[Solar] But what about the Space Battles?
oliof:
I like "Energy" and "Systems" better than "Drives" and "Sensors". It makes the whole thing very trekky. "Put Energy into the Aft Shields!".
Simon JB:
Damn, you're so good at this! You're just spitting out exactly what I need. Because this is exactly what I need.
Are there any good ideas about how to use squads of footsoldiers/cannon fodder with these rules? Usable of course both for the leader of a squad of marines and for the fighter wing leader.
The way I'm thinking of doing it is with the
Secret of Footsoldiers
The character has a squad of soldiers following her into combat. The squad has a pool equal to it's number of soldiers for the character to use in rolls where the soldiers are of assistance.
and the
Secret of Cannon Fodder
The character can use the squad pool to lower harm taken in combat, to a minimum of one harm. Requires Secret of Footsoldiers.
My thinking is that this puts emphasis on the leaders of groups of enemies being the actual antagonist in the conflict without bogging down drawn-out conflict with support rolls from a lot of individually unimportant extras. Any thoughts on this?
The fighter thing will probably be done exactly as you suggest, with the secret as a prerequisite for the ability.
The thing is that I haven't played enough with these rules to have good mechanical ideas on the fly, like you guys. When I do make up solutions on the fly they're usually crap. I'm much better at structuring things like this, nice and steady. .-)
I'm totally with you with not preparing too much crunch befor actual play has started. It's mostly that the ships feel like a special case, and I need to know the basics of how they work before we start. Like, how do ships' pools refresh? I'm guessing scenes with technicians climbing all over making repairs and tuning the systems and the like, but some specifics would be nice.
By the way, the Pools. If we go with the more abstract Energy (or Power?) and Systems, wouldn't Structure be appropriate for the hull part? Ruins the abbreviations, though... Maybe Structure, Power and Electronics. But I liked Systems...
I think two defensive abilities can be Evasion and Countermeasures, but I'm not sure about the name of the third. The meaning would be soaking up the hits, so maybe Damage Control would be appropriate? Or just Toughness? Resilience? Damage Capacity? Boring names, no?
Eero Tuovinen:
Hey, those foot soldier Secrets are just fine. I especially like the second one; it's balanced and flavorful. I'd have the first Secret specify that the squad has soldiers equal to some Ability check - just to establish their number somehow. Alternatively, you could leave the number of soldiers up to the fiction but use the notion I had above about characters having to make Leadership checks to keep their soldiers in line when they are pushed. So if you have dozens of soldiers you'll either need some heavy-duty crunch to keep them in line, or some NCOs to command them for you.
Also, as a Story Guiding hint: if you're planning for an antagonist to have some crunch, it's always fun to design it solidly instead of just guestimating it - that way some player character can easily get their paws on that same crunch either before or after the confrontation.
For refreshing the ship's Pools, something like this probably:
Structure: The ship needs to be resupplied at some space port. The crew gets the freedom of the port.
Power: Reactor matter is replaced. This is costly, the ship's owner needs to cover it.
Electronics: The ship's computers are put on a reboot cycle. The ship is inert for 24 Terran hours.
Another option would be to simply have characters donate Pool to the ship, which would be beneficial in that you wouldn't need to waste time on refresh scenes for the ship. Like so:
Secret of Ship Maintenance
The character can give his Pools to the ship to keep it in working condition. The base rate is 2:1 if you just want to put some juice in without worrying about it, but it can be improved to 1:1 with a specific maintenance plan and a successful Ability check. Which Pools are translated into which Pools depends on the described maintenance - heavy hauling stuff is Vigor and so on and so forth.
The third Passive Ability is Craftsmanship, which describes how well the ship is built and maintained. Useful for withstanding misuse, random breakage and hull damage.
Hmm... this sort of tandem running of human characters and spaceship characters is a very complex thing game design -wise, even if it's relatively straightforward to plan for and execute in play. I'd approach this in the spirit of testing it out, playing loosely and with a willingness to back out of chosen procedures in favor of better ones when such are established. I could imagine that some parts prove insufficient, while some are too elaborate. I'll need to think more about this sort of thing at some point.
oliof:
Damage Control is nice. Rename Systems as Operations, then you have Structure, Power, Ops as pools.
Simon JB:
The reason I didn't go for an ability roll with the footsoldiers is that I feel the pool would need to be a bit bigger than that. Currently I'm only using it for antagonists (haven't played with it yet, though, just prepared the SGCs) and I feel their single pool should about double from having a large group around them. Of course, it might be written to work the way you suggest (I think that's best for PCs), with me just smudging over the details about NCOs and stuff for SGC, giving them a pool I feel is right.
What you say about preparing being good as a beginner is a good point you make in the booklet and that I learned the hard way from beginning with Tsoy proper the day I got my hands on the new Solar. Hence this thread! .D
Don't you think it would be more Solar to have the refreshment scenes depend on interacting characters? Such as having a scene between two named characters that involve some sort of repair work? In my group we're quite happy about the players inventing new secondary characters on the fly and playing them for a scene. Very Sci-Fi series that, having a dialogue between two earlier unseen technicians going about their work with soldiers running all around them. Would be a lot of fun, I think. Of course one of the characters can be a PC, if that is appropriate in the situation. Such as the commander trying to get the engineer to crank out some solution to the power problem.
Donating pool would of course be a viable secondary option.
I think the pools will be Structure, Power and Electronics for now. Operations is nice, but sounds like it could encompass both weapon systems and flying.
So, abilities I'm looking at right now would be:
Structure
Damage Control/Damage Capacity/Integrity/ToughnessWeapon SystemsFighter Wing
Power
EvasionSpeedManeuvers
Electronics
CountermeasuresSensorsJamming
Any additions? Revisions? Renditions?
Oh, and another important thing! I'd like to wikify this eventually, and perhaps put up some of our setting material and stuff as well. Where should I put it? Is RandomWiki still the sith? Is The Forge going to grow a wiki anytime soon? Is Arkenstone? I could make a space somewhere, but it'd be better to have one place for all, wouldn't it?
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