[PbP Gameday VII] (SFS 1-03) GM Valen's Yesteryear's Truth (Inactive)

Game Master Lysle

Please discuss out-of-character matters and "meta" decisions here.

I encourage you to discuss ship selection, boon slotting, and purchases here as well as real-life topics, such as anticipated absences, rules questions, etc.

Please note that final selections of boons and purchases should be listed in the Gameplay thread.

Happy gaming!

How do promotional boons work in a PbP game? Are we just not allowed them? Honor system that we own a t-shirt?

How do promotional boons work in a PbP game? Are we just not allowed them? Honor system that we own a t-shirt?

Perhaps I am overly trusting, but I have always relied on the honor system. If, however, I have reason to suspect some abuse or dishonesty, then I reserve the right to request a reasonable form of "proof" (which I will request at the time) and will place the game on hold to allow for its production.

Along those lines, I suppose, if I have more than a mere suspicion of dishonesty or cheating, then you are on notice that I will notify an organized play officer, which could result in the player being barred from play as set forth in page 4 of the SFS Guild Guide.

I have no reason to think that this will be an issue at this table, but it never hurts to remind players of the potential consequences.

The Mining Laser Upgrade boon would allow us to swap in the Mining Laser from p. 153 of the Pact Worlds book in place of one of the light weapons. The aft gyrolaser is the weakest on the Drake so probably the one to replace.

The mining laser is short range - and it can *only* be fired at short range, not at longer range increments. However, it has Burrowing, so half the 2d6 damage goes to shields and half goes directly into hull damage.

It's the only Starship boon I have at the moment, so I went ahead and slotted it, but if people want to stick with the gyrolaser aft (1d8 damage, short range, but has Broad Arc) I'm fine with that, too.

I have several starship boons, and wonder which you guys would like me to bring.

Hero of the Stars lets us get back a few hull points if we go to 0.

Defender of the Fleet lets me improve the ships computers, engines, or weapons.

As the pilot, I would lean toward upgrading the engines, particularly if anyone else has Hero of the Stars (since we can have only one of those).

That Star Monster Slayer I slotted is my only starship option

Just want to clarify, because I've seen it run a couple of ways:
Can a non-telepath send thoughts to Taeon (I think our only telepath), or does Taeon have to initiate a 1-to-1 conversation with someone in order to have a telepathic communication?

I've always seen it that the telepath needs to initiate contact, but the non-telepath can send an answer. I've also taught my team a signal to ask for such contact when I have a telep

Did we decide on starship roles? I can't find that discussion anywhere.

Dora's relevant skills:
computers +10
engineering +10
piloting +9

Did we decide on starship roles? I can't find that discussion anywhere.

I am unaware of decisions having been made, but now is the time to do so.

Taeon can serve as Captain or Science officer.

My recommended crew (if I got peoples' bonuses right), trying to get everyone into something positive, sometimes leaving the absolute best person into a different spot though.

Open to any changes, just throwing something out there.

Notably Flexer and Dora are both +10 at either Science or Engineering, but I threw them both at gunner, which they also are best at I think. All fear the robot uprising!

Captain Donovan Diplomacy +7
Pilot Ashtif +11
Gunner x2 Dora and Flexer (both +5)
Science Taeon +6
Engineering Roddy +4 (Dora or Flexer in emergency)

I think we should probably put Roddy on gunner, rather than engineering. I tend to think in terms of filling the most critical positions with the best person at the job first. That means pilot and primary gunner first. Then engineer, because the shields adjustment can make a big difference. After that, you put the remaining people where they can contribute best.

Hi, just letting everyone know that I'm still here, since everyone is probably going to trickle in.

I am here as well.

Also here! Finally able to get back in. Been a rough week for the website, apparently.

As far as best positions, I don't think Roddy is particularly good in any spot, unfortunately. His attack rolls on the guns will be +1 (the joys of being a melee soldier lol) and Engineering is only a +4, but as I said before, I'll jump in any position y'all want me in.

If Dora/Flexer are +5 on Gunnery, and Roddy's only +1, I agree that he should go on Engineering. We need the best shots on Gunnery, and at low level decent Dex is more useful than the Soldier's base attack bonus. If we reach an Engineering critical point, then we can rotate out.

Welcome back, all!

So, it seems that we are looking at the following:

Captain Donovan
Pilot Ashtif
Gunner x2 Flexer & Roddy
Science Taeon
Engineering Dora

That being said, I anticipate (given my schedule), that we likely won't be starting starship combat until Monday.

Fine with me on all counts, we're back! (for now)

I'm not feeling well, so please bot me if I'm holding things up.

Get better, Dora! (Also, the heads up and permission is appreciated.)

The site has been acting up. Sometimes I can post others it wont let me. I am trying to catch up. :)

The site has been acting up. Sometimes I can post others it wont let me. I am trying to catch up. :)

We are all working through the website frustrations. At present, I plan to accommodate the issues by giving players more than 24 hours to post.

I presently don't see any need to move to other forums or fear that we won't complete by mid-November (I suspect a good bit earlier). If the delays are bringimg up concerns you want to discuss, you can PM me or raise them here. I want to be as accommodating as I reasonably can to everyone.

Mid-November? Have they moved when session 2 begins to account for this?

Mid-November? Have they moved when session 2 begins to account for this?

My understanding is that Gameday is set to end November 30, but there is no official delay of the start of session 2. However, I suspect a number of GMs maybe willing to delay their start dates by a few days if it allows them to accommodate for delays.

Other than the special, the start to session 2 is a 'soft' deadline. We (the VO and Overseer team) have decided to leave it up to individual GMs if they want to move their start date or not, asking them to try to work with players who have a conflict.

Seeing as these are my only two games ATM and I only signed up for one session 2 game, I myself am good. I believe the cap is 3 active games at a time, right?

I hope that these problems will go away :)

There was a cap on how many games you could sign up for early on, but that cap was lifted well before the start to the convention.

Oh, cool. Good to know. Maybe I'll find a game for the dwarf barbarian I made. :D

I'm not sure we ever resolved this, but did the team want to use my Mining Laser Upgrade boon so that our aft weapon is a mining laser instead of the gyrolaser? Because with multiple targets flying around, there's a good chance might need to use that aft weapon.

I had assumed we took the boon, and posted accordingly, but if we didn't, it's easy enough to retcon, seeing as I haven't fired aft yet.

I'm for it!

My apologies, everyone. I had some messy VO business take up time I would normally use to post.

My apologies, everyone. I had some messy VO business take up time I would normally use to post.

No problem. Hope you don't mind the botting (even if I messed up the modifier).

I am heading out to a convention early tomorrow afternoon.

If I can't get a summary in before then, I likely won't be posting the round summary until sometime Monday (September 10th).

Starship combat (especially over PbP) makes this encounter among the lengthiest in the scenario, so (barring any further website issues) I expect we will still be able to wrap up this scenario by early-to-mid October.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

No problem. Enjoy the con!

I came home yesterday afternoon ready to post and the site was down :(

So would taunting the other guys be a good something to do?

Maybe? Not sure how well a taunt would work against a mindless opponent. I imagine it would be tough trying to translate sarcasm via binary. :P

But hey, you can't fail any harder than I have with these attack rolls, so I say go for it.

LOL, his sense of humor might make sense to the drone :)

GM, I think this is what I would do even if I hadn't seen Flexer's result, but I can't be sure. I think I would be metagaming more by using what I know to change what I'm doing to avoid metagaming, if that makes sense.

It does make sense. I don't know of ways to really avoid this, either.

I have had PCs hide all starship actions in spoilers before, but I am not sure that it made too much of a difference.

Starship combat in PbP can seem to take a very long time--far longer than other combat. This is why I don't break up the phases for PbP as I would at a face-to-face game. However, this alteration does result in some more inevitable metagaming. My thought is, if some metagaming off of someone else's result in starship combat speeds things up (and does not adversely affect anyone of the PCs), then I have not problem allowing it. It also makes the PCs appear (somewhat) more like the highly-trained professionals they are, encourages employing the teamwork/synergy built into to the game, and is arguably more fun. (All pluses in my book!).

As I mentioned above, using spoilers is not always effective and imposing more keystrokes to player's posts just doesn't seem worth the burden.

Now, if a PC used metagame knowledge (for instance, basing decisions on information that could only have been obtained by having previously read/played the scenario, etc.) then I would likely start taking issue with the actions, depending on the circumstances.

Yeah; I sometimes do have the same kinds of issues with metagame knowledge because I needed to read a scenario before playing it to settle messy situations at gaming tables. In that case, I do the best I can, and hope it impacts no one else's fun. (shrug) Someone needs to do that sometimes.

Flexer, was that last attack roll your regular attack or the flyby? When Ashtif succeeds at a flyby attempt, we get a free shot, albeit at a penalty (-4 I think?). I can make the attack roll if you want, but you have a significantly higher chance of hitting.

Flyby lets our guns target differently but doesn't actually give us an extra attack does it?

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.

Ah, my mistake. I was misreading the entry then.

FYI, I was in an accident this PM, a school bus clipped my car when I was trying to turn into a parking lot.

First, I hope that you're uninjured.

Less importantly, I hope that your car is not badly damaged, and that any hoops to deal with the insurance and repairs go quickly and smoothly for you.

Thank you. I might be a little sore tomorrow.
The premium will depend on whether or not the insurance will consider it an uninsured driver or not. The driver took off before we could exchange information.