DM question re: "Survival Days" in Dark Sun Encounters

[flatline]

OK - I DM'd the last season of Encounters (Undermountain) with relative success (we didn't have enough players to submit the results to DCI, but some of the experienced players doubled up to fill out the party and we had fun).

The Dark Sun preview that I ran last night seems a bit different. The information just doesn't seem to be as well organized as it was before. "Survival Days", for example. I'm pretty new to Dark Sun, so I don't know if this is an entirely new mechanic or not, but I saw the sidebar that explained what a survival day is, and sun sickness, and I saw that the PCs were supposed to be scavenging them from the caravan as they fled from the silt stalkers - but I saw no information on how a PC should search for/find "survival days", how many, etc. Unfortunately I didn't have much heads-up time for this first session, so I was almost winging it - Did I just miss this information?

 

[Solvarn]

OK - I DM'd the last season of Encounters (Undermountain) with relative success (we didn't have enough players to submit the results to DCI, but some of the experienced players doubled up to fill out the party and we had fun).

The Dark Sun preview that I ran last night seems a bit different. The information just doesn't seem to be as well organized as it was before. "Survival Days", for example. I'm pretty new to Dark Sun, so I don't know if this is an entirely new mechanic or not, but I saw the sidebar that explained what a survival day is, and sun sickness, and I saw that the PCs were supposed to be scavenging them from the caravan as they fled from the silt stalkers - but I saw no information on how a PC should search for/find "survival days", how many, etc. Unfortunately I didn't have much heads-up time for this first session, so I was almost winging it - Did I just miss this information?

The DM I had for the event seemed to have difficulty as well.

 

[twilsemail]

I'm AFB but if memory serves it was in the "other stuff you should know" section of the first encounter. Along with what happens if a PC goes onto the silt.

A PC adjacent to the wagon can spend a minor action to grab a "survival day." I don't remember it limiting the number of "survival days" in the wagon or how many a PC could carry.

 

[the Jester]

The real limit on how many survival-days you can grab is how many minor actions the pcs can spare. One minor action lets you grab one survival-day.

Which seems quite generous to me, but hey, it's for the sake of gameplay. It might have been interesting to structure the encounter with less monsters at the start (and reinforcements still about five rounds out) but require a standard action to grab supplies, making it a real devil's choice.

 

[flatline]

Thanks, like I said the store I DM at didn't get the supplies in until late last week and I never got a chance to look things over before the session. I plan on doing some homework with the book this weekend and having a brief "Previously on Lost" before 1-2 next week to explain things a little better for the PCs. Since they didn't get any survival days (and the other 2 players will be starting next week), I'll probably run a skill challenge to figure out what they managed to scavenge.

If I had read everything ahead of time, I might have made it so that there were a certain number of "minor" survival days, and a certain number of "major" days. That is, the PCs could grab the obvious, easy-to-find stuff quickly, with minors, but after that they would have to expend a standard action to dig through the wreckage/bodies and find anything more. This would allow them to grab a day or two, but then really hammer home that they needed to get the heck outta Dodge.

Other musings on this season, so far:
Having only 4 players for 1-1, I dropped one of the ranger beasties, and the Inciter ended up having like the lowest Init, so the PCs got lucky there. The sorcerer and the battlemind both took quite a lot of damage though. (had to fudge some of the damage rolls or I would have had a TPK inside of 4 rounds, which I didn't think was the best introduction for new players). I think DMs need to be much more careful with this season in how they play it, compared to Undermountain. If your goal is to drop all the players, you probably won't have too much trouble (but shame on you). If you are striving to provide a challenge that takes them to the brink of defeat but is still surmountable, it will be tricky.

Does anyone know the deal with the characters and leveling - if it's in the book, just let me know, and I'll probably find it while reading this weekend. I didn't get the feeling, scanning the sheet for organizers, that the Chapter 2/3 packages would include Level 2/3 character sheets, but I hope they do.

A little bummed that this box didn't include a pizza hut gift card - what am I going to do with an "Athasian Beverage Cooler" or whatever it's called? Still, its understandable I suppose since all this stuff is being provided by WotC for FREE.

 

[WSmith]

The way my DM explained to our group, each "survival day" is enough food rations and water for one player to stave off hunger and thirst for one day out in the desert of Athas. I am sure there will be some sort of penalties and endurance checks once the party runs out of these.

 

[Larrin]

@flatline: thanks for the info, my store is a week behind, so i'll be running this session next week.

The leveling up stuff is in the book, basically at the end/start of each chapter they gain a level, so chapter 2 will be 2nd level characters, etc. I'm pretty sure they'll be providing pregens(or some form of level material), since there is really no other way to do it.

 

[firesnakearies]

A "survival day" is an abstraction of all of the food, water, extra clothes, protective gear, medicines, and so forth that one person would need to survive for one day out in the wastes of Athas without undue negative effects from the environment.

Should someone go a day out in the wilds without having a survival day to use, they suffer an attack (against their Fortitude) defense from "Sun Sickness". That then operates similar to the disease track, and it's very, very nasty. It ends in death.

 

[Nytmare]

Please tell me that it's presented as an abstraction and that survival days aren't physical items that you buy, sell, or grab out of wagons.

"I'll take a 5 piece survival day, 26 hitpoints and a healing surge combo, to go please."

 

[vagabundo]

"I'll take a 5 piece survival day, 26 hitpoints and a healing surge combo, to go please."

Would you like Iron Spikes with that?