Fantastic Frontiers - Beasts & Baggage
Fantastic Frontiers - Beasts & Baggage is the second part in a series concerning highly lethal fantasy roleplaying inspired by the fur-trade and the French & Indian War. This second part is about two things: 1) animals and monsters, or "Beasts", and how they can be defeated and sold for their raw material; 2) Items and encumbrance.
BEASTS
TRACKING:
To track a beast the referee must make a hidden 2d6 roll against TN8 + ”layers of obscurity”. This is to say, for every challenge which helps the target Beast avoid Men, they should have one further point of advantage against the tracking roll.
A tracker has a +1 bonus for every “lead” he has on the Beast.
A Man must be within the same hex to successfully track a Beast.
TRACKING EXAMPLE: Charlz Reymer is ordered to track a Dire Beaver to be
harvested for its pelt and perfume gland. He was told the Beaver’s dam is
downstream, three days travel. After three days travel, Charlz discovers
the Beaver Dam. Nearby, he discovers tracks. Now he may track the Beast…
He rolls 3, 1 for a total of 4+2. He has fallen short of his Target Number
and did not find the Beaver in this attempt but in his failure Charlz has
discovered gnawed trees. Tomorrow he may try again with a +3 modifier on his
tracking roll on account of his new lead and an additional +1 on account of
spending successive days searching for the Beast.
Initiative: Roll a d6. On a 5+, a Man will act before a Beast. If there are any Non-Player Men involved in the fight, they should go last, after the Players’ Men have gone in the slow phase.
1 Fast Phase
2 Beast Phase
3 Slow Phase
4 Others
MELEE:
Man-versus-Beast: Make a 2d6 opposed roll against as many dice as the Beast has Power. Victory over a beast results in it making an injury check. A tie results in an injury check upon the beast and a death check upon a man.
Example BLACK BEAR
POW 3
WOUND 4
YIELD 20$/W.
Hit Locations
1 Graze. No Result
2 Graze. No result
3 Back Leg. 5” (25m) Slower
4 Front Leg. Pow -1
5 Chest/Flank. Check injury at end of turn
6 Face. -1 WOUND, and check at the end of turn.
REPEAT hits on a LIMB result in Injury.
POWER - the fighting ability of a beast.
WOUND - A measure of a beast’s flesh and its will to live.
A beast dies at WOUND 0.
INJURY
1-4. -1 Wound
5-6. -1 POW/-1 WOUND
HARVESTING
Harvesting a Beast is a task. Given time and tools, it succeeds automatically. Under pressure, it must be performed as per common task rolls and succeeds at a base chance of 1-in-6.
A Beast’s yield is in accordance with its WOUNDS. Some Beast parts and organs are especially valuable, and may even be risky to extract. A Dragongoose’s firesack may explode if handled incorrectly, and as such its extraction may require a task check regardless of time pressure and a Save for Dodging & Daring upon failure.
The quality and value of the yield depends on the beast in question.
BAGGAGE
A Man has six “storage slots” and two hands. His hands are occupied by a Musket. Two of his storage slots are occupied by a bedroll and a week’s worth of rations. His slots are afforded by a backpack, which also carries a canteen and a portable shaving kit (mirror, straight razor etc.), items with which to start a fire and perhaps another negligible personal belonging if his player so chooses.
A man may carry one unit of Shot/powder or a Quiver of arrows without taking a slot.
A Man's speed does not change unless he is carrying something particularly heavy, at which point he should move as though his leg is injured. An injured man can not carry such an object, he is in too much pain.
Food, Shelter, Travel & Sundry:
Ration - 5$/day.
Tent (small, fits 2 men) - 100$
Tent (large, fits 6 men) - 500$
Tent (massive, fits 12 men) - 3000$
Kayak (fits 1 man, no storage) - 100$
Canoe (fits 2 men, 8 storage) - 400$
Sled/Cart (6 storage) - 200$
Sack (small, 2 slots) - 25$
Sack (large, 6 slots) - 120$
Tools (Crowbar, shovel, pickax, etc) - 40$
Rope, 30m - 30$
Chain, 5m - 50$
Torches, half-dozen - 20$; Lasts six turns.
Lantern, oil - 500$; Lasts 24 turns.
Oil, flask (flammable) - 60$
Grease, jar (slippery) - 40$
Tree sap, jar (adhesive) - 40$
Grappling hook - 100$
Alcohol, cheap - 200$; +1 reaction.
Alcohol, expensive - 1,200$; +2 reaction.
Poison - 500$
Ritual Salt, pouch - 120$/1RD
Firewood - 2$/night.
Arms and armor:
Musket - 360$
Pistol - 200$
Bow - 180$
Tomahawk - 200$
Broadsword - 500$
Sword - 80$
Spear - 280$
Shot/powder - 40$/2 RD.
Quiver - 25$/6 Arrows
Breastplate - 1,000$; Withstand one Center of Mass hit location result.
Big Hat - 4,000$; Withstand one Head hit location result.
Cloak - 600$; Withstand one Shoulder hit location result.
Fancy Pants; 400$ Withstand one Leg hit location result.