Ocean Book
Contents
1. ayel Aq SUPPORT OCEAN Thanks for checking out Ocean This PDF is the free version of the game Feel free to pass it around and share it My name is Jake Richmond and designed wrote and illustrated Ocean If you like the game you can order a print copy of the book through the links below The money buys me free time which use to make more games Thanks Jake Richmond BUY OCEAN AT Atarashi Games The indie rpg un store Amazon com run PROJECT OCEAN EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THE OCEAN BEFORE THEY DIE BY JAKE RICHMOND special thanks to Michael Petersen ararashilganes lst edition June 2009 Ocean is copyright 2009 Jake Richmond Visit our website at Atarashigames com Here s the elevator pitch We re a group of people trapped in an underwater research station We can t remember who we are or why we re there We don t know what the monsters are that are picking us off one at a time All we know is that we need to get out We want to escape That s what Ocean is about Ocean is an engine for creating a very specific kind of story What you ll find in this book are a set of suggestions ideas illustrations and advice If you follow these instructions if you take my idea and run with them you ll end up with a neat story and role playing experience Something that s part story part performance and part game Your results will be2. still need to help describe scenes and create obstacles You ll still need to decide what s at stake when the survivor that doesn t trust you takes a risk If you gain bonus dice from another survivor s risk you can either pass them all on to the survivor to your right or buy an item and narrate how one of the survivors finds it Taking risks against other survivors Sometimes you may want to take a risk to try to hurt or kill another survivor If you win a risk with the intent to hurt another survivor you can reduce their dice down to the next level So you could knock a survivor from unhurt to hurt or from hurt to very badly hurt If your intent is to kill another survivor then they will be reduced to 0 dice if your risk succeeds Solving the mysteries Our story has three central mysteries Who are we What is the station What are the monsters We ll need to solve all three of these mysteries to win the game Each of these mysteries is purposely vague and you won t find any definitive answers or truths in this book It will be up to us to create the truth behind these mysteries As we tell our story we ll gather clues and each clue will give us a chance to narrate a larger part of one of the mysteries We solve mysteries buy buying clues Clues are bought with bonus dice You can buy a clue at any time as long as you have enough bonus dice What this means is that your character has discovered something or remem
3. put an index card in the middle of the table and fill in rooms hallways and other features as we tell our story I think this helps THINK IT S SAFER TO DIFFERENT WAYS give the Station a real presence and it definitely makes easier to navigate try not to be a map hog either Everyone should be able to add notes sketches and new rooms to the map lalso like to hand out index cards to the other players atthe beginning of the game always suggest that we fold them down the middle and set them in front of us with our character s name facing out toward the rest of the group Like a school name sign We can write down our character information on the back Unpacking the 3 mysteries Let s talk about the possibilities surrounding each of the mysteries The scenario described in this book is one that find personally fascinating and had some very specific ideas in mind when chose the three mysteries In the end it will be up to you to determine the truth behind these mysteries but maybe can give you a few ideas Who are the survivors The name survivors implies that the characters have survived something But what Were they brought to the Station or have they lived there all their lives Are they scientists doctors and researchers who have fallen victim to some kind of amnesia inducing accident Are they the subjects willing or otherwise of some kind of memory manipulation experiment Are th
4. and give them an awesome death Go out in a blaze of glory Make noble sacrifice Betray your friends and pay the price Make your death an interesting and vital part of our story That s what we re here for To tell a good story Authority Ocean doesn t have a game master No single player is in charge of creating our story or deciding whose contributions are valid and whose can be ignored We work together to tell our story Each player has the same amount of authority and the same responsibilities This means that sometimes we ll disagree Sometimes introduce an idea into play that you don t like Sometimes you ll insist that my character shouldn t be able do something that really think they should do We need to remember that we re trying to create a story together It s better to compromise then argue It s better to accept and work with each other s ideas then to reject them The other side of this is that not everyone will use the same amount of authority Some players will emerge as the game s leaders stepping forward to describe most of these scenes and obstacles and reveal the truth behind most of the mysteries Other players won t want much authority at all They ll play the part of their characters and be happy to follow the leads the other players give them Each approach is fine and think most of us will fall somewhere in between this Maps and index cards like to draw maps as play
5. be totally enthusiastic about what we re doing If we want Ocean to work if we want to explore our characters and these mysteries if we want to tell this story then we need to be willing to approach these ideas with a ELASHLIGHT Y willingness to invest ourselves If we can t do that our story will likely run into some trouble Thankfully investing ourselves isn t as hard as it sounds The important thing to remember is that we ll get out of this experience what we put into it Tone It s important to talk about the tone of the story before you get started think of Ocean as a survival mystery story and the approach take focuses on creepy environments and slow building tension You may want to play Ocean as straight out horror full of gore and nastiness Someone else might want an explosive action story or a subdued drama Other participants might want to add in some comedy or romance elements Talk about what you want to get out of the story and make sure everybody is on the same page before you start playing If you find that what you want conflicts with what someone else wants you ll need to reach a compromise That s important Don t agree to disagree and then try to force the story in the direction you want it to go Instead consider why the other person wants to take a different approach then you Ask yourself if taking their approach will still allow you to enjoy the story If the answer is yes the
6. different from mine Since we re different people who take different approaches to telling stories role playing and creating fiction we re bound to not only approach Ocean differently but also get different results That s totally fine As you read through this book you ll see that Ocean isn t really a complete game rules set or guide There are holes that need to be filled The approach take to playing Ocean to using Ocean to create a story relies on my previous experience as a gamer storyteller and artist can t recreate that for you You ll have to approach Ocean on your own and fill in the gaps using your own experiences That shouldn t be too hard This book 15 broken into three parts The Operations Manual has all the instructions If Ocean is a game then these are the rules The User Manual has all my advice and ideas for creating a shared fiction using those rules The Afterword talks about what went in to creating Ocean There are also some comics Those were a lot of fun to draw Jake Richmond March 2009 Jake atarashigames com OPERATIONS MANUAL The Operations Manual contains the instructions for staging Ocean I ve tried to present these instructions as cleanly and concisely as possible You ll find commentary advice and suggestions for using these instructions in the User Manual Premise You wake up cold in the dark You are not alone You can t remember who you are and you don t recogniz
7. other mysteries If you don t have enough bonus dice to buy a clue you can ask other players to donate bonus dice You can get up to two extra bonus dice in this way The players that donate the dice get to contribute to the description of the clue As we play and create our story we ll come across all kinds of discoveries that will let us speculate on the truth behind the three mysteries It s important to remember that only the clues that we buy with bonus dice are established truths Everything else is speculation and may or may not be true By buying clues and narrating their importance you are telling the rest of us what story elements you are interested in and how you want our game to proceed Remember that Escaping the station In order to win the game at least one of the survivors must survive and escape to safety What exactly qualifies as safety will depend on the story we ve told although it will almost always involve escaping the station In some stories safety will be finding an abandoned submarine and sailing toward land In others it may involve being rescued by the navy finding our way home or making contact with aliens If the survivors reach a point where they are no longer in real danger where they can rest treat their wounds or communicate with other people that don t want to kill them then they ve probably found safety Remember only one of us has to survive to win the game While you don t ha
8. s the chart again 9 Dice unhurt 6 Dice hurt or exhausted 3 Dice very badly hurt near the limits of endurance 0 Dice dead As long as you have seven or more dice you re pretty much fine You may be tired BUT I m TAKING bruised and bloody but you wouldn t call in sick to work Once you get down to six dice you ve been hurt or exhausted You won t die but you need medical attention You should probably be in a hospital At three dice you ve been hurt very badly If you don t get medical attention fairly soon you ll probably die Maybe you took a big dose of radiation Maybe you lost an arm Maybe you have been floating in the ocean for days and are dying from exposure When you lose your last die you re dead That s that When we describe the consequences of our actions we need to take into account how many dice we lost and where that puts us on the chart If I risk a single die and am reduced to eight we can describe the injury from my risk as a minor scrape twisted ankle or some bruises If lost 3 dice we need to describe the injury in terms of broken bones and major bleeding Very likely one or more of us will die Maybe all of us That s fine It s probably a better story if a few of the characters don t make it out alive Remember death doesn t end our participation in the game Instead it lets us focus on describing scenes and obstacles If it looks like your character might die then go ahead
9. something that the characters actually want Offer them a choice They can take a risk and get closer to their goals or they can look for another way to move forward Remember any of us can present obstacles but it s important that we take turns If someone else is already describing an obstacle give them their space without interrupting If you ve just described an obstacle let someone else have a turn It s okay to ask everyone if you can take a turn In fact it s better to ask then to just jump in Scene gt Descriptions gt Obstacles gt Risks Always move toward your goals Your character wants to solve the mysteries and escape the station Remember that If you re not sure what to do look for ways to move closer to your goals It s okay to use your own narration and descriptions to push yourself closer to your goals The flip side of that is you need to be providing the other players with ways to do the same thing Create scenes and obstacles or add details to scenes and obstacles created by other players that provide the characters opportunities to reach their goals Again if you re not sure what to do provide another player with descriptions and obstacles that push them toward their goals WE CAN GET THROUGH HERE Engaging characters We want to solve the mysteries We want to escape These are our characters goals When we describe scenes and create obstacles we should keep these goals in mind Doe
10. ake a risk to sneak the entire group pasta sleeping creature or help another character climb up a ruined elevator shaft Stakes should be harsh You ll always decide what s at stake when the character that doesn t trust you takes a risk Mechanically all they can lose is the dice that they risk But that s only part of it It s your job to make sure that the risk is actually a risk You ll decide what s at stake what they could lose if they fail the risk A good stake will make the character reconsider their risk A good stake puts more than the character s own health and safety in danger The dice economy You need bonus dice to win the game Bonus dice buy clues and clues let you solve mysteries so the only way to beat the game is to get a whole bunch of bonus dice The only way to reliably generate bonus dice 15 to take risks The dice economy will start slow At first no one will have any bonus dice and it will take a few risks to get things doing The more risks we take the more bonus dice have available That doesn t mean we should take suicidal risks just to generate more dice But we shouldn t be afraid of risks either Our characters will have to take some chances if they want to make it out alive Taking risks doesn t actually get you any dice You ll rely on the people to your left for that Since the characters that want to protect you and don t trust you will give you dice when they take risks yo
11. bered something that sheds light on one of the mysteries Buying a clue lets you describe part of the truth behind one of those mysteries You get to decide what s really going on Are the strange creatures that hide in the submerged sections of the Station really aliens 15 the Station really a time capsule meant to preserve the last surviving humans Are you and the other survivors actually imprisoned spies who have had their memories erased While buying a single clue doesn t allow you to determine the entire truth behind a mystery it does let you lay the groundwork for that mystery and establish a single truth that must be recognized by the other players takes three clues to solve a mystery The player who buys the mystery s third gets to wrap up the mystery and establish its final truth Clues always reveal something about one of the survivors Our survivors are connected to the mysteries and each clue will shed light on that relationship When you buy a clue you ll decide if it sheds light on the survivor you need to protect or the survivor you don t trust You get to describe what the clue is and what it reveals about that survivor Use your clue to connect the survivor to the mystery and introduce new ideas into the story Remember each of us is interested in solving a specific mystery When you buy a clue you have to spend it on that mystery Once that mystery has been solved you can spend your clues to solve
12. contradict a clue that someone else has already introduced Remember we re creating a story together It s okay to ask for help This is my last bit of advice If you re not sure what to do or where to go it s okay to ask the other players for help If you want to buy a clue but don t know what to describe ask for help If you re not sure what stakes to set for a risk or if you re not sure how to describe a success go ahead and see what everyone else thinks It s okay to ask for a time out and have little group think table discussion We tell better stories by working together AFTERWORO Where did Ocean come from There s something about the ocean that has always frightened and fascinated me When was a little kid we used to visit my grandparents on the coast and had nightmares about strange men crawling out of the tide dragging people from their bedroom windows and taking them off to it was never clear where they were taken to Ocean was pretty heavily inspired by Yuji Iwahara s excellent manga King of Thorn James Cameron s film The Abyss and several different Playstation games in the survival horror genre Creating Ocean Ocean was my attempt to fully create a new game story engine ina single month The idea was that I d design write and illustrate the entire thing in 30 days It didn t work It took almost twice that long had the idea for Ocean for a few months before actually sat down t
13. e survivors really people at all They could be androids or some other kind of artificial life form clones aliens or malignant Als in a virtual reality program If they are people where did they come from Where they kidnapped and brought to the Station against their will Did they come to the Station seeking safety and refuge What is the Station l ve pictured the Station as looking like the inside of the drilling rig in The Abyss or like the interior of a naval ship It s clearly a manufactured place and it s definitely underwater But what is it for Has it been long abandoned or was it fully functional until just recently Was it some kind of underwater research station and if so who were the researchers and what was their subject Maybe the Station wasn t a research center at all but a fallout shelter of some kind or a prison Maybe it s a place set up specifically for making contact with the monstrous creatures that live in the ocean Maybe it was built to be the first contact platform for an aquatic alien race Is the Station really in the ocean 15 it really underwater at all or are the flooding corridors and water filled portholes a trick to keep the survivors from trying to escape What are the monsters There s something really scary lurking in the corridors and airlocks of the Station Something not human My initial idea for the monsters of Ocean were strange shadowy tentacled creatures that were at least s
14. e the room you re in or the people around you You re in the ocean deep underwater in some kind of abandoned research station Who are you What is this place and why are you here What are the strange monstrous noises coming from the abandoned parts of the Station What are the creatures that shuffle and splash through the flooded halls and corridors How will you escape to safety Can you escape at all How do we play Ocean Ocean is a story that we ll tell together It has a beginning as well as rules and guidelines that will help us reach its end We ll take on the roles of desperate amnesiac survivors and work together to tell the story of how we solved the mysteries surrounding our situation and escaped from a deserted underwater research station Creating a story together is easy The rules and guidelines in this book give us a frame to build on start with our characters and their desperate circumstances and build from there We ll take turns suggesting scenes to play out describing the places we explore and clues we uncover and narrating the truths behind Ocean s mysteries each act out the part of a character speaking in their voice and describing their actions and emotions We ll role play with each other creating and exploring our characters relationships as we go You ll need two or more participants for Ocean as well as some paper a few pencils and nine dice six sided for each play
15. er Goals Ocean has a beginning and an end To reach this end our characters will need to complete two goals solve the mysteries and escape alive These goals are the core of the story that we ll create They re what drive our characters forward and force them to take risks We ve finished our story and won the game once these two goals are met Solve the Mysteries Ocean has three central mysteries Who are the survivors What is the Station What are the monsters These mysteries are purposely vague and spawn lots of other questions It will be up to us to define the truth of each mystery We ll get to that in a bit Escape the Station At least one of the survivors needs to escape to safety alive We ll get to exactly what counts as safety in a bit as well The three mysteries in detail Since the mysteries are central to the game let s take a close look at each of them Who are the survivors You can t remember who you are You ve woken up in a strange place surrounded by strange people with no memory of how you got there or what your life was like before You still have a sense of self a feeling that you had a life and personality of your own You have flashes of memory vague recollections of people and places that were important to you What is the Station You wake up to find yourself in a cold dark room connected to other rooms by a series of sealable hatches and corridors You appear to be in some kind of unde
16. er on the die is the first digit of your age A two means your survivor is in their 205 A six means they re in their 60 s Remember your survivor won t remember exactly how old they are 2 Each survivor wears hospital pajamas and has an ID card around their neck with a name on it Don t choose a name yet We ll get to that 3 Each player gets 9 dice Set these in front of you in a pile 4 Each survivor gets 1 skill Choose a random skill from the skill list which you can find a few pages over This skill is a link to your survivor s previous life a representation of something they were good at or maybe a job they held You can keep this skill a secret or let everyone know about it 5 Before we go any further we re actually going to play a little scene We re going to describe what happens as each of us wakes up It doesn t matter which one of us starts You ll describe to us what you see and feel as you wake up and look around You ll tell us how you react and what you do After you re done the player to your right gets to wake up We ll continue this till all our characters are awake As the characters are waking up and looking around they ll be seeing each other for the first time giving each other confused looks or speaking in hushed hesitant voices The purpose of this scene is to give us a first impression of who the survivors are We should each try to do 3 things in this scene a We ll take tur
17. erwise injured Don t take a risk unless you re ready to get hurt If you win the risk you get to describe what happens Tell us how you overcame the obstacle and what happens because of your actions Because winning a risk involves losing some dice tell us how you hurt yourself while overcoming the obstacle If you lost the risk you don t get to describe the result alone The character you don t trust got to decide what was at stake if you failed and you ll both work together to describe the harm that comes to you as a result of the risk Whether you win or lose a risk you should use your description to further our story and push us closer to our goals Hurt and Dying Our dice represent how safe and healthy our characters are When we risk dice what we re risking is ourselves We re putting ourselves on the line to take horrible wounds to suffer from sickness and exhaustion to even die so we can get past an obstacle and get closer to our goals Once we lose dice we ll never get them back When we lose dice in a risk we ll use this chart to determine how hurt we are 9 Dice unhurt 6 Dice hurt exhausted or terrified 3 Dice very badly hurt near the limits of endurance O Dice dead When one of us dies our bonus dice and items are divided between the surviving characters It s up to us to work out how the dice and items are divided You can still participate in the game after your survivor dies
18. is the only time they can do this Players without characters can create new survivors They probably won t be amnesiac escapees from an underwater station but otherwise the process for creating new survivors is the same as before USER MANUAL The User Manual contains advice suggestions and ideas for staging Ocean You can take this advice or ignore it There s no right or wrong way to approach Ocean My hope is that this section will provide some insight into my own approach to using the Ocean engine This is the stuff that think will lead to a really solid and fun story telling and role playing experience l ve arranged these thoughts as loose paragraphs in no particular order What you ll read here is pretty much what you d get from me if we sat down and had a conversation about how to use Ocean suggest reading through it all and marking the parts that you think will be useful Ignore anything that sounds like it might not be fun Attitude and taking an open approach to play Ocean is the kind of thing that only works if you actually want it to If the premise of Ocean doesn t appeal to you if you aren t interested in the story of amnesiac survivors trying to solve the mystery of what happened to them and escape with their lives then you really shouldn t participate If that sounds a little harsh consider that if we re going to tell the best story we can and create the best experience possible we need to
19. mputers Roll an extra die in risks that involve computers Sabotage Roll an extra die in risks to break or ruin machines weapons locks or other objects Fight Roll an extra die in risks that involve fighting First Aid Roll an extra die in risks that involve administering medical aid Hide Roll an extra die in risks that involve hiding Hold Breath Roll an extra die in risks that involve being underwater Jump Roll an extra die in risks that involve jumping Mechanic Roll an extra die in risks that involve machines Pilot Roll an extra die in risks that involve vehicles Roll an extra die in risks that involve getting away Strength Roll an extra die in risks that involve moving or lifting things Continuing the story Our story doesn t have to end after we solve our mysteries and escape to safety Maybe the safety we ve found is only temporary Maybe we ll escape the Station to find ourselves surrounded by new mysteries and dangers If we decide we want to continue our game we ll need to establish two or three new mysteries as well as a new setting By this point we ve solved the original three mysteries but there s still a good chance that we have a lot of unanswered questions As we start our new story the survivors from our last story can each select a new skill for free Since they ve had time to heal and rest they can also spend any left over bonus dice to buy back normal dice This
20. n that s the path you need to take Compromise is fun really really think that talking about tone and setting expectations for what kind of story you want to tell is the best way to ensure a good storytelling experience Don t skip this part Getting from the beginning to the end The rules in the Operations Manual provide a map for getting from the first scene of the story where our characters wake up to the end where they make their escape Because we all have different ways we tell stories and play games we ll naturally have different approaches to using these rules and following this map Here s how do it Break the events of your game into different scenes Set a scene by describing where the characters are and what they see You can do this by yourself or with the help of other players Once the location of your scene is set in everyone s mind explore the scene and see what s there Open doors Walk down halls Touch and see as much of the scene as you can and take turns describing for each other what you see and find Description is important Ocean is all about describing things The more you describe the more real and interesting your story will be Present an obstacle Once the scene is established present an obstacle that keeps the characters from their goals A door that won t open A password protected computer A monster blocking the only door to the submarine bay Make sure the obstacle blocks
21. ng After you use an item roll a die On a five or six you ll keep the item otherwise it s used up Aspirin Gain one bonus die after your next risk Flashlight Roll an extra die in risks involving being in complete darkness Pistol Roll two extra dice in risks against monsters or other characters Gain 1 bonus die by giving this item to the survivor you need to protect Keys Roll an extra die in risks involving locks Knife Roll one extra die against monsters or survivors You only need to roll a three or better keep this item Energy Drink Re roll your next Risk Old Journal Gain a Clue Shotgun Get one automatic success in risks against monsters or survivors Gain two bonus die by giving this item to the character you need to protect Cigarettes Roll one extra die in any risk except against monsters or survivors Manual Gain a new skill Bullet Proof Vest When you lose a risk keep one bonus die instead of giving it to the survivor you don t trust If a survivor tries to kill or hurt you you I only lose one die Skills Each survivor starts with a skill Skills are half remembered left over bits of our lives that we can use to explore the station and survive We ll draw a random skill at the beginning of the game Skills let us roll extra dice in certain risks Argue Roll an extra die in risks against survivors Climb Roll an extra die in risks that involve climbing Co
22. ns saying a little bit about our characters saying what they look and sound like and describing how they react to waking up without memories in this strange place b We ll describe at least one detail of our surroundings This will help us establish where we are right away We ll get to describe one detail about the survivor belonging to the player sitting to our right Since that survivor is wearing a name tag we also get to give them a name 6 Our survivors may not know who they are but they feel certain connections with each other The survivor to your right is someone you feel you need to protect The survivor to their right is someone you instinctively don t trust 7 Each character is especially interested in solving one of the three secrets Choose one of the secrets or roll a dice to determine one at random This will be the secret you ll try to solve first Think about why it may be important to you We ll talk about this more later Don t tell anyone No one will understand why this secret compels you Play Our story starts when we wake up in a cold dark room It ends when we solve our mysteries and escape to safety Getting from the start to the finish is the fun part We ll use the three steps below to tell our story and reach our goals 1 We ll explore the Station by taking turns describing locations and scenes 2 We ll explore until we encounter obstacle 3 risk dice to ove
23. o work on it worked out the text and typed it up the night before Go Play SE Portland 19 and played it for the first time at the event the next day spent the rest of that month reworking the text testing the game and working on the comic Why comics It s better to show then tell right abandoned underwater research station a nightmarish creature from the depths of the ocean a trapped group of amnesiac survivors these are the clues solve the mystery A new survival mystery story engine from the co creator of Panty Explosion and Sea Dracula MYSTERY 2 3 0 15 PLAYERS
24. oice You should never force a character into taking a risk Don t describe how a giant tentacled monster bursts from the floor and then declare that the characters must fight or die Confronting an obstacle should be an option The characters need to be able to choose to not take the risk and instead find a different way to reach their goals Characters will find obstacles where you least expect them When a character says they want to do something when they want to open a door swim down a passage kill a monster or translate a language what they re doing is asking your permission We get to decide if what they want to overcome is actually an obstacle If they want to swim down a flooded hall does that count as an obstacle If we think it s hard if we think it s something that the character would struggle to do then yes it s totally an obstacle The character needs to risk dice to do it If a character wants to do something that will let them reach one of the goals that s a damn good time to throw an obstacle in The characters need to decide how overcome an obstacle If they decide to take a risk it s up to them to decide what that risk looks like The character can certainly try to fight the monster Or they can take a risk to try to escape from it hide outsmart it trick it or just sneak by it Risks aren t always personal Sometimes a risk affects more then just the character that takes it You can t
25. omewhat human in appearance Of course they could look like and be anything you want Are they mutated humans or maybe the victims of cruel experiments Are they the product of alternate evolution hidden deep in the ocean Are they members of a lost underwater civilization like this idea quite a bit The real question isn t what the monsters are but what do they want Are they mindless creatures out for blood and flesh Do they want to suck your human brains out with their tentacles Maybe they re intelligent but previous contact with humans has made them wary and hostile Maybe they re aliens searching out the last humans on the entire planet the survivors locked in suspended animation deep in the ocean Of course the monsters don t have to be monsters at all Hostile soldiers with guns creepy ghosts strange hallucinations evil scientists and even zombies are all viable options Go nuts Using clues to solve mysteries Each clue is a chance to reveal a chunk of one of the mysteries We need 3 clues to solve a mystery That means each mystery is made up of three parts You get to describe part of the truth behind the mystery when you buy a clue but there s good chance you won t be the one to buy all three clues for a specific mystery The smart approach is to take into account the ideas other players have already introduced into the game and use those to create your clue It s counterproductive to use your clue to try to
26. ose whether we want to risk dice to overcome it or turn back and look for another path We should never use obstacles to force each other into taking specific actions Instead we ll present obstacles that challenge each other to make difficult and interesting choices Risking dice We can overcome obstacles by risking dice Risking dice is dangerous but it s also the only way to reach our goals Take a risk by telling us what you ll do to overcome the obstacle Before you roll your risk dice the player you don t trust will decide what s at stake if you fail Once you know what you re risking you can go ahead and roll your dice You can roll up to 3 dice to win a risk You ll need to roll at least one five or six to win the risk We ll talk about how we narrate the outcome of the risk in just a minute If you win a risk all dice that came up five six are given to the survivor you need to protect These are called bonus Dice You ll keep any dice that came up 1 2 3 or 4 If you lose a risk if none of your dice come up five or six you ll give one of your dice to the survivor you don t trust This is also a bonus die You ll discard the rest of the dice you risked Describing success and failure Risks are never safe Because you re risking yourself to reach your goal even a success will come at the cost of scrapes bruises exhaustion or worse Failure guarantees that you ll be mangled mutilated or oth
27. rcome obstacles Describing locations and scenes We move through our story by exploring the station taking turns describing the new rooms we discover Description narration and role playing are our tools here Our understanding of our situation our surroundings and our options rely on good detailed description We should take our time and paint as vivid a picture as we can Descriptions will lead to scenes of our characters exploring and interacting with each other We should ask each other questions share information and try to help each other out We can speak in our characters voices or simply describe their actions We ll keep exploring and describing what we find until we run into an obstacle Encountering Obstacles An obstacle is anything that keeps us from reaching our goals Obstacles block our progress and force us to either turn back find a different to proceed or risk dice to overcome them An obstacle can come in any form and can include physical obstructions like a flooded passageway or sealed door personal obstacles like fear exhaustion or injury or obstacles presented by another person creature or animal Obstacles can be introduced by any player at any time although it s best if we deal with just one obstacle at a time We ll introduce obstacles as we explore the station as part of our descriptions Obstacles are always about choice When confronted with an obstacle we need to be able to cho
28. rwater station Strange machines sit in the shadows some humming with electricity others dead Their purpose is unknown Lights flicker in partially flooded corridors Was this a research station A medical facility A prison Why were you brought here Or did you live here all along What is the purpose of the Station What are the monsters Almost as soon as you wake up you begin to hear strange noises coming from deeper in the Station As you begin to explore you ll catch glimpses of movement out of the corner of your eye Strange creatures lurk in the shadows and flooded halls of the Station What are they Where do they come from Do they want to hurt us or help us Were they created in the Station or did they come from the Ocean Get Started We ll start by creating our characters Remember we don t know who these survivors are where they are from or how they came to the Station It s all a mystery All we know for sure is what the premise told us We don t know who we are where we are or why we were brought here All we know is that we want to escape Creating a survivor is pretty easy Just follow the steps listed below like to hand out index cards to each player so they can keep notes and write down the information about their survivor 1 Start with age and gender Roll two dice The result of the first determines your survivor s gender High is female low is male The second die determines your age The numb
29. s the obstacle keep the characters from reaching their goals Does the scene lead the characters closer to their goals Description is our tool for creating story and engaging characters Our opportunities for description are pretty broad Creating scenes 15 all about description This is where we can add the most detail into our story Use your scene descriptions to introduce interesting elements that we can explore to reach our goals Obstacles are all about pushing characters toward their goals If an obstacle is overcome the characters will be closer to their goals Use your descriptions of obstacles to encourage the characters to take risks Use your descriptions of risks to create new plot and push the characters closer to their goal Don t just describe the success or failure of the risk tell us what interesting things happen because of it Use the description of the risk to set up the next scene or obstacle You can grab character s interest creating story around the things that matter to them Each character is especially interested in one of the three mysteries Each character has a character that they want to protect and another they don t trust Each character is worried about their own survival They want to escape the station They want to live These are your components for creating interesting scenes and obstacles that the other characters will want to engage in Obstacles and risks Risks are about ch
30. u should do your best to describe conflicts and plot that will encourage them to take those risks That s your job The more you push them toward their goals the more bonus dice they ll give you Pace You may have noticed that the game can end as soon as you collect nine bonus dice That s all you need What this means is that once you reach a certain point you can pretty much end the game at any time This doesn t mean you should rush to an ending Instead pace yourselves and let your story build to a satisfying conclusion If you get to the point where there are plenty of bonus dice to go around but you re not ready to end your story don t be afraid to buy some items or spend some dice to supplement your rolls If you decide you want shorter or longer game you can always adjust the number of bonus dice needed to buy clues wouldn t suggest reducing or raising the cost by more than one die either way Getting hurt and dying Overcoming an obstacle always involves doing something dangerous When you take a risk you re saying that you re willing to trade your safety for a chance to get closer to one of your goals Whether your character wins or loses their risk they still lose dice They still get hurt The difference is that if they win they get hurt AND get what they want The risk was worth it Our health and safety is measured by our dice We start the game with nine and the more we lose the worse off we are Here
31. ve to wait till after you ve solved the mysteries to find safety you won t be able to earn any more bonus dice after you ve escaped So remember it s a bad idea to escape until you ve already solved all the mysteries or have enough bonus dice to buy the clues you need to solve them Bonus Dice You gain bonus dice when other survivors take risks You may also get some bonus dice if another survivor dies These are the only ways to get bonus dice We keep our bonus dice separate from the nine dice that we get at the start of the game They re different kinds of dice that do different things Bonus dice never count toward the number of dice you have for determining how hurt you are There are three things you ll use bonus dice for 1 Buy clues Each costs three bonus dice 2 You can always add a single bonus die to a risk roll If this die comes up a five or six then it counts as a success and you ll give it to the character you want to protect If not just discard it 3 Buy items Each item costs one die Discard your die and draw a random item from the item list Your discovery of the item should be narrated into a scene as soon as possible Items The station is full of discarded items for us to find While we may pick up all kinds of stuff as we explore items that have mechanical benefits like those described below can only be bought with bonus dice Items are always selected randomly and usually don t last lo
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search