I have a more general problem that is maybe only relevant to new players. It is the most present in Chapters 5 and 6, but could probably be solved with an extra paragraph. As a new RPG player I can't really wrap my head around the passage of time, both within the story of the game and as part of the gameplay/session. There's a ton of comments about how something takes time – a project of a month, recovery from an amputation, scavenging for a day etc. While I now understand that it's up to GM to manipulate the passage of time within the story, I still wonder what the point is for some of the more specific details in the core book, especially those where a D6 decides how much time passes. This becomes pretty clear in the distinction between
Broken and
Critically injured (pages 69-71) – If I manipulate time anyway, rolling a die that determines someone is broken for 4 as opposed to 1 minute makes no difference, right? I choose what 1 or 4 minutes looks like in game time. Here's the specific example from the book:
- p.69, FIRST AID, "If there is no one to give you first aid, or if they fail their skill roll, you are Broken for D6 minutes. The GM makes the roll in secret. After the allotted time has passed you are no longer Broken and heal one Health point, but you are still critically injured."
- p.70, RECOVERY TIME, "The GM rolls a die for recovery time secretly – you won’t know how long it takes. The table states if recovery time is in hours, days, or weeks. When the recovery time has passed, the penalty is removed."
- Then, in the gameplay example on the same page: "GM: You hear Tony shouting to Michelle, “Did we get her?” As no one can give you first aid, you must wait some minutes before you stop being Broken [secretly rolls a 1 – Hannah will be Broken for one minute]. When you can start doing things again, you have a –2 penalty on all rolls."
Are all those lists and die rolls really just for thematic reasons? I love the concept of having only an hour before I die, but needing months to recover if I survive. I just find it tricky to put that in perspective with something like being Broken for just a couple of minutes. I kind of just wish to get a bit of advice how to deal with it in the game. Chapter 7 (Running the game) sounds like a great place for that.