Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Fear & Hunger: Singing Sand Masterpost

David Roberts
 
In the year 1913, archaeologists, scholars and financiers from across the Old World descend on the Valley of the Gods in Songhai, Abyssonia, where scholars from the Temple of the Sun Amon have just unearthed the tomb of the legendary New God Djoser Parahu Daoud. 
 
An adventure in the style of The Mummy and Raiders of the Lost Ark, set in the world of Fear & Hunger. Contains the rules and mechanics necessary to play, along with the pregens, scenario documents and maps.


I read some fun posts about "capsule games" today, and I think that's what this is. One of the games in the first entry, Wolves Upon the Coast, runs off a slimmed down version of Basic, with mechanics added for the things that are most relevant to the premise. I did something similar for Singing Sand, starting with a chopped down version of the OGL rules from Delta Green and adding bespoke subsystems to better reflect the source material. Including a "complete" ruleset in the Player's Guide along with the pregens means you don't need a copy of Need to Know to play Singing Sand, but it will be easier if you're already familiar with the DG rules.
 
Exactly how much Delta Green and how much Fear & Hunger should go into the rules was a central question throughout my playtests. I thought the slower JRPG style combat with larger HP totals made some of the fights too slow, but the players said they enjoyed the combats. On the other hand, high-stakes Delta Green combat where a single rifle shot can kill a monster (or blast a limb off a player) would make it a lot easier to fit the whole thing in a four hour timeslot. I'm a harsh taskmaster when it comes to oneshots and a "normal" group might not even get into the tomb in four hours. Hence the suggestion to double the listed timeframes if your players really want to sink into their characters. 
 
If you'd like to try the faster and more deadly variant that hews closer to DG, you can try this version. I haven't playtested it, that's up to you.

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