Hazard Die System for Mothership RPG
A hazard die is a simple tool to a) make tracking resources simpler, b) make player choices more meaningful & c) add some tension to the game by emphasising time as a resource. So the first does away with some of the need for laborious gear tracking, always helpful to a Warden & the latter two are at the core of the game. ***players in Children of the Void campaign, maybe best not to read the embedded tables***
How does it make choices more meaningful? The first is equipment selection & carrying space. I want it to matter if pc's chose to carry the extra o2 tank or the extra ammo, if they took the tool kit or the first aid... The Hazard Die gives a fair way for the Warden to introduce elements of chance & things going wrong without being completely arbitrary OR tracking everything minutely. So there's an x in 10 chance your o2 runs out, x in 10 chance something breaks etc. This combines well if you use some sort of encumbrance system, as I do (the subject of an upcoming post).
It makes time meaningful by adding the element of a ticking clock. Players know that time spent searching, patching up their friend, trying to repair the terminals on this derelict push them closer to running out of resources or having a random encounter- the space pirates return... whatever nasty IS on this ship finds them etc. It raises the tension just slightly. Risk-reward-decision; the core of rpgs.
It works by rolling a d10 & checking the corresponding result. Sometimes that leads to a subtable d10, or just pick what seems thematic/logical.
I'll usually have some results as "no change" & then somewhere between a 1 & 1-3 in 10 chance for Expiration- an item or resource runs out; Exhaustion- eat, drink & rest now or lose d10 Calm & -10% rolls if you push on fatigued; Encounter- NPC's, another ship etc, I usually have a subtable for this; Environment- a way to emphasise what makes this place this place. Is it the dangerous wiring that's going to cause a hazard, is it a desert sandstorm, a radiation flare from the pulsar in this sector. Brings place to the forefront; Easement- the chance for good luck, something to go right, usually regain some Calm, Health or gain some resources.
Below is one that I'm working on for a mission to extract an on-site corporate Exec from a failing terraform rig. I've broken out the encounter tables for different rig levels & included a couple.
This one I use for space travel...
Of course you tweak the numbers to enhance the flavour desired- 1 in 10 chance for encounter is for a pretty empty sector, if it were a shipping lane or asteroid mining resource-rush I might double or triple that. If I wanted to go really desolate or a slow burn I'd have encounter 1 in 10 but half the entries on the list merely evidence of one of the other listed encounters- a warp drive cloud, space debris, monster spoor, a spaced corpse etc. Ideally these give a clue to the nature or danger level of the other encounters...
So the Hazard Die grew out of the old "random encounter" rolls essential to old school D&D play. For a game where exploration, resources & tension/"things getting worse" matter- such as Mothership they are a great tool.
It's not a new idea at all, but this version leans heavily on this version by Necropraxis https://www.necropraxis.com/hazard-system/
