GM_Foxy's Incident at Absalom Station (Inactive)

Game Master Foxy Quickpaw

Foxy Quickpaw wrote:

Example:

Let's say this is a lazy spaceship crew that isn't into configuring ships. So you take a shirren style HIVONYX TITAN HAULER TIER 9 from the SCRB.

If now Voxx would persuade his clan guys to make him a good price, that would get him an upgrade on whatever. So let's choose Shields. So instead of shield 100, your spacebucket would get the next option in the list, which is 120.

Now maxim with all of his charme talks kate out of some extra money and as he is a fan of shields too, the option raises to the next option in the list with 140 and faster regeneration.

To work those better shields together with the weapons you'd now have to turn of life support, as you run out of energy, but you get the idea.

I have no idea what you're proposing here. I will present what I think is a good build for us, based on Maxim's knowledge that the enemy has the movaf%%&ing Omenbringer.

I think the GM is saying that if we do some good RP, she's willing to throw in some extra BP into our ship design.

Like, you could mention that the ship seems to completely lack guns, and maybe we'll find an extra coilgun to the port side.

Or somesuch.

I am fine with the ship design.

I was gonna say that we could cut the computer down, maybe even to 4/4/4 to give many lesser bonuses...but I'll trust your judgement that winning init is an alpha-priority for out Infinite Range-tactic ship. (See what I did there? ^_^)

Maxim Petrovich wrote:

Foxy Quickpaw wrote:

Example:

Let's say this is a lazy spaceship crew that isn't into configuring ships. So you take a shirren style HIVONYX TITAN HAULER TIER 9 from the SCRB.

If now Voxx would persuade his clan guys to make him a good price, that would get him an upgrade on whatever. So let's choose Shields. So instead of shield 100, your spacebucket would get the next option in the list, which is 120.

Now maxim with all of his charme talks kate out of some extra money and as he is a fan of shields too, the option raises to the next option in the list with 140 and faster regeneration.

To work those better shields together with the weapons you'd now have to turn of life support, as you run out of energy, but you get the idea.

I have no idea what you're proposing here. I will present what I think is a good build for us, based on Maxim's knowledge that the enemy has the movaf%%&ing Omenbringer.

I think the GM is saying that if we do some good RP, she's willing to throw in some extra BP into our ship design.

Like, you could mention that the ship seems to completely lack guns, and maybe we'll find an extra coilgun to the port side.

Or somesuch.

Thank you, now I feel like I'm understood.

I was thinking in free upgrades of stuff already there. And the RP part is where you deal with your contacts, like you did with your Order of the White Angel. And how Maxim is doing with Kate. And Voxx could do with his clan.

Question: who owns the Sunrise Maiden?

Question: who owns the Sunrise Maiden?

EH-RK

Any reason why we wouldn't take 2 ships into this fight? We would need to hire a couple npc specialists to fill out the crews.

If you split the build points, there is no issue. But I guess it'll get you two mediocre ships instead of one good one.

Up to EH-RK. We could take the Maiden out as is and just have it act as a decoy. It can match the fastest ships and missiles for speed. If it buys us a couple rounds that may be the edge we need. Either Voxx or Takeda or a merc could fly it. We need EH-RK on the destroyer.

re: UPB and gear.

Gorn, you can add another 10k to your total. Eric has that much saved up and his armor and weapons are good.

Honestly, the AP has been dropping items he can use.

re: Sunrise Maiden

Eric wants to pilot the deadliest ship he can pilot. He's fine with hiring someone to pilot the Sunrise as a mercenary.

5) I brought up my message to the Order of the White Angel as an in-canon in-character way to get us the ship without making it too complicated. (Especially as, in-game, it's kinda hand waved how the party upgrades their ship. Other than making the suspension of disbelief scream, we could just say the Sunrise Maiden we upgraded to our specs from a box of wrapping twine and duct tape we found in the truck.)

6) Credits, on the other hand, aren't so easily hand-waved, so, yeah, I'd say a side-quest is in order to make sure we're kitted out properly.

Is it greedy to suggest we could bring three ships into this contest? We just have to figure out how to crew them.

I'm probably overthinking GMs offer to throw a BP bonus our way for good RP. But to Gorn's point, a few pips in AC and TL would not be a bad thing, especially against fighters or small support ships. If we could get MK 4 Armor (20 BP) and MK 5 Countermeasures (8 BP), and not have to sacrifice anything we have in the specs now, I would feel a little bit better about our odds.

If you split the build points, there is no issue. But I guess it'll get you two mediocre ships instead of one good one.

Just in case you missed it, here the rules for more ships again. FYI: the Sunrise Maiden has 95 BP.

My opinion is, that if you go for multiple ships, then go for one big and the rest small and fast. The Maiden is neither.

Boreal had the M12 thrusters on it. Can't go faster than that. We won't be splitting points - we need them all for the destroyer, and then some.

Sledgehammer

Here's the update to the build, including the armor and countermeasures. The extra 10 points buys us superior shields 540 at 64 regen/min.

I'm doing a rebuild of imagine. I got most of it, but the equipment. Any suggestions, what to take for someone mostly hiding from combat? Or a guide that points that out?

Sledgehammer

Here's the update to the build, including the armor and countermeasures. The extra 10 points buys us superior shields 540 at 64 regen/min.

Um, we've already got good shields, but with 10 points we can look at our weaponry.

The ship already has a lot of mounts. We could mount a bevy of guns around.

I'd council that we instead mount a Flak Thrower aft and starboard. That'll give us options if we need to shoot more guns, especially in point defense, which will save us more points of damage than an upgrade of shields (since we already have really good regeneration.)

Q: How can we fire the Flak Thrower in the turret? Or is your idea that the gunner can be firing the LAZERS in his main turn, but then has that option for point defense?

Q: How can we fire the Flak Thrower in the turret? Or is your idea that the gunner can be firing the LAZERS in his main turn, but then has that option for point defense?

That is exactly my thinking. If the gunner has to fire anything except the linked twin lasers on the turret, the we lost that battle. Hence, I don't see the value in more smaller guns, but because you want it, Flak thrower aft, we got that.

Super shields 540 gets us the 64/min regen. I do expect the Corpse Fleet, not just the Omenbringer, so we may need to bust through a couple other ships on our way to the target.

I'm not married to the name Sledgehammer. That's just what popped into my head. I was going to name it after our Light Freighter from my ill-fated Star Wars pbp, if for no other reason than to continue a decades-long running joke. But I can't remember it and couldn't find the link to the campaign website. We can name the ship whatever.

Edit: I just remembered I did that campaign on Blogger. Ok, I called that ship the Elysium Pale, which I still love. I strongly recommend we always refer to the laser turret as, the Nuts.

The Omenbringen is an aircraft carrier that comes with a shitload of little fighters. The plan to outrun the ship wouldn't work, as you'd be swarmed. So having something to shoot in all directions is a good idea.

I'm not confirming, nor denying that there will be an Omenbringer or when. But if you plan for meeting one you should take those little ships which have a speed of 12 into consideration.

I just took a look at the specs to see what Imagine would like about the ship. But besides the recreation stuff being shunned for better battle stats, I found some serious issue.

If you want to fly and shoot with all weapons, you have to turn off the defenses and the mononode computer. As the sum off all stuff needs more energy than the core delivers (350/300). The superior shields put 20 of these on top.

So please review that.

I'll wait for the fixed specs, before Imagine complains about the tent and sleeping bags in the cargo bay that make up the crew quartes.

1) The Sledgehammer is a good name. Let's not mess with it. =)

2) Sorry, chummer, but we need to find some PCU, and we just flat out need more things shooting to fight off a swarm attack, by fighters or missiles.

3) I don't have time to do the numbers right now, but, back-of-the-napkin, If we take the computer down from 8 to 7 that gives us 15 BP, and 5 PCU. We shove that 15 BP into power (I think PCU is 1:1) we're 20 closer.
Taking it to 6 would give us more, if we need it, and how much is +2 to one check really worth?

4) Of the few variables, Thrusters or Shields, I think you're saying that Thrusters is more important so we can stay out of range of the big boy until we've handled the flight of fighters, yeah? Hence, we can't drop Thrusters, so we need to take down the shields.

I'll just be pumping shields anyway and, since the rule is that it gets 5% of the Power unit, it actually is -better- to have a bigger power source.

Also, since we have two more party members, giving us 5, and only three roles are nailed down (Pilot, Main gunner, Gorn on shields) we need at least two smaller guns to shoot.

With the Flak on Aft, I'd say to add another flak on one side, and, if we wanna be cheap, a Light torpedo launcher [it has infinite shots] on the other side. Then we have two more point defense to fire, and also another Long range thing to shoot if we are Circle/Strafing the big guy.

how's that?

10 Bp get you +100 PCU to 400.

We have no one who went mechanic on the team, if I'm not mistaken. The hidden rats in the ship will take over that role. Whoever takes caption, can order the mechanic actions then. I'll roll them.

That is, if no one wants to take over dedicated mechanic.

Taking the computer one down gives 15 BP, of which 10 go into a better core. This leaves 5 to spend. I suggest adding at least good quarters for 2BP.

Besides that, some other additional facilities would be nice. Like a workshop for EH-RK, or other non-standard amenities the crew might like to have.

What's a mechanic?

Also, Captains are useless. They give Cha builds the illusion of being useful. ^_^
I'd rather just have someone on another gun.

Relax, people. I missed one number in the last version of the build.

My philosophy all along was to beat the Omenbringer, we need to outmaneuver it consistently, which means winning initiative. If the damned thing can just turn in response to our movement and show us an undamaged shield, we will be in for a very long fight. As it is, we have to survive 15 missiles. Also, shields are critical, because as long as you have them you cannot be targeted by their EMP. Multiple EMP attacks lead to a quick death. And not only does the Omenbringer have a Super EMP with long range, all of the stupid necroglider fighters have them.

Granted, this was always going to be an extremely difficult battle given our limited resources. We're like a 5th level Ranger trying to kill Demogorgon.

The only place I see where we can sacrifice is the Computer. And if we nickel and dime that thing down, then we might as well change its purpose entirely. We can forfeit the less-than 50/50 chance to win init against the Omenbringer and instead add more guns to knock out at least one more fighter per turn. I agree with that approach if we don't need a captain, then we can have both Voxx and Takeda on guns. Imagine and Maxim could also shoot guns badly. At least Maxim has +9 base attack bonus.

I kept the 540 shields, bumped up to the 400 PCU engine, and added guns all around. In the Fore we have a pair of linked micromissile batteries to knock out as many fighters as possible before they get into range. There's another point weapon on the Port side and a coilgun starboard. Once the Omenbringer exhausts its missile batteries and we don't need the point weapons in arc, we can turn around and expose the starboard side for the extra gun.

As for the Engineer role, would it not be advisable to divert to thrusters to match the enemy fighters for speed each round?

The one thing that will always stick with me from GenCon '92 (there are many things), is that the most important element of starship combat is speed. Remember the Star Fleet Battles world championships? I thought I was good at that game, then I went 0-11 at GenCon. And in every match my opponent was going full throttle every round.

Granted, this was always going to be an extremely difficult battle given our limited resources. We're like a 5th level Ranger trying to kill Demogorgon.

That's impossible!

Well, if you were some kind of, idunno, wrestling specialist....

As for the Engineer role, would it not be advisable to divert to thrusters to match the enemy fighters for speed each round?

The one thing that will always stick with me from GenCon '92 (there are many things),

Good times. Good times.

I remember I almost bought a Cuthulu Monster Manual for $80. (Which was a lot of money back in those days.

Then I didn't.

Then I found out my car was booted, and to get it back it cost me...$80.

Then, later, I found a friend who had a Cuthulu MM, and I asked him how much he wanted. He named a price and I agreed, and so I got one anyway. And for less than that day.

God works in mysterious ways....

is that the most important element of starship combat is speed. Remember the Star Fleet Battles world championships? I thought I was good at that game, then I went 0-11 at GenCon. And in every match my opponent was going full throttle every round.

Imma take your word for it. It sounds a lot like my Infinite Range tactic, so I can see what you're going for. Alright, I'll jazz engines unless and until it looks like range is a foregone conclusion before I switch to shields.

(Really? You went 0-11? Ouch.)

Taking the computer one down gives 15 BP, of which 10 go into a better core. This leaves 5 to spend. I suggest adding at least good quarters for 2BP.

Besides that, some other additional facilities would be nice. Like a workshop for EH-RK, or other non-standard amenities the crew might like to have.

Gorn is physically unable to say no if Imagine requests a zero-G sexateria.

Gorn's shopping list:

Flight Power armor (because flying is cool)
(27100-current armor 7350 = 19750)
w/
Electrostatic field Mk 2 13100
Deflection 7500
Force field white 20000
Haste circuit 9200

Dermal plating 3 18000
Personal augmentation +4 6500

=94050.

I negotiated for more money so Gorn could get what he needed. Unless GM was under a different impression. Also, I already got you the White forcefield in crafting, so you do not need to include that.

Btw.

It's your decision, when you're done with the ship and want to start to meet the gate of twelve stars. I won't throw on the thrusters.

@Voxx.

We call Willow "Imagine".

And you have to take her sass. You can sass back, but you have to take it.

It's a loooong story, but we've got a healer, and that's all that matters.

What are we waiting on? I just have to adjust my character for the new level and gear.

To make it easier for all of us, now an Imagine Avatar with the actual stats.

Ready to go when everyone else is.

In case anyone here wants more hurt, there is another Starfinder game gauging interest here: Interest check.

I'll do the launch, when I'm back with the books this afternoon. Remond me if it hasn't happened in 5 hours from now.

Ping.

Thanks for the reminder.

Anyone else struck by the near-impossibility of this AP putting in a DC of 35? Even having +15 to a roll requires concentration and optimization, but then that only means you could make it by rolling a 20!

Well. I'm closer, but it is still a strain. Want to try diplomacy? The DC for that it 44. But I could check if the DC35 is correctly calculated.

Ok, the calculation is wrong. It should be between 25 and 30, depending on the rarity. So lets say 27.

Do we I ow who tbis guy is?

I dont want to get something wrong.

And I thought you were the "shoot first - ask questions later" guy.

Do we I ow who tbis guy is?

I dont want to get something wrong.

Cult of the Devourer leader, probably.

And I thought you were the "shoot first - ask questions later" guy.

I ain't sayin' I ain't, I just like t' get a guy's name right afore I tells him what kinda hat I'm gonna make his spleen into! =p

If I knew this was going to take a committee I would have done it myself.

It's been a while since EH-RK posted. We need him now.

so that the GM doesnt need to run yet another character should I temporarily bring back my pilot/operative?

Ehrk has said that the pandemic is driving his life crazy.

yeah, id be running two but only for a bit.

Shoot them out of the sky?