I would never describe the Forbidden Lands as goofy. The FL are a bloody dangerous place. Cannibilism, slavery, human sacrifice, body horror, and worse. Scary place.
As to Alien and consummables it makes perfect sense to me. In the movies you never see a person counting up exact rations and bean counting. Bullets run out but do we ever learn exactly how many they had to start? Supplies get unloaded but no one is counting. And bad things happen anyway. The dice help show how cruel and caprcious the Alien universe is. One little girl can survive for weeks on who knows what while another person might find out that rats have eaten two full days of rations. Just like some people lose it when confronting an alien and freeze or panic and others gear up and start fighting back. You don't really know how your character will react when confronted with the harshness of the Alien universe. Turning consummables into bean counting goes against the genre. And honestly, I'd find it less fun to know I control the Alien universe with math instead of the Alien universe is in control and trying to kill my character!
And even in real life I've seen food go wrong. Spill the mac 'n' cheese while backpacking or leave several meals behind has happened. Underestimate how much you need. Racoon steals your bread. Or even worse sometimes a backpacker attracts a bear who decides you contain more rations than your backpack does.
But were not watching the characters in the game, we are controlling them.
I dont think I agree with anything you wrote tbh, the game can be just as tense and dangerous without the need to randomise the availability of the characters possessions.
And yeah, Forbidden Lands is pretty goofy no matter how much death and despair it includes.
You asked for my thoughts. If you aren't interested then I'd suggest not asking next time.
Or we could discuss our differing opinions (and they are just opinions not facts in this case) since this is a forum designed to facilitate discussion about Fria Ligan games.
I want to apologise because reading through the posts today I realise I came off very rude to you, it is not my intent with this thread and not the kind of discussion I enjoy, probably because of tiredness I read your reply halfheartedly and then wrote out a reply.
Im sorry for that.
And I very much appreciate the opinions that differs from my own since trying to see it from different angles always leads to a better idea in the end.
As for the topic itself, I do like the concept and it does fit very well I think in the "cinematic play" they offer in this game. As Ive mentioned earlier I have no issues with this applying to oxygen and battery power, it feels reasonable that we dont have exact knowledge about how much oxygen were using or how long a battery will really last. But food and water, being actual physical "stuff" we carry along with us I dont think should be put to the same unpredictable system.
Having thought about it some more, however, I realise that most of the times supply will last a fair amount of time. The freak situations where an unlucky player rolls four 1s on their first roll is very uncommon, and when they do happen it will indicate that something has gone very wrong.
Im still unsure about it but I will definitely make the first session follow the rules as written and adjust if me or my group wishes to.