Narrative through Gameplay: Guns and Water

One thing I wanted for Sunburn was to make the weapons variable in nature. Most will come "stock," but a few are better or worse than others. This adds a reason to keep looking for weapons, and gives players something to look forward to with each looting run.

Every time they pick up a weapon, they roll a D20:

1-2: -3
3-4: -2
5-6: -1
7-17: Stats as listed
18: +1
19: +2
20: +3

There's a 55% chance any weapon (knife, machine gun, grenade) will be average. 30% of the time it will be worse than listed, and the remaining 15% of weapons are better than average. Sunburn is a tough game, for serious people with lots of stubble. Also, the players are going to pick up a LOT of guns during the game, so I'm stacking the odds against them. I have no doubt a determined group could get everything in +3s, but it would take a while. It won't affect gameplay a terrible amount, but it still makes gun-collecting a fun activity.

I wanted to do something similar with dehydration. I'm sticking with rule of 3 on this one:

• Healthy (day 0)
• Parched (day 1, DC 0)
• Heat exhaustion (day 2, DC 4)
• Heat stroke (day 3, DC 8)
• Death (day 4)

Every day, your hydration drops by 1. If you drink while "parched," it goes up automatically. But, the lower it goes, the harder it is to get back up to healthy hydration levels. If you take a drink at anything worse than "parched," the character makes a Chemical Balance check. If they make or beat the DCs listed, they go up one. Players can drink as much water as they want in a day.

This mechanic regulates fluid levels, and is a backup in case water begins to run short. The tougher players can start to skip every other day, and be fine on 1 canteen per every 2 days. If it gets really hardcore, they can skip to one every 3 days, but that gets risky.

In a narrative sense, this is sacrifice. I have no doubt some characters will be more susceptible to thirst than others, and it becomes a choice for the "strong" (in this case): give them water and starve out yourself, or keep your hide in 100% condition for the up-and-coming fight. Of course, I have serious doubts my group are going to hold water from each other. But you never know...

Enjoy, ponder these thoughts, and come up with a great narrative mechanic for your game.