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OldManUmby
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Vacuum, Zero-G and Starvation Rules

Sun 26 Feb 2023, 06:28

"Vacuum" is missing (vacuum of space for example). It should appear under "Other Hazards" on pages 24-25 and may include "Cold".

Also, "Zero-G" movement should be added.

Suggestion: the rules for Starvation on page 25 are incorrect. Starvation doesn't cause damage to the human body until you run out of fat storage. So, lower-strength characters with more fat could survive longer than higher-strength characters with less fat; one disadvantage of higher-strength. Working this into the rules somehow would be a bit more realistic.

You could change the Starvation section to the following, I have underlined the changes below ...

STARVATION
You must eat a ration of food at least once every day. The higher your Strength the leaner your body, and the faster you starve. After a number of days equal to [7 minus Strength] without food, you starve. When starving, you don’t heal damage (Strength) normally. You heal stress (other attributes) normally. You also suffer one point of damage per week after the first week. If you are broken while Starving, you die after another week without food. As soon as you have eaten, you are no longer starving.
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9littlebees
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Re: Vacuum, Zero-G and Starvation Rules

Sun 26 Feb 2023, 08:19

On the topic of starvation, body type should not be tied to Strength. Many of the world's strongest people (as in the championships) are not lean, and on a more relatable note, I'm much stronger than my wife, but she's lean and I'm overweight.
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)
 
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OldManUmby
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Re: Vacuum, Zero-G and Starvation Rules

Mon 06 Mar 2023, 00:33

I get that. However, Strength also represents Endurance/Stamina too, something "overweight" people do not have as much of. These are VERY generalized scores. But ... I'm open to suggestions; as it doesn't change the fact that, as written, the starvation rules are wrong.

For example, I personally have fasted with no food for several weeks with no ill effects and zero muscle loss. After about 3-4 days you begin to burn through fat for energy, so the more fat you have the longer you can go without eating. The world's fasting record is approx. 380 days with no food and the man remained healthy through the whole process and performed is daily activities perfectly fine. At the end of the day, food is energy for the body, and so is fat (albeit a slow-burning energy), that's why we store it in vast amounts and why we only store small amounts of blood glucose and glycogen (quick-burning energy).

So clearly, the Starvation rules are incorrect. I suppose you could base the rules on a "normal" person with 15-20% body fat, and thus based on the weight of the character. But then you'll have to get into tracking their weight through the process (oh the math) and this is a rules-lite system.

So, I was trying to generalize the suggested rule, as "most" people do not play "fat" characters.

I suppose you could simply extend the time before damage begins based on a "normal" body type, say 4 weeks. Millions of religious people fast for 20 to 30 days each year with no ill affects.

I apologize for "stereotyping" here.
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9littlebees
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Re: Vacuum, Zero-G and Starvation Rules

Mon 06 Mar 2023, 10:46

The rules are not "wrong", they're drastically simplified for gameplay.

Anyway, it's cool that you want that little bit more crunch added, but that's for you to implement in your own projects. The starvation rules as written are already implemented in many of the YZE games, so really shouldn't be changed since the purpose of the SRD is to allow people to copy the exact wording of existing YZE rules for own use in their own projects.
I make YZE games (https://drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Matt%20Kay) and produce predominately Free League content on my YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/@3skulls)
 
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OldManUmby
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Re: Vacuum, Zero-G and Starvation Rules

Thu 09 Mar 2023, 04:10

Agreed. I've noticed that too.
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Thomson
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Re: Vacuum, Zero-G and Starvation Rules

Wed 15 Mar 2023, 14:45

The rules are not "wrong", they're drastically simplified for gameplay.
I think that the YZE SRD does not contain too many of detailed rules about all kinds of setting specific stuff is rather a strength but a weakness.
This allows anyone who creates a setting using these rules to decide about which rules are important enough to include and how detailed they should be.

P.S.: To get the effect of people being able to last longer without food, you could add a Specialization like "Well Fed: Your body stores enogh fat that you can last 10 days before you suffer the consequences of not having enough to eat." Maybe you can take additional levels with each level extending the time by 10 days.
 
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OldManUmby
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Re: Vacuum, Zero-G and Starvation Rules

Thu 16 Mar 2023, 01:16

P.S.: To get the effect of people being able to last longer without food, you could add a Specialization like "Well Fed: Your body stores enogh fat that you can last 10 days before you suffer the consequences of not having enough to eat." Maybe you can take additional levels with each level extending the time by 10 days.
Good idea. However, in retrospect, I can safely say I've NEVER had to use a starvation rule in any RPG over the last 30+ years of playing. LOL.
God doesn't play dice with the universe, gamers do!

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