Preparing Sewer Rats, Part 4 (Finishing Touches)

Countdown to the Grave

Sewer Rats' health system is a lightly edited version of the standard Into the Odd system, with a Darkest Dungeon-style twist.

Damage is completely normal - take damage to HP, when that runs out, take damage to STR. However, you do not roll for Critical Damage (placeholder) when you take STR damage. You function perfectly fine until you hit 0 STR, at which point you drop dead.

Healing has been changed around as well - at the end of each Delve, you regain all your HP. However, you never regain STR. It's just a timer, counting down until you die. This is intended to balance the increase in equipment characters get over time - as characters get better, stronger equipment, their STR (probably) decreases, making it more of a risk to bring them down into the sewers.

This gives the players a good, in-universe reason to start building up a stable of characters - it's a bad idea to bring a long-running character into a low-level delve, because they'll be slowly worn down through attrition (after all, even a single lost point of STR is a problem), and you want to save them for more dangerous, more lucrative missions.

Optional: Dying of the Plague

To no one's surprise, the sewers under a titanic metropolis aren't particularly clean. Luckily, as long as you don't get cut, you should be fine.

You didn't get cut, right?

When a character takes STR damage, there is a 1-in-8 chance their wound is infected. Roll on the Disease table of your choice (and please, post it in the comments, I need one).

Dungeoncrawling Procedures

Dungeoncrawling is pretty simplified, made up of Turns and Delves. Each Turn, everyone moves, you check off one turn of light, and you roll a 1-in-6 chance for a random encounter. A Delve is the entire time you spend in the dungeon. Most beneficial items will last for a Delve.

I'm using a very simple 2d6 reaction table (2: immediate attack, 3-5: hostile, 6-11: neutral, 12: friendly), and resting during a delve is impossible. They're simply too densely inhabited for it to be a good idea.

Optional: Salary

This rule adds some extra pressure to your players. The Ratcatcher's Guild does not pay for everything. If you do not complete either of your objectives, you get nothing. If you complete your Primary, you get 2 Coins. If you complete both, you get 4.

Coins can be spent on 4 things: Housing, Food, Medicine, and Ammunition. If you do not pay for Medicine, you do not regain HP for the next Delve. If you do not pay for Ammunition, you cannot recharge the Usage Dice of your Ranged Weapons. If you do not pay for Food for 3 Delves, you die. If you do not pay for Housing for 3 Delves, you lose your house. This limits your inventory to 3 items - you must carry everything you own.

Optional: Retrieved Equipment

While most equipment in Sewer Rats is provided by an incredibly efficient and effective system (cough cough), that doesn't mean there's nothing to find during Delves. However, your superiors probably want whatever it is you've found.

Firstly, you must surrender half of any mundane items or equipment uncovered. Hoarding equipment is illegal, and can be punished with lost salary, imprisonment, or expulsion from the Guild. Of course, if you stash everything in an empty part of the sewer to come back for later, who's going to know?

Arcana is of much more interest to the Guild. Legally, you must surrender any Arcana for inspection, which takes 1d4 Delves to complete. If a 4 is rolled, the Arcana is confiscated permanently. If the Arcana is incredibly destructive (disintegration ray, hurricane gem), inspection is automatically permanent. If you hide Arcana and it is found, it will be assumed to be a weapon, and you will be charged with terrorism.

Random checks of Sewer Rats' inventories occur after 1-in-6 Delves.