Stalker: hexcrawl in the Zone

silva · Post by **silva** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:17 am

I was replaying the PC game Stalker the other day and it occurred to me that its setting and premise would fit nicely in an old schoolish hexcrawl game: you got this huge surface dungeon that is the Chernobyl exclusion zone, full of supernatural threats, you got the protagonists as scavengers and trespassers looking for loot, all the while upgrading their equipment to survive the harsh environment, and you got the safe haven, the "city beside the dungeon" that is the cordon and the outside region.

Besides it, the Stalker theme have getting adaptations from medium to medium - from the book to the movie to the videogame - so I think it was only fair it got an adaptation to the tabletop environment. Now before you say " but there IS a Stalker RPG already!", yeah I know, but I think it taps on a somewhat different style from what could be called traditional, and while I think its certainly an interesting game by itself, I think the traditional "old school sandbox hexcrawl" approach would be too cool and fitting to let pass.

So what I wanted to see is a kind of system-agnostic game where the players open this big hex map of the Zone and set a route for the day, and then roll on tables full of weird encounters and see if they can survive the Slavic radioactive barrens and come back home for vodka and profit, until the day they find the "wish-granter" and retire in big style. I don't care if I need to roll a d6 or a d100 as long as I need to roll for radiation poisoning, starving, and keeping focused against brain-melting psi-waves from the Duga-3 and Brain Scorcher.

So, does such a game exist ? How would you do it ? Tips, ideas, resources, etc. are welcome.

Schleiermacher · Post by **Schleiermacher** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 12:28 am

Sounds like a less comedic Gamma World.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 1:20 am

Now, assuming you want to adapt the videogame and not Roadside Picnic or Tarkovskiy's movie, then I think the boardgame format would be the best fit. I'd say that you want to adapt Mage Knight. So you have a hexagonal world which you randomly open up as you explore. You have a deck of actions from which you pull your hand, and you play those actions. So, you can have "New boots" (Move 2 hexes), AK-47 (Attack 5) and Vodka and Anecdotes (Influence 3) cards in your hand, and then you play them to achieve something.

If you want specifically a RPG, then... I don't know. Take any system with firearms - Shadowrun-minus-magic, WoD, D20 Modern, write random encounter table and use that. Nothing specifically suited for survival comes to mind.
Shadowrun's engine is probably the best fit, and WoD and *World are probably the worst. Because survival game implies resource management, and narative-heavy games don't really do that. The players have to bear the burden of counting every bullet they have and exactly how many bear asses they can cook before hunger becomes unbearable. It'd make me a very sad panda if hunger, radiation and empty clips were all shroedinger-spawned by the GM, rather than determined by the PC's actions.

silva · Post by **silva** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:17 am

Longes wrote:Now, assuming you want to adapt the videogame and not Roadside Picnic or Tarkovskiy's movie

Yup, thats exactly the case. I think the videogame presents the more immediately playable premise, besides having the more ready miscelania for use gaming-wise (guns, suits, detectors, artifacts, factions, npcs, etc).

... then I think the boardgame format would be the best fit. I'd say that you want to adapt Mage Knight. So you have a hexagonal world which you randomly open up as you explore. You have a deck of actions from which you pull your hand, and you play those actions. So, you can have "New boots" (Move 2 hexes), AK-47 (Attack 5) and Vodka and Anecdotes (Influence 3) cards in your hand, and then you play them to achieve something.

This sounds a hell of fun! Ill take a look at Mage Knight. Thanks.

If you want specifically a RPG, then... I don't know. Take any system with firearms - Shadowrun-minus-magic, WoD, D20 Modern, write random encounter table and use that. Nothing specifically suited for survival comes to mind.
Shadowrun's engine is probably the best fit, and WoD and *World are probably the worst. Because survival game implies resource management, and narative-heavy games don't really do that. The players have to bear the burden of counting every bullet they have and exactly how many bear asses they can cook before hunger becomes unbearable. It'd make me a very sad panda if hunger, radiation and empty clips were all shroedinger-spawned by the GM, rather than determined by the PC's actions.

Agreed. I think "realistic" games like Gurps and BRP could work better, if only for the pre-existence of ready-made stuff about survival (skills, gear, conditions, rules, etc), though these days I tend to avoid these kind of games due to the increased time needed for char building and combat resolution. Tochbearer comes to mind as a possible fit, but its high complexity is also a problem for me.

Are there any D&D or WoD supplements based on scarcity and survival ?

silva · Post by **silva** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:18 am

Schleiermacher wrote:Sounds like a less comedic Gamma World.

Does GammaWorld comes wit hex maps, encontre tables and adventure seeds ? It could be usefull.

mlangsdorf · Post by **mlangsdorf** » Tue Nov 25, 2014 2:52 pm

Gamma World has something like 7 or 8 editions, all fairly different. The most recent version is a hack of D&D4e and sucks the most, but the earlier editions are all old school and horrible in their own ways.

I have 2nd or 3rd edition in physical format, which has hexmaps of the US (at 44 km per hex) and the Allegheny region near Pittsburg at 2 km per hex, but remarkably little detail about that campaign setting (7-8 page gazette). There aren't any encounter tables (in this edition) and surprisingly few adventure seeds.

If you torrent every edition and read it all, you could probably put together something but actually just writing your own hex crawl might be less work.

Reynard · Post by **Reynard** » Sat Nov 29, 2014 10:29 pm

Initially I wrote a different post. Then I googled Stalker RPG. Then I wrote this post.

> Now before you say " but there IS a Stalker RPG already!"
Things I learned today: there are 4 (four) Stalker RPGs.

There is the one you are talking about (the "official" StalkerRPG). Then there is d20 Modern hack (Stalkan), WH40k RPG hack (Stalker: The Zone), and some original system (STALKER).

NB: if you will make new Stalker RPG, do not call it Stalker RPG.

> So, does such a game exist ?
I would've said "no". Initially. Now I'm not so sure.

> How would you do it ?
I wouldn't use GURPS. It is a possible solution, but it would require too much work. Essentially, you'll need to rebalance Advantage/Disadvantage costs, make a list of ~30-40 skills, and then slice and dice it to make it ergonomical for players.

WH40k-based (Dark Heresy hack) seems to be the most promising. Still in development and I didn't check it, though.

Maybe some Traveller hack would also work.

> Tips, ideas, resources, etc. are welcome.

1) Random artefact generator for lots of unpredictably weird crap.
There was one in Labyrinth Lord's Realms of Crawling Chaos. It would work as inspiration, but I don't think it'll work as is.

2) Random Zone hex generator
If you want exploration, it would work better than a pre-set map.

3) Random anomaly generator
Inspired by LotFP Summon spell.

4) Resource management
IMO excessive bean-counting is not fun. I would suggest LotFP equipment system with consumables (ammo/food) rolling saving throws against being consumed. Warning: that's an idea I never actually tried implementing. So use at your own risk.

All in all, I believe original Zone(s) from Roadside Picnic would be better for hexcrawl: randomized land makes sense, you can have Zone anywhere (the original was in the middle of US city), add Lovecraftian horror overtones (aliens outside our understanding), and still keep whatever you want from PC game.

Longes · Post by **Longes** » Sat Nov 29, 2014 11:16 pm

Roadside Picnic's Zone is not very good for adventures, because it doesn't have any monsters - only traps. There are no societies inside the Zone - everything is strictly outside. The Zone itself is basically an uninhabited dungeon. Plus, 99% of the artifacts in the zone are vendor trash, which is interesting initially ("This tube glows when one end is held in the mouth and the other is between your toes! Fun!") but quickly degrades into boredom, as you can't do anything with the items other than sell them.

Reynard · Post by **Reynard** » Sun Nov 30, 2014 7:35 am

Longes:
I do not consider original book to be sacrosanct. If necessary, things could be added and/or changed.

It's simply the idea of original Zones makes more sense. PC game plot had Game Over conditions, for example.

> doesn't have any monsters
I vaguely remember (docile) zombies and mentions of other creatures.

> vendor trash
Better than gold pieces, no?

silva · Post by **silva** » Tue Dec 02, 2014 7:59 pm

Yeah the PC game plot is so silly that the third game in the series simply ignored it completely. I think the book plot (Zones as a result of aliens visitations) is better, specially since, as Reynard said, it opens up the possibility for various distinct Zones to co-exist, each with randomized maps and stuff. I think its better prone to gaming. But yeah, it should be populated with menacing fauna.

On the other hand, the videogame setting has a more popular and recognizable aesthetics with its soviet-era chernobyl radiated slav barrens crap (that I love).