Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Nuts & Bolts #150 - Post Apocalyptic Exploration


My Mutant Crawl Classics campaign has had a couple of establishing adventures and while I still have a few of the published adventures available I want to start moving things towards a hex-crawl and seed in the adventures more organically. To do that I need some kind of table to aid with the hex-crawl exploration side of things. Something simple enough to meet the needs of my current game and any future, and I should note that my PCs have a flying car so hex-crawl travel is a little faster for my current game than I'm sure it will be for others.

The trick here is to find a way to ensure that the group using the flying car isn't having a ton of encounters just because they can cover a ton of hexes in a given unit of time. Likewise since they can pass quickly through hexes they should have an increased chance of having no encounter since it would difficult for a fast moving vehicle to be ambushed, or for the passengers to spot a hidden structure in the dense jungle.

Exploration Roll:
When a group is moving through the wilderness 2d7 is rolled and then Table 1 is consulted. If the group contains a Rover, increase the die type by +1d. If the party is moving slowly and exploring with intent increase the die type by +1d. If they are moving quickly to cover more ground, reduce the die type by -1d or more (depending on how fast they are moving).

Table 1: What the heck did we find?
  1. N/A - How'd you end up here? HOW?! You can't have rolled this ... sheesh
  2. Ambush! Something hungry leaps out and attacks!
  3. Fresh water, and a grove of trees bearing edible fruits. 
  4. Weather (refer to Random Weather Tables)
  5. A friendly creature with empathic or telepathic abilities finds the party and attaches itself to the PC with the highest Personality score. Creature has 1d3 Hit Dice of 1d4.
  6. Hostiles! A group of enemies, or some other hostile creature or robot spots the group. 
  7. A small party (2d4) of explorers. Roll 1d10 on Table 2.
  8. A ruin of the ancients. This has been picked clean but a thorough search still has a 5% chance of rewarding the searchers with a minor artifact. The structure has a 50% chance of being intact enough to provide shelter. 
  9. Nothing
  10. Also nothing
  11. Still nothing
  12. Yup. Nothing
  13. A crater filled with radioactive waste, the group must make a DC 12 Fortitude save or lose 1d3 points of Stamina. This roll is made for every Turn spent near the crater; increase the DC and frequency if the group decides to explore within. 
  14. A small village or outpost belonging to (roll 1d20 on Table 2)
  15. A damaged ancient site. 35% chance it has not been looted. Roll 1d12 on Table 3.
  16. or Higher: Lucky find! An intact structure of the ancient ones! Roll 2d8 on Table 3.

Table 2: Affiliations
  1. The Clan of Cog
  2. The Chosen of Zuu
  3. The Children of the Glow
  4. The Curators
  5. The Atomic Equinox
  6. The Holy Medicinal order
  7. The Gene Police
  8. The Blessed Brotherhood
  9. The Technorabble
  10. (or greater) Non-affiliated
Table 3: Locations found at random
  1. A military structure
  2. A fuel depot
  3. A greenhouse for decorative flowers
  4. A hospital
  5. A research station
  6. An old museum or art gallery
  7. A greenhouse for food production
  8. A transit station
  9. (or greater) A home of the ancients

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