Category: Uncharted Worlds

Hi everyone, I ran a game using the Horror mechanics in FBH last night and wanted to share my thoughts and experience. I also want to hear other peoples’ experience with it, and see if we can start a discussion about how best to use it.

Due to part of the group being away for vacation, I decided to run a one-shot, set in the same setting and contemporaneous as the main game, but with a different cast. It would be a chance to explore the locale a bit more, and foreshadow / forearm the players with knowledge for the next session.

The game takes place at a remote science facility on a volcanic world. Terrraforming has introduced novel fauna and flora, which is taking hold at an accelerated pace. The PCs are flying in from supply run when they lose contact with the station. They arrive to find the station empty, powered down, and their colleagues nowhere to be found. One of the PC, genre savvy that she was doing the wrong thing, shouted their names only to hear her voice echo back from the dark, empty corridors. That was the first tick on the horror clock

At this point, I hadn’t introduced the actual horror mechanic yet. They were familiar with clocks, which I have used in previous sessions, so they knew ticks = bad. But they wanted to find out what happened, so they venture deeper into the station. They find the place eerily deserted, and in a hurry. There were half eaten meals, spilled mugs, and opened doors, but little else was amiss. Since one of the characters is the “janitor”, they went to the security terminal to see what they could glean from it. A large airship had landed to unload some cargo — unusual, but nothing alarming. But they also glimpsed several blurry shapes sneaking into the station. The internal motion sensors were also activating periodically. Something was here with them. Precious time spent at the terminal. Clock advanced.

The crew wanted to find survivors. They had 6 colleagues here. Surely they would have holed up somewhere. They decide to sneak to the armory. Stealth checks always trip me up in PbtA games. I call for a Mettle roll. 10+. I decide to show my hand and up the ante. They hear a creature moving just around the corner. It’s unaware of their presence. They decide to turn off their light and get the jump for it. They roll well, and end up shooting a VELOCIRAPTOR in its side, sending it scurrying off. They pursue it to the cafeteria before letting it get away in favor of keeping the party together. Clock advanced.

It’s worthwhile noting at this point, the clock is at 4 and they haven’t rolled under it yet. I’m not sure if I should have let the raptor out of the bag so early, but the players already suspected. I felt it was a good pacing call. Because the horror was not yet unleashed, the raptor’s priority was to flee.

Besides, raptors don’t hunt alone. 🙂

The cafeteria held a minor easter egg. It was a mess to be sure, ransacked for food and water. But they notice one of the faucet of a portable juice container was turned to allow a slow drip. Underneath it was a purposely placed bucket to collect the juice. Much to my delight, one of the players freaked out at this.

The party continue to the armory and regroup with a few more survivors. This is where the mechanic didn’t hold up as well. My planning involved a list of locations that they may want to explore. Whenever they traveled or did things at a location, that was when danger could present itself. Normally, I would play up the suspense, and only call for a roll when danger could reasonably manifest. But since the horror clock advances and triggers on rolls, I felt I needed to draw more rolls out of the players — This resulted in quite a few consecutive Mettle rolls, which mechanically felt dry (since the group was moving together, and it narratively made sense to have the best character to make the roll each time). In hindsight, maybe each / most travel segments should simply advance the clock without the roll. But an ambush in the corridor would have been suitably dramatic too.

The horror clock ended up triggering in the medbay, just as they are leaving. Cue what I call the Reverse Jurassic Park where the PC on point comes face to face with a raptor, on the other side of a glass wall, who thinks it can hide by standing perfectly still. It gets shotgunned. Creatures skitter around, just out of vision. The PCs try to hold out in the medbay, which is a reasonable defensive position. We get a raptor who drops in through the ceiling to disarm them of that notion. A chase scene ensues to the hangar. Our “janitor” is Critically Wounded, but manages to keep ahead of claws and teeth. They managed to barricade the raptors out of the hangar as they get ready to make their escape. But sadly, our “janitor” rolled a 6- while opening the hangar doors and gets killed by an ambushing raptor, but allowing the rest of the party to take off in the ornithopter.

==== Feedback ====

I like the horror track as a concept, especially given the inherent unpredictability for both the players and the GM. I like that it integrates smoothly into the usual rolling mechanics, and the Jenga push-your-luck suspense that it builds. However, I think the track is too long, and puts the onus on the GM to draw a sufficient number of rolls from the players to make it work. Depending on the situation, these rolls may feel forced. I love PbtA’s departure from the perception check spam that comes from D&D style games, and the horror mechanics feel like a step back from that. Moreover, given the length of the track, I don’t see how we would have the time to reveal the horror a second time later in the session once it’s been beat back.

==== Math Ahead ====

We ended up triggering the track at 8, which is slightly above average. That required 7 advances on the clock. On average, if the PCs are rolling with +0, we expect this to take ~8.4 rolls to get to. In practice, PCs are often rolling with a +1, giving us ~9.7 rolls. If they are rolling at +2 (which is often if they are sensibly sticking together, and we haven’t had a chance to snowball off a 6- result), it takes ~12 rolls!

I think the next time I use this system, I may advance the clock whenever the PCs do anything that takes time. In the corridor scenario, if they are “safely” (i.e. stealthily) moving through corridors, I would advance the clock but not ask for a roll (no chance at reveal). If they’re moving in a higher risk manner (or in a higher risk location), I may ask for a roll instead (which gives the chance that they will avoid a clock tick). I also think the clock will not reset to 1 if the threat is avoided.

Edit: Fixed math.

Edit2: It may make sense to start the clock at 2 as well, since that is the lowest number on 2d6.

In FBH, the “Harder” skill allows you to resist damage as a Vehicle, noting that damage with Penetrating and Breaching as exceptions. Should this not be Breaching and Destructive? My understanding was that Penetrating was intended as ignoring body armor rather than vehicle armor.