Iron Horse

Superhuman constitution is a touchy spot in a game like The Front, which is supposed to be gritty (which is the word from Mark Hunt, the designer). Making people too hard to kill in a war is kind of playing against the genre. Supers can really devalue the heroism of ordinary men who faced bullets, blades, shrapnel and flame with only a uniform for armor.

So when I looked at constitution I wanted to look for a way to make it useful but not hand out mounds of hit points. Put simply constitution can help you heal up and come back from a fight but not survive a hit from a bazooka. It will let you shrug off the effects of non-fatal injuries.

Low: (still within human levels but nearly immune to pain and minor injuries.. Think Rasputin). The character gets an advantage die when making a constitution save of course. He requires half the sleep, half the food and is considered to roll maximum for hit points every level (18 hit points if you go by constitution equals hit points and double if you figure hit points = level).

Paranormal: (not within human limits. Think comic book villains who seem to suffer certain death and yet return). The character gets an advantage die when making a constitution save. Hit points are figured  as for the previous power level. In addition the character gets 1d8 hit points back after a combat twice a day (or 3 times a day if they are combat class.) The character needs one quarter the sleep, food, and water of a normal human and can get by on these reduced levels for at least a week.

Inhuman: (probably too powerful for a player character. Think Wile E. Coyote). The character gets an advantage die when making a constitution save. Hit points are figured  as for the previous power levels. In addition the character gets 1d8 hit points back after every combat (assuming they survive). The character can go without food, water or sleep for days at a time and can hold their breath for up to 3 minutes.

As an alternative to rolling with advantage super constitution can subtract from saves: -2/-4/-8 depending on level.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Proxy? You Misspelled Patsy! Part 1

  Mechane, Atomo and Spatia  had a delightful little trade union going. Things improved with time. Spatia's ships improved their drives and began reaching other forgotten though populated worlds. However, when were people ever content for long?  Nottusa, the most populous, some would say advanced ,nation on Mechane was a republic. It had a well developed and politically active set of corporations, made even richer and more active by the affluence afforded by trade with Spatia. Eventually Nottusa saw a change in leadership. The new regime decided the trade agreements with Spatia were not in their best interest and they demanded a bigger cut of everything, raising the price of goods. This didn't sit well with the Spatians who soon found their trade ships boarded and further harassed by Mechane vessels built on Spatia.  It was a small ship Universe (the people living in it just called it the Universe.) Invasion options were limited. Mechane had a huge population, was already crank
Read more

Trade Relations

 This blog uses Quantum Starfarer tech levels. The three levels in particular are Mechanical Age, Atomic Age, and Space Age. Mechanical age is WW1 to middle of WW2. Atomic Age is From the end of WW1 to about now. Space Age is the near Future with extensive interplanetary and Basic FTL. Let's take three planets Mechane, Atomo, and Spatia. Guess what tech levels they are! I'll wait.  The three worlds are in close proximity. Spatia's free traders and corporations are eager for trade. Spatia figures it can bring nearly anything it produces to trade, as it can make superior versions of everything. Atomus in particular has little heavy industry, is sparsely settled and needs vehicles for explorations, settling, and internal security due to revolutionaries in remote locations. Mechanus has a large population and heavy industry, already trading between its several nations. It also builds vehicles for the various militaries to defend the splintered nations. Spatia as noted has an es
Read more

Traveller: Society in Decline or Post Apocalyptic?

First of all Classic Traveller is a work of brilliance. As Marc W. Miller said he started the game design by reading through sf, and nowhere did anyone tell how much fuel it took to get to Alpha Centauri. He made all that stuff up and he was first!  Second, it gave you the ground rules for a Universe, in three little black books (LBBB) or The Traveller Book . The price then was not high enough to bankrupt anyone.  Third, the rules themselves had and have their fans. In fact, many Traveller games to this day are run are run as Proto Traveller -they use the LLBs and maybe Supplement Four - Citizens of the Imperium (SS4). Okay I use snub pistols and a couple weapons from Book Four - Mercenary . But for the purpose of this discussion let's say just the LBBs and SS4. There's no Third Imperium. what do the rules and equipment say about this Universe?  You can interpret it a lot of different ways. My take away was always that high technology gadgetry was fairly conservative. The onl
Read more