mechanics Havens

[Essence]

"Home is a shelter from storms—all sorts of storms." - William J. Bennett

A haven typically refers to a place of safety, refuge, or sanctuary. A haven could be anything: a caravan of trailers, an abandoned railway carriage, or a zoo with living animals. When the PCs decide to settle down somewhere and make that place their home, it becomes a haven.

A haven might look like a place where the PCs are safe. While being partly true, a haven is also filled with conflicts. There can be internal struggles, a constant threat from walkers trying to get in, and hostile NPCs wanting to take what the PCs have. There will always be weak spots in the defenses where danger can get through – either in the shape of deadly opponents, or from internal strife among the NPC survivors. The most important part of the haven is its description – what it looks like, how it smells, where people can get some privacy, where do people sleep, food and ammo storages, and where decisions are made.

Mechanically, a haven has two attributes: Capacity and Defense. Capacity is a measure of how many people can live in the haven without starving. Defense determines how well the haven is protected by walls, alarm systems, even stationary weapons. Capacity and Defense range from 0 to 6. The scores may be improved by working on projects at the haven.

ISSUES
All havens have one or more Issues, such as leaking roof or unguarded underground tunnels. If your haven relies on a stash of canned goods, it has the Issue, “food will be depleted.” Some Issues may be resolved in game – for instance, a leaking roof might be repaired.

Most havens have a secret Issue – a weakness you have not yet discovered. Secret Issues may be revealed and resolved by searching your haven and finding security breaches.

CAPACITY
Capacity can represent many things – a stash of canned food, a farm with animals, or an area surrounding the haven where it is easy to scavenge. The Capacity table shows the maximum number of people that can stay at the haven without starving to death. At Capacity 0, PCs and NPCs only have the rations they carry – there is no other food in the haven.

RUNNING OUT OF FOOD: When you run out of food, either because your Capacity has been lowered or you take in too many NPC survivors, people start to starve. They will get angry, desperate, and eager to leave or revolt. The NPCs get temporary Issues representing this. Should Capacity suddenly be lowered to zero – as the result of a fire breaking out, for example – each PC and NPC has a double low number of rations left. No more food can be found in the haven.

Capacity Table

CAPACITY	INHABITANTS	DESCRIPTION
0	0	Constant need to find other resources.
1	10	Rifles to hunt with, some canned food, and fresh water nearby.
2	20	Some livestock and good fishing and/or hunting equipment.
3	50	Small farm with livestock and crops.
4	80	Large farm with livestock and crops.
5	200	Well-arranged trade agreements with other communities and havens.
6	500	A system of farms and well established trade-routes, workshops, and rudimentary industry.

DEFENSE
The Defense rating is a measure of how safe your haven is. It can represent everything from whether you have guards at the entrance, to trenches, high walls, and booby traps. If your haven is attacked, everyone inside who fights the intruders gets a bonus to their skill roll equal to the haven’s Defense value.

DEFENSE AGAINST THE DEAD: A haven’s Defense rating is also used to measure how big a swarm needs to be to break down your walls and get in. The size of a swarm is measured by a Swarm Size rating from 1 to 6. If the Swarm Size is equal to or greater than your haven’s Defense, the dead will eventually break in given enough time. During that time, you can try to distract or kill them – or improve your defenses.

Defense Table

DEFENSE	BONUS	EXAMPLE
0	+0	A house with a broken front door.
1	+1	Tents surrounded by an alarm system made of ropes and bells.
2	+2	A wooden fence around a farm, with a lookout on the roof.
3	+3	A house with reinforced sturdy doors, blocked windows, a fence, and a reinforced gate.
4	+4	High walls of stone with a metal gate, scouts in towers, and a system for checking security around the clock.
5	+5	A fenced in prison with high walls and a metal gate.
6	+6	A military base with electronic surveillance, guard towers, concrete walls, and metal doors with electronic locks.

LOSING CAPACITY OR DEFENSE
When things happen in the game that break your barriers, or when someone burns down your food supply, you will lose points in Capacity or Defense. If all your food is gone, you are down to Capacity 0. Sometimes it is easy to repair the damage. You may, for example, need to go on a run to find a certain object or tool, and then it is done. At other times you must rebuild everything from scratch. Either way, this is often handled as projects.

PROJECTS
Capacity and Defense can be increased by completing projects. This could mean planting crops or building a wall, or just repairing broken things. A project always takes time and a workforce to complete. It may also demand special knowledge. This knowledge is represented by the Tech skill. One of the PCs or an NPC must have a high enough Tech skill level for the project to be started. Trained NPCs are considered to have a Tech level of 1, Experts have Tech 3, and Masters have Tech 5. Projects may also demand special equipment or resources.

PROJECT SCALE: The GM decides what it will take to complete a project. The amount of work and resources needed should depend on the level to which Capacity or Defense is being increased. At higher levels of Capacity and Defense, minor projects at the haven will not increase the ratings – setting up a simple alarm system at a highly guarded army base, for example, won’t raise your Defense rating. Similarly, finding some apple trees close to a functional farm won’t increase your overall Capacity.

Dangerous Projects

Projects don’t normally require skill rolls to succeed. But at times, PCs will try to accomplish things that are so dangerous and risky, there is a serious chance of failure.

In such a case, the GM declares how many skill rolls are needed from one to three, and for what skills. The PCs can divide the rolls among themselves or let one person make all the rolls. If one of the rolls fails, something goes wrong. It does not mean that the whole plan fails, but there will be complications. Should all rolls fail, the project is a failure.

TRAINING
In addition to upgrading their haven, PCs can also improve NPC survivors. An untrained NPC rolls four dice for all skills. But if they become Trained at a skill, they add a die, rolling five dice. Should they become Expert, they add another three dice, rolling a total eight dice for the skill. A PC or an NPC can teach one skill to a group of up to five unskilled NPCs. The teacher must have at least level 2 in the skill being taught.

Teaching takes one month. Neither the teacher nor the NPCs may work other projects during this time. After the month, all NPCs become Trained in the skill. If lessons are interrupted, they might continue later. An NPC who is Trained at a skill might become an Expert if she is taught by an NPC or PC who has at least level 4 in the relevant skill. The teacher can have only one student at a time.

It takes six months for the NPC to become an Expert. Both the NPC and the teacher can do other things during the teaching period, but they must have lessons regularly. Some extraordinary NPCs the PCs meet are Masters in a skill, which means that they roll ten dice. An NPC cannot be taught to become a Master.

BUILDING EQUIPMENT AND GEAR
PCs might repair or even build equipment. This is handled as projects. The exact amount of time required to complete the build (weeks, hours, or days) is decided by rolling a die.