[Space Rat] Femme Babes rock, I want one

[Ron Edwards]

Threads to check out first:
[Space Rat] Ronnies feedback
[Space Rat] Rewards for femme babes

Oh my goodness, what a great game.

I'll start with the biggest textual stumbling block so you can just fix it and we can all move on. Luck is mis-written in character creation, which causes confusion when you get to the "mark off Luck" rule. The way we did it, and which I recommend, is as follows.

1. Ignore the description on page 5 which says "Luck starts at 0." Instead, characters each start with six unmarked Luck starbursts (explosions? zaps?) on their sheets.

2. Follow Luck rules as outlined on p. 15.

- subpoint: I understand that Luck can provide a one-time specialty to a skill you have. Is it correct that Gear can provide a specialty (3 dice) for skills you do not have? I think it should.

3. When a character is required, by another player, to Test her Luck, then she rolls 1d6 and compares to the number of crossed-off Luck zaps. This is very important. It means that the more you use Luck successfully, the more chance you have of failing when Testing your Luck later. This works very well. The text at the bottom right of p. 15 is misleading in this regard.

- subpoint/example: Sam is playing Rina and has marked off two Luck zaps so far. Rina attempts to use her Luck to take an extra action. Sebastian, playing Azorra, requires that Rina Test her Luck. She must roll 1d6 and exceed 2, or she fails.

a) if she (Rina) fails, then Sebastian (not Sam) gets to describe her spectacular failure. Rina does not cross off a Luck zap. Note: Sebastian also gets to erase the cross-off for one of Azorra's Luck zaps, as per p. 16.

b) if she succeeds, then Sam may proceed with the announced action and use of Luck, but does not cross off a Luck zap for Rina. Instead, Sebastian must cross-off a Luck zap from Azorra's sheet.

4. To summarize, if someone forces a Femme Babe to Test Luck, then the Femme Babe is now guaranteed neither to gain or to lose a Luck zap. But the person calling for the Test will either gain or lose one.

Nathan, that's how it's supposed to work, right?

More generally, the in-play recommendation I'd put right up front, for anyone, is some way to summarize and publicly keep track of Attention Star gain and Luck gain. We screwed it up a couple of times, and it's the central currency of play, so that's bad.

LUCK

Un-cross-off Luck by

1. Forcing Tests of Luck in which the acting FB fails the Test, as described above
2. Voluntarily increasing the difficulty of the action (this gets interesting when you're simultaneously using Luck to get a specialty ... the net effect keeps the Target Number the same, but lowers the threshold for a "what the" result)

Cross-off Luck by

1. Using it, as described on page 5 [gain specialty for a skill, use a skill in an unusual way, heal a Health level, take an extra action]
2. Forcing Tests of Luck in which the acting FB succeeds in the Test, as described above

ATTENTION STARS

Gain an Attention Star by:

1. Getting a "what the?" result on a roll, as long as it utilized a skill
2. Be bold - basically, "wow" everyone at the table with an announced action
3. Defeat a major opponent, which is to say, bring the opponent down

Lose an Attention Star by:

1. Directly attacking or maliciously opposing another Femme Babe (calling for Tests of Luck doesn't count; that's all player-player)
2. Losing Gear (note: it's especially nasty to narrate losing Gear when you call for a Test of Luck and the FB fails ...)

End of scenario:

Most Attention Stars = SIS reward for next scenario (see other threads for discussion)
1 Attention Star = 100 GP, 1/10 stat, 1/5 skill, 1/5 specialty

Play itself is fantastically fun, kind of a cross between InSpectres and Orbit. We started with Femme Babe creation, getting one Jetson's type skin-tight space-suit ray-gun girl, and one "woman of mystery" with some Crime and a data-thingie. I decided it would be bogus either to hose the non-zero-G type with no gravity, or to hose the zero-G type with all-gravity, so the obvious setting was a space station with disconnected sectors. So some of the time they could walk, and some of the time they couldn't.

Our scenario might best be described as GrimJack Lite. I began with both Femme Babes showing up to an interview as Jack's escort, as he had thoughtlessly invited both. They encounter (a) one another, unexpectedly; (b) the manipulative and Jack-obsessed journalist, Mosca Jones, who wants neither of them involved; and (c) no Jack at all.

I didn't see any point to having the PC Femme Babes know one another, and I think it was funnier and more fun for them not to. That led to them investigating separately, leading one to various fights and chases concerning Jack's Corvette space-skimmer car thing, and the other to seedy nightclubs and the crime boss Blood Slug Stoor. Or rather, his son, BSS "Junior." More fights.

Without going into gruesome detail, suffice to say that "Junior" had kidnapped Jack for ransom without his father knowing about it, that one of the Femme Babes got blamed for it by the hyper-media-savvy Mosca, and that the final chase to find Jack rested on two failed Tests of Luck - which were absolutely awesome, much like failures in The Pool, Elfs, InSpectres, and Trollbabe - story motors. In our case, they both involved a high police presence with lots of chases and "ka-booms."

The final payoff was actually player-interpreted, because the one Femme Babe who made it to the kidnappers' den found a half-eaten pizza and a note which said Jack had stepped out for a bit. "Ah!" said the players, "Jack and Junior are in cahoots!" which made perfect sense to me, and I said, "Um, yeah!"

One comment: the GM's gotta be quick with set-changes! It's a strong skill of mine, so posed no problem in play for us, but the text needs to state this as a requirement and give some examples.

As you can see, in this scenario, Jack was pure plot device, although he was mentioned constantly. I suggest that he'd be the same even when present in scenes - in other words, Jack can shoot up the place, say stuff, appear, disappear, and so on, but he doesn't roll and never actually accomplishes anything. I think that will work just fine.

Overall, Femme Babes are bad-asses with style! At the end of the session, both players beamed and said, "I like my Femme Babe," as if they hadn't expected to. The resolution and short-term reward system is genius, don't mess with it.

Best,
Ron