Hazard: Matterslip!

A lovely day out skiing and snowboarding with friends, warmly dressed against the biting cold and with eyes shaded against the blinding white snow. Just as someone suggests returning to the chalet for hot cocoa and relaxation, they hear a loud whump! from farther up the mountain, followed by a deafening roar. Fun turns to terror as the skiiers try to outrun the monster wall of white bearing down on them. If they can only reach that pine forest in time…

“Matterslip” is an umbrella term used to describe a quickly-moving surge of material (including snow, rocks, earth, or mud) usually from a higher elevation to a lower one. The most stereotypical variant is an avalanche, a matterslip composed mainly of snow. Matterslips are also known (depending on composition) as landslides, rockslides, and mudslides.

Matterslips are among the most common of natural hazards. All that’s needed are some form of solid matter, a slope of 30°-45°, and gravity. Triggers can be anything that provides enough shock or resonance to cause a mechanical failure of the unsupported material. Contrary to popular belief, matterslips cannot be caused by loud sounds; the trigger must be mechanical in nature.

Hazard: Matterslip! allows the Referee to challenge hir Players with this unstoppable, unpredictable, invulnerable enemy. This short file is packed with a short discussion of how matterslips form, their characteristics, game stats, and their many variants.

Hazard: Matterslip! That climb just got a lot harder.