Getting caught in a wild fire??

[garhkal]

We know that in the novels where jacen goes dark side, that there are forest fires. It was also in one (or was it two) of the NJO novels.

Now what effects in game would there be to pc's caught in one?
Would it matter on what means they have to move out?
Would it matter on the speed of said wild fire's movement/direction??
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[Fallon Kell]

Pretty punishing heat damage, and stamina rolls against oxygen starvation. If you breathe in the midst of a forest fire, your lungs will sear.
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

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[vanir]

We have serious bushfires in my country, they're our major form of natural disaster where america's would probably be tornados. Once actually caught in a bushfire there's not a lot you can do and survival chances comes down to how much preparation you made before the fire started. The firefront moves very quickly, fanned by wind and superheated temperatures it outruns and overtakes cars no problem, our last big bushfire a bunch of people were burned alive fleeing in cars on a road, it goes through them like a napalm strike. You get local firestorms within the bushfire so there's all sorts of strange effects with air pressure and physics.

Radiant heat is the big killer, second of course being the flames themselves. You need an area with as much firebreak around it as possible, all structures doused and soaked with water, occupants in a central basement with plenty of water, covered in soaked blankets, you get the general idea.
The firefront itself actually moves past fairly quickly so if you have a firebreak around your structure, your biggest threat is the radiant heat and then after the firefront passes you've got mostly small grassfires and such to deal with, which isn't too hard.

Just off the top of my head,

Unless they've a species resistance to extreme heat if the PC Party is anywhere near a firefront in a serious bushfire and they've got no shelter, they're dead. Really you're just not going to make it unless you've got a lake to swim out into or a an old water tank to climb into or a structure with a firebreak and some quick preparation.

So of course a survival roll to find some sort of shelter from the firefront itself is crucial. Then you've got the whole thing of still being stuck someplace with grassfires all around you, which is still like being stuck inside a house that's on fire. There's where you'll do stamina rolls against noxious atmosphere, and more survival rolls to pick your way through terrain without suffering radiant/fiery heat damage, vary difficulty on those survival rolls depending where you've mapped the fire and party to be.

Use a map. Have a 50mph firefront sweep across it how you want, this is an instakill firestorm, anything unsheltered that it passes over is dead like it got hit by napalm. Initial survival rolls will be versus this, similar context to being inside a spacecraft as it desintegrates (survival roll to get to the escape pods), this survival roll is to find some sort of shelter from the firefront.
Then on the GM map place your spot fires. Have the party use a copy of the map but don't let them know where the spot fires are. Vary their difficulty on subsequent survival rolls to negotitate the terrain. Anywhere the firefront has passed will have spotfires and smoke inhalation to worry about, so they also should have periodic stamina rolls for the smoke.
Give them radiant heat damage when they fail survival rolls.

[Fallon Kell]

Given armor to protect from the heat, I wouldn't rule the fire front an instant kill. If your armor can protect you from a flame projector covering you in burning napalm, it can protect you from a forest fire. That said, I would roll a high damage rating. 8D, for example.
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Or that excessively long "Noooooooooo" was the Whining Side of the Force leaving him. - Dustflier

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[vanir]

Good point Fallon. SW tech is a lot more advanced than industrial/atomic tech. By the same token firefighters are often killed in bushfires wearing full kit with asbestos, oxy masks and a water truck. Footage of their bodies on the news looks like someone hit with an air strike, doesn't look like what you'd think with a fire. But still this is SW tech.

[Naaman]

This is pretty interesting. Besides equipment like gas masks or oxygen sources and fire retardant oe fireproof gear, Force users could use absorb/dissipate energy to resist damage, and control breathing to aid in the respiratory department.

[garhkal]

I'm not sure CB would help out when there is no oxygen cause it has all been burned up, OR with stopping your lungs getting seared by the extremely hot air.
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[vanir]

Well protective flightsuits/spacesuits add to your stamina roll to resist extreme cold in limited vacuum exposure, maybe for most envirosuits and sealed armour you use that as a guideline, unless the suit specifies being a comprehensive environmental capsule like with the Telgorn suits (which function more like character scale vehicles than armour, but use powersuit operation skill, these are for EVA in non-atmosphere like asteroids).

So one might suggest it depends on the type of suit and its design limitations. Powered combat armour with enviro sealing might be limited environmental protection not really meant for sustained, extreme conditions, so might add a small bonus to stamina. But a full EVA suit like a mining suit for working in volcanos would add a very high bonus against these type of conditions. There would also be limitations on how long the suit could prevent character damage in the environment depending on the suit, from a few minutes to hours or days.

[Bren]

[KageRyu]

I honestly think that, there are so many variables and dynamics in a real life forest fire, that, while it would be possible to create solid, crunchy rules to legislate them all, it would really bog down a game.

In the Action genre, which is very much the Genre and style D6 is meant to emulate best, on screen fires and blazes behave very little like in real life. We happily see the dashing heroe, doging their way down foot paths with small flames off to the sides intercut with stock footage of the raging inferno allegedly around them. Sometimes it can be laughable.

However, it might be best, in keeping with the fast paced feel and style of Star Wars and the Genre to keep the rules simple. I'd suggest instead of worrying about crunchy rules and mechanics for a fire, keep it simple and fun. Their are a lot of factors and a lot of real life tricks to offset some of them (how well they work has a lot too do with how deep in the blaze you are and how long you are exposed). I'd suggest Survival rolls against either a set difficulty based on how intense and how complete the players are surrounded, or asign the blaze a STRENGTH Die Code and make it an opposed roll (and for the blaze, have 6's on the wild die indicate an increase of 1D in intensity for following rounds, and a 1 indicate a decrease to keep it dynamic) - this would let the polayers know basics like keeping low below the smoke, using wet cloth to reduce smoke, ash, and the effects of the hot air inhaled, etc... I would use Search rolls (of course with MAPS penalties if also using survival to avoid nasty effects) to locate escape routes through the blaze. I of course would have some dodging for falling burning debris or flame gusts, jumping to clear some debris or small fires, maybe running becomes prudent to avoid being cut off or trapped by a large falling tree. When hit, or touched by the fire or anything urning there would be damage resistance (I suggest between 3D and 5D for fires, I wouldn't go above 6D unless they were completely imolated with intense flame). I would require stamina rolls to either fend off the intense heat or smoke inhalation (again either fixed difficulty or variable) with failure being an automatic stun and a fumble being a wound. For all of these, the more the character has to do, the heavier MAPs get. It's a good idea to have a set distance the players need to travel, or prepare some maps with preset "encounters" and associated skill rols and damages for failing, etc... Think of it as running a massive battle as described in the rulebook, with much of it being naration, but the encounters are the specific hazards and obstacles of the fire. While this may not be entirely realistic approach to forest fires, we are talking about an action game genre as well.

Jedies have all sorts pof tricks to help, if they know them: Telekinesis to move or deflect falling debris, Absorb energy to offset the heat (yes, even inhaled scalding air as they are still absorbing and disipating the heat energy), Controlled Breathing to reduce the respiration rate and allow them to hold their breath longer in the worst of it, Control Pain, Shift Senses, Healing, Enhanced Attribute, Enhanced Jump, and lots more.

As to the No Oxygen, remember, if the fire has consumed all of the oxygen, it has burned out as well. Fire needs oxygen.

EDIT TO ADD:
The main reason I see a lower damage is that Fire does not do it's damage instantly. While, yes, bodies and people can be pulled from fires unrecognizably charred, that didn't happen in what would be 1 round in SW. The real nastiness is that fires burn and would continue to do damage over a prolonged period. Given this, even a lower damage will start to inflict real lasting injuries in time. More importantly, if the heat is intense enough, there is a chance flamable items on a character, or even the character himself (hair, fur, etc) may ignite. When directly exposed to the fire (damage from direct contact) the character will most likely have som part of his body imolated, and this should take at least one round to extinguish, however, given the natural instinct is to panic, I have always required characters imolated or set ablaze to make an Easy to Moderate willpower roll to keep their cool, or be unable to act as they flail and try to haphazardly extinguish themselves.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[garhkal]

[Bren]

[garhkal]

That might be a q in and of itself.
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[garhkal]

Bringing this thread up, because of all that haze/smoke over most north east USA, due to the wild fires in Nova Scotia..

Since we're seeing the effects of these fires, hundreds potentially even thousands of miles away, has anyone thought of issues like this cropping up in game?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

A couple of my relevant house rules:

Flame Damage
Environmental Damage

Between the two, that should cover fire, heat and smoke effects.
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