Terra...
Did you just 'oops' on a few of your disadvantages?
Well, I would argue that they're situational : even if Aster refuses to fight, *I'm* fighting against the pirates for the survival of my crewmates (so, "self-defense"). As the pirate's champion, Aster is neither innocent nor helpless (at least, not helpless *not* by his own choice) even if he is refusing to fight. So I'm perceiving him as "the enemy", even if he's not attacking me, and I *must* beat him.
And, by choosing to only Cripple him, I'm guaranteeing that I *can't* kill him, since HP damage past 1/2 HT is lost (blast GURPS' lack of a non-lethal damage mechanic! - or I would have used that)...
Is all that ok?
Hm.
We may need to consider that the only 'threat' to the crew is the loss of the ATV.
The pirates are more scallywags then murderers.
In reviewing the Gameplay text, it was not at all clear to me that the combat was over the terms of the agreement. The Admiral announced that there would be a combat right after April threatened his life, and so I thought we were in *deep* doo-doo. He never specifically said *what* the results of the combat were to be, so I assumed the worst (especially after one of the pirates warned us "Oh, and if you kill anyone, whilst being recognized as guests, you will be treated with utmost disdain."). I thought the *threat* of death was just as bad, and so I thought we were fighting for our lives. It's reasonable that Terra would think so too. And neither I nor Terra are familiar enough with pirate culture to know they aren't murderers (indeed, in the stories told of them on Earth, they are all probably cut-throats).
Again, as the pirate's champion, and whether or not Aster chose to fight, I perceived him as "the enemy" against whom I *must* win the combat in order for us to survive (or so I thought). And, I did it non-lethally (what with his being an ex-teammate and all).
In light of all that, the only Disadvantage I see as being questionable is Pacifism/Self Defense, and I think my misunderstanding of the consequences of the fight is enough to justify that.
But now that *I* understand what the combat was about, how do you want to handle things? Rewind to where Aster refuses to fight, keep things as-is in the light of Terra's misunderstanding, or what?
P.S. - in reviewing Gameplay, I ran across this item in the Pirate's Code of Honor : 6)Yielding combat is defeat. So technically Aster's refusal to fight is an automatic win for us, altho Terra may not have been brought up to speed on all the elements of the Code, and Aster's masters may object...
I'm accepting of that rational.
Aster, are you alright with it?
I'm good.
P.S. Bringer - I meant to mention this in yesterday's post, but - I know lots of words, but I actually had to look up "eliding" (at first I thought it was a typo for "yielding"). Color me impressed. :)
huh, interesting, I thought the same and just now looked it up based on Terra's comment.
How erudite.
I can be classy :(
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I have been chastised for using too many big words in conversation. I suppose one should eschew obfuscation for the sake of blithesome confabulations.
Ahahahaha
Haha I talk about elisions often! But like half my friends are either linguists or singers.
..also, hmm. Let's see if I can stop APRIL's alignment slide before it winds up at CN/CE, because this has been an interesting moral journey so far.
I thought AI's received a reset to factory default when they went evil.
Which makes you wonder about how many times C-3PO got wiped...
*Now ponders the words of ASter...hmmm*
Everyone, I think I'm going to abort furthering this game.
I've got a lot of adjustment going on...new job...new house... and I'm finding time to be...hard.
Further more, I'd like to apologize to those of you who are still having a blast. I am terribly sorry that my motivation to balance this GURPS game out is simply no longer there.
Well done to each of you, its always a pleasure.
ALL - I *might* be interested in GM'ing a continuation of this game, if everyone else is interested. Please post your interest (or lack thereof, just so I know you saw this) below.
Interested
Sure, I'd be down to continue.
I may be GMing another game and joining another as a player. So I might prefer to drop this campaign.
I might be interested in continuing, but I'd have to see what the changes to the plot would be. I might prefer to start a different character depending on what the characters will be doing.
Sorry it didn't work out, Bringer of Stories. Hope things go well for you.
Definitely still interested! Sorry for lack of posts, my going back home was delayed significantly, and right now I'm at the airport, with a couple of hours to spare.
Merry Christmas to all that do Christmas, and Happy Holidays for the rest!
Rix, just out of curiosity - what kind of plot would you be most interested in?
I would like to see adventures more like Star Trek and less like Star Wars. By that I mean that most of the time the space ship gets the party to interesting places to explore rather than being a weapon for fighting bad guys in similar ships.
For Rix to be effective, I'd need there to be fights and/or hazards that cause wounds that she can heal. Maybe some alien life forms she can treat or study and try to understand.
If the campaign is going to be mainly fighting and if technology can be just as effective at patching people up, then I'd prefer to create a character with mainly fighting skills with some tech abilities.
What I generally prefer is to get a good idea from the GM what kinds of encounters and long range campaign arc he is comfortable planning and then design a character who can contribute, kind of the way Pathfinder adventure paths provide a players guide to suggest what character creation aspects to emphasize and what might not be as effective.
It also helps me to know what types of characters others want to run and work on someone who fills a niche and complements the rest of the party.
I can do "Star Trek" more than "Star Wars". Does anyone else object to that?
However, I can't promise a continual supply of fighting and wounding for Rix to patch up. I'll have to look up how well carry-able supplies can heal PC's.
(April - I know you have a "med-bay", but can any of your mobile forms perform in-the-field healing?)
Perhaps you could keep Rix as a "secondary", background PC, and create a new PC? Right now, the Turing doesn't have a pilot, for one thing...
I'll have to get back to you on what kinds of encounters and long-range arcs there might be.
I think I'll go for a more Star Trek-y feel, too! I'm very good at reversing and double reversing all the polarities.
Yeah... "medicine" is a pretty one-track ability. Can't have the doctor do something in every episode. But I was designed to study aliens, so I'm fine with more exploration.
ALL - just spit-balling big-picture ideas here, from least to most storyline changes :
1. Stay completely within the "world" that Bringer made. Problem is, you'd be confined to the solar system, not much room to "explore strange new worlds", just visit existing colonies.
2. Get you thru the jumpgate. Problem is, I'm assuming there's only one other jumpgate "out there", which gets you to *one* other solar system, and the Turing doesn't have FTL capability. Not to mention the problems with actually *getting* you thru the jumpgate, given your current status with Earthgov.
3. Completely re-work the Turing with FTL, and start the game over with y'all heading out thru the jumpgate (or just heading out of the solar system on your own power).
I think I can work with #2, if y'all don't mind a *little* bit of initial railroading and heavy-handed plot changes to get you on your way. Or are you ok with #3?
Preferences, comments, ideas, suggestions?
Thoughts about keeping Dr. Rix :
While April's medical capabilities are quite impressive, they are only available *within the ship*. As far as I can tell, none of her mobile robots have any healing skills or equipment.
So, there needs to be access to in-the-field healing. Dr. Rix, with an appropriate medkit (bandage spray, biomonitor, disposable test kit, first aid kit, diagnostic smart bandage, pocket medic, medscanner, and a variety of drugs), could handle most off-ship emergencies.
OTOH, if someone can carry a 20-lb Suitcase Doc ($10,000), we could probably do without Dr. Rix altogether, if her player doesn't want to run 2 PC's.
Thoughts, ideas, suggestions?
If you are also lumping Firefly into Star Trek, I'm quite all right with that. I'm also kinda assuming that the Star Trek/Star Wars discussion is only relative to how spaceships take a role in each, and not a discussion of the overall universe.
Star Trek is a government sanctioned exploration and first contact unit. This is a far-cry from the group of relatively early/mid-career individuals on a tramp freighter. Our current crew would actually fit into Star Wars better than Star Trek as we'd likely end up outlaws in the Federation pretty quickly anyway.
I'm also ok with retconning the restriction to the inner system, no FTL, and no aliens.
But, this might require us to rethink a few things.
I'd also suggest that we have a discussion on how our characters would work mechanically. There are multiple ways to do a lot of things in GURPS, and often, I've seen that without the players and GM coming to a consensus, there can be issues.
For instance, there are really two ways to handle psionics, by core which does not use skills, and is thus a bit more global and point friendly, and the powers method which requires skills to use various psionic abilities. This results in more focused selection and is more costly to be universal.
While it may be difficult and time consuming to try and cover all variables, we should at least talk about examples to use as guidelines.
How cinematic? Just one level of hard to kill, or four?
How realistic do we want to be? Hard sci-fi? Space opera?
Star Trek is actually a pretty advanced universe tech wise. Star Trek would mostly be a bit behind that. Firefly is definitely even lower. How much Babylon 5 to throw in? Or Honor Harrington?
If we are looking at being part of a small group, maybe we rework our characters. Each character selects a role (pilot/medic/engineer/etc), they get so many points (or a template) that must be used to meet that role, other points are for personalizing the character. While this isn't as 'free' as some would like, it would likely ensure the party doesn't have critical holes that don't make sense (like a spaceship without an engineer/mechanic).
Yeah... APRIL does a bunch of diagnostic/scanner stuff in the field.
One possibility of the jump gate is... we don't know what's on the other side. What if it's an alien race with FTL capability, or an ancient system of jump gates, or just super-advanced humans? Not necessarily optimal ideas, but possibilities. Or we could just explore moons, etc.
Or frozen in hibernation for 200 years, wake up post-FTL as science specimens on a ship being dissected by archaeologists. The possibility!
Aster - you raised some good points. I'm pretty sure that Rix meant the Star Trek/Star Wars as the role of the spaceships in the game. And, yes, Firefly would qualify as the "Star Trek" kind of role.
But (by RAW), a fully TL 10 civilization doesn't have FTL communications, antimatter power generation, force screens, or technically even FTL travel (which is generically "superscience" at any TL), which places it firmly below both Star Trek and Star Wars techwise. But it *does* have artificial gravity (go figure)!
Regarding realism, "space opera" to me means the Lensman universe of E.E. Doc Smith, where the good guys are boy-scout, teeth-twinkling *good*, and the bad guys are heartless, ruthless, sell-their-grandmother *evil*. But, if OTOH, "hard sci-fi" means following the GURPS rules exactly, I'm against that. I can already tell there's going to be some TL inconsistencies in this "TL 10" universe in order to make it work. I'd like some wiggle-room to hand-wave the science if it's going to get in the way of the story. So, somewhere between space opera and hard sci-fi?
Regarding psionics, Terra is built off the core rules, and Dr. Rix is built using the psionic skills rules. I have no problem with that.
I'd suggest capping Hard to Kill at 1 or 2.
I would be open to PC's selecting "ship roles", and providing an *extra* number of skill points for them to be competent in their required skill rolls. I posted a list of required skills during PC generation, I'll see if I can find it again...
There are many required skills needed to keep the ship in operation (repairs and maintenance) :
Hull - Armory(Vehicle Armor)
Control room (bridge) - Electronics repair (Computers), Computer Programming, and Electrician
Cargo Holds, Fuel Tanks, Hangar Bay, and Structural Repairs after a combat - Mechanic(Low-Performance Spacecraft)
Habitat - Mechanic(Life Support)
Jet engines - Mechanic(Aerospace OR Jet Engines)
Fusion power plant - Mechanic(Fusion)
Fusion engines - Mechanic(Fusion Engine)
Rail gun - Armory(Heavy Weapons)
And just to fly the thing (note : the ship's "Handling" is at -4!!!) :
Interplanetary flight - Piloting(Low-Performance Spacecraft)
Atmospheric flight - Piloting(Aerospace)
And someone needs to take the Gunner(Cannon) skill to use the Rail Gun!
Now, Jean had replied that he had most of the Mechanic skills covered, and Electronics repair, but that leaves Armory(2), Computer Programming, Electrician, Piloting(2), and Gunner. Since the Turing now has two weapons, at least two PC's should take Gunner.
Jean also has Computer Programming and Electrician. The Mechanic skills aren't as high as an expert, specialised mechanic, however he will be fully competent in them, as long as miracles aren't expected outside his areas of expertise, though I'll be putting some points in the engine/reactor ones ASAP. A point in each will make him a pretty good expert in them. He's not really ship-oriented by design, though I made sure he can default most ship-board repair/operations fairly well.
His best skills are social, and he excells at Electronics.
His DX is rather low, so Piloting and Gunner are outside his forte. He's also built on the core rules.
As for the setting, he's pretty easy to fit, as far as characters go. For the setting, I would prefer if we're not aboard the ship more than, say, 30% of the time, but I could work with it. Mix between space opera and sci-fisounds great, I do like my shades of gray. (har-har)
We have a McGuffin in the hold (the strange egg-like thing we took from the moon). What if that provided us with a way to go FTL and perhaps through some psionic ability in the egg ushered us automatically near a planet with life? Perhaps it is some kind of advanced alien probe that needs biological units to carry it around and explore new worlds. Just a thought.
Over all, I'm fine with the Firefly analogy, which was already mentioned as a parallel as we were creating the characters initially. I don't even remember how the Firefly ship managed to go ftl. It just sort of was implied because each episode they were at a different world.
I think it is largely up to the GM if we have "imperial entanglements," i.e. a galactic government that tries to control what goes on in the larger star fields. That is a lot of work for the GM to develop ships and NPCs and troopers etc. More GM friendly would be exploring one world at a time, where most of the action takes place on the planet with the ship mostly a way to get to the next world when the adventure shifts.
That's why I think the GM needs to offer what kinds of plots he wants to develop and then we can adjust or re-create characters to fit that. Space adventures multiply the tasks a GM has to handle, as each new planet to visit requires GM resources to develop the world, NPCs, come up with a plot, etc.
It might be worth searching for some published materials, or stealing ideas from established SF stories. Compared to what the GM has to do, players have it easy, focusing on just one character and responding to whatever the GM provides.
I'm happy to keep Dr. Rix as the ship medic and keep her in the background. It's sort of the way she has evolved anyway, as she isn't the sort to get into combat and has no real experience off-earth.
My personal inclination in SF role playing is to work in a scientist, but since Rix is a medical scientist, I'd be happy to be the Goodwrench of the group, with enough combat skills to hold his/her own.
I also have Computer Programming, and Piloting, and I could probably download software or build an autofac to handle others, what with not actually spending any XP.
Thanks, all, for the ideas and feedback! At this point, I'm thinking of a mostly Babylon 5-tech-level solar system, but with robots. Since no PC is currently using them, I'd like to de-emphasize the presence of cybernetics and nanobots in GURPS' TL 10 (not that they don't exist, they're just not commonplace).
In terms of basic plots, I like a combination of fnord's #1 and #4. Visiting new worlds, one at a time, making friends and/or taking artifacts. :) The group doesn't have the skills to be a special-forces op team.
Rix, is that enough of a "kinds of plots" description for you to make up a new PC at this point (if you want to stick with scientists, an archaeologist with some personal-weapons and ship-board skills, sort of Indiana Jones meets Han Solo, could come in very handy), or do you need more info? If so, please ask me some specific questions.
In terms of skills, AFAIK we still don't have Armory(2) and Gunner covered.
ALL - is anyone *not* OK with picking up right from where we left off in the game, and allowing a few initial heavy-handed plot changes (and retconning the existence of FTL ship drives) to get us on our new course?
P.S. - there's a great, 5 minute video on whether or not the Firefly "universe" (solar system) could really exist HERE.
I'm fine with picking up where we left! I haven't watched Babylon 5, however. The plan for the basic plot works great for me, though.
Jean has Armoury(Battlesuits) and (Small Arms), and the default for Vehicle Armor would be a 10, or a 13 for him, more if bonuses due to difficulty (Fixing would be easier than making, especially for armour, IMO), so that's pretty much covered, too.
No problem with ret-conning FTL, or the change to cybernetics and nanobots, either.
5 to 10 points per character, restricted to boosting ship-board or game theme skills would do nicely.
I can also rework either of the ships I had done up with an FTL. I have the spreadsheet files for them.
I can pretty easily pick up gunner, fighter pilot, etc. (I might even have enough character-building points to get a fighter ship as a drone body, depending on GM ruling)
Sounds good.
Anyone been tracking how many character XP points we got over the course of the campaign?
ALL - how about 8 points per PC, to be put towards ship-board skills? It would be good to have an overlap in skills (and to give Jean a break :). I don't like the idea of the entire ship's operations depending on just 2 PC's. If everyone will please post what their new skills are, I'll sort them out, maybe suggesting a change here or there.
Rix, your new PC also gets these 8 points above and beyond the starting requirements.
April - that's great, but you can only do one thing at a time, right? I mean, if you're piloting the ship you can't also "man" the guns?
And, I could have *sworn* Bringer gave us some XP at one point, but I've searched both Gameplay and Discussion for "XP" and "points", and found nothing...(time passes)...ok, I found where he gave us 1 CP for good rollplaying. Anyone else?
I could invest the XP to let myself do two things at a time, instead. (I can split my consciousness between two processors, and I can change my skillslots from 1 at a time to 2 at a time for like 5 or 10 XP each IIRC)
50 points for compartmentalized mind and you can do two things at once, without penalties.
Hmm, he calls it CC somewhere and gives us 4. Looks like we get 5 total.
I use Digital Duplication. I can control two bodies at once, without penalties, though one of them has to be wired into the APRIL mainframe (the other can be a drone, but my "main body" can only pilot, run medical systems, or maybe shoot a big cannon).
I've taken on GM duties for another PBP game so my posting time is going down. I think I'll stick with Dr. Rix and keep playing her as long as I have time to keep up. If I start finding it hard to keep up a reasonable posting rate, I'll drop out.
Rix—I've noticed your psychic skills include Aura Reading and Xeno Reading. How hard would it be to segue that into some sort of mindreading or psychic translation? It could give you a neat second role for possibly a small number of points that might be pretty helpful if we're going where no human has ever gone before (or really just to anywhere remote enough that we don't have translation software for them).
So, in addition to the 8 ship's-skills points, everyone apply your 5 general points (if you haven't already). Everyone please post where you put them, just out of curiosity...
Since Rix won't be making a new PC, I think we're ready to continue in Gameplay!
I'll see what the 5 points can do for her psychic stuff. I'm using the special book on Psionics, for what it's worth.
Used 10 XP to get a second tactical skill slot, which should let me both pilot and fire a cannon at the same time (or shoot and stealth, etc), and picked up cannonry. Also trained in the other piloting skill. Still got 2 XP left.
Mechanic(Low-Performance Spacecraft)
Mechanic(Life Support)
Mechanic(Aerospace)
Mechanic(Fusion Engine)
Armoury(Heavy Weapons)
Armoury (Vehicle Armour)
Tactics
Pilot(Battlesuit) - 4
Artillery (Guided Missile)
Artillery (Cannon)
I picked up those, the first one have a point in each, which is 12 points total. Would Fusion and Fusion Engine overlap? I can add the last point into the other one, if they don't.
I've dropped some points into Tactics, so that Jean can be a little more useful in Combat, as right now he has a grand total of 6 points spent in that direction.
Alternatively, I also put 4 in Battlesuit for him, in the unlikely event he'll have to fight, since I do see him as more of the Battlesuit pilot. For that, however, I'll be doing some building of said battlesuit when we have time.
EDIT: I'll pick up Artillery(Cannon) or whatever we'll have, since it fires off IQ, and Jean basically has a targeting computer in his head, based on Intuitive Mathematician and all that jazz. With his skills, and with the Heavy Weapons Armoury, we might also start packing some crazy missiles/cannons.