Lane_S's page

Lane, yes, creative fiction can be creative. Once the rules (um...guidelines) are known, they can be toyed with, tweaked, or even discarded. As a norm, travel denotes a measure of freedom & possibilities. Notice how you have drained travel of both to make it function in genre. It's not just a crew working as guards on a journey, now it's a slog, a gauntlet of attrition where the heroes hardly even know their purpose or what resources there are. The whole backdrop has been altered to suit this need. Awesome, right? But also difficult to juggle, difficult to keep consistent NPC interactions, to build a suite of flavorful settings, all with subsettings within should the PCs search for aid & resources. And since you've implied the PCs have better resources back home, it'll difficult to keep them stuck unless you force them onto a railroad plot. Even in a Noir genre, an RPG needs player choices, even if all the choices are bad or worse.

In the real world travel, or major change in jobs, can be stressful even if it's "better" than your current situation. Other times it's just a change in location, your situation does not change. When I suggested that the characters may have better resources back home it does not mean they are much better off. resources could be as simple as knowing where you will sleep tonight, knowing where to get good prices buying/ selling, people you can count on for help. Why would you leave with no set goal and few resources? In the scenario I laid out it could be to help a family member or even the community, or just as easily payback or atonement for their own actions.

It's possible to have lots of travel without it being the focus. The job may be to deliver a cargo but you may have some leeway in how you accomplish it. In the 1930's a trip from Boston to Vegas would have required a lot of stops. Without major highways and the technology of the time you would be lucky to make a couple hundred miles a day. If your patron was a crime family, rich collector or rare art, or a secret government agency, there is a good chance they communicate faster than you move. You may even meet the same contact at several points along the way. If not you have a way of identifying your connection to get fuel and operating cash. Travel is also a good time to throw in random (or not) encounters and side quests. These encounters and quests may give clues who the patron is or what their goals are. They could also reveal treats to the patron, a rival tries to recruit the characters or an underling NPC may be plotting against the boss.At the last stop you did your regular contact a favor, so why were you met outside of town by someone else and answering questions about it.

On a large story arc like I laid out each stop could be days or weeks long. The party needs to catch a ship in San Diego, due to delays along the way the ship has already left and it will be another 6 weeks until the party leaves. Now the GM can use what looked like a brief stop to flesh out the city, make some side quests and maybe give the party a chance to change the story arc.

Nine weeks from Boston to Vegas. Nine weeks with three friends, a truck and that mysterious crate. What was so special about it that couldn't go by train. Three times somebody tried to rob us, all different people but twice we were sure it was the same crew. We made the delivery and they couldn't even put us up for the night in a cheap motel. We thought about staying here, land of dreams they say, but when you start at the bottom you just move from one hole to another. At least back home we had people we could rely on. So in three days it's off to Boulder then San Diego to catch a ship to Honduras. Boss doesn't trust the locals, or maybe he doesn't trust the suits we supposed to meet there.

What a dump, never would have believed anyplace could be worse than home. At leas food is cheap and people will do anything to be paid in American dollars. Well except for some of the villages, some look like they only recently discovered fire. Boss was right not to trust the suits, or the local politicians, or the police. We have no idea what is so special about this thing but lots of people are willing to kill over it. If we can make it 100 miles down the coast without being followed there is a fishing boat waiting to take us to Brazil and then a plane back home. Who makes backup plans that far ahead and how rich do you have to be, we'll never know. Word is the payoff for this job is going to be huge. We talked about starting our own shop but who are we kidding, schmucks like us are always going to be working for somebody else.

Just because you get out of your town does not mean you win. In fact traveling can be even worse than home.

For space travel think of it as cross country travel in the 1930's.

The Drift could be vastly different than default Starfinder. Perhaps most travel is along known space lanes. There are always side tracks and you could even go cross country but those would take piloting or navigation checks. Encounters could be a police, or pirate, roadblock. A gravity rift has washed out the space lane and travelers need you to find a way around. A family is sitting on their front porch waiting for help, a bubble of air, a 30' circle of front yard, porch, front door and half the family air car are all that is left of their lives. Think about how travel would be when towns were hours apart and another state was a major journey.

You could limit drift drive range. A medium or smaller ship may only be able to travel within a system with rating 1, and nearby systems with rating 2. For longer trips they would dock with huge cargo ships or space liners. This would allow side adventures while in transit. Combat could be pirates attack the liner and the players need to defend it, their passage was paid to act as security.

I wouldn't base my Star wars economics on a single comment made by a teenage moisture farmer from a planet in the boonies.

Why have a ground/ hover vehicle? There are a lot of places your space ship can not go. Most likely your ship will only be allowed to land at the spaceport of any mid size or larger city. The thrusters may scorch the ground or start fires. that is likely to make you unwelcome when you land at a farm. It would also leave traces you had been there. I have seen a lot of remote areas where you could park a car but not your 20m x 11m spaceship.

Just say no.

There have been multiple threads dealing with BP-Credit conversions and salvaging ships.

My suggestion, expanded on in other threads, is that the BP you get at each level comes from the salvage of ships you capture or report locations of. Let's say you capture a tier 4 pirate ship. You lay a claim on it and report it to your favorite salvage yard. They handle the recovery and either scrap it or find a buyer. In either case the funds do not come instantly. That ship could provide BP for 4 levels as they sell components or use the to modify your ship.

Sniping when done properly is not useless.

In many environments the range increments of sniper rifles far out distance the effective spot distances ( terrain effects section). This is countered by the need for line of sight and knowing where the target will be.

Case 1: The enemy has set up camp on a hill in the jungle. The area for 500 yards around the camp has been cleared. The commanders quarters and command post are both obscured however you have found a spot with LoS to the latrine. You set up 1000 yards out and wait. You have one shot because a standard move will take the target out of LoS. After the shot they can not spot you because of distance however they do send out patrols in the direction you likely fired from

Case 2: You are providing cover fire for your team in an urban environment. You set up on a roof top with a view of the entire street and 200 yards away from the shop front the team is at. You are able to fire for several rounds as the opponents chase your team before they take a side street and out of LoS. Normal limits for perception in urban terrain is 2D6x10 feet however you are elevated making it closer to hill terrain. The opponents are able to spot you at this range however it will take them several rounds to reach the building and many more to reach the roof. If you planned well you have multiple exit routes. Even if they do spot you a move action will take you out of LoS and give total cover and concealment.

Both cases give a huge advantage to the sniper but only if the target is in a limited area. As a GM I would require the players to scout the area and find ideal places to set up, using skill checks. These could include perception, survival and stealth. You may want to modify the stealth check by using Int instead of Dex to identify where to hide. It would also be appropriate to limit the snipers field of fire based on terrain. In case 2 he has a fairly large area to fire on but likely to have signs, awnings, civilians etc in the area. He is also looking thru a scope with narrow field of view. In that situation I would restrict them to selecting targets in a single 2D6x10 radius area but allow them to select a new area each round.

I would assume Cred Sticks are nearly unhackable, the economic effect would be severe. Even hacking the transaction records would probably count as a Tier 5 computer with the alarm countermeasure that activates when read by a credit terminal.

To hack a cred stick you would probably have to hack a transaction terminal first. Security is most likely based on a physical or arcane key. Physical keys could be a molecular structure that when both terminal and stick keys are subject to a certain radiation causes a resonance used to decrypt passwords. Alternately they could use an Aracane Mark as a decryption key.

The balance register of a cred stick is probably protected by multiple layers of encryption each with a wipe, alarm and false shell feature. Failing any one hacking test stores the balance amount in a false register, activates a security feature into the terminal and physically destroys the balance register. It then allows you to continue hacking. Once you think security has been full breached it allows you to modify the false register. The terminal used to hack the cred stick will show the false value. The terminal security feature will prevent an alarm from registering on this cred stick but will set an alarm code on any other cred sticks inserted. This code alerts other terminals of a breach, including time and place, so even if the hacked terminal was isolated the alarm will eventually reach authorities. If the hacked stick is inserted in another terminal the destroyed register is noticed and sets off a silent alarm but still shows the balance in the false register. The terminal then presents false errors to delay the owner. Codes like "Loss of communications, please re insert cred stick to continue", "Unable to save transaction, please exchange at a Cred Stick Vendor". In any event the original balance on the stick is lost and any attempted transactions fail but still deducted from false balance.

Plot Hooks:

The PCs have been paid using a compromised cred stick. Not only have the lost the payment but any attempt to use it will alert authorities and they will come under investigation. Do the party cooperate with police or go after the employer themselves.

Someone is circulating bad cred sticks. Local law enforcement is unable to deal with it. Merchants are loosing business from the delays. Even criminals are upset because nobody will exchange sticks without a terminal.

On a grander scale variable fighters/Veritechs, Transformers, the Armored Genesis MOSPEADA cycle armor, the Garland from Magazine 23, and so on. :)

I want a motorcycle that transforms into a heavy weapon wielding suit of power armor.

Drow are Chaotic Evil not Chaotic Stupid. I have seen far too many people play Chaotic characters as committing random acts with the claim it was the chaotic thing to do. A CE person may well make an excellent business person. As Evil they do what they consider best for themselves. If the business is doing well it is to the persons advantage so they are likely to do things that enhance long term stability and profit. As Chaotic they view laws as something that apply to other people. They would be more likely to conduct industrial espionage/ sabotage. Undermining coworkers who might surpass them would be common. However they would leave effective equals or underlings alone so long as they were not a professional threat and good for the business. they may even help an underling of LG alignment if it was to their advantage.

Using APL-4 for each ship gives you almost double the total BP.

You may consider having one person pilot a shuttle. This would add some flexibility outside space combat.

With 4 (lower BP) fighters you should be balanced against larger ships. Individual weapons are weaker but you could have 4x as many. You could potentially unleash 16 tracking weapons in one round. The down side is that you are paying for everything 4 times even if the cost of some items, drift engines and armor, are much cheaper.

Yes, but it's less of a problem to have EXTRA room than it is to not have ENOUGH room.

However when you wedge yourself between two pipes and you still can only get your fingertips on a valve handle it IS a problem.

Eventually they would cease to function due to erosion caused by micro meteors, cosmic rays et.

Being a Flying Dutchman as a sentient undead could severely suck.

Fleet Logistics Expansion (FLEX) Bay
A military version of guest quarters used on many smaller transports. The FLEX bay counts as common quarters for six troops and includes sanitation and minimal meal preparation areas. All bunks, lockers and other facilities are designed to fold into the walls and ceiling or moved to create more open space. This process can be performed by a single man in 20 minutes , less with assistance. Once cleared the FLEX bay may be used as a Cargo Bay or training facility. Military standard load handling equipment is included.

Cost 1 BP, 1 PCU in all modes.
Troops debate if it actually counts as berthing. Fleet claims it's always in cargo mode.
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Probe Launcher
Probes are high endurance missiles with sensor package payloads. The launching ship may use the probes sensors, both passive and active, instead of it's own for a single action each turn. Probes have a range of 100 hexes but their active sensors only extend to 4 range bands. Actions take with probes suffer a -2 per 10 hexes from launching ship. Probes may be fired upon by point defense weapons using standard rules.

Stealth variants exist but are highly restricted.

Mk I (Light) speed 8, PCU 5, BP 5, Sensors: basic medium
Mk II (Heavy) speed 8, PCU 10, BP 10, Sensors: advanced medium
Mk III (Capital) speed 10, PCU 15, BP 20, Sensors: advanced long

All probes have limited fire 5, 6 hour endurance and takes 24 hours to reload
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Drop Pod Launcher
Drop pods are high speed armored capsules for delivering troops into combat. A single expansion bay holds 6 drop pod launchers an capable of firing all in a single round. Drop pods are available in several models and must be purchased separately. Launchers for large power armor, creatures, or heavy supply drops hold four pods per bay.

Cost 3 BP, 4 PCU
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Extra Crew Stations
A suite of extra control consoles and gear lockers increasing the number of crew that can take actions per round. Normally only used on smaller combat vessels.

Model A 2 stations, 2 berthing, 3 BP, 3 PCU
Model B 4 stations, no berthing, 5 BP, 5 PCU

The more I see people that want to convert BP to Credits the more I think it's a bad idea. A major part of this is that the val of a BP is not constant even within a tier. Take the Light Laser cannon, a computer security upgrade and Anti-personnel weapons. The light laser Cannon is equal in damage to a level 20 weapon for 2 BP. For the same cost in BP I can get a level 2 anti-personnel weapon or an alarm (normal 10cr) for a tier 4 ships computer.

I have also pointed out elsewhere that salvaging ships is bad for play balance and a good reason for not allowing it. In general a ship is owned by a bank or corporation even if operated by somebody else. This includes pirate ships, most of which are stolen/ captured. At best you could receive a recovery fee, you may however be charged for damages or even gain a powerful enemy. If you want to justify BP gains consider it to be your salvage fees. Even if you have not recovered a ship in several levels it could be funds tied up in court or finding a buyer for a component.

If you insist on making players "earn" their upgrades consider rewarding ship based encounters with BP rather than credits. You may even have some non ship adventures pay in BP. You will need to be careful though, a ship more than a level over/ under APL could cause problems. Under no circumstance allow players to use BP (or extra credits a you have suggested) to purchase other gear as that can seriously unbalance the game.

I honestly like how heavier armor makes a tracking weapons easier to hit with. It represents the armor providing a stronger sensor return.

As for the armor/ shield mismatch that goes back to core mechanics. Most DnD based games have armor make it harder to hit rather than DR. Sure Starfinder could have made starship armor provide DR but that would directly compete with ablative shields and stack with the inherent DR of larger ships.

Could it be that Shields are not a protective bubble at some distance from the hull? If that was the case shouldn't they make it easier for any weapon to hit the ship. Instead shields could be more like the structural integrity fields. In that case a weapon would have to hit the ship for the shields to act.

I find it odd that starships can hit a moving 20' long target from who knows how many thousands of miles but can not target a person 100 yards away.

Aside from that are starship weapons usable at long ranges in atmosphere?

lasers and particle beams would probably scatter/ diffuse.

Kinetic weapons would hit the ground but might be miles off course.

Missiles, unless specifically designed for use in atmosphere, would probably break up from the wind resistance.

Since WBL became a thing. I rarely see people spend money on influence, politics, homes, businesses, donations, churches, or even just personal enjoyment. It's always about getting the next +1.

If this is the case then it is the GM's fault.

If you invest in a shop it should give you a discount on it's goods, it may even get better prices from other merchants in town. It can also provide adventure hooks in other towns.

Own a home, get free lodging. If you are away for a while rent it out. Could be that a merchant, mercenary leader or bounty hunter stayed there and now has a friendly attitude to the party.

Does the GM use Fame? If so influence, politics, donations, churches may have an effect far beyond where the money was spent.

WBL is a guideline to show where you should be compared to opponents. It is not a restriction.

I have never heard of a GM saying "the party is too rich according to WBL, I have to steal something from them".

It's also a great tool when somebody joins mid campaign.

Even if you are restricted to a single minor action you can still have effective dog fights. Do you pilot to get the best angle for a shot but a lower chance to hit? Do you risk them maneuvering out of the way while you carefully take aim? Maybe you break off so you can rebalance shields.

There is a very real piracy threat in the real world. The difference is the pirates tend to use small boats and board the target rather than shoot cannons from a ship.

In the real world you do not have constant satellite surveillance over every bit of ocean. At best it's available every few hours and only monitored if they are actively looking for something.

Naval patrols. At best during the height of Somali piracy there were a half dozen ships in the Indian Ocean. If a hijacked freighter got a distress call out it would still take hours to respond. During that time the hijacked ship may be able to reach a port. Recapturing a freighter is not easy. You can not shoot it with cannons or machine guns, you have to board it.

I think AnimatedPaper has the right idea but I would adjust some of the size.

As he (and others) stated the volume needed for a given weight varies. Finished goods like electronics may be less than 5 tons in a 40' container, liquids about half the volume. I have worked with a fair number of 30 ton steel forgings that would only take a fraction of a 20' container.

Given that the expansion bay cost for shuttle bays and hangars does not match the guidelines for item size listed in Cargo bay I think the size of an expansion bay should vary with ship size.Using the baseline of a single cargo bay holding Large (character scale) items I would say a Small (ship scale) cargo bay should be 4-6 5' squares and Medium ships up to 8 squares. For each ship size larger I would double the area. This roughly corresponds to Medium ships having 20' containers and Large having 40" containers. I would also suggest each ship size larger than medium could hold (character scale) items of one size larger. I would also say each adjacent cargo hold would increase (character scale) capacity by one category. Note that this only applies to volume, a colossal creature or vehicle would still require multiple bays (based on weight) even on the largest ships.

Back to the question of would serum of appearance change make society universally attractive.

No

There may have been an initial trend in that direction but countered by fashion trends and fringe groups.

Imagine what groups like Goth, Emo, Punk would do if they could radically change their appearance.

Ethnic heritage/ purity groups, after centuries of intermarrying may opt for an idealized ethnic image even if not conventionally attractive.

Some people may chose to be unattractive. This could be a social outcast who wants to be as far from the people he hates. Others for professional reasons. Enforcers for a criminal gang may chose to be ugly or brutish as a way to intimidate people. The personal staff of a celebrity may be plain but not unattractive to make their boss look more attractive. Others may take a bizarre appearance just to shock people.

I think cosmetics would still be popular. Even people with near ideal features and flawless skin can benefit from a but of makeup. Going someplace where lighting is unusually bright or very dim, use cosmetics to counter it. Is everybody at the club the ideal of beauty? make yourself stand out with dramatic use of color. Business meeting with people from another culture, or even an individual with specific tastes, accentuate certain features to suit.

I’d expect a science fiction comm unit to have more cool features and functions than a modern anything.

It's a tier 0 computer, even door locks could be tier 1.

Also look at the cost. tier 1-2 ballistic longarm is about half the cost in credits as a modern firearm is in dollars. A basic comm link is 7 credits or about $14. If you want a more capable comm link buy upgrades and be happy you are not paying iPhone prices.

As for all the App suggestions I doubt they are needed. Way I read it even a basic tier 1 computer can do most of functions mentioned. AI and tier upgrades would give bonuses to those actions. This assumes you do not want to bother with multiple monthly service fees and "what do you mean Technosoft Office 851 does not work in the Drift".

Planet: Platten the Flat World
Mass: Unknown
Gravity: 1.3
Atmosphere: normal
Day 30.5 hrs
Year -/ 423 days

The flat world is a stellar aberration. A perfect one sided disk floating stationary relative to it's sun. One side of Platten appears as any other world with mountains, plains and oceans except there is no curvature to the surface. The sky is an equally perfect dome. The back side is featureless and black, as if there is nothing there. This blackness extends to the edges of the world. When viewed from the side only the sky and surface is visible. The world is slightly over 10,000 miles in diameter although archaeological evidence shows it is 8000 units used by the ancient inhabitants.

Climate: The center of Platten is an arctic zone with temperatures slowly rising as you approach the edge. Daytime temps at the edge can reach 120 degrees in the lowlands and 280 deg in the mountains. As a result the edge zone ranges from blistering desert to boiling rain forest. Despite the edge of the sky being much closer at the atmospheric pressure is only slightly greater than standard and does not change wit altitude. Instead it abruptly transitions from air to space.

Days and Years: Despite Platten not orbiting the sun it does have a day/ night cycle and seasons on a 333 day cycle (423 standard days). Day cycles are 30.5 hours long. During the day the surface faces directly at the sun, at night directly away. Between the two is an 80 minute period during which the disk rotates on a an axis. Depending on season a day period lasts between 9 and 17 hours. The axis upon which Platten rotates also shifts with the season by approximately 30 degrees.

Navigation: Above the center of the world at the top of the sky appears a halo, dark in daytime, light at night, and visible from anywhere on the surface. There is also a magnetic South pole at the center. As you approach the edge a faint shimmering appears however things are still visible past the shimmer. This is due to an effect where crossing the edge instantly transports you to a point diametrically opposite where you crossed. This even occurs in the sky or underground. Transit across the boundary preserves speed and direction with three exceptions. First is that edge ward changes to center. Second is that upward motion that would take you out of the sky but below escape velocity causes you to slide along the boundary. The final exception is escape velocity. If traveling greater than 1300 ft/ sec you will leave the sky but still be moved to the opposite point. Plattens lack of rotation about it's sun means that several stars, visible during daytime, remain in fixed position providing secondary references for navigation.

Subterranean and the back side: Despite there being no external sign of Platten having a thickness it is still possible to go below ground. Researchers have drilled over 10 miles deep and discovered evidence of normal geological processes. They have also proven that the boundary extends in a hemispherical shape below the surface with the same radial translation as above the surface. In contrast there is no evidence of the subterranean areas from the back side. It is possible to fly into where mountains cross the edge or to travel almost to where the surface should be. If you do touch the back side of the surface you are instantly transported to the edge of the sky pointed at the surface and at a point diametrically opposite.

Backpack (tactical) Lvl 2 200 credits: add 2 to strength score for encumbrance limit, may hold up to 8 bulk. When not worn the backpack has 1 bulk.

Combat Harness Lvl 3 300 credits: This modular set of belts. straps and pouches can be configured by the user to provide ready access to their most used gear. The harness can hold up to 10 items of bulk "-" or "L". Items stored in the harness are retrieved/ stored as part of the action to use them as per the Quickdraw feat. In addition the combat harness adds 1 to strength score for encumbrance limit, stacking with a backpack. When not worn the harness has 1 bulk. Available in generic and styles matching all common armor lines.

Using magic and wonder materials could allow a larger, lighter ship as well. If decks were 20' high and standard passageways 20' wide the ships would be mostly empty space.

I do agree that ship mass is way off, they progress linearly rather than cubed.

I'm sure a lot of oddities of ship design are artifacts of play balance.

A transport (med) has 5 expansion bays allowing for a lot of customization but still have to make tough choices.
A large freighter (large) is roughly double the size, 8x volume, but only 8 expansion bays.
A fighter (tiny Ship scale) is gargantuan character scale.
A single cargo bay can hold up to large (CS) size. Four will hold huge and 8 will hold gargantuan objects
Somehow a shuttle bay (2 expansion bays) will somehow hold one gargantuan or colossal (CS) fighter or shuttle. Hangar bays (4 expansion bays) can hold 8 fighters (gargantuan CS)
Shuttle and hangar bays can only be used on the huge. gargantuan ships. The number of fighters you can get on a carrier is about 1/6 a modern aircraft carrier half the length even though the fighters are about the same size as modern fighters.
Huge+ ships can only mount one more weapon per arc than a medium ship and two more than a tiny ship.

Now let's look at play balance.

If you scaled expansion bays with size class/ length a large ship would have up to 40 bays. Now players could transport dozens of people, several hundred tons of cargo and still have all the bonus mods.

I huge ship would have 320 expansion bays. If half of those were shuttle bays it could have a mix of 160 fighters, interceptors and shuttles/ heavy attack ships.

If you scaled weapon mounts with volume (based in large) a cruiser would have 24 mounts per arc.

Now imagine trying to run a combat with 160 fighters against a single ship. Even if the fighters needed 20's to hit they would average 8/ turn and all criticals.

I disagree about Tier = APL

If the party (level 8) steals 4 tier 1/2 fighters do they suddenly become tier 8 fighters (or 4 tier 2 fighters)? Could they then trade in three of them to upgrade one.

I can see some justification for higher speed ships having a penalty to piloting checks. If you double your cars power with no other changes it becomes harder to drive. Little changes in throttle have larger effect. A tiny bit extra gas in a hard turn can cause you to loose traction.

I think DC should be tied to ship size, actual speed and armor. This would use the piloting modifier chart for speed. A new chart with larger modifiers and relative to max speed would be more realistic but more work.

DC = 15 + size^2 + armor bonus to AC -(2 * speed modifier)

Fighter: Tiny (1), max speed 14, armor 4, AC R+6, piloting -1
speed 14 DC = 15 + 1 + 4 -(-4) = 24
speed 4 DC = 15 + 1 + 4 -(4) = 16

Transport: medium (3), max speed 10, armor 6, AC R+6, piloting +0
speed 10 DC = 15 + 9 + 6 -(-0) = 30
speed 4 DC = 15 + 9 + 6 -(4) = 24

Cruiser: large (5), max speed 10, armor 10, AC R+8, piloting +0
speed 10 DC = 15 + 25 + 10 -(0) = 50
speed 4 DC = 15 + 25 + 10 -(4) = 46

Dreadnaught: colossal (7), max speed 8, armor 10, AC R+2 piloting -2
speed 8 DC = 15 + 49 + 10 -(0) = 74
speed 4 DC = 15 + 49 + 10 -(4) = 69