Lets get ready to rumble!8)

[garhkal]

I am thinking for my next module, to make it based on a disaster.. like an earthquake. BUT i have never seen rules for things like
buildings colapsing
people falling down
roads buckling
and so on..

Has any one seen anything on this, or got ideas?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

Sounds like a great time to use increased difficulty for moves due to terrain (Running, Repulsor Lift Ops, etc). This can be an added challenge for characters that have lower DEX scores or that haven't upped their Running.

It's been a long time since I browsed through it and I can't access my copy, but "Goroth - Slave of the Empire" had a planetary disaster that may have included something about earthquakes and such.

[Rerun941]

Hideouts and Strongholds has rules regarding building things in hostile places. So it might be good inspiration for the building collapse piece.

I agree with Bren. I must admit that I underutilize the terrain difficulties and I tend to freeform my chase scenes.

I've seen footage of earthquakes where it's nearly impossible to stand up, let alone move around during an earthquake. Crawling around on all fours is about the only way to get around.
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Han - "How're we doin'?"
Luke - "Same as always."
Han - "That bad, huh?"

[atgxtg]

I think Bran and Rerun941 have a point, real big natural disasters are more useful as a backdrop. There really isn7t much the PCs can do other than ride it out and deal with the effects once things setting down (the good roleplaying part). It7s not a lot of fun for someone to loose thier character becuase the GM rolled that a building collasped on that character.

On a related note, I did run a city wide fire in an adventure a few weeks back, and had the PCs engaged i9n firefighting activity. I gave each fire a STR code, and it could get weaker (lose 1D STR), or stronger (gain 1D STR) or even spread based on it'S STR roll. THe PCs had to contain and then extinquish the fire using Y-Wings loaded with fire retardent missiles.

It worked out okay, but the PCs had something they could do, and a way to intereact with the disaster.

Now if you come up woith a way for the PCs to interact with the disaster somehow (maybe using shields to stabilize an area, or coming up with a Earthquake device in the hands of the bad guys) then you can play around with the disaster a bit more. THe PCs really need to be able to do something that has an impact on the story in order for such things to work. Otherwise they just feel like meaningless pawns on a chessboard.

[garhkal]

I was thinking more of then having walls and suck fall AFTER due to all the damage, while trying to get everyone out to freedom/safety.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Bren]

Garkal - that sounds interesting. PCs can decide to act heroic and try to get others to safety or decide to just save themselves. Add a complication with an appearance of some recurring enemy for the PCs and you turn it into a cluttered and complicated 3-sided battle.

Also a chance for characters to use some non combat skills - running to maneuver through the obstacles, possibly dodge to avoid falling stuff, climb/jump to get over rubble or leap cracks in the ground/floor. Tech skills to unjam doors or rewire electronics. If you are in a building lights could go off, HVAC shut down.

It reminds me of the very first Star Wars scenario I ever saw - a beta version of a pre-WEG Star Wars game. It was set on a space station under Imperial attack and it was sort of a cross between two old seventies films - the Poseidon Adventure and the Towering Inferno. Characters started out at the base of the station and they had to climb up to the docking bay and get on a ship before the station fully depressurized. Ah, good times.