if they fail the roll they immediately take 1 point of damage, no waiting for the disease incubation time.

But seriously, you shouldn't be salvaging vehicles in a Strong Radiation Zone.
 
baldrick0712
Posts: 672
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Fri 04 Jun 2021, 07:41

Now that the game is "Released" how are people liking the Radiation rules?

My previous post on the topic was this: viewtopic.php?f=131&t=7217, where I expressed concerns on the apparently extremely deadly amount of Rads that would be gained in a short time.

That was in Alpha, but the rules regarding Rads have changed very little, if at all.

Getting Rads in game is a lot of dice rolling for even the simplest encounter. A Strong Hotspot like the one in the encounter Armageddon will require anywhere up to 30-60 rolls to try to prevent radiation positioning if the player continuously succeeds and another roll every stretch if the player is wearing a Hazmat suit. 60-120 rolls per Shift (shifts are 5-10hrs) for this, plus the 1-2 rolls to scavenge a single vehicle, all multiplied by 6 (one set for each vehicle). And that's only for one player! How is that fun?

I'm interested to hear any homebrews people have been using for the rad rules.
One I have been considering is to not have the player roll for radiation poisoning until they leave the hotspot. Just tally the rads up and have a single roll at the end to see if they get infected.
On p81 it says you only test for disease after the Incubation Period, which for Radiation Sickness is 1 Shift (5-10 hours). This contradicts p80, which says you have to test Stamina to resist Radiation poisoning every time you gain a rad. However, it does help speed things up.

Example: Ronson goes into hotspot wearing HAZMAT/MOPP suit. His INT is C and he doesn't have Tech skill, so his HAZMAT/MOPP suit has a 38% chance of resisting picking up a rad. The player is in the hotspot for 20 rounds so don't bother rolling his suit protection for every one and just say he picked up 12 rads (62% x 20). 1 in 6 of these are permanent on average, so we just say he picked up 2 permanent rads and 10 temporary ones. He decontaminates after leaving the hotspot, so loses 5 temporary rads. He will lose another temporary rad every day after that. One shift after leaving the hotspot he has 13 rads (he started with 6 permanent, picked up 2 more permanent, and 5 temporary). 4 - 13 gives a Virulence modifier of -9. He will therefore pretty much be testing Stamina on a single d6, and will most likely get Radiation Sickness (5 in 6 chance).
 
Jeremysbrain
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri 21 Sep 2018, 05:15

Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Fri 04 Jun 2021, 07:44

Also, the best way to reduce the number of rolls the players need to make is not to give them hazmat suits. I mean unless they were part of the 45th CHEM CO they probably shouldn't have any on them to start.
 
baldrick0712
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Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 12:29

Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Fri 04 Jun 2021, 08:13

The way the Sickness rules work means it's actually quite hard to die of radiation sickness. The minimum die you can roll for a test is a d6. If you have 6 Hit Capacity, you will be rolling a d6 every day to see if you lose a hit point. You have a 67% chance of rolling a 6 at least once when you roll a six-sided dice six times. So in my example above of Ronson getting sick from being in the hotspot for 20 rounds, he will most likely just lose a few hit points from radiation sickness and then recover. Seems a bit off to me.

I would argue that there should be a "lethal dose" rule for radiation otherwise players will just walk into radiation hotspots without a care because they know they have a high chance of getting better even if they succumb to radiation sickness.

[EDIT] Very easy "Lethal Dose" rule for Radiation Sickness... No minimum roll. If Virulence Modifier would reduce your Stamina roll to below a single d6 then don't bother rolling as you've suffered a lethal radiation dose and will be dead in a few days.
 
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KastorKrieg
Posts: 37
Joined: Fri 28 May 2021, 20:25

Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Fri 04 Jun 2021, 09:55

The way the Sickness rules work means it's actually quite hard to die of radiation sickness.
It depends whether you want to be "realistic" about it or "cinematic". Very few people died "on the spot" or immediately after, directly from the radiation itself, even at a place and activities such as Chernobyl (huge intense hotspot), it's estimated at ~50 people. The whole "get a cancer in 10-20 years and die prematurely huge range of casualties is beyond the game's scope. And don't talk to me about the recent fear mongering TV series where radiation is so overblown it's silly.

You can crank it up if you want "hugely scary hotspots, Metro 2033/Fallout style", but in reality even the women who literally worked for days with their bare hands on bales of hugely contaminated wool in a nearby factory (180 mSv/hr, more than annual safety dose exceeded under a minute) still came away with their lives. Scarred, sick, with body parts aged prematurely, but still alive [ https://www.bbc.com/future/article/2019 ... death-toll ]. The PCs taking a quick peek into a hot spot, especially in a HAZMAT / MOPP suit, shouldn't really be that much affected. Weakened, which is shown well by the temporary loss of HP, but not really killed - especially since it's been years since the bombs dropped.
 
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omnipus
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Joined: Mon 22 Jun 2020, 20:58

Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Fri 04 Jun 2021, 10:16

Let's hope they don't find any mysterious bed-warming cylinders in the woods!
Author, Central Poland Sourcebook -- now available on DriveThruRPG
 
Jeremysbrain
Posts: 41
Joined: Fri 21 Sep 2018, 05:15

Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Fri 04 Jun 2021, 16:52

Here are more lethal radiation rules, based on Rot rules from MYZ

MORE LETHAL RADIATION RULES
1. When your character stays in a hotspot longer than the hotspots frequency they are exposed to a point of Rad.
2. If you have a HAZMAT/MOPP SUIT you may make a passive Tech roll. For every success you roll you negate a point of Rad from hotspot or rad attack. If you fail this roll you gain a point of Rad.
3. If you don't have a HAZMAT/MOPP SUIT you automatically gain a point of rad.
4. Anytime you gain a point of Rad you roll a number of Gear dice equal to your Permanent Radiation score (this is a passive roll). For every 1 rolled on the Gear dice you take a point of damage.
5. If you take at least one point of damage you gain Radiation Sickness Disease.
6. If you take 3 or more points of Rad damage at once you take a Critical Injury and roll on the Rad Critical Injury Table.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A0Y ... sp=sharing

Rules for Rad Attacks, Hotspots, Radiation Sickness, Decontamination and Permanent Rads stay the same.

This will make players fear radiation.
 
andresk
Posts: 177
Joined: Mon 05 Oct 2020, 16:38

Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Sat 05 Jun 2021, 08:28

Very few people died "on the spot" or immediately after, directly from the radiation itself, even at a place and activities such as Chernobyl (huge intense hotspot), it's estimated at ~50 people. The whole "get a cancer in 10-20 years and die prematurely huge range of casualties is beyond the game's scope. And don't talk to me about the recent fear mongering TV series where radiation is so overblown it's silly.
This is an excellent point. I also like the abstraction baldrick0712 presented in his example.
This ties in to another thing that was on my mind for a while but I forgot about for some time. Namely how to go about disease with PCs. I'm thinking approach radiation in a similar way, where the initial stamina/tech rolls are made by the referee and the player finds out about being sick only through the symptoms. Probably very much depends on the group, but I think approaching it this way would make PCs more cautious and provide a little side adventure if somebody gets sick - to first figure out what they have or where they got it from and then to treat it.
 
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KastorKrieg
Posts: 37
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Re: Lets Talk About Radiation

Sat 05 Jun 2021, 10:45

Exactly, it's not like the players are faceplanting into a Demon Core or something. And even there people in the same room survived.

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