Myfarog

>>71521805
Been thinking about running a snow crawler game for a while. Nice to see this thread back up.

>>71521805
I've never read it myself but a friend was running a comfy caravan game with Ryuutama so maybe that'd work. What Kind of setting do you have in mind? For some reason I'm thinking of far-future Scandi sci fi, pagan AI wars "Christianised"/standardised, then secularised and forgotten. Great troll-terraformers frosted with rime and cryogenic barrows filled with slumbering wights while you're just some telephone repair man trying to fix an antenna damaged by the latest blizzard.

>>71521805
Kentucky Route Zero comes to mind, what other magical realism media might also serve as inspiration?

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>>71521805
>>71522735
Hey, comfy winter caravan bros!!
I missed this thred...

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>>71521805
Here! Have a lightweight system I drafted to implement the roving tractors your couriers spend their lives in.

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>>71523148
Ohmygodiloveyouanon!!!

What an awesome fucking thred we had going.

>>71521805
>Quarantine. Somebody's got a nasty seasonal flu and it's a delicate balance between plying them with hot soup and washing down every surface they could have touched.

>The northern lights are out and like the rainbow it looks like they touch the ground just two hills over. What will you find where the snow meets the sky.

>The line to mission control is getting choppy. Sometimes the voices lag or you hear yourself talking over yourself, other times you have conversations that people later claim never happened or receive answers before posing questions.

>Another crawler's been sighted, the stretch of ground before you is steady and you've nothing pressing to do. The other crew, bored to near madness, challenge you to a race.

>You find a derelict war machine after a storm, it's treads look like they might fit yours. There's live ammo and ghosts in there, someone else might resent your scavenging on their turf besides.

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>>71523148
I feel the only thing that could possibly improve this would be an ORANGE! TRANSPARENT! CHAINSAW!

>>71523031
The Thing and the original Alien are personal inspirations, even if they don't cover most aspects of the setting.

>>71522794
it's a pretty good read. the setting isn't set in stone but generally agreed to have about 20th century level tech. some people prefer letting it vague, incorporating whatever cultural aspects they like, others like it grounded and historical, or an alternative earth.

>>71523302
>the setting isn't set in stone but generally agreed to have about 20th century level tech. some people prefer letting it vague, incorporating whatever cultural aspects they like, others like it grounded and historical, or an alternative earth.
I cribbed off the original OC setting of vaguely Scandinavian/Slavic country with decades-old nuclear engines and no more modern tech than the radio.

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>Distress Call: sporadic, static-filled calls for aid over the comm, growing increasingly frantic and incoherent.

>Lost Crawler: must find one of the scout crawlers before the caravan moves on - race against time and the elements.

>Found Tracks: an unusual set of crawler tracks are stumbled upon, leading in an unusual and dangerous direction.

>Mysterious Call: one of the crawler scouts calls for an emergency rendezvous; upon arrival, no crawler is found (only its tracks...)

>Smoke: a pillar of black smoke beckons in the far distance. A wreck? A camp? A trap...?

>The Frozen: over two dozen frozen corpses are found in the caravan's path. Some have been eaten...

What if I want to run a comfy game of blue collar Joes making deliveries for Santa Claus?

>>71523934
>Eccentric millionaire who made his fortune off extremely popular cocaine infused soda beverage tasks team with becoming his helpers in delivering toys to all the good girls and boys.
Archived thread has you covered.

>Found an Otzi in the snow. Archaeological find of the century, the crew dreams of chasing aurochs and fleeing mammoths.

>A lone dog is found wearing a broken harness and splattered with a small patch of blood. It seems friendly enough, maybe it's trying to lead you somewhere?

>There's a great wheel a-turning on the horizon. It might be a Stirling engine, a heat source would be appreciated.

>The starter motor's gone but your fuel's also low, you'll need to keep moving at a continuous slow pace to reach your destination. The terrain's tricky and you haven't much time to waste driving in circles.

>>71521805
Traveller looks like a good fit for this.

>>71523240
>>71523797
>The Good Boys: Your team finds a pack of sled dogs stranded, hungry, and ill in the woods with no owner to be found. If you bring the dogs back to full health, you'll learn they're supernaturally strong together and can pull your vehicle with no problems

>Playing with the Reaper: Death has come to your crew. Literally. He brought his chessboard and an assortment of other tabletop games and challenges the players for his own amusement. Winning is sure to be rewarding, but losing to death means working as his crew and helping him transport souls for a month

>>71521805
I've been told without much elaboration the Red Markets is shit but I'd like to use the equipment and travel mechanics for something like this.

>You run over an ice sculpture by accident and find yourself stuck in a blizzard that won't disperse until you carve out another.

>A scientist at mission control says a confluence of atmospheric factors will trigger the formation of snowflakes with novel geometries. Get out there and photograph them on a cold glass, be sure not to stray too far from the tractor or too near where its heat will melt the object of your photography.

>Wildlife is still recovering from the Event. Scientists have been traching polar bears with RFID chips and have reason to believe one on their radar is in contact with an untagged specimen. Do your part for mother nature.

>Geysertown: who runs this mysterious trading post? Why are there no children here? What causes the geyser to erupt every few months? They trade mostly in food, and are a well-known and popular town, but never seem to have more than a handful of visitors at any one time....

>Black Ice: the crawler crew comes upon a patch of inky black ice and snow, stretching for miles. Do they venture in, or avoid this strange region? Is the black ice patch growing?

>The Long Night: survival is harder at night, especially when cut-off from the caravan and with faulty exterior lights. Do they hunker down for the night and hope their fuel and luck holds? Proceed with repairs and move as quickly as possible? Or complete repairs while on the move, risking accident but refusing to be left behind?

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>Stuck: ice boulders, snow drifts, or crevasse - they must get out before night falls...

>Rescue: must find and recover/rescue another vehicle that is Stuck, before night falls...

>Saboteur: mysterious malfunctions continue to plague the vehicle and crew. Is the cause merely fatigue, bad maintenance, or some other 'natural' cause? Or is someone on the crew working against the others? Or is some other cause at play?

>Lost Signal: transmissions are received - ordered to locate - the source continues to move further and further away. Are the signals leading you somewhere? Are the signals real?

>>71521805
Night Shift

>>71524510
Sort of, but more environmental hazards and less overtly supernatural.

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>>71521805
>le cozy

>>71524738
Glad you could make it

>>71523290
So a chainsaw with a heating element would be rather necessary when carving out paths in the ice.

>>71525065
>a chainsaw with a heating element that throws water everywhere only to get frozen again the moment it stops being in contact with the element
Nah man, that's a recipe for disaster.

>>71525065
>>71525374
you guys don't understand, the transparent orange chainsaw would be a legendary saw, a bringer of warmth, cleaver ice, and just plain cool. People are unsure of it's construction, some saw the chainsaw is an energy tool from the future or a lost civilization, others propose it is a superheated saw, others still think it's rooted in native lore to a serrated blade made from a mysterious orange volcanic glass which kept the heat warmth of the volcano's blazing core with it.

>>71525374
>>71527028
The guy currently using it doesn’t even know how it works outside of having a standard charge port like any other pics of equipment. They just found it wedged in the side of a destroyed crawler that’s was frozen in the ice. The debris pattern suggested that its previous owner was attempting to free the crawler with the chainsaw, but cut too deep and hit the gas tank.

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>>71521805
So what's the creepy bit? Old gods and spirits of dark winter hunger? Frost zombies? Nothing serious just weird misuderstandings and fleeting shadows?

>>71523148
Hell yeah. Thx anon

This Mighty Max episode belongs here.

https://youtu.be/AFMeqFoOs_U

>>71528842
Whatever you want. You're out in a frozen/desert waste diving headfirst into scarcely tapped wilderness. Whether you just want hungry wolves, pitfalls, and fierce storms or fairies, wendigos, and aliens you can do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5MWnPBLMdo&t=693s
A talespin-esq LE benefactor is ripe for story opportunities both working with and opposing.

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>The dispatchers are everyone's friends out on the sheets, even Ned and his fractured murmuring. Half news, half impromptu talk show, the program fills the frosted airwaves between you and Central. The broadcast burns itself into the rhythm of every tractor such that one could be forgiven for calling out the dispatcher instead of the hours. On the sheets, their voices are warmth; their signal, security.
>But lately the shifts have been shifting. Voices are leaking into places they don't belong, and some hours seem to have stopped coming entirely. Ned's murmur now plasters over so many gaps the crew was caught trying cut the connection. It's hard to believe Central would let such wanton disregard continue, but then again it is hard to believe a functioning Central would allow this in the first place.
>There's an edge to the broadcasts now, likely imperceptible to those that haven't been stuck in a metal can for weeks. Something else is there with the voices now, crawling in through the gaps, taking the sanity of the crew with it. You swear the fuzz feels more erratic. The heaters hum is all wrong. The logging mine should have been 100 kilo back. This blizzard should have passed days ago. And it should be goddamn Cheryl right now.
>It should be goddamn Cheryl.

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Dumping some relevant art.

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>Every so often while a tractor is out on a run they will run across a local phenomenon known as "The Signs". Strange battery powered neon signs that bear strange and unsettling messages are routinely spotted and reported to be out in the snow fields, close investigation reveals them to be perfectly normal, if oddly placed neon signage. Several tractors over the years have reported several encounters with these constructions but strangely no two tractor encounters the same sign, furthermore they tend to appear and disappear whenever a tractor team inevitably must continue on their journey, reported signage absent on return trips through those same areas. Who or What is responsible for these strange constructions still remains a mystery but every tractor team has their own pet theories.

>>71529356
However it is universally agreed that taking the battery from one of these signs is a bad idea.

>>71528842
The constant possibility of something breaking in the crawler, dooming you and your crew to a slow death as you all freeze is quite creepy.

>>71529175
>>71530106
Sounds good, wasn't sure how set things were but a general, open idea leaves plety of options. Reminds me of when the lighthouse threads turned northward.

>>71530517
The general feel of isolation is constant in most threads like this. Lighthouse, Night Shift, Watch Tower, and evening this have a central theme of having to deal with a problem in a situation where help is unlikely.

>>71523187
>>71523290
>>71528960
Happy to share! I should probably make another revision if people are still interested in this kind of thing. Let me know (if this thread is still around) your thoughts, or maybe we'll chat during the next blue moon when another thread hits.

>>71538206
I love the simplicity of yer game. It captures the right feel, without being too fiddly or crunchy, imo.
Moar.

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The Sno-Train. A one-of-the-kind vehicle made to be capable of hauling over 150 tons of cargo through the Alaskan wilderness into Canada.

Reminder that not only do tracked megavehicles look cooler than wheeled ones, but treads work better than wheels for distributing a large weight over a wide area, allowing them to more safely and easily cross surfaces like iced-over lakes.

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>>71521805
Coincidentally, I’m actually working on a personal design project with pretty much this exact premise.
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Bm85w8
I can’t really contribute much in terms of gameplay design, but if you guys have any interesting ideas for frozen locales, beasts, machines, characters etc. I’d love to brainstorm some designs and artwork.

>>71541708
In my hypothetical game that I've been spitballing in my head since the first threads, the farthest-flung settlements don't actually produce enough revenue to justify their existence if anyone bothers to crunch the numbers, and the Prefectural Capital sends them supplies and money on a regular basis just to keep them occupied. Officially this is because of an old territory dispute that requires the Prefecture to keep the land occupied to avoid forfeiting it.

The real reason for the perpetuation of these outlying settlements is that large groups of humans act as a buffer zone, and as long as they're living there, SOMETHING will (super)naturally avoid venturing too far into the Prefecture. That's the reason why there are so many spooky things going on compared to life in the wholly mundane Prefectural Capital and why it gets weirder the farther they go from densely-populated areas.

>>71541904
Does this “something” avoid the settlements, or stick around them?

>>71541904
A lot of boring hardship by a passle of shitheels is the perfect cover for a tiny bit of crucial work by a key few. A creepy old guy in robes who goes out in the middle of nowhere on the Summer solstice every year will stick out, but just another supply run (that's a few hours late despite the fair season) is nothing worth noting. Are they researching something stuck in the ice? Radioing someone through the unique EM patterns? Polar LZ for cryonic a-grav saucers? Leaving human scarifices out where the corporeal realm gets thin to bait naive spirits over? What it is is up to you. I like the crawlers meeting up with submarines out on the ice sheets. The subs bring things up to the surface, but they're not always one of "ours". Of course only the freezer burned meat out there knows and it's not easy for them to phone home.

>>71541904
>>71543236
The psychic/spiritual emanations of the sort of miserable introverts who'd get stuck on deep freeze duty ain't nothing to mess with. If the creeps don't thrive on human suffering, they'll avoid the man stink like the plague.

>>71523148
Lovely stuff anon

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>>71541904
I like this concept - it's a nice way to explain the increasingly peculiar phenomena and inhabitants of the ice the further away you are from the bastions of humanity.
Any particular ideas for what some of these settlements or spooky things might be like?
Something I thought would be cool would be a fuel-harvesting settlement built around the remains of an oil rig / oil field, chipping away at frozen geysers of fuel from before the winter.

>>71523148
Great stuff anon.
Was thinking of doing a crawler redesign. What do you think of modular crawler platforms in-setting? A universal chassis with prefrabicated or custom modules built onto the frame to suit the company's needs.

>>71544341
I'll admit - my personal affections rest in having a fleet mostly of repurposed / old as sin tractors that have histories associated with them. Like old ships, each has its stories, and each has its quirks. The way I interpret the setting is that it's still mostly built on maintaining and repurposing what they find. This is not for lack of knowhow but for lack of resource. In that conception, there are still some new tractors and new modules, but those are an absolute luxury and reserved for the most important of the Company crews.

That being said, I see no problem with you going for a more modular approach! And I certainly don't think that'd get in the way of you using the system I scrawled up - just consider each system as a slot as provided and have different modules. Perhaps you'd have a few chassis (no machine is truly universal) - say light, medium, and heavy duty - that have access to different module qualities (low, mid, high)? That way you can still have a tangible sense of progress that's more permanent that just stumbling across one great module.

>>71545224
Depending on the setting, the tractors could already have history or it could be brand new.

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>>71544341
>crawler add-ons/extensions
A cargo sled would be the easiest and most natural addition to a crawler. A sled could be made from lumber or large scrap. It spreads the load across more surface area vs stowwed/bagged/netted/slung cargo on the crawler itself. A sled wouldn't trim the performance envelope of a large, tall crawler much because the crawler already needs fairly even terrain with limited side roll. If you needed an excuse to put a double blade prow on your crawler, sled hauling is a good one. Sleds are low to the ground which is handy for stuff that you have to load and unload frequently like sentry shelters, scout snowmobiles, sea kayaks, long-wave antenna parts for the mobile radio relay, or dangerous stuff you don't want in/on the crawler with you but you still have to lug be it inflammable, radioactive, or creepy.
A sled need not be just a sled. You could be towwing the construction materials of a new outpost, a portable crawler bridge, or a bunch of extra long ladder segments for a chasm decent b/c who wants to trust the long winch after two weeks in the open.

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>>71545224
I certainly get the appeal - besides, production infrastructure for such vehicles must be difficult to come by in the Post-Winter world.
Regarding module qualities - I am not so familiar with gameplay design, but I do think having a range of modular chassis would be important. I'll be starting with just one for now, however.

>>71546383
This.
What I was thinking was more along the lines of, say, the universal carrier concept - a simple, rugged motorized carriage that can be modified accordingly depending on circumstance.
Just as how widely produced tanks like the T-34 continued to see use in a variety of modified applications long after its war ended, the sheer number and ruggedness of these carriages could see their lifetimes extend far beyond what they were originally designed for.

While I do love the personality and backstory of unique vehicles, I think these "cookie cutter" crawlers have the potential to become unique as well - not because of some quirky hullform or experimental powerplant, but through the gradual changes and fixes that come with its journey through the world.

>>71546868
I imagined it being more so like building extensions atop a flat, mostly-open chassis.

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>>71547207
What about multi-section articulated vehicles like pic rel?

>>71548647
Seems to me that those kind would be useful for people who don’t have a permanent home.
How many people would simply live out of the vehicles used for hauling, would you say?

>>71549647
>Seems to me that those kind would be useful for people who don’t have a permanent home.
>How many people would simply live out of the vehicles used for hauling, would you say?
Typically, these vehicles are only kept warm on the inside by the heaters from the diesel engines, so you'd be burning a lot of diesel in an inefficient means of keeping warm.

It would be better if you had a woodburning stove or a small propane heater in the back.

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>>71547207
If yer gonna make a game, you must have more than one generic modular chassis. That's just the way it is.
>scout
>light
>medium
>heavy
>superheavy
>scavenged/scrounged/ramshackle/miscellaneous
>multi-stage/train
>tracked or wheeled or ski/drive or augur drive

Also would want:
>small flyers (scout, comm, light transport)
>BASES! - outpost, supply depot, fuel depot, repair depot, emergency shelter, small, medium, large, megacomplex - tech level would vary as chassis (ramshackle to ubertech)

Page 10 bump.

>>71550026
For small fliers, small drones would be acceptable due to their small size and ability to remotely scout that group of trees that seem to be moving and/or falling for some reason.

>>71549812
Small, short endurance vehicles can be fueled and heated by batteries or combustion, but long term ice crawlers would want a fission powerplant. Fission would give you a steady source of steam for electric generation, heat, and even propulsion depending on how gonzo you want to go. A small pile could net you a steady source for charging your batteries while the upper limit would light up a small town besides crawling flat out, whichyou'd probably want to do to help the radiators keep up with the waste heat. Alternatively, you could cool your reactor with an open topped cauldron you have to constantly shovel snow/ice into and have your passage marked by a plume of white steam like a massive boiling teapot sliding over the wastes

>>71553063
Because being trapped on a crawler with a dozen people in the middle of a giant snowfield isn't isolating enough here's 8 litres of kerosene and a snowmobile. Drive over that ridge and see if there's anyone still alive over there. If you don't come back within the week, we'll assume the answer is no and return to the bunker without you or your corpse-icle. We'll fly the aerostat each afternoon assuming the weather is calm, otherwise, good luck.

>>71553225
The fission power plants are, in fact, not mobile. The area needed for the reactor, equipment needed to be sure it doesn’t go nuclear, and steam system in particular take up too much space to be easily mobile. Unless someone is able to design a steam system efficient enough to keep a reactor cool while still being small enough to carry around.

>>71556163
A shielded high-efficiency RTG would be more reasonable for a mobile reactor that constantly produces electricity. As reasonable as a box of plutonium can get, anyway.

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>>71556163
The key is that your reactor and its components replace multiple parts on a hydrocarbon crawler. The reactor has to be cooled and the working steam re-condensed which could replace all the interior heaters, heating consumables, exterior de-icing, and most thermal insulation. You could also take care of stove/oven/water heating/washing/drying needs with a tricked out steam system. Gucci lifestyle and a much nicer way to haul essential spares than deadweight, cold cargo. Reactor shielding is heavy but the advantage of crossing the arctic nothing means you can scrimp on the sides that don’t face the vehicle’s occupants and you don’t have to carry anymore fuel or tankage or emergency fuel or emergency tankage. The calculus isn’t as favorable for polar deserts where additional water isn’t available to be distilled to replace your working fluid in an emergency.

>>71521805
Is this the one where I suggested a Yuki-Onna is presiding over a labor dispute?

>>71558824
Also- I'll just say I recently moved to the foothills in Colorado- and we just had a late blizzard yesterday. Took my dog out for a walk, it's quite creepy out there. The skies are quite hazy, since a couple of snowflakes are still falling now and again- the horizon is quite pretty, but it's almost impossible to make out downtown Denver- I could only spot it since I know where it is- I think all the lights in the skyscrapers are off since nobody is working thanks to the virus.

>>71558824
Need to reread the old thread to be sure.

>>71558534
Naturally, such a vehicle is rare and impractical outside of the largest haulers.

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>>71545224
>>71546868
>>71547207
>>71550026
Hopefully this sketch is an adequate example of what I had in mind - the base chassis provides for the basics of crawler functionality (propulsion, heating, fuel bunkers, basic living quarters), but superstructure can be constructed atop the deck to facilitate additional functions (ie. processing, cargo hold, weapon systems, communications array etc.)

>>71553063
re: small flyers
towed observation platforms like the Fa330 might be interesting

For independent fliers, thought ekranoplans/ground effect vehicles could be good to look at as well - would be less susceptible to heavy weather and able to carry more cargo.
Not sure about how fuel efficiency balances out between traditional aircraft and ekranoplans, however.

>>71553225
>>71556163
Personally, I don't think fission powerplants should be generally available. Part of what makes the snowcrawler experience IMO is the knowledge that you are working with limited resources, against the vast and uncaring wilds - while fission might be a logical choice for long range crawlers, it kind of takes away that element of the experience.

The few prototype/early model fission-powered crawlers that were built before the Winter are gargantuan, unwieldy constructs, an irreplaceable resource for human civilisation.
They are cities, ports and havens in their own right - where they may roam, fleets of lesser crawlers follow in hopes of barter or shelter.
Only a handful of these great city-fleets continue to brave the frozen frontier. For the rest, their treads give in long before their nuclear hearts do. Where these crawlers fall, new settlements grow, sustained by the unending warmth.

>>71564054
That's some nice work, Anon. Just thought I'd drop by to tell you.

>>71564054
>sustained by the unending warmth
So, lost nuclear derelicts in the icefields, full of radioactive mutated horror.....I'm sensing a possible source for some of the creepy weird shit.........nice!

>>71564054
One thing about fission crawlers, they can't share fuel with ICE crawlers. Whether paths cross out on the tundra or the crew finds a wreck, recent or otherwise, they won't get a drop of desiel out of a nuke.

>>71521805
You could homebrew Mouseguard into something like that, I guess.

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>>71529240
the idea of a radio station(s) that are there own vehicles with a crew driving around the snowy wastes is kinda cool.

take in calls from other vehicles, give news feeds on anything new thats occured, have their own radio plays written and performed in house with crew playing multiple characters and foley made with standard parts from around the vehicle.

https://youtu.be/hZ43UC5tIOY?t=152

>>71566603
>>71564054
Oil rigs on the frozen sea would be bastions of civilization like port cities were before the freeze. I wouldn’t be surprised if people grouped around the power plants that were able to beat back the cold.
Aaand I just realized that I’m describing Frostpunk.
Still, a great metal platform in a great expanse or white ice still beaming with light is a great image.

>>71567970
Most radio stations would be stationary, since they would also make good markers for location.

>>71557578

Those things are too inefficient to propel a snowcrawler or even a car.

>>71571891
A small caravan on a long run might have need of it's own radio station; or a remote mining or scavenging operation.
And crews may well take to the radio waves to alleviate boredom - competing with other crews to produce the best content (or to salvage the best old recordings from ancient wrecks).

>>71565629
While one or two may certainly have fallen into disrepair, many of these crawlers' crews continue to operate the reactors within. Promising a seemingly endless supply of energy and heat, the sites of immobilised crawlers often serve as the hearts of fledgling cities.

>>71567970
Radio outpost team sounds like a rather cozy setting.

>>71569678
Agreed.

>>71572009
True. If they’re used, it’s likely just for the electricity.

>>71574479
I’m seeing this world‘a terrain as being a groups of Arctic tundra, Alaskan wilderness, and Siberian emptiness. Not pure ice, and just enough land for people to live on, but the distances between are so large that the people in each settlement are each effectively the only humans on earth for weeks at a time. If the other settlements were to disappear, they’d hardly even notice.

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>>71576985
While much of the terrain is generally featureless, I think it's also good to have the occasional forest or notable landmark. It'll allow for shift in pacing or theme from time to time.

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>>71521805
Are there actually any all terrain vehicles built like motor homes?

>>71578607
look up expedition vehicles friend

>>71578607
I believe there are, but I’m not sure if they are truly all terrain. It takes a lot of bulk for a vehicle to be insulated from the cold, and that bulk can struggle under some road conditions.

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How would one go about simulating radio stations and broadcasts? I like the idea of being able to flip through multiple stations playing different stuff.

>>71582648
It would likely depend on how you want to simulate them. For background noise you could use actual music to be played during the session because music always helps time pass in the frozen wilderness. If you want your players to scan for channels you could first make a list of stations, broadcasts, messages, and any other event you wish then roll some dice to signify what frequency they will be on.

>>71581294
Amphirols have hollow drills that allow for flotation on water as well as reasonable maneuverability on soft terrain, while hovercraft and ekranoplans can overcome most terrain by virtue of not coming into direct contact with it.
Not all of the vehicle has to be fully insulated, either - cargo and machinery spaces may or may not require the same amount of insulation as living quarters.

>>71574479
>endless supply of energy and heat
mmmm, that's wrong for this aesthetic: scarcity shouldn't have endless supplies of anything except, well, scarcity...

>>71587208
You've also got an endless potential for nuclear meltdown not to mention limited radiation shielding and time you can spent outside the cone of protection offered by the lead slab between the reactor and cabin. I agree it shouldn't be the PCs hands though, just greatslow shifting towns, the odd nuclear wreck and prototype "cauldron" crew who look very nervous as they shovel more snow into their barely sub-critical pile.

>>71587208
>nothing in excess save scarcity
Oh but you miss out on something, mocking irony. You can't carry a enough lead shielding to be safe on a terrestrial vehicle, so while the nuke core is warm you have to stay away from it or get radiation poisoning.

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>>71587208
The key word here is “seemingly”.
Even the sturdiest of nuclear powerplants today have an expected life of 50-60 years, with some future designs aiming to reach a lifespan of 100 years or more.
By the time the cities have been built up sufficiently and the players come into the fray, the nuclear hearts of human civilisation may very well be on their last legs.
Even with a few years left, the search for an alternative source of heat could easily serve as either a plot point or the backdrop for a campaign.
That aside, players would normally be unable to access such powerplants in the first place, being limited to conventional ICEs due to space or manpower constraints.

>>71587490
Definitely the purview of the not!Soviets. I think it would be cool to have them as the juggernaut next door reduced to rubble, lots of immigrants salty about glories past and lots of follies for the Scandi successors to feel smug about. Tsar bomba test sites, Tunguska weirdness, closed research cities, that really deep borehole turned geothermal, (at the time) cutting edge ekranoplan design... they're a great resource for spooky ruins.

>>71587208
The main problems that those settlements have is that energy and heat are the ONLY things they have in excess. They were built to be semi-isolated from the population, far enough from the cities that an accident would have minimal damage, so the settlements found today didn’t exist when the chill began.
Why didn’t they stay in those cities? Because most weren’t structured to survive the unending ice. Power lines failed under the buildup and the logistics line needed for their repair got stretched thinner and thinner, until people began moving closer to their source of power and heat to reduce the chance of a sudden blackout.
Naturally, as civilization moves, so must that which holds it up. Houses needed to be built. Plants and animals needed to be raised in indoor farms. Medicines sustained and knowledge stored. All this required things that these plants were built far away from. If something breaks, it could take months to remake or trade, if ever. In some of the settlements, even fresh water is hard to come by as the snow has long since stopped, leaving only the dry wind blowing over solid ice that must be harvested.
Still, the people put up with it all if it means a warm bed and a light that doesn’t need to be burnt.

>>71587580
Might make for a good ghost story. Uranuim shipments are sent out periodically to restock provincial reactors but one convoy got lost in a blizzard. Knowing their shipment the crew persisted in the knowledge that people might die not now or in ten years, but eventually without their help. The wraths still wander the snow amid a pall of sickly radiation.

>>71587614
There might be a way to save them, but that likely requires finding out which settlement they were originally going to so you can point them in that direction. Of course, it may have powered off years ago.

>>71521805
Traveller

>>71587580
As a sidenote - how would people find sustenance in such a setting? Hothouses might provide for some basic grain, but other foodstuffs might need to be sought from elsewhere. What kinds of flora and fauna might emerge in perpetual winter?

>>71589495
Evergreens are still growing. Alaska, Canada, and Siberia still have much of their plants and animals.

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>>71591131
Most of the wildlife in such locales isn’t much good eating, though - and as >>71541904 mentioned, things start to get a little weird the further you get away from civilisation. What could some creature encounters involve?

>>71521805
Call of Cthullu.

>>71592189
Your choice of system might tip your hand to players if you wanted to keep the spooky stuff more ambiguous.

>>71589495
It depends really on what the eternal winter looks like. If it's "lol it's -100 degrees outside everyday and you die in minutes if caught outside" the entire world would be fucked, but if it's a winter with "seasons" then it wouldn't be to bad, tundra flora and fauna would still exist.

>>71592750
Yeah the real temperatures of the Arctic are cold enough for this setting.
I'm not a science guy at all but can someone tell me if this is possible?
Climate change makes equitorial earth uninhabitable through temperature, flooding storms, or whatever.
Mass migration, overpopulation, and strife in temperate earth. Temperature is neither hotter nor colder all the time, but extremely volatile.
Arctic is colder for some reason, cold enough to refreeze ice bridge between North America, Siberia, and Scandi countries, but not "Lol -100 everyday".
Is this possible, science Anons?

>>71593427
Just say it's geoengineering gone wild to paper over any inaccuracies. The combo of late stage Anthropocene climate and cloudseeding nanites gone wild would make for whatever fucked weather you like.

>>71592750
Uncomfortably cold, but not inhumanly so - ranges between -10 to -50 celsius in most areas, with only the furthest reaches dipping below that.
It’s not quite as fun if players are stuck indoors 24/7, even if it is a crawler-centric game.

>>71592105
It seems to have been several decades since the world began to cool, so some animals could have adapted or bred to be more tolerant to the cold. Yams, wolves, and some snow leopards could prowl the forests.
For the domesticated, thick-furred cows would have been bred along with dogs that have denser fur and possibly a layer of insulating fat to tolerate the cold.

>>71593455
Thanks. Sometimes you need someone to remind you to apply Occam's Razor to worldbuilding. It's not like science fiction can be disputed. I also think it'd be interesting if slot of couriers were transplants from the over-populated temperate regions. Taking on the dangerous job in hopes of starting a life in the lands that still have some freedom.
>>71593641
I think outside of crawler investigations would be a main point of interest, at least for me. We have artic weather clothing with internal heating.
>>71593882
Large Northern mammals would certainly adapt to the cold. Moose, elk, deer, rams, big cats, bears, wolves, and wild cattle, seals and whakes too. There may be some birds of prey. From what I gather from our current world, it seems that mammals are larger where it is colder. This has always perplexed me since you think they'd require more nutrients.
Also people would indeed still own long haired cattle, maybe some sortve artic sheep? As well as husky-type dogs, and even cats similar to those big Norwegian cats. It wouldn't be uncommon for crews aboard larger crawlers to have a crew pet. Crew members would be like independent contractors. Over time however crews would gain preference of whole they like working with. So you may see a "captain" who's had the same mechanic, and security specialist on almost every run with him for the past 15 years.
People would be cultivating edible fungi, and any grains, legumes, or root vegetables that are easier to grow indoors.

>>71594609
Could be forward thinking types too, the see the deserts and frosts choking the temperate regions out of existence and are getting accustomed to life in the cold before it becomes a necessity. Read a Land of Ice and Mice for cool ideas about far northern agriculture, lots about the roots you mention.

>>71594609
>From what I gather from our current world, it seems that mammals are larger where it is colder. This has always perplexed me since you think they'd require more nutrients.

Large animals have an advantage because they have an easier time keeping their core temperature up than smaller mammals, because larger animals have a smaller surface area-to-volume ratio. This means that evolution will naturally favor larger individuals over smaller ones in an arctic environment.

>>71594783
>spoopy being has somehow managed to bend space such that the surface area/volume ratio is even more unbalanced
>the fleshy nub radiates away barely any of the heat generated by its higher dimensional guts' metabolism
>cool it down or it'll cook itself alive, collapse the field and explode into a cloud of searing gristle

>>71594657
Ahead of the curve opportunists. Thanks will look into.
>>71594783
Thanks Anon, I've always wondered.

>>71594885
>Thanks Anon, I've always wondered.
Of course, the other side of the coin is that larger animals require more calories, so most large mammals will either be carnivores (like polar bears, elephant seals, etc.), or will be restricted to areas with a lot of plant life to browse (where these wooded areas will be like oases).

bump for survival

>>71595030
>>71593641
It’s cold, but not cold enough to be uninhabitable everywhere. A wooded Siberian expanse still exists with all the animals within, and those places are distressingly easy to get lost in. The woods aren’t an oasis, they are more an anomalous mass where a wrong turn could mean a slow freezing death as fuel runs out and the power dies.

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Some things our PCs might be wearing during journeys. Picturing a layering system for inside/outside/downtime/etc.
Crew composition is important. I figure each crew would need a designated mechanic, and a security specialist. Probably a designated "captain". Reconnaissance and scouting could be important. But most crews could probably only be 4 absolute minimum, 8 at an absolute maximum. There would probably have to be shiftdriving

>>71598258
In my hypothetical setting, the Prefectural Capital experiences an actual (if mild) summer, but geography (the ocean coast, etc) ensures a sharp drop in temperature as you move northward away from the Capital. A lot of supplies are sent out from the Prefectural Capital to the outlying areas, but where exactly the Capital gets it from is sometimes unclear.

>>71598515
It's standard practice for all professional groups that venture away from civilization IRL to have a captain who has ultimate authority over the rest of the group. Usually this includes a chain of command in the event that the captain is unavailable to meet his duty.

>>71598515
I think your role priorities aren’t quite straight.
Crew members by crew size:
1 Navigator, 2 Mechanic, 3 Mechanic, 4 Doctor
Once you’ve got a crew bigger than four you can start adding people who’s main job isn’t keeping everyone from getting lost, not breaking down, and not dying. This doesn’t mean they shouldn’t know some or all of those things besides their other job. Mechanics are doubled up over the vital navigator because diesel mechanics suffer more and worse injuries in the course of their work compared to guys using a compass, sextant, map, etc.

>>71598595
Yeah I'm thinking captain is pretty important. Perhaps Captain navigator? . Or any other role can be captain?
>>71598892
While this might be true IRL for the sake of an RPG wouldn't 2 mechanics be clunky, and shouldn't there be 1 mercenary type per crew? I imagine there will be conflicts. I also imagine for it to be worth paying a crew of at least 4 people, resource cost, etc. For the trip; the supplies delivered would have to be far more valuable. This would make me assume that there would be bandits of some type, considering vulnerable high target caravans or single crawlers traveling alone through the wilderness, let alone the "super-natural" threats. It would make sense for a combat type to have secondary mechanical knowledge though.

>>71599638
Without "civilians" (i.e. passengers, etc.) and a very small crew (less than 6), it's more likely that the captain has the key to a locked chest of firearms that he can dispense in an emergency.

>>71600763
I guess so. I guess the setting I'm picturing has more threat of lawless behavior. I'm also Anon who was talking about climate disparity etc. It's a sort've near future setting in my mind. But to each their own. Any anons know good keywords for visual concepts?

>>71576465

Which technically could propel something, but actually it's too little.

That being said maybe we could try it in reverse? The crawler uses the THERMAL energy of the RTG?

We mostly use them for spacecraft, which means there is no real way of using that (you'd have to add radiators and liquids) but maybe the crawler could have a RTG-powered steam engine.

>>71601108
I believe the words you’re looking for are “untamed wilderness”, “unclaimed wilds”, and “no-mans land”. Places where people either haven’t or cannot walk or love. A place that, while not actively trying to kill you, won’t pass up a chance to see you die.

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>>71602707
Most nuclear reactors are fancy steam engines.

>>71602707
An RTG boiler sounds like that perfect blend of “ungodly stupid and dangerous” and “makes just enough logical sense” that some idiots desperate for heat would actually make it.

Few exist, and each was custom made by their crawler’s mechanics. Their RTG’s were lucky finds, even more skillful repairs, and the boilers were made during a particularly harsh winter. The settlements’ fuel shipments had become stranded and wood was running low. While several boilers were used to give the town some form of heat, Three crawlers were fitted with them and set out on a relief mission to the fuel convoy. They’re still in use.

>>71604117
RTG boilers sound like they’d be an interesting alternative for smaller craft, but might not provide enough power for larger crawlers - maybe as a backup powerplant to maintain heating and/or limited movement in the event of fuel exhaustion?

>>71521805
Morning bump.
I wonder what that sign says.

>>71604117
>This is a Curie-G coffeemaker, by CuppaTech. It famously uses a radioactive generator to heat water for coffee. Normally the water is heated using energy stored in a capacitor, and makes ordinary coffee. However, as a special feature, water from the RTG containment area can be used, giving the coffee a very special kick. The Curie-G is illegal in most countries.

From Cataclysm DDA. A great tool if you never want to sleep again and don't care about developing a healthy green glow.

>>71608589
Thankfully, water isn’t a good medium for transferring radiation. Standard filtration would remove almost all of the contaminants that would become radioactive, thus making the water as safe to drink as any other filtered water.
Of course, this makes the filters themselves obscenely dangerous over time, but the water will still be safe.

Are new crawlers still manufactured?

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>>71610950
There are, but resources have made it more practical to refurbish most of the crawlers that already exist.

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>>71521805
>A Cozy, Creepy, Winter Campaign

You know what this reminds me of?
One of the greatest settings known to man: Megaman Legends
Now hold it Anon, I feel what you are thinking "Anon, why would I give a fuck about some weeabo setting of a game that nobody has heard of in two decades ?"
I'll tell you my little ignorant child. Because it's simplicity is deceiving, on a first look it's about some humans having adventures in a modern world where there a ruins of a precursor civilization which a chuck full with neat stuff like free, clean energy and technology.
If you dig deeper it's about the creations of mankind still trying to overcome it's base nature of exploiting first and think of consequences third, humans going full Orokin on the moon, while their terraforming machines emerged and now think that they are people, and living in the post-post-post-apocalypse.

Wan't to be a post man traveling from settlement to settlement, deliver post, meet people and occasional encounter a murderbot? perfectly can do

Want a game about looting ancient ruins, resource management, and creating your own settlement and company? can do

Or maybe you and your buddies just want to be a bunch of hand designed elite robots who source the earth in search of the last functional human gene code that will shoot back? boy you are in for a treat.

>>71612211
Imagine putting this much effort into a load of complete nonsense.

>>71521805
Due to the isolation, and dangerous animals and creatures encountered would likely be felt with through passive means. Loud noises, flashing lights, bad smells, mainly things that would scare the creature off and dissuade them from attacking. It’s safer not to have to fight when help is almost certain to never come.

>>71521805
A wrecked crawler or ship is used as a navigation point on frozen seas for years has a light coming from a window.

>>71523070
>>71523187
The "Snow Cruiser" was a disastrous failure and an example on how not to build a snow fording vehicle. Too much ground pressure, not enough traction and not enough power. Got stuck in the mud while trying to reach the boat that would take it to the antarctic. Even when they attached the spare wheels to widen the existing ones it still couldn't move except at a crawl while in reverse.

It's a good launching point for a design though, needs more and wider wheels (or tracks), and a much, much more powerful engine. They should have tested the thing trying to do cross country in the winter before live testing.

>>71617992
What about aerosani / hovercraft / ground effect vehicles? Having propulsion that isn't reliant on good ground traction seems like it'd be useful for soft and inconsistent terrain.

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>>71620995
Too windy. I'd go with what works; oversized rubber tracks with matching overpowered engines.

>>71521805
on the creepy end you could run antagonists like these druids: http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2014/09/7-myths-everyone-believes-about-druids.html

or the obvious Skinwalkers and Wendigos.

Other than that you could have players traverse through shifting and cavernous ice floes and glaciers. You can use these videos as reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chxn2szgEAg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JYcUstxUAc

One way of keeping the survival aspect of the game would be to keep track of what players are eating and depending on if the players are getting lazy and deciding to eat the same thing every day or something you can throw something like Fat starvation at them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_poisoning

>>71617992
I thing wheels in general are a bad idea for traveling over snow. Not enough traction.

>>71622439
I remember a thread some time ago about how global warming awoke giant Wendigo who then moved south and bringing an endless winter along with them. That could be one myth for why the winter came.

>>71620995
Hovercraft could work on the frozen seas, but I don’t think they would be useful for much beyond human transport.

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But big wheels are cool.

>>71529267
Love shit by Stålenhag. Has anyone here ever bought one of his art books. I'm curious if his pieces have a wider story he presents within them. Either way could easily make a setting based off his stuff.

>>71622118
Ekranoplans have been shown to function reasonably well in rather hostile sea states - unless the world is constantly being buffeted by gale-force winds, I could see them being like an “express” alternative to crawlers.

>>71636039
I believe he’s done art for a TTRPG in the past, but I don’t recall the details.

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So... Lost Planet mixed with Death Stranding?

>>71558534
>4CH
would that be an iteration of the legendary 4chan party van?

>>71638937
That sounds about right, just with groups of people traveling rather than one courier.