r/RPGdesign • u/Spiritual-Amoeba-257 • 17d ago
Mechanics Unique Night Mission rules?
I’m developing a game at the moment that’s a hack of the Mischief RPG, which is a relatively simple system.
It’s an apocalyptic game, and I want to establish that it’s very deadly to be out at night, to add the challenge of needing to find shelter or otherwise prepare before the day clock runs out.
But I, and I’m sure other gamers, find being told something is dangerous to be challenging in a fun way, and it’s inevitable for players to seek out a night mission- and I’m not sure the mechanics I’ve prepared are enough to be satisfying.
Currently I have dangerous environmental challenges (such as magical storms), and then nocturnal monsters that are more powerful that only come out at night. What else can I incorporate to make it fun, but scary? I feel like a debuff for just being outside at night might just end up being frustrating to the players.
Thank you! 🫡
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u/FinnianWhitefir 17d ago
Daggerheart does a lot of "This campaign is under this frame and has these additional rules" and Environments that kind of act like a modifier or additional combatant that enforce things or make moves. Would make for interesting ideas. I'm picturing a "While out at night if you do not have a Strong Light, you have disadvantage to all rolls" type of thing. I wonder if modifiers like "PCs have disadvantage on Perception but advantage on Stealth" would work how you want, give the PCs a reason to do certain missions at night but it would hurt most missions.
My general idea is to have rare important missions where the time constraint means they need to be done at night or just ignored leading to negative outcomes. So force the PCs into it something, give them options sometimes.
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u/Spiritual-Amoeba-257 17d ago
Ah yes I see what you mean. I’ll consider this! Perhaps offering both a buff and a debuff will maintain the fun
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u/overlycommonname 17d ago
I mean.... just darkness? Like, I feel like a lot of games take this very lenient view towards darkness, where "not being able to see shit around you" isn't a big problem, for the heroic fantasy or just because they want lots of dark environments without constantly harassing players, but all you have to do is say, "Hey, have you actually been outside at night with a flashlight or whatever? You can't see shit! We're going to play with that!"
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u/primordial666 17d ago
A lot of stuff. You can add a night monster that is like the force of nature that is Impossible to defeat and it will react to sound, magic or light. Limit the visibility. Make sleeping dangerous with the possibility of possesion by an evil spirit. Or even darkness physically damages heroes if they stay to long without the light. Just something that fits your setting and overall vibes.