I'll push ahead tomorrow!
her accent is thicker than a Halfling meatloaf...
LOL - once again your culinary metaphors make me almost choke on my coffee... :)
Alright guys. We'll discuss ship combat strategy in here cause it's a bit interrelated between PCs. Stealing GM Hmmm's format
We are now starting Ship Combat!
In order to make this run smoothly in PBP, I am going to have Engineering and Helm phases happen simultaneously.
Yyou can read up on Starship Combat on page 316 of the CRB. starshipsrd.com or just ask. I'll make many mistakes also so please bear with all of us as we descend into hex war gamery.
★ ---- ★ ---- ★ ---- ★
HELM / ENGINEERING
Captain:
The mononode computers on the Pegasus offers +1 to any one checks per round. Where would you like to apply them? To the pilot, the guns, sensors?
Also consider whether you want to taunt or encourage, and where you will give your bonus.
Engineer and Science Officer:
What are your actions, you get both this phase.
Pilot (Fianh):
I will roll the Pilot roll off. If NPCs win you will go first and then I will move. If you win then I'll move first and then you. Everyone, remember that the Pegasus also always offers +4 Computers, +2 Piloting checks.
GUNNERY
After everyone has moved, Gunner can fire if they have an arc to fire at of course.
HELM/ENGINEERING up! and Fianh to move
I've added a link to the map in the description. Should work in any browser and/or Powerpoint app on phone. You guys are the green ship, fighter is the orange ship. Torpedo looking thing is a torpedo.
Suggest we put computer bonus into gunnery checks: computer and pilot already have a good bonus, and if we can't hit anything then we're in trouble.
EDIT: Our flak weapon is a point weapon, which means we get a 'free' shot at the torpedo and can then attack the enemy ship in the same turn.
Fianh is correct but don't forget facing. The shuttle only has one forward mount which is where the flak thrower is.
Yeah, can't move the ship on the map at present - on my phone.
Gonna suggest we turn and move 'down' the map, then turn again so enemy ship and torpedo are in the firing arc.
We have movement 10 iirc, so should be doable.
EDIT: OK, looked at map again. Suggest we end up in the hex that is currently 5 hexes behind/aft of our current facing, pointing at torpedo. Puts torpedo and enemy ship within 5 hexes of our flak thrower.
Reminder also that short range means 5 hexes.
Moved as Fianh suggested I'm pretty sure. Let me know if you want to move it any more but I think I got it roughly right.
Erp. I think that fighter have some serious jamming up and running - I couldn't access the site for the last four hours or so : /
Getting an tiny bit better chance at critting didn't seem overly important just yet so I went with the other sensible option and but a bit more of shields between us and the fighter.
Also remember that we can shoot our gun as a minor action just in case someone want to run to the bridge and yell encouragement a bit rather then shoot :P
Quite right - I forgot the lock on option is only available if you have 6+ ranks in computers.
Your insubordination is forgiven - this time :)
Also - FFS, Paizo. The amount I spend on their products, you'd think they could afford a decent server.
Meh, missed my posting time when the site was down :(
We don't have PC crew for all the posts, so maybe we can leave Engineering out? If Astrianna wants to be the captain, Prospero-4 can be in the guns this turn.
I've ruled that the Science Officer/Engineer positions can be combined. Leia is doing both right now.
Also Prospero, you can take a free shot at the torpedo as Fianh pointed out.
So right now the role setup is
Pilot: Fianh
Science/Engineering: Leia
Gunner: Prospero-4
Captain: ???
What level of language is everyone here comfortable with?
Site was down for me too today. Astri will captain, will get a post up when I can.
I'm fine with any language, I mean Astri has been cursing constantly.
Same - think we're all grownups.
Not a weekend poster and have Monday and Tuesday off so might even be Wednesday until the next post, will try and get something else up before then for sure though.
Helm/Engineering up. Finah to move before the fighter.
Actions up!
Had I known our number four was such a good shot I'd used this the last round too. But all we need is another roll of 19 now :P
OK, quick explanation/sanity check: because we lost initiative that round, we have to move first - and because the other ship has perfect manoeuvrability and decent speed, it can easily end up outside our only fire arc. That's why I performed the flyby attack.
Flyby
The ship moves as normal, but it can move through 1 hex occupied by an enemy Starship without provoking a free attack (as described in Moving through Other Starships). During the following gunnery phase, you can select one arc of your Starship’s weapons to fire at the enemy vessel as if the vessel were in close range (treat the range as 1 hex), against any quadrant of the enemy Starship. To perform this stunt, you must succeed at a Piloting check (DC = 20 + 2 × the tier of the enemy Starship). If you fail this check, your Starship still moves as described above, but you follow the normal rules for attacking (based on your Starship’s final position and distance), and the movement provokes a free attack from that Starship as normal.
I'm assuming the enemy ship is Tier 1, giving a DC of 22, which I hit with the assistance of the ship's computer. That means, no matter where the enemy's ship moves on its go, we get a shot in this round.
Downside: no +2 to AC/TL from evade, and no +1 to the gunnery check (I used the bonus already) this round.
Any questions/comments, please say so - it's possible I've misinterpreted the rules.
Oh they don't have perfect maneuverability - Leila tried to point that out when she suggested that they could try and out-turn them.
Apologize if I wasn't clear enough : )
(They are as fast as us, speed 10, but only have Good maneuverability (1 hex before turn!))
Ack, good spot! I did miss that, my bad. Not sure it matters though, since with speed 10 they can still make a serious number of turns per turn. From our current position, I don't see how we could move so that they're in our fire arc (and in our limited range!) without them being able to move so we'd be in theirs.
Plus of course, they have more than one fire arc (I think?).
It seems more likely to me that - without the flyby attack - they'd be able to move so we end up in their fire arc, but we can't return fire.
However, hex mapping not my strong point so if you spot a move, let me know! :-)
EDIT: I'll hold off actually moving our ship on the map until I've heard from people.
The Good maneuverability the fighter has is more than enough for a clever pilot to get out of the Okimoro's range on its movement.
They have a butt-gun as well, but presumably they'll want to use the laser + torpedoes that are aligned forward.
Also - since the gm was okay with it - feel free to peek at any of Leila's sensor related spoilers. If there is something really really secret that she won't tell anyone I'll note that ooc : )
I'm ignorant about all this starship combat stuff, which makes me perfect to play the position of Captain!
Will Encourage Prospero this turn so he can blast this durian sniffer out of the sky.
I'm ignorant about all this starship combat stuff, which makes me perfect to play the position of Captain!
Ha! There's certainly precedent for the 'make it so' type captain :D
OK, further rules explanation/sanity check.
As Leila pointed out, the enemy's ship has to move 1 hex before it can turn. By placing ourselves right in front of it, it has to move into our hex if it wants to move at all; which grants us an AoO type free attack, unless it can carry out a flyby attack (DC 22). I'm betting the odds on them not hitting that DC.
Risky? Yes. Thank you for flying Fianh Starlines. Please to fasten safety harness and ensure last will and testament up to date :-)
Hah, I think we cross edited the PowerPoint. Are things the way you want it to be?
I want our ship to be in the hex directly in front of the enemy's ship (and pointing straight at it) so it has to move into our hex if it wants to move at all.
EDIT: edited the map
Round 3 Helm/Engineering Up. Enemy backed off to avoid Finah's trap in Round 2. Lost initiative so already moved in Round 3.
Meh. So I forgot about the back off maneuver (also, turn in place maneuver).
Ok, I'm thinking this round is a straightforward move directly ahead until within 5 hexes and then open fire. With our short range, we can't move into their side arcs (which would stop them firing at us this round) and still be able to open fire ourselves.
Moved the ship on the map.
Gunner, Science Officer, Captain are up!
Don't forget Leila, you're the ship engineer as well so you get an engineering action also.
True! Though I think we are about 1 damage away from the crit threshold and it would be really convenient if their ship stopped moving :P
Can one character do multiple roles?
I had envisioned Prospero to be more of an engineer/science officer than gunner, but at the start of combat thought the gunner would be much more useful than engineer :)
Also, are we still in pre-game? If Prospero is going to be the gunner, I could give him a rank of piloting (after this fight)...
Ah, yourself and Leila are very much in the running to be engineer/science officers. Discuss among yourselves how you'd want to divvy it up. Either way I don't want to have you guys miss out on a starship action so I'll have the four of you cover five roles one way or the other.
I'd also rule that the exocortex combat tracking power counts as BAB during spaceship combat.
In any case there's very little starship combat so it's not a big deal. Let me know how you guys want it to go.
Astri could do both Gunner and Captain positions if Prospero and Leila want to do science/engineering. I mean there's no reason she can't talk over Comm while shooting stuff? The rules say she can't Encourage herself though (I DISAGREE), so we'd never get +2 to gunning.
OR we could pick up an npc gunner, probably wouldn't be very hard.
I playtested these rules out a month or so ago, and there were only 4 of us so the DM let us combine 2 roles (can't remember which now). It worked fine.
In any case there's very little starship combat
Mm Leila is mainly science officer - so engineering is up for grabs (unless the two are always glued together ... But I think it is one of the roles you can have multiple of anyhow?)
Also!
Remember that we can always shoot a weapon at -2 via the minor crew actions so we don't really need a dedicated gunner (unless we get more guns of course!).
True, but who wants a -2 penalty for shooting? Also, that only lets you fire ONE gun per turn - not an issue right now, but (hopefully!) it will be soon.
If nobody else wants it, I'll be gunner and pilot - I've got great Dex and my ranks in Piloting will substitute for my BAB.
Well, I can be the main gunner, decent Dex and if GM allows using exocortex in ship combat, that gives a nice BAB as well. If multiple roles can be played, maybe we can alternate the engineer role between Prospero and Leila. I not sure if the engineering is truly needed until we start taking damage.
If and when we get multiple weapons, others can join the pew-pew, too.
Damn - just had a look at the engineering actions and realised that the divert action would have given us enough movement to reach the ship, do a flyby attack, and 'land' in a hex on the starboard fire arc, out of the way of their guns.
Fighter lost initiative is running. Helm and Engineering up!
It didn't feel like we needed any science/engineering actions at the moment so I thought I'd check in to see how our little bug is doing :P
@Kidnappers - Leila/I doesn't have strong feeling either way about those.
The pilot/original comms were sorta a dick but not so sure about the other one.
Worth considering - there might be things we can loot *cough* confiscate for the greater good I mean aboard their ship.
It didn't feel like we needed any science/engineering actions at the moment so I thought I'd check in to see how our little bug is doing :P
I liked the post, it made me laugh :-)
Fi has ranks in medicine, if needed. Bug-san should be fine. And if not, hey, free ship!
@Kidnappers - Leila/I doesn't have strong feeling either way about those.
The pilot/original comms were sorta a dick but not so sure about the other one.
Fi isn't really interested in a prisoner, but she does a good line in *cough* interior decoration (decorating with the interior of their skull).
Also, "kill them all and take their stuff" has a timeless charm all of its own; it's a classic that never gets old. It was practically the motto of 1st edition D&D.
Wallow in nostalgia: kill them all and take their stuff™
Oh, don't worry, Astri has no plans to take prisoners :D
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I'm going to keep running tallies.
# of sentient creatures ejected out of airlocks: 1
# of credits extorted out of people: 240
I'm going to keep running tallies.
# of sentient creatures ejected out of airlocks: 1
# of credits extorted out of people: 240
And the AP has barely even started yet!
That *if she wakes up* was certainly a bit worrying!
Oops. My bad. That should have read "if she wakes up before I get back!"
The problem with writing long posts, something always gets lost.
I need to work on writing less.
And the AP has barely even started yet!I'm going to keep running tallies.
# of sentient creatures ejected out of airlocks: 1
# of credits extorted out of people: 240
AP hasn't even started!
Astrianna could you track loot along with those other very interesting stats?