Starfinder-Dead Suns ala Fabian (Inactive)

Game Master Fabian Benavente

I think starship weapons fire beyond their range (like normal weapons) with a cumulative -2 to hit.

I agree that divert to weapons seems underwhelming.

You could always 'flip and burn' and use your front weapons.

These combats taking too long?

Should we use some default actions (i.e., engineers diverts if shields are down, gunner shoots, etc.) and go two rounds per turn recap?

Questions?

Game on!

This does take a while, considering how little we have to do each round... it would be easy for Robert to script his actions, but that would make things even harder for our dear captain since you'd have to see another enemy move in advance to give us orders.

Normal weapons have range increments. The Flak Cannon is a special weapon that does not.
I think the combats are important, and I think that the system means everyone has a chance to do something. I don't like that the list of actions is so short, which does sort of constrain choices.
I suspect that in a ship with more turrets we'd have more gunners. Maybe something to look for in the future.
I think we need to be more aware of who is getting the Captain's +4, and the Computer's +2. I suspect that is a lot of the strategy for this sort of thing.
The big issue seems to be that until we actually move we don't know the actions. Am I right that we're currently doing movement last - ie "this is where you are right now - shoot or whatever" and "Decide what you want the pilot to try for next round."
"Range helps them." announced John "Let them closer, or stick them in another arc."
If John can full attack, he will. Otherwise he'll just use the turret.
He is normally +7. If he can use the computers he'll get +2. If he can is inspired he'll get the +4. Not sure if I should roll before people say what they're going to do.

I find starship combat very confusing. I'm never sure how far away we are from the other ship, because I don't know if we're moving and then shooting or shooting and then moving or if the other ship will move before we act. Then there's guns that fire in different directions for different range increments, and I don't know which one we can use. I assume right now we can only use the one that fires aft? But if we turned around, we could use a different weapon? And I don't understand the starship statblock, particularly the Modifiers line, which I can't find any explanation of in the SRD.

Kamiya's piloting roll will definitely pull-off the flip and burn if you want to shoot at them from the front.

Similar to Joana I have a hard time picturing distance with starship combat - both before and after movement. And I think everyone else's choices kind of dictates what piloting move she does.

Brainstorming;
Would a "what to do" in the turn recap help?
Maybe broken down by phases, in a way that can be reposted along with the map?

Suits me... as for Robert's it'd be easy as I said... basically:

1) If Captain orders something, do that
2) If no specific orders, use Hold It Together if critical system like engines/shields/weapons is damaged
3) If no critical damage, use Divert to boost shields if depleted
4) If shields are OK, use Divert to boost sensors if we need to scan the enemy
5) If no need to scan the enemy, use Divert to boost weapons

Something like that'd be enough for Robert to skip his starship combat turns until things got super dire and we really had to plan hard to survive the next round.

Yeah, there's a very fine balance with giving you guys freedom to act and keeping the game moving.

Ideally, we could all stop and resolve this in real time but this is not what PBP is about.

I think the best 'time to stop' a turn is right after firing because we know where you guys stand.

I also think that after piloting maneuvers are done would also be good. I try to keep my tactics simple (ie, the enemy will continue to be on your tail) to hopefully have this resolved while you guys post.

Let's try this. I'll continue to stop after shots are fired but let's try to get piloting maneuvers resolved quickly. This will force Kamiya to respond (and decide) quickly.

Questions?

Game on!

So what's the piloting maneuver here?

My roll was 25 so you have to act first. This is easy because you know your starting position (at end of turn recap). Once you act, I'll try to respond quickly with my piloting maneuver so we all know where things stand.

Questions?

Game on!

Let's flip and burn, get within range of our front weapon (gyrolaser), and fire at will. I'll give John my +4.

diplomacy: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (13) + 9 = 22

I'll have time to write it up in a few hours.

"Power to the weapons, aye," Robert muttered as he abandoned his efforts to bolster the shields in favor of overcharging their weaponry. "Make it count while it lasts."

Turn 134 – Flip and Burn

Read the OOC.

Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?

Game on!

Chances are you finally have to go first because Kamiya gets a +14 to her piloting check...

piloting check: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 13 + 1 = 19

"If we want to take the fight to them, I can do a fly-by. If I keep us moving, we should be able to fire on them without them getting extra shots at us."

piloting: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 13 + 1 = 33 (Fly-by stunt DC=25 so she makes it. They don't get an AoO on us and our guns act as if close range.)

If you guys want Kamiya to do something else then that's ok too. Her piloting roll would allow her to pull off any stunt

"Great idea!" John called to Kamiya.
can we choose which arcs we fire from?

RE the action flowchart.
Look; honestly I think firing guns is the thing easiest to automate. In this ship we're going to fire every gun in range every time, right? The AC range where it makes more sense to only take a single shot is pretty small. We could assign 3 other people (not Kamiya) arcs to fire from, and assume they take that action if there is something in range.
The real choices with firing are whether to use computer or not, and that should really be made during helm phase.
That would let us "pause" the turn once, during the helm phase. Everyone then declares their action and Fabian runs the ship (and rolls for firing) until the next helm phase.

Sorry for flaking out on my post today - kids are back in school after spring break, and it was tantrum city in my house. Let me just get some rum, then I'll post. Ahhhhh.....rummmmmm.....

I don't have much to add to the "how to streamline combat" discussion. I'm barely wrapping my head around it as it stands, and I'm happy to go whatever direction makes sense to those in the know.

"Good plan," Oriana said to Kamiya. "Do a flyby on the port side, and I'll man the laser canon on that side. John, you focus on the turret. Can we hit them with the flak thrower too, as we go past?"

port laser canon: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
damage: 2d4 ⇒ (2, 2) = 4

The kasatha waited until Kamiya had them zooming by at what seemed dangerously close range. When they were close enough that the entire viewscreen was filled with ship, she squeezed (not pulled) the trigger and was rewarded with a flash of light as the laser canon fried shield.

Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26 Time to restore bow shields, they go up to 9/15

Do we know they just lost their starboard weapon, or would the Science officer need to take an action to scan for it?

"That's one good hit - now do it again," Robert grunted as he went back to restoring their mauled forward shields.

Do we know they just lost their starboard weapon, or would the Science officer need to take an action to scan for it?

The science officer would need to scan for this, making her role more important on tactical battles (i.e., they only have one starboard weapon and it is damaged).

Questions?

Game on!

Scan: Computers 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 12 + 2 = 16

Or the Science Officer could blow her Computers roll. :P I'm not clear on how Scan works after the first round. If I'm reading it right, she "starts over" every time at Basic Information -> Defenses -> Weapons, etc., correct? So Basic Information is going to stay the same round after round and she has to beat the DC by quite a bit to get past current shield points and through the whole list of weapons.

I looked it up. My reading is we can choose one arc to fire from.
"Aye aye captain grandma!" John acknowledged the order and trained the turret on their target once more. At this range the computer assistance was largely irrelevant, and John concentrated on keeping the beam on a single point. The already damaged shields overloaded and failed under the constant barrage, and the hull beneath blackened and bubbled. As they zipped past the enemy ship John realised he was close enough to see coolant venting from damaged pipes in the area.

attack+computer: 1d20 + 7 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 7 + 2 = 24 damage: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 5, 5) = 15

Sweet damage ;^) Go, John, go!

Sweet damage ;^) Go, John, go!

Hey guys, I am out of town until Sunday evening. I will pick up the games then.

Turn 135 - Flyby

Read the OOC.

Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?

Game on!

pilot check: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (9) + 13 + 1 = 23

They go first which means flip and burn. Did we want to follow suit? Otherwise our aft is vulnerable again. What would we like Kamiya to do?

Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (10) + 10 = 20 Might as well give shields a helping hand... aft shields up to 7/15

"Good shooting, they can't take many more of those," Robert congratulated John as he busied himself restoring their aft shields.

"I thought that one was going to be the only one they could take." John grumbles. "Kamiya - can you set up one of those slow, close flyovers again? Maybe not SO close though, I think we might have scraped our paint off on their hull!" He paused "If not - can you keep them on our tail? We could just leave the Flak Cannon on autofire - that'll mess up them and their torpedos!"
my vote is stay in their aft! Lacking that, keep them in our aft and 5 (or less) hexes away.

I just looked up Gyro lasers
"Robert - any chance you can work out why the gimbal on the front gyrolaser is stuck? Damn thing's supposed to have a 270 degree arc of fire." John complained.
[ooc]so...[/ooc
Gyro laser is "Broad Arc"
Flak Cannon is "Point (+8)"
Broad Arc
A weapon with this special property can fire in an arc adjacent to the one in which it was installed with a –2 penalty. A broad arc weapon can fire at only one target at a time.
Point
A weapon with this special property is always short range and can’t be fired against targets that are outside the first range increment. If a tracking weapon would hit a ship in an arc that contains a weapon with the point special property, the gunner of the targeted starships can attempt an immediate gunnery check with the point weapon against the incoming tracking projectile using the bonus listed in parentheses in the weapon’s Special entry (instead of her usual bonus to gunnery checks). The DC for this gunnery check is equal to 10 + the tracking weapon’s speed. If the attack hits, the tracking weapon is destroyed before it can damage the ship. A point weapon can be used to attempt only one such free gunnery check each round, but this usage potentially allows a point weapon to be fired twice in a single round.

Nice tag, will try to fine time to get it.

About Point weapons... would love if the game just reclassified those as Point Defense weapons, since that's obviously what they are intended to be, with the free attacks against incoming missiles.

"Robert - any chance you can work out why the gimbal on the front gyrolaser is stuck? Damn thing's supposed to have a 270 degree arc of fire."

”On it,” Robert grunted, deciding the full use of their offensive capabilities was quite essential to their survival and thus dealing with any anomalies should be prioritized. He cursed the lack of datajack interface that forced him to make use of the engineering console’s keyboard to access the system, but at least this ship’s system’s hadn’t been designed by a lobotomy patient, unlike their previous little boat’s. There ship’s internal dataspace was extensive, however, and Robert had had barely enough time to scrape the surface in the time between then getting aboard and getting shot at, and the decades of neglect had left the ship’s operational logs with heaps of error messages from innumerable secondary systems.

”This might be it,” Robert muttered as he dove deeper into the ship’s tactical system’s self-diagnostics. ”Coolant flow has been disrupted – looks like a physical flaw with the pipes. The ship’s been sitting around so long, it’s a surprise more systems haven’t degraded. To avoid the gimbal overheating and seizing altogether, the system is limiting its function until repairs can be made. I think there’s enough safety margin to play around so I can override, and broader firing arc means increased odds of survivability… there’s that should do it, at least for the moment. Try not to push it too far, just in case there’s some mechanical wear and tear to go with the overheating risk.”

"I promise not to push it unless our lives are on the line." John said with grim humour.

"Great job!" Oriana called out as they managed not to blow up yet again. "Zadie - can you scan and find out where they're most vulnerable? We need to end this. TortAce, what John said. Let's get past them again, keep them spinning. Should we hit the same side? Or go starboard. I'll take the laser cannon this time."

Sb or P laser cannon: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (16) + 4 = 20
damage: 2d4 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5

"Aye, aye, Captain Grandma," Zadie complied.

Scan: Computers 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 12 + 2 = 26

"Aye, aye, Captain Grandma," Zadie complied.

Scan: Computers 1d20+12+2

That check allows you to learn everything that I posted on the turn recap.

Questions?

Game on!

"Their forward shields are down," Zadie reported, as the information spilled across her screen, "and the aft ones are almost depleted. Their forward and starboard weapons systems are damaged; they can only hit us reliably with their port coilgun. Their power core is damaged as well. Think they might be interested in talking now?"

I hope I interpreted that "-2 (1 and 3)" correctly.

If I understand our positioning correctly, we're currently flying away from each other. If Fabian makes his flip&burn then they'd be following us. So I think Kamiya's only option is her own flip&burn. She can't do the flyby until maybe next round.

Kamiya couldn't see the ship before her so she knew it was behind them. "We need to get turned around before we can fly past them again. The Maiden responded to me last time, let's see if she does so again."

piloting: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (13) + 13 + 1 = 27 (That should be good enough)

attack!: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (20) + 7 = 27
dam: 3d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 1) = 3
Assuming Orianna is on the gyrolaser if we're facing them

John grinned as Tortace lined the enemy ship up for him. The crosshairs seemed to naturally float over the centre of mass as the other ship rotated over its axis. John dialled up the magnification - and it seemed the easiest thing in the world to find the black, bubbled spot from his previous hit and hit the same point again. The hull vaporised for a second, and as the particulate matter cleared John realised he could now see straight through the ship. 'Wasted most of my shot on the space behind' John grumbled to himself 'I hope they had something important behind that.'

Turn 136 – Failed Flip

Read the OOC.

Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?

Game on!

Engineering: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (18) + 10 = 28 Either boost bow shields (they go back to full) or if the Captain orders it, boost engines for possible pursuit.

"Right," Robert grunted, satisfaction evident in his voice as the enemy ship decided to make a run for it. "Seems they got more than they had bargained for. Good shooting, John. Should we let them run or give chase? Unless they are fanatical enough to suicide rather than surrender, we might be able to target their engines and once they are dead in the water, demand their cooperation unless they want to learn to breath vacuum."

As far as he was concerned, the best time to keep on kicking was when the opponent was already down. If they could be persuaded to talk, fine. If not, he'd rather have dead than live enemies.

Zadie snorted. "You never heard the story of the Eoxian prisoner of the Vesk? 'Breathing vacuum' is not a problem for Eoxians, though they might get a little bored waiting for someone to come by and pick them up."

There were no life signs on our initial scan, were there? I've been assuming the other crew is Eoxian undead.

Waiting for the Captain's orders, but if she doesn't have anything in mind, I'll scan again: Computers 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 12 + 2 = 19

There were no life signs on our initial scan, were there? I've been assuming the other crew is Eoxian undead.

This is correct.

Questions?

Game on!

piloting check: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 13 + 1 = 17

They go first

Kamiya was buzzing with the rush from piloting such a responsive ship.
It was like the Maiden knew what Tort-Ace wanted to do before she did it. But the lashunta knew it was important to keep her focus so she made sure the Eoxian ship was in sight as they decided how to respond to its actions. "Should I try to get closer and try another flyby? I don't think we should let them get away. We need answers as to why they attacked us."

piloting: 1d20 + 13 + 1 ⇒ (14) + 13 + 1 = 28
That makes the DC for a flyby which I think is 25.

John concentrated on the enemy. "Tort-Ace: take us past them close, on our port again. Cap'n Grandma: man the Port gun. Zadie: man the gyrolaser, swing it round to the port - hopefully we'll get a minute before it burns out. I'll keep them lined up on the Turret. Let's make this happen."
if we lose init, then we can't really do any fancy manuevers, can we? Do we just declare, or actually move?
Gyrolaser is at -2. Should be two computer bonuses left this round, right?
guns: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (13) + 7 = 20 damage: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 6, 4) = 13

If we can't flyby...
"Captain - warm up the flak cannon. If they can, they'd be mad not to hit us with some torpedoes." John called, his mind on the enemy.

"Hang on," Oriana said, as John laid out his plan. "Robert's right; we need answers. If we can disable their ship, then we have leverage to get answers. It worked for that android assassin, after all."

Looking to Robert and Zadie, she said, "Can you guys do something so that we can target their engines, leave them dead in the void? Then maybe we can find out why they ambushed us."

As long as we don't blow up their ship, happy to go along with John's plan.

port gun: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
damage: 2d4 ⇒ (2, 1) = 3

The only way to target a particular system is for Zadie to make a pretty high Computers check and then a gunner to roll a natural 19 or 20, I believe. It's not very intuitive. Zadie will try it, but I don't know if her pre-rolled Computers check is going to be high enough at an accumulated 19.

Zadie tried to lock the targeting system onto the Cairncarver's engines. "I'm not sure...," she warned. "They're getting close to out of range."

Turn 137 – Eoxian Prisoner

Read the OOC.

Questions, comments, and/or suggestions?

Game on!

Kamiya was ready to act in response to whatever the Cairncarver decided to do but it had stopped. "It doesn't seem to be moving anymore. Unless they're doing a good job at faking, I'd say they aren't going anywhere. What are the chances that they'll talk to us now? I don't really want to destroy them but I also don't want to enter another strange ship anytime soon."

"Zadie, open comms," Oriana said. When the woman signalled she had done so, Oriana said, "Carncarver. You have attacked us without provocation. Respond now and answer our questions, or we will be forced to take further action."

"Are you sure you want to let them drift?" John looked up, then concentrated again on his console "If they manage to fire those torpedos we could still be in trouble."

"Are you sure you want to let them drift?" John looked up, then concentrated again on his console "If they manage to fire those torpedos we could still be in trouble."

"Those torp launchers are fixed mounts, right?" Robert said. "So as long as we keep behind them where they don't have any weapons to mention, and John keeps his finger on the trigger and blasts them the moment they try to turn around or start replenishing their aft shields, we should be safe enough."

'Or just shoot them 'till they glow in the dark right now and call it a day, the technomancer thought, using the time to finish recovering their own shields. As far as he was concerned, the people in the other ship had forfeited their lives the moment they decided to shoot first and ask questions later. He wouldn't lose a wink of sleep if they were to just up them out of their misery with a few gigajoules of coherent light.

"Any answer from the Station to your earlier plea for help?" Robert asked Zadie.

... but I guess Fabian should answer. Did we get any reaction when calling the Station to inform that hostile ship was shooting lasers at us a stone's throw from the seat of Pact World Council? ;^)

"I suppose. We'll need to keep a careful scan on them to make sure they're not gently rotating towards us, though." John surreptitiously cast an eye at the camera drone "I still feel we are at threat of a lethal surprise from the enemy ship. If they haven't surrendered very, very soon I think we should remove their ability to fight - permanently.'

"How about this for an idea; if they don't reply to Zadie's hail in 5 seconds flat, we blow them up and see what we can learn by picking at the pieces?" Robert suggested. "They pretty much established they are after our hides, so let's not give them too many opportunities for foul play. Might be a good idea to monitor their ship's core's power level as well - it'd be an old trick, invite us close enough to board and then self-destruct when we are in the blast radius."

"Depends on whether they are soldiers of fortune who want to live to be paid another day, or some damn fanatics out to kill us for choosing the wrong colored undies or wearing a sock on our left foot on a Sixthday or something, of course," Robert answered the few shocked looks about killing people unable - for the moment at least - to defend themselves.