Realistic Character Ability/Resilience

[Thulean Hamask]

Hey SHTFans,

When rolling up characters for The Coming, it is quite easy (and common) to roll up very "normal" and quite useless people.

This is actually a part of MYFAROG that I love, as you aren't just super-powered characters charging through a campaign with no real challenges. This makes sense for game settings where the world is in the process of going to shit,  or the shit has only just hit the fan. These average men and women would be forced to fend for themselves and adapt to the new order of things.

However, in scenarios and campaigns where the world "collapsed" a year or more ago, would such people really still be around? It would seem that only those with the skills, forethought, and planning would survive that long. As such, I believe it is necessary to adapt character creation to fit the time-frame of the campaign.

I have played a few bumbling, average, politically "asleep" characters in The Coming, and enjoyed the RP experience, but I do not think they would still exist in a world fully collapsed, and mechanically it is quite hard to role-play them and survive in such a world.



What do you think? Do you boost your PCs according to how much shit has hit the fan? Do you have a set homebrew rule for it?

[Gangland]

You could say that they live under Hydra's (or another powerful faction's) rule as an exploitable labor source. Perhaps unknowingly finishing up some wrenched scheme or the like.

But in an unregulated zone, then yes, those people would probably be eliminated unless apart of a strong group. You could let players in more rugged situations start at a higher level? Maybe 2 or 3 since it would be assumed they already have some experience?

[Scourge]

Depending on the scenario you can give them boosts, put restrictions on character creation, or just see what happens. If their character has a ton of weaknesses and little strengths, they won't last long. It's a pretty brutal game.