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I am looking at running a post apocalyptic RPG game and allow players to have a single set of power armor (mech) but want them to only use
it when really needed. With limited "power cells" they will run it dry if they continuously use it and thinking the weapon system could be
tied in to this.. But I don't want to keep a ton of records or make the players do it either..

Any suggestions on how to limit the use and not put marks on a paper every time they use it..???

It's a bit off-the-wall, but how about a sand timer or something? Each time they stick a power cell into the armour and start it up, you set the timer going and when it runs dry, they either have to put in another cell or ditch it?

Now, the obvious argument against this is that RPGs don't take place in real time, so one power cell might get them only a few minutes of in-game time while another might last for hours... But given the post-apoc setting, I think you can get away with that. There's no guarantee the cells they find will be full, or of the same quality, in the same way that if you took 20 batteries of various brands and ages at random they could have drastically different lifespans. Hell, you could even lean into this by having a few different-length timers picked at random, or rolling a die to see how many flips of the timer a given cell gets before it's depleted.

It also adds some nice tension on a meta level. They know that once they power up the suit they're on the clock and have to move fast, so it ensures that when they do use it you're in for a high-octane sequence where everyone's going to be switched on and playing nice and quickly. If the suit offers significant buffs, but they know they've only got it for a potentially short while, that's going to be a great incentive not to dawdle and to keep the game moving at pace, inherently making those situations (presumably already pretty dicey if they're using the armour in the first place) even more tense.

counters. Use a dice or something. Each time the energy is used, take some counter away. Refill them when appropriate.

Use glass aquarium beads. Cheap, weighty, attractive, and 'energy'-ish.

Have the power indicator damaged. The device runs out of power on a failed save (maybe start it at DC1, but every time it's used the DC goes up- each weapon also has a value that, when fired, adds to the DC of that power check. These do not go away.) Thus, the group knows when it will fail- but they're never sure exactly how long it'll keep working for. If you'd really like to up the ante, you can secretly add a D4 to the announced DC but subtract 1 or 2 on 1 or 2, and add 1 or 2 on 3 or 4- so the players get that occasional Han Solo moment- that should have worked! They told me they fixed it!

Forbidden lands uses a series of resource dice. D6 d8 d10 and d12.

Lets say you go a day in the wilderness and use your water skin for your daily ration of water. You have a d10 filled waterskin. So you roll a d10 and on a 1 you reduce it to a d8. If you roll a 1 on a d6 its completely depleted and you are out of the resource.

So lets say you have 2 power cells to run the suit (which requires 1 to function).

You could say it charges 1 d size every 24 hours charging. (Or more. Depends on how tight you want the usage to be.) Every 10 mins just walking requires a roll of the dice. Every attack requires a roll of the dice. Every activation of a sub system requires a roll of the dice. Some might even require 2 rolls (a over charged plasma shot or jump jets).

4 days of charging will give them a d12 on the battery and then every 10 minutes of usages is a 1 in 12 chance to deplete down to d10. Then a 1 in 10 to drop to d8. Then a 1 in 8 to drop to d6. Then a 1 in 6 for the battery to run completely dry. With many more chances for deplletion with any kind of actual usage.


Potentially powerful. Potentially limited. The only book keeping is knowing what sized dice the battery is on at the moment.

One charge, one encounter. That would be the simplest, most easily tracked option. Cinematic. Minimal bookkeeping.

I don't mind some record keeping just don't want it to take away from the overall game.. If It's a good system I would think it could add to the game .. not just marks on a piece of paper.

I like the idea of glass beads and various type dice for counting down or up.. Maybe have an action be a dice type (D10 D12 D20 etc) depending on the action is how much stress on the system or fuel;
Then every encounter the "mech" is used we add another counter marker increasing the odds of a malfunction showing the use of energy. Then it could be dropped down with collecting parts and repairs.

With just moving around might be a D20 and normal combat is a D12; Then jump jet; guns blasting going crazy is a D6..
So on the third encounter with not maintenance they would have thee markers and roll against the action dice type with the bad target number of "3"
That makes it if they are just moving it around with minimum chance of malfunction

Remember this is old used equipment with limited repair ability and don't want players going full tilt in every encounter.

Keep up the great ideas... let me know what you guys think

One way I'm exploring at the moment is record sheets in sleeves. Use erasable marker (or permanent, it comes off with an alcohol wipe) to mark up the sheet without affecting the paper.