Regardless of what game you play, you will encounter survival situations. I want to tackle this question: “How tedious should survival be in tabletop role-playing games? ”
You can introduce multiple types of survival situations, from wilderness survival to winter survival and more. Let’s briefly cover each type, when you should have them, when you shouldn’t, and mistakes regarding survival situations.
What kinds of survival are there
Wilderness survival
This type of survival situation is probably the most common to encounter and the least deadly. There are many sources of food for players to hunt after and sources of water to find.
Rolls that make sense for players in survival situations would be how quickly they find food/water and how fast they build shelter. This isn’t a scenario of not finding food, as we are purely about survival. With berries, small and large animals being plentiful in forests. It’s a question of if the player group can locate suitable sources before they become too weak and die.
Cold survival
Cold survival can include snow and ice, but it doesn’t always have to. It can be during winter or not, depending on the race/class of the party or individual players. Most animals are less active in cold temperatures so it can be a situation of not finding food at all. In addition, water may not be accessible due to freezing, which may make it useless to a dehydrated party and in need of drinking water now.
Rolls to use for survival could include finding food at all. If in winter, snow can be easily accessible, but melting enough could be a roll. The most important in cold weather is finding or making a shelter, followed by creating a fire to keep it warm. Another might include getting dry after falling in water to avoid hypothermia.
Desert survival
This is when survival situations become extremely dire. Deserts are one of the hardest environments for humans to live when in a survival situation.
The most obvious roll to make is for water, followed by food. Temperatures in the desert make nights rather cold compared to daytime, so you could include some of that at night if desired. That said, if your party is wise, they will use the night to travel instead of the daytime. It’s up to you how much of a survival nightmare you want to throw at them.
This article discusses tools you can use as a player or game master
Underground survival
This and the following survival situation are the two most difficult options for us mere mortal humans without special skills, spells, equipment, etc. Underground and space survival are not possible.
With that in mind consider that the only real exploration of underground we humans do is of existing cave and tunnel networks. We do dig for mining purposes but thats a skill. At the least your party should have mining proficiency if they are trying to tunnel. Other skills for underground include spelunking, direction sense, dowsing, rope use, climbing, and the like.
Underground survival rolls would include maintaining a sense of direction a lot. This could be mitigated with enough rope or marking walls to let them know if they double back on themselves or a way to get out when needed. The more deadly rolls required for underground would be avoiding gas pockets (just google underground mining hazards for more info on that). Also, do they have enough rations and water to get through, or will they have to explore the Underdark or its like? If so then food, shelter and water rolls would be necessary too.
Space survival
What more to say here other than do you have contingencies for the vacuum of space? In the Rifts setting a spell called Sustain exists that makes someone no longer need to food, water, or breathe air. Those are just three problems you face in space, depending on how precise you want to be about it.
Rolls could include anything from food, to radiation, sun flares, cold and other problems (like meteors, space debris, etc).
Check this article to learn whats hard about game mastering
Swamp or tropical survival
I’ve combined these two survival situations are similar in nature and also share some traits with the others above. The main idea is that of a forested area with lots of water, making travel difficult, if not impossible, without a boat or other travel method. Swamps are usually warm, just like tropical areas, though maybe not as warm, and tropics may have more water, trees, and underbrush than swamps.
Both are the same for survival rolls, just the details slightly differ. Food is abundant in both; it’s just a matter of what threat lies between the party and the food. In a swamp, it could be poisonous water, while it could be a Tiger in the tropics. Tropical scenarios should be the absolute easiest to survive in, with swamps being right behind it for the general swamp. However, you could make it much harder depending on special circumstances (like specific monsters within or colder temps, whatever).
What is a survival situation
When we talk about survival situations, we refer to general mortal affairs: food, water, and shelter. It can either be the finding of them or the consequences of not having them for a prolonged period.
Check this article for a different perspective on how to approach tabletop roleplaying games- our philosophy
When should you have survival rolls?
In a tabletop roleplaying context, these are best done at early levels or with specific goals in mind by the game master. I also think that certain types of TTRPG settings are best for these. Fantasy settings are common to have survival scenarios in, like Dungeons and Dragons.
When shouldn’t you make the game a survival scenario
If your players have reached mid levels they should be well off enough that counting every daily ration is just tedious and a waste of player time.
Another way to look at it is, “What does making the players roll for survival add to the game?” If it doesn’t help move the game toward the objective you have in mind, then let go of the need for more survival rolls.
Survival mistakes in tabletop roleplaying games
One of the major mistakes we often make is turning all aspects of gameplay into a survival-like situation.
If players feel like they can’t tie their shoes without requiring a roll to see if they are successful, then you are getting nit-picky with your game.