The Dave System is all about streamlining play and not getting too bogged down in rules and numbers that tend to hinder the fun and excitement of your game, but every now and again, certain Campaign Settings might justify a few extra rules here or there. Two such Optional Rules are listed below, for those of you who want to delve deeper into matters of Survival, or the chance of succumbing to Environmental Contamination. Maybe you're having a REAL depressing game that incorporates both rules! Whatever the case, your Director will tell you if any of the following rules apply in their game.
OPTIONAL RULE: SURVIVAL
Normally, matters regarding nutrition do not come into play as long as you spend most of your time in a relatively populated, civilized settlement. In places like this, there is plenty of food and drink around, so basic survival is not much of an issue. Rules for Survival only arise when you spend an elongated amount of time in what would be considered uncivilized terrain (traversing a desert, trekking through a wasteland, etc.) where plentiful food and supplies are not readily available.
Every 24 hours that you spend outside of a populated settlement, you must consume a number of Rations to maintain your state of health. The number of Rations you require depends on a few factors:
-Children require 1 Ration per day. They’re small and don’t consume a lot.
-Most Adults require 2 Rations per day.
-If your Vigor score is 3+, then you require an additional point of rations to fuel all those sweet muscles!
Each time that you fail to consume your minimum number of Rations, you must roll an immediate Vigor test (Knack if you have the Sentinel Boon). Success indicates you suffer no ill effects and may go another 24 hours without incident. Failure grants you one level of Exhaustion. If you ever acquire 3 levels of Exhaustion, then you starve to death and expire. Each level of Exhaustion also has its own deleterious effects (which are cumulative), as detailed below:
-At Exhaustion level 1, you no longer regain Energy naturally, and may only regain Energy through the use of the Doctor or Hearth Healer Boons, or through healing items or abilities.
-At Exhaustion level 2, any 6’s you roll count only as one success instead of two.
-At Exhaustion level 3, you perish.
Recovering from Exhaustion: If you take a full six days minus your Vigor score to rest and recuperate in a well-supplied place safe from the elements, then you remove all Exhaustion levels you are currently suffering from.
OPTIONAL RULE: ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION
If your game is set in a Nuclear Apocalypse or a Zombie Fever Outbreak where the very air around you is dangerously polluted, the same rules (with different flavoring) apply to both conditions. Note that the following rules are only for certain types of games, so your Director will let you know if you need to read up on this stuff.
As a general rule, game mechanics for Environmental Contamination only come into effect if you are exposed to the elements for more than your Vigor score + 3 hours. Therefore, someone with a Vigor score of 2 must make a Contamination test if they are ever exposed to the toxic elements of their world for more than 5 hours. This causes you to roll a Contamination test. Being exposed to the elements means being outside of a Safe Zone like a settlement or defended interior structure where supplies and medical aid are available to counter the corruptive atmosphere.
Critter Contamination: Some enemies or weapons in Environmentally Hazardous Campaign Settings might also deal Contamination damage with certain attacks, as if you didn’t have enough to worry about. As a basic rule, whenever a being infected with a Terminal case of Zombie Fever or Radiation Poisoning rolls 3+ successes on an attack roll against you, you gain 1 point of Contamination in addition to any of the damage you would normally take from the attack.
If you have been exposed to Contamination beyond your threshold, immediately roll a Vigor test. If you fail this roll, you immediately gain d6 Contamination Points. Consult the following chart to determine your current level of Contamination and what that looks like for Radiation Poisoning or Zombie Fever.
0 Contamination Points (Clear)
This nigh-mythical state rarely lasts long. At zero Contamination, you appear like a normal, healthy, happy person. Your ribs might even not be showing! You have the blush of health about you...for the time being.
1-10 Contamination Points (Normal)
Most folks hover at around this range. Physically, your posture might slouch just a bit, and black circles might line your eyes. The world is a harsh place now, and you look tired and battered by the struggles of survival. Welcome to Tuesday.
11-15 Contamination Points (Exposed)
Zombie Fever: Your features become sunken and gaunt, and you start to crave raw meat. Your skin begins to dry and peel and crack. Your joints stiffen and you walk with a noticeable shamble.
Radiation: Unsightly neon green veins become visible on your skin, and some malformed warts form in random places on your body. Every now and again, you might cough up bright yellow flakes of Uranium.
16-19 Contamination Points (Critical)
Zombie Fever: Your eyes glow in two small pinpricks of eerie red light as your skin turns an ashen, mottled grey color. Your speech slurs and you find it difficult to communicate in words that anyone can understand.
Radiation: Your skin begins to sag and loosen, as if slowly melting away from your skeletal structure. Your eyes glow bright yellow and your skin attains a sickly green glow.
Beyond this level of Contamination, you forfeit your Character Sheet to the Director and become one of the mindless horrors that plague your Campaign World. Thanks for the memories!
20+ Contamination Points (Terminal)
Zombie Fever: You gain a beautiful groaning-voice and lose all of the person you once were. Your memories fade and your sole remaining impulse is to seek warm, hot, living meat and ingest it. You shall roam the world for eternity, barring falling victim to a well-placed headshot by a horrified Survivor.
Radiation: Your body melts and twists into the form of a mutated Nuclear Abomination. You undoubtedly sprout new limbs and curious tentacles that sprout from the most interesting places. What was once your brain melts into mush, leaving you nothing more than a mutated fiend that will eagerly attack anything that moves, stuffing whatever parts you can tear off of your prey into one of your many new mouths.
Removing Contamination Points
Your setting will most likely have restorative items that heal Contamination. Each use of such items removes d6 Contamination Points. Check your Setting for specifics.
OPTIONAL RULE: TRADEMARK ITEMS
If your setting is more heroic or magical in nature, then Trademark Items may be something you’d want to look into. Often times, in grand tales of brave heroes and dastardly villains, characters are armed with special Items that add a great deal to their lore and legend. Think of Thor and his Hammer, or King Arthur and the mystical blade Excalibur. Trademark Items are more than just super magic weapons and gear that Adventurer’s pick up along the way. They are hallmark artifacts that are intricately tied to a heroic character in a story. In short, Trademark Items are tied to your character, and grow in power as their own mighty legend is forged through the annals of history.
-Every time your Character gains 20 Experience Points, they can choose to bestow a Trademark Quality to a piece of gear they use. This can be either a Weapon, a Shield, or a piece of Armor. You do NOT need to spend Experience for this. It just happens automatically. So, make sure you keep track of how much total Experience your Character has earned, as this directly affects the potency of their Trademark Items.
-Trademark Items are NOT considered Heirlooms, therefore, choosing to imbue a Trademark Item with a Quality does not count against your Attuned Heirloom limit! A character of Star rank can choose to have up to three Trademark Items in total.
-Trademark Items are always special, and as such, in order to be given a Trademark Quality, must have a suitably snazzy name. Items of power like Trademark Items always have ultra-cool names, because those are the rules.
-A Trademark Item can possess a number of Trademark Qualities up to the Presence score of its wielder. Therefore, someone with a Presence score of 2 can have up to two Trademark Qualities per Trademark Item they possess. So, let’s say that Dave’s character has 43 Experience points and his Presence score is 1. That means that he can choose to imbue one of his Weapons, Armor or Shields with a Trademark Quality. Since his Presence score is only 1, he could only give his Weapon ONE Trademark Quality, and need to give one of his other pieces of gear a second Trademark Quality. Dave is of Star Rank, so he has a limit of 3 Trademark Items.
Trademark Qualities
Below is a list of some applicable Qualities that you can use to make your special gear particularly noteworthy. Keep in mind that Trademark Qualities are not designed to make ultra-overpowered gear or super weapons that skew the balance of a game. This rule is designed to make your character’s story feel special and unique, and grant a bit of pizzazz to games with a slightly more heroic bent. Below are just a few examples of Trademark Item Qualities that you could bestow upon your precious gear. Feel free to come up with more with your Director.
Glow: This item emits a visible field of light around it that you can mentally control, increasing or decreasing its brightness. In essence, this means that you are never without a light source. The flavor of this light is up to you, and depends on your character’s own stylistic preference. If you are playing a brave, good-hearted Knight, perhaps your shield glitters with a holy, warm light of radiance. If you are playing a ghoulish Necromancer, perhaps your staff emits a ghostly, sickly green flicker of illumination. If you’d rather go incognito, you can mute this ability altogether.
Return: This Quality can only affect shields or weapons that can be thrown. On your turn, you may spend a Half-Action to return your thrown item to your hand by issuing a mental command.
Bane: This quality allows all your 6’s on attack rolls to count as 3 Successes instead of 2, but only against a certain type of enemy. This could be: Robots, Beasts, Goblins, or any other specific type of adversary. Note that this Quality should not be abused, so if your game is filled with Humans, you could not give your weapon Bane (Humanity), because that would be cheating, and you aren’t a cheater, are you?
Sentience: Your item has a mind, personality, and voice all its own. While having a Sentient Sword or bazooka might seem pretty cool, keep in mind that your Item might not always agree with your course of action at all times, and you might just have to put up with fielding complaints from your gear from time to time! Sentient items can offer advice, and have thoughts, likes and opinions all their own.
Reflect: This Quality is only granted to armor or shields, and allows the wearer to reflect one energy-based attack back to the attacker by spending a point of Spark, changing the intended target from you, to an opponent of your choosing. Remember, this only works with energy-based attacks. You couldn’t reflect a karate chop at someone!
Bulwark: This Quality is only granted to armor and shields, and allows the wearer to immediately reduce the damage of an incoming physical attack to 0 by spending a point of Spark. Note that this ability only works against physical attacks, and does not apply to magical or energy attacks.
Absorb: This Quality is only granted to armor, and grants the wearer immunity to damage or consequences from either intense Cold or Heat (Choose one when this Quality is chosen). Keep in mind that while wearing a suit of armor that Absorbs cold damage, you can most certainly survive an arctic blizzard without catching cold, but you would not be immune to the crushing force of an avalanche or getting stabbed with a falling icicle!
Soulbound: This Quality makes the item in question unable to be lifted, handled, or used by anyone but you, or someone that you give explicit permission to handle your Trademark Items.
Leech: This Quality is only granted to bladed Close Combat Weapons. Whenever this Weapon deals damage, you regain 1 Point of Energy.
Ghost-Touch: This Quality is only granted to Weapons. This weapon can affect and target Incorporeal enemies like ghosts, spirits, and beings without physical bodies.
Endless: This Quality is only granted to ranged weapons that deal Code Yellow damage or less. This weapon has an unlimited supply of ammunition, and never needs to be physically reloaded. You never need to supply ammo for this weapon.
Jackpot: This Quality is only granted to Weapons. Whenever this weapon is used to defeat a worthy opponent (the Director will tell you who or what qualifies), you gain 2d6 x 50 Units of currency for your setting.
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