Forum

 I like the unpredicatablity of the consumables as it is, but houserules are legit. You'll skip an element of tension in favor of simulating realism. I remember a lot of movies where the protagonist taps on his manometer and suddenly the needle jumps to the red zone, because it was jammed.

In the "Chariot of the Gods" it's not even a catastrophy to go out of air supplies, just a possibility of being infected. More tension, more mistrust and interaction between the players. Sounds positive in my ears. Act II actually implies that it had happened, yet.

Having had a player go from 4 to 1 Air in one roll on the way in, it forced him to go back pretty quick. Player decided he'd popped a leak.
Running out of air means going on the almost unbreathable local, frozen, air.
Also, Air is tracked at Turns, so it's pretty tight on the available suits.
Using number of iterations that don't cross 33% at 0d (σ=+1)  · · · 50% (σ=0)  · · ·  66.67% (σ=-1)
1d=20 · · · 30 · · · 50 minutes
2d=50 · · · 70 · · · 100 minutes
3d=60 · · · 80 · · ·  110 minutes
4d=70 · · · 100 · · · 120  minutes
5d=80 · · · 110 · · · 140  minutes
6d=100 · · · 130 · · · 180  minutes
7d=110 · · · 140 · · · 160 minutes

I think this rule may be broken...

It's rather see the dice thrown based upon activity level during the turn... rest=1d, walking 2d, working 3d, fighting +1d/round

I think it's important to only use the consumables system when interesting or dramatically correct. If you can plan your spacewalk or hike, have nothing weird happen, and finish on time, you shouldn't even have to roll. You're supposed to roll for air every turn, so how could you ever spend a shift on a spacewalk repairing the outside of the ship?

It's only when something unexpected happens, like you can't return from your spacewalk in time because the airlock is jammed, and suddenly there's a xenomorph on the outside of the ship chasing you: then you roll for air! Suddenly there's double tension. Same thing with food. If they know they'll be gone for four days and mark their daily food packs "Monday, Tuesday" and so on, there's no need to roll every day. But if they lose their backpack and have to survive on their one food ration in their pocket for multiple days, or otherwise end up in situations outside of their control, that's when it becomes interesting.

So I say that in the default controlled situation, you keep the consumable system in the background, but when you start asking questions like "do we even have enough food", that's when you roll. The GM should introduce the system when it adds tension, and otherwise assume the PCs have enough of everything to not put a focus on it.

Also, you can lose food in other ways than from overeating. It may spoil if it's fresh food, or perhaps the expiration date is long gone if it's food packs, or you drop some by mistake while hiking, or the local fauna finds your camp at night and steals some food, or some airborne particles affect it, and so on.

 
I like where you're going with this but in that case, wouldn't be better to always ever have a single die of resource?

Having played a session with this system I want to admit that ive changed my opinion about it! At least when it comes to air and battery power I found out that this system is amazing!
It kept the players on edge throughout the entire scenario, debating if they should switch the motion tracker off or not as the battery power started going low. And air supply was easily explained (and accepted) as different people breathing, talking and using different amounts of air.
We never had someone make a catastrophic roll (like 4 or 5 1s in a single roll) but would that happen it would be due to a faulty line or lose valve or similar.

For these two resources it simply worked perfectly and my initial reservations is completely gone! Its fits the theme perfectly, at least for cinematic play!

Im still not sure when it comes to food and water. If my players tell me that they carefully want to pack enough food and water for X duration I wont require rolls for it until after X time or if someth ing happens to compromise the supply. I will see how I do it when that day comes.


As for ammunition I think it works fine for a cinematic game, but what grinds me a bit is that it means a player can never state "I fire a single shot" but only gives them the option of "Im firing" and the dice will determine how controlled their firing is. Makes sense for a stressed character in a very dangerous situation, but it removed control from the player.
Ill run with it for now, it worked without issues during my first session, but when playing a more regular campaign I think I want players to have that control back.
Of course, if a panic test is triggered I will have them unintentionally empty their weapon anyway

In any case, the consumable system at least in part is far FAR more fun and exciting than I had imagined it to be! 

One thing that just struck me... the resource rolls seem to be intended as individual tests, but the group no-more-that-one-rolls doesn't exempt it....

As far as the Consumables, I'm thinking of the following:

For Air, instead of the periodic checks, roll one die each time you go up a Stress level. But make a regular check each time you Panic.  In the movies and comics it seems that with normal use, unless the suit is ripped or the helmet is damaged, air can last for days.

For Food and Water, allow a player to say they are 'rationing' and just roll one die when making the normal checks, but they suffer a -1 modifier to any Stamina checks while they are rationing.

I haven't played these yet, but I welcome any suggestions or concerns on these.