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75 posts. Alias of AdamWarnock.


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Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

"Yeah, I don't like our cap'n's attitude, but he's got a point. A doc showing up out of nowhere and making a housecall is mighty suspicious. I think a better plan would be for Harold and I to storm the place. Even if they have an ambush set up, it doesn't matter if we take 'em by surprise. The rest of y'all can cover us while we break in the front door and follow behind to help us secure the place."


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Mark nods and follows Harold back.

Stealth: 1d6 ⇒ 41d6 ⇒ 3


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Mark follows Harold, keeping an ear out for any signs of life within the cabin.

Stealth: 1d6 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 1 Spending a bennie for a reroll.

Stealth: 1d6 ⇒ 31d6 ⇒ 6
Ace!: 1d6 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 6 = 11 => 11

Notice: 1d6 ⇒ 11d6 ⇒ 2


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Stealth: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 51d6 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Notice: 1d6 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 2

Mark checks both his pistol and his shotgun to make sure both are ready if needed. His bases covered as well as they could be, he makes sure the others know to stay out of sight of the cabin while he gets closer to see what is going on. He feels out of practice and stiff as he approaches the cabin. Chastisements will have to wait, however. He needs to focus.

He sneaks up to one of the windows and listens for any signs of life inside of the cabin before going around to each one.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

"I'll go."

Mark has a d6.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Mark, who's been silently fuming in a corner this whole time, nods and follows Daisy out.

I'm ready. I'll try to get the status bar updated tonight.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Mark'll relay the info when he gets back.

Mark, now armed with both pistol and shotgun, finds himself a bit impatient as they meet with the rancher again. He had left his daughters on the ship, and he hoped that would keep them out of harms way if things did go poorly. It was not something he wanted to think about, and he didn't want to leave them alone any longer than he had too.

They'd spent enough time without him because of the way.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Persuasion: 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 61d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
ACE!: 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7

Mark finds a particularly chatty bunch playing a friendly game of cards at a table. After buying a round and paying the ante, he begins to chat and pass news from off planet along, threading in questions about the goings-on as he graciously loses a hand or two.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Funnily enough, after he left the ship, he went looking for the local watering hole to see if he could get some info in exchange for drinks. haven't heard back on what I need to roll.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Welp, that was settled quickly. Wonder if anyone's going to grab Mark before they leave. :P


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Mark glares at Perry, trying his best to reign in his temper.

"Right, and what if we piss off Farnsworth by tipping his hand? For that matter, just going to the other guy could put the girl in more danger. I don't know this guy either, but I am I father and I would not be willing to negotiate with someone that took one of my girls as leverage. As a matter of fact I'd be looking to rip the bastard's throat out. What makes you think this Farnsworth fella is any different?"

Somewhere along the way, Mark stands up and his voice rises in volume as sympathetic fury burns in his eyes as they lock with Perry's. Mark takes in a deep breath and lets it out before making for the hatch.

"Talk it over if you want. You know my say. I'm getting some fresh air," he tells the others as he leaves.

Outside:

Even in his anger, Mark can't deny that they need a fuller picture, but going to get it from someone with a vested interest in the matter is stupid. If you want something close to the truth, you find people without a dog in the fight and that, preferably, make their living trading information. Even on a backwater, there was bound to be someone that would be willing to cough up what they knew for the right price.

However, there were also ways of gathering information that cost nothing more than a few drinks and some smooth talk. He thought he'd be done with this kind of work after the war ended, but there was no way in hell he was letting a child suffer if he could help it. He set his jaw as he went looking for the local watering hole.

GM, Let me know what I need to roll to get some information from the locals for some drinks. I'm looking for info on Farnsworth, his daughter, his rivals, and any rumors about recent kidnappings.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Hehe. Maybe, but it looks like we'll have to work that out at a latter date.

"I think you'll see for yourself soon enough," Mark answers a curious smile curling the corners of his mouth as his daughters come back with a stack of boxes.

Upon the rest of the crew's return

As the others enter the ship, they are greeted by a jubilant cry of "You've activated my Mana Trap Card!" followed by a groan as a rapid-fire explanation of what was going to happen now is given. Emma, Mark, and his daughters are around the galley table with an array of cards and tokens spread between the four of them.

"So, I hope things went better for you than me with these card sharks," Mark says with a laugh.

His good humor quickly evaporates as he hears Perry lay out the job.

"And what made you think I wouldn't do this," he asks, his expression dark and his tone dangerously level after he sends his girls away. "Hell, Perry! I'd do anything to get my girls back from something like this. What makes you think this guy will be any different?"


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

"Oh we know better games than that," Hailey tells Emma as Holly gets a wicked gleam in her eye.

"Oh boy, what have I gotten myself into," Mark mutters under his breath.

I see your Go Fish and raise you a Calvinball-esque addition of MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Twin sets of eyes stare at Emma as their owners' horror grows. After a long moment of silence, the twins look at Mark.

"W-we changed our minds. We wanna stay," they tell him.

Relief mingled with a bit of annoyance colors Mark's face as he gives Emma a glower.

"Well, thank you anyway, Miss Daisy. I'll hold things down until you get back," he says and waves the others off.

Once the crew has set out, Mark turns his attention back to Emma.

"We've got a few games of our own," he says. "Would you be interested in playing them?"


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Might wanna run that by Mark first.

"Thank you. I owe you a big favor."

The girls are as excited as ever to see planetside while mark exacts promises of good behavior from the twins.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Before the group heads out.

Daisy Mae Puckett wrote:
"Of course, what can I help with?"

"Would it be alright if my girls go with you? They've been couped up in the ship a bit too long, and they're wantin' to get some fresh air and see something besides a bulkhead or a viewscreen."


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I tend to post at least once a day.

And I'm okay with the system. Is there a way to add that to the document so it's easy to find?


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

"I think I'll keep an eye on the ol' tub with Emma," Mark says, eliciting a couple of groans of dismay from his daughters. After a few moments of a battle of willpower versus puppy-eyes, Mark sighs. That was never a fair contest.

He gets Daisy's attention as she's heading out.

"Miss Daisy, would you mind terribly if I asked a favor of you?" Its clear that there is a battle of emotions going on, but he manages to put a smile on his face and seem friendly.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

If you need to push the story along, GM, please do so.

As for the whole shipping thing, I didn't think you didn't like it, if that helps ease your mind. I did think it wasn't what you were looking for.

Sorry, I would flesh this out, but I'm drained. I'll post my thoughts after I've had a chance to read and digest what we've got.

And yeah, feel free to bot Mark if you need to.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I tend to preview my rolls so that I can add in extra rolls as needed. I find that it's fair less likely I'll miss something.

To be perfectly honest, we could reduce this to only three rolls if you really don't want to fool with the cargo hauling part of it.

1. Roll networking
2. Roll destination
3. Roll profit

Save speculative cargo as a thing we have to seek out if we want a potentially bigger payday with more risk.

As for getting rid of the job type, well in the grand scheme of things there's not much of a difference between the jobs besides the profit we get if we're not going to be doing anything besides picking up the cargo/passengers/salvage and delivering it to its destination. If that's the case, why over complicate it? Why not make it as simple as possible to resolve. Roll to see if we find a job. Roll to see where it's going. Roll to see how much we make. That's all we really need to get what you seem to want out of it.

My proposal was centered around the idea of making the jobs more a part of the narrative and giving them some element of risk when we failed at something. That doesn't seem to be what you want to do. You seem to want a system that we plug in die rolls and get out a destination and cash for the players. If that's the case, then things like what kind of job it is and how much we are hauling become superfluous. All we need in that situation is to know if we have a job, where it is going, and how much we get paid. Speculative cargo becomes its own thing because it doesn't fit into the model that you seem to want. For that we can just roll to see if we find anything, roll to see how much we pay, and then we try to find a buyer. Impose a cost for holding onto it, or a time limit if it makes more sense, like produce or meat, and that will give us an incentive to sell it as quickly as possible instead of hanging onto it until we can turn a profit.

I guess what I'm getting at is that the system you set up doesn't match what you say you want. It's too complicated for what is essentially a job roll in Pathfinder, and what I am reading makes it clear that is what you want, essentially.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2
GM_ZenFox42 wrote:
In step #1, I'm curious as to how the number of days to find a job affects the game in *any* way?

That was a holdover from when I was thinking that we'd have a cost per diem for running the ship. Something like this:

1. Planet-side - 1p/day
2. Space-station berth - 5p/day
3. Inflight - 5p/day

I ditched it and didn't edit the days roll out. But as for how it can affect the game, it gives us a period of downtime that we can use to do things that we might be able to while in flight. That said, I think we can ditch it. I think I just left it in there so that there was a cost to failure on the networking roll.

GM_ZenFox42 wrote:
Also, in step #1, I *really* don't want to role-play a discussion with each and every client you roll up until you find an acceptable cargo. To my mind, that just delays the IRL time to get to the adventure that's waiting for you on the next planet you land on.

That part is supposed to be optional. The idea was that we could choose to try and weasel some extra profit or another boon out of the client, but at the risk of making our lives more complicated. It could also be used to weave in the narrative that you have planned for the main plot. If you don't want to do that, then we just don't have that option. Simple as that.

GM_ZenFox42 wrote:
I see you've changed "in the black or red" as an outcome to "improving or losing some of the profit", so I can't object to that anymore. But that also negates your advantage #4, since you can't go completely into the red. But your system provides *no* way to go completely into the red, which Speculative in the current mechanics does (if the players want to risk it).

I think you misunderstand how the system is supposed to work. You add up successes, add up failures, take the difference of success (double for really clever/well-done successes) and failures (Double for really bad failures), multiply by 10% and that is how much the crew made or loss on the job as a percentage of the job's value. It kinda runs into an issue with speculative cargo, but even that should have a baseline value that we can use for this, like 1p/ton. We still have the risk of losing money on the sale of speculative cargo, but that's in addition to the profit or losses we would have made based on how the trip went.

Basically, if we have more failures than successes, that percentage goes negative and it becomes a loss. The biggest change is that we risk a loss on all jobs instead of just speculative cargo.

GM_ZenFox42 wrote:
In step #1, by picking just one kind of job at a time, that might make you do *more* rolls than the current mechanics. Since Freight provides the most profit with the least risk, you'll probably reject jobs like just 2 Steerage passengers, and roll for another job until you get Freight. Since there's 5 job types, *on average* you'll have to find 5 jobs before it's a Freight job. That's 25 rolls with your system (you forgot to roll for the tonnage in your example), compared to *at most* 15 with the current mechanics.

Er, not really. It's just 15 if we take out the time to actually look for the job, and that can be changed in a few different ways.

One is to limit the number of jobs available on station. Basically we roll when we arrive and that's the number attempts to find a job that we get before we have to move on.

Another is to change the distribution of the jobs. Right now, it's an even 1/5 chance of getting each job type. Depending on what we think is realistic, we can change it to be more like this.

Roll 1d10 for the type of job.
1 Steerage Passengers
2 Second Class Passengers
3-7 Freight
8-9 Speculative Cargo
10 Salvage

We could even combine the two if we wanted.

GM_ZenFox42 wrote:
I'm thinking that labeling the results of the complications as "success" or "failure" might be problematic and subjective. Could you point out all the successes and failures in your example?

1. There's an issue with the cargo containers. Emma rolls repair and fails. This necessitates a detour and leads to the loss of some of the cargo.

2. The crew is successful in securing the needed part to fix the cargo container.
3. Emma succeeds on her repair roll this time.
4. We fail to navigate an inspection by the Alliance, and have to smooth things over with a bribe and some fast talk.

In a sense, it is subjective because what constitutes a success or a failure is going to depend on what kind of complication we're dealing with. When we know where we're going and what we're hauling, that's when we (or you, rather) figure out how things could go wrong. Could there be a stowaway? Maybe a bounty hunter shows up. Officious clerks, up-n-coming crime bosses, rabid reavers, arrogant alliance, bitter browncoats, psychotic passengers, and whatever else we can think of could be a problem that we have to overcome. Success or failure is largely dependent on our rolls and how we mitigate the risk. Solutions that we come up could lead to more complications in the trip. Such as we have a part that's about to break. We could turn back and try to make it to a station, look for other ships that we could buy a part off of, or look for unclaimed salvage that's on the way that may have the part we need. Each option carries varying amounts of risk, but also offer varying amounts of reward.

Each option could also carry its own complications. In our above example, there's relatively little risk beyond lost time and profit in limping back to the station. There's a chance that any ship we find and hail will either not be interested in helping or have nefarious intent with regards to our ship. Salvaging the part could bring a huge risk of running into reavers or pirates that are little better than them. It could cause the alliance to come knocking if we don't try securing salvage rights, but it could also net us more than just the part we need in the form of more cargo, extra supplies, information, and maybe even a hook for one of the planet-side adventures that is planned.

GM_ZenFox42 wrote:
I appreciate the thought you've put into this, and I want to hear your answers and rebuttals to my questions and comments, and at this point I am willing to work in some travel complications here-and-there using the current mechanics (possibly influencing your profit depending on defining "success" and "failure" adequately), but so far I'm not inclined to use the entirety of what you've proposed. I hope this isn't a dealbreaker for you.

Not at all. I appreciate the feedback and I can see where I didn't make some of what I was trying to convey clear. I was trying to come up with a system that fits into the ethos of Savage Worlds and also provide opportunities to weave whatever plot you have into the jobs we get to pay for our way from one place to another.

The problem I have with the current mechanics is that even with the streamlining already done it's a lot of work upfront and I can see that being an issue for me if every time we look for a job I gotta roll a whole bunch of dice and do a lot of look ups to make sure that I have everything right. I'll do it if you want to go that route, but I can already see it being a big drag on my motivation to post.

As for not wanting to make shipping jobs the focus of the game, I'd like to counter with this. A good number of the adventures the crew of the Serenity get up to in Firefly are a direct result of or related to those shipping jobs that they take. The first episode with the salvage job, the joining of Simon and River Tam on the crew, that episode with the guy turning into a reaver after a reaver attack, the episode we met Saffron in, and the episode where Serenity is dead in the water after an explosion in her main systems are all examples that I could think of off the top of my head. For that matter, I see it as a missed opportunity to not work into parts of the plot into the jobs we take on. Have past mistakes come back to haunt us. Have our backgrounds catch up to us. There's zero reason that the jobs we take on couldn't be a part of the larger plot of the game. It'll take some work, but not that much, I think. If it makes sense for a plot point to show up on a job, then let it and watch the chaos happen as we deal with it.

Anyway, that's my two cents. I'll work on getting a more refined version of the system up later today. I wanted to answer some of your questions before I worked on that.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

"So, what's an Error ID: 10-T?" Mark looks over Perry's shoulder as they start on their journey. His girls, thankfully, are too engrossed by the view as they depart the station to notice anything amiss.

Sorry. I couldn't resist. :P


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

"Client of his ordered some machine tools and raw stock. Apparently he's setting up a manufacturing and repair business at a new settlement."


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I think you misunderstood me. It wouldn't be five rolls and then roleplaying each of them. The process I had in mind was something more like this.

1. Roll Networking(Persuasion) to see if we can find a broker or a client that has a job for us. Each attempt takes a certain amount of time, say 1d6 days.

2. Rolls (GM or player) determine what kind of job it is, where it is going, and how big of a job it is.

3. We can either then either role play getting the job or just handwave it. Perhaps include boons or banes depending on how we play it out if we choose to role play it.

4. The job is then set up like an adventure. Profit or loss depends on how we handle things.

Actually, I think I can make this a little more formal.

1. Roll Networking(Persuasion) to see if we can find a broker or a client who has a job. Each attempt takes 1d6 days
1.1. We can spend a raise to either find a client and keep 100% of revenue or to reduce our searching time to 1d4 days.
1.2. A critical failure (1's on both dice) increases the search time to 1d8+1 days even if we use a bennie to reroll.

2. Roll to see what kind of job it is.
2.1. Roll 1d5 to determine destination: 1. Core, 2. Red Sun, 3. Georgia, 4. Blue Sun, 5. Kalidasa
2.2. Roll 1d5 to determine what kind of job it is: 1. Steerage Passengers, 2. Second Class Passengers, 3. Freight, 4. Salvage, 5. Speculative Cargo.

3. Choose whether we play it out or handwave it.
3.1. If we handwave it, then there's no further boons or complications to the job.
3.2. If we play it out, we could get boons if we are successful in our wooing and schmoozing. We could also get complications. Both could come into play during the job or at some point afterwards.

4. During the job, GM decides what events happen (Could be a random table roll or GM discretion.) How well we handle the event(s) in game determine our profit or loss for the job.
4.1. Success add 10% of the job value in profit. Critical successes or creative solutions add 20% of the job value in profit.
4.2. Failures add 10% of the job value in loss. Critical failures subtract 20% of the job value in loss.
4.3. At the end of the job, add up profits and subtract losses. Whatever the result is, that's the percentage of profit/losses we get.
i.e. We take a job that's worth 100p. We have three events happen over the course of the job. We have one success and two losses. That's 10% - 10% - 10% = -10%. We lose 10p on the job.

Doing it this way does a few things.
1. It makes jobs riskier, but also offers a chance to get a better payout.
2. It makes jobs more narrative. It allows each job to have complications and can be fodder for the overall story. The jobs we see happening in Firefly rarely go smoothly.
3. It reduces the amount of rolling we have to do. Finding out what kind of job we have takes two rolls beyond the two needed for looking. We can decide if it's worth it or not, and each attempt only takes two rolls.
4. It gives us an incentive to take planetside jobs, since those don't have the risk of going into the red.
5. It gives other players a chance to affect the outcome of a job. All I'm responsible for is making the initial rolls.

So, let's work an example.

Networking(Persuasion): 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 51d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Time to find job: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Job Type: 1d5 ⇒ 5 Speculative Cargo
Job Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 1 Core

Mark spends 5 days hunting down a job. The broker he finds has a cargo of exotic fruits that they want to sell in the core. They'll take 10% of the revenue. Mark, Perry, and Daisy pay the broker a visit to finalize the deal and see if they can negotiate more equitable terms. Perry covers Mark when he says something stupid, and the broker agrees to 5% of the take if Daisy will accompany them to some swanky event. Swanky event offers more opportunities to pick up jobs to the Core, make contacts, and get into trouble.

Cargo is loaded onto the ship and two days out we have a fault in the whatsit that keeps the produce from going bad. Emma can fix it, but needs a part that isn't in the ship's stores necessitating a detour. There we run into some trouble from a PC's past or from a past job/adventure. Once that's dealt with, we are on our way again. Emma fixes the whatsit, but we lose half of the produce in the container.

When we get to Core space, we're ordered to heave-to for inspection. Alliance comes aboard, making life interesting for all of us, especially when one of Mark's daughters takes offense to one of the grunts' remarks. Bribes, smooth-talking, fines, etc. are paid or done and the Stargazer arrives at its destination. Lets say that we had three successes and two failures. That means we get 10% of the cargo's value in profit. Daisy comes in clutch and does a masterful job of selling the cargo to a boutique restaurant chain with stores only in the Core and we net 500p in profits to split.

Mark starts looking for work again, and oh look, that grunt was actually some higher-up's son and said higher-up is commandeering the Stargazer for a trip out to Georgia. He has ties to THE PLOT! and everything!

So, thoughts on using this as our framework for jobs?


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I'm good with five rolls.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Posted.

As for the mechanics of it. I say we do it this way.

1. Roll Networking(Persuasion) to see if we can find a broker/client.
2. Roleplay the meeting and seeing if we want to take the job.
2.1. GM, we can roll to see what kind of job it is and where it's going at this point.
2.2. I'd also recommend rolling behind the scenes to see whether or not we have any complications and what kind they are.
3. If we accept the job, then we have a series of complications/encounters that we are faced with. How we handle each one determines if we make or lose money on the job.
4. At the end of the job, tally up our successes and failures to see if we are in the black or in the red.

It streamlines things a bit and also gives more room for the narrative to influence how well we do.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

"Depends on what we're haulin'. I've got feelers out for a few jobs. Some settlers want to head to Kalidasa, a few more well-to-do types want to go to the Core, and a pal o' mine on station needs something hauled out to Blue Sun. Personally, I'd like to take the freight job. Besides the better pay and not havin' to deal with people while we get ourselves sorted out, I like the guy and would hate to have to turn him down."


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I know you pitched this as a Firefly/Serenity game, but you don't have to stick to that setting if it doesn't work for the kind of game you want to run. As for the money issue, the problem most RPGs have is that they handwave a lot of the stuff that affects prices and poses a serious draw on resources.

Let's take a modern example. There a number of European countries that could afford to buy a USN style CVN from the yards, assuming the US would let them. The problem is that they also have to crew and service the dang thing. Really, there are only two nations that would even make use of it in Europe, France and the UK. Most other nations in Europe are more focused on defending their homeland and meeting NATO/EU obligations than they are on expeditionary capability. Buying a CVN may be $10-20 billion, but you also have to pay the crew of 5,000-6,000, that's easily $250 million plus that again in benefits. You have to pay for maintenance, again, easily in the tens if not hundreds of millions. You have to pay for the aircraft, that's $5+ billion easy. You have to pay for maintenance on those aircraft, $10K per flight hour on average for something like an F-35C. Then there's the fuel, which planes guzzle like tomorrow. And on and on it goes until you're paying what you paid for the hull each year to field and maintain the thing.

My point is that there's more to operating a ship than most RPGs account for. Let's take a look at our little Firefly, Stargazer and what we would need to pay for.

- Reactor Fuel
- Rocket Fuel/Propellant
- Food for the crew and passengers
- Environmental Consumables (Filters, emergency air canisters, seals, other stuff that wears out on a regular basis)
- Maintenance
- Spare Parts
- Ship registration and certification
- Administrative Fees (Docking, inspection, cargo certification, software licenses, etc.)
- Taxes (Income taxes, ad valorem taxes, capital gains taxes, social program taxes, etc.)
- Insurance (Cargo, Ship, Worker's comp)

Fuel and maintenance would probably account for most of our expenses. We'd also have to add fees for the parasites (the two shuttles) as well as the fuel and maintenance to get a more complete picture of what we'd need to pay.

If we want to, we can ditch the pricing and just use a roll to see if we come out in the black or in the red on a job. We could even make it a skill challenge to get everyone involved.

As for the setting, I'd be happy helping flesh out a setting with the same feel as the Verse that is more conducive to the gameplay you want to have.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I think he was asking what are we carrying.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Sorry. The last couple of posts were made more out of silliness than anything else. I'm not sure if that came through.

I can suspend my disbelief, but it's hard when I start analyzing anything. There's something like a tripwire in my brain. If a story or a setting stumbles across it, then I start picking it apart and I honestly can't help myself.

I can live with the 20%. I'll just have to stuff that part of my brain into a closet with a gag on.

As for the pulse drive. I'd always assumed that the big drive that they used when going between planets was a torch drive of some sort. That to me makes more sense the not-a-warp-drive they described in that article.

As for which job. I'd say we take the freight job. It pays the best out of them. I hope y'all will forgive me if I don't roll for the spec cargo and salvage jobs this time.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2
Perenian "Perry" Ethgarnon wrote:
Cool. Can we game now?

Yes, but only Kligon chess.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2
Perenian "Perry" Ethgarnon wrote:
I GROK SPOCK

You see, you post that to be funny and point out that I need to chill, and I immediately start picking about how dumb the guy asking the question is (or how dumbly he has been written.) You don't ask the actor about that kind of stuff, you ask the writers and advisors.

It's a curse! I can't switch it off once I get going. I know I need to stop, but I can't. There's that part of me that is a writer, a worldbuilder, and a science geek that keeps badgering me that this is not how any of this would work every time I just try to put it aside. It's why I said I wasn't getting into it.

Then promptly got into it.

But that's beside the point! My point is there is no point. Just my brain insisting we are all spherical cows on perfectly frictionless planes with ISO4203469 grass to munch on.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2
Perenian "Perry" Ethgarnon wrote:
Let's just call it an Infinite Improbability Drive and carry on.

I tried! I really, really tried!

Note, I'm mostly being silly at this point.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

You'd think I'd have learned to let things go and just be okay with things making no sense, but nope! Here I am trying my damnedest to not pound out a wall of text on how many cans of worms that first paragraph opens up.

The problem is that, while I am no aerospace engineer or rocket scientist, I know enough to be able to construct a fairly hard setting, and Firefly is about as hard as melting cheese. It drives me bonkers and I really, really don't want to start ripping apart the setting, but I appear to be incapable of helping myself.

Then you run into the issues with the economics of the whole thing, the setup of the star system, and on and on it goes and there's a part of me that is just screaming, "THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!" and I can't shut it up!

Sorry, just had to vent a bit. Maybe now I can actually read that article without crying out to the heavens and cursing writers who don't take the time to educate themselves on a topic before writing about it.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I'm working through this and I have to say that I think there's some big problems.

First, it makes no sense to have operating costs be a percentage. It makes more sense to have a cost per week. The ship is going to require the same amount of maintenance and fuel and the crew the same amount of food and water per week of travel no matter how cheap or expensive the cargo is. It also makes sense that food for passengers are a part of the costs as well. I don't know if you just want to handwave it as already baked into the revenue per passenger or if you want to have that as separate cost.

Second, Cost really should be per day if we are calculating travel times in days. None of the costs neatly divide by 7 and my calculations are not going to be perfect.

Third, we need to talk about what constitutes travel time. If it's just getting there, then it makes no sense to roll for each cargo heading to the same destination. If if is waiting on the red tape, berthing, stevedores, inspections, etc. then it makes more sense to roll.

Fourth, the way the current travel tables are set up, it's entirely possible to have travel times to a completely different system be far less than to a location within the same system. Again, if travel time is more waiting for the red tape, then it's not so big of a deal, but still something that probably needs to be addressed.

On top of all of this, there is a lot of rolling and calculations. I'm going to pause on this until I have a chance to get some answers and to think this through some. I'm going to have what I have done in a spoiler below just to give an idea of what I'm talking about.

Current Calculations:

Alright. Let's see if I got this. (Because my reading comprehension is pretty spotty based on the number of things I've asked about that were already answered.)

- Steerage passengers
Persuasion(Networking): 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 61d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5
Aces!: 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9 => Success and 1 Raise. We keep 100%.

Steerage Passengers: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 5 => Rim 2

Travel Time: 3d8 ⇒ (6, 6, 1) = 13 => ~1.85 weeks

Revenue:
Gross: ~166.5p
Net: ~133.2p (After 20% for operating costs)

- Second-class passengers
Persuasion(Networking): 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 31d6 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5 Success. We keep 85%.

Second-class Passengers: 1d6 ⇒ 6

Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 1 => Core

Travel Time: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 4, 3) = 13 => ~1.85 weeks

Revenue:
Gross: ~333p
After Dealer Fees & Taxes: ~283.05p
Net: ~226.44p (After 20% for operating costs2)

- Freight
Persuasion(Networking): 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 61d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Aces!: 1d4 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9 => Success and 1 Raise. We keep 100%.

Lots: 1d6 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
Lot 1 Tonnage: 1d10 ⇒ 10 => 100 tons
Lot 2 Tonnage: 1d10 ⇒ 9 => 90 tons
Lot 3 Tonnage: 1d10 ⇒ 8 => 80 tons
Lot 4 Tonnage: 1d10 ⇒ 9 => 90 tons
Lot 5 Tonnage: 1d10 ⇒ 2 => 20 tons
Lot 6 Tonnage: 1d10 ⇒ 8 => 80 tons

Okay, I'm guessing each lot goes to a different place now that I am thinking about it. Reason being that these are different lots and are unlikely to be going to the same place.
Lot 1 Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 4 => Rim 1
Lot 2 Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 1 => Core
Lot 3 Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 3 => Border 2
Lot 4 Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 3 => Border 2
Lot 5 Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 2 => Border 1
Lot 6 Destination: 1d5 ⇒ 1 => Core

So, this brings up another question. Do we re-roll for travel time if we've already done so for a location? I can see arguments for both. Red tape, traffic, and inspections could all change delivery times. I'm going to go ahead and roll for each lot.
Lot 1 Travel Time: 3d8 ⇒ (7, 2, 6) = 15 => ~2.14 Weeks
Lot 2 Travel Time: 3d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 1) = 9 => ~1.29 Weeks
Lot 3 Travel Time: 3d8 - 2 ⇒ (1, 4, 7) - 2 = 10 => ~1.43 Weeks
Lot 4 Travel Time: 3d8 - 2 ⇒ (5, 1, 8) - 2 = 12 => ~1.71 Weeks
Lot 5 Travel Time: 3d8 - 2 ⇒ (1, 6, 2) - 2 = 7 => 1 Week
Lot 6 Travel Time: 3d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 3) = 8 => ~1.14 Weeks

Revenue Lot 1:
Gross: ~1070p
After Dealer Fees & Taxes: ~963p
Net: ~770.4p

- Speculative cargo

- Salvage


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

By the way, GM, am I good just to roll again now that I think I know what I'm doing?

As for the room situation. I'm good with getting an extra bunk in a room for Mark.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Mark's in his forties. He ain't sleeping in a hammock if he can help it. The main thing is he wants to keep an eye on his daughters, not crowd them, so he'd rather combine two rooms if he can.

Also, GM, is there a link to the setting document? The one in the recruitment is dead.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2
Able St.Germaine-Montclair wrote:
Mark Baum wrote:
Part of me wants to say he just sleeps on the floor, but if that's how it is, that's how it is. I take no responsibility for the shenanigans a couple of twelve-year-olds can get up to.
You could leave them in a room of their own short term, but Emma could probably rig in a bunk above one of the racks without too much trouble.

That brings up a good question. Could we combine two of the bunkrooms? I think that would work out better in the long run and keep from having three people crammed on top of each other.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Mark accepts the bottle Perry offers with a smile.

Able St.Germaine-Montclair wrote:
"Real tallow? Is this an occasion, or is that going to be the norm?"

"If you're talking about homecookin', that'll be normal. Fried chicken, however, that's for when we have a reason to celebrate."

Able St.Germaine-Montclair wrote:
"Mr. Baum, your daughters look healthy and lively; any issues I should be aware of?"

"Other than being too clever for their own good, nah. My little goblins seem to be alright."

Marks smile turns into a grin as a twin chorus of "Daaad!" comes from where the girls are busy cutting up vegetables for the sides.

Perenian "Perry" Ethgarnon wrote:
"Not that I don't trust Mark's girls, but I think it would be a good idea to establish an armory with a sequence lock for all our personal weapons. Having them lay around where anyone could get a hold of them is irresponsible."

"Agreed. I've taught them to respect guns, and I trust them not to do anything dumb, but I would feel a lot better if we have anything we weren't carryin' locked up."

Able St.Germaine-Montclair wrote:
Mark Baum wrote:
Part of me wants to say he just sleeps on the floor, but if that's how it is, that's how it is. I take no responsibility for the shenanigans a couple of twelve-year-olds can get up to.
You could leave them in a room of their own short term, but Emma could probably rig in a bunk above one of the racks without too much trouble.

Moving this to discussion


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Okay, I think I got it now. If you don't mind GM, I think I'd rather just start over and see if I get it right this time.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

- Steerage : 1d8 ⇒ 3 Passengers Destination: 1d3 ⇒ 2 Border
- Second-class : 1d6 ⇒ 6 Passengers Destination: 1d3 ⇒ 3 Rim
- Freight : 1d6 ⇒ 1 lots; 1d10 ⇒ 10 => 100 tons per lot Destination: 1d3 ⇒ 2 Border
- Speculative : 1d6 ⇒ 5 lots; 1d10 ⇒ 1 => 10 tons per lot Destination: 1d3 ⇒ 3 Rim
- Salvage : TBD Destination: 1d3 ⇒ 1 Core

Forgot to roll for this.

So, it looks like we have 3 steerage passengers and 100 tons of freight to the Border, 6 passengers and up to 50 tons of spec cargo to the Rim, and a salvage job for someone in the Core.

Our take on the salvage job will be 85%. The others are 90%

Border Jobs:
Freight nets us 450p/week
Steerage nets us 27p/week

If we can take both, that's 477p/week of travel.

Rim Jobs:
Passengers net us 162p/week
Spec is currently unknown

GM, how are we handling the salvage job? Do you have something in mind or am I free to make up something within reason?


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

As Emma looks at the stove, Mark gives Perry a look normally only directed at his daughters. It is the look of a father who is not convinced by the yarn being spun.


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Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

WILD! Networking(Persuasion): 1d6 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Derp. thanks for that Atlas. I haven't played SW in a while, so I forgot that was a thing.

And Woot! We has job!


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Networking(Persuasion): 1d4 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 2 = 3

Well, that's a bummer. Can I spend bennie on this one?


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Part of me wants to say he just sleeps on the floor, but if that's how it is, that's how it is. I take no responsibility for the shenanigans a couple of twelve-year-olds can get up to.

Mark looks up as Emma asks about smuggling compartments and tries his best not to sigh.

"I hope you're joking," he tells Emma. "Captain, she is joking, isn't she?"


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I was planning on him being the guy that knew where to find work. I figured that he could be back up for negotiations. As for role on the ship. Well, I guess he's the cook.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

"Thanks, Captain. It can't be much worse than the Inglorious's cooktop," Mark says as he begins gathering what is needed. His daughters begin pulling out pots and pans for the other dishes.

"It was also stinky!"

"Yeah, so stinky it would make us want to throw up."

They giggle as Mark shakes his head.

"None of that girls," he warns them. "We don't need to be letting them know what kind of tricksters y'all can be at least until we leave port."

The smile on his face does take any potential sting from the words.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

Introductions made, Mark tracks down Hailey and Holly to find that they picked one of the larger berths. Four bunks for four people, but he figures that no one else would be too eager to bunk with him and two girls.

"This is pretty nice. We should have plenty of room," Mark says as he looks around. "You two did good. Now, lets make this place home."

Three sets of hands make quick work of getting things cleaned and settled in. Things are going smoothly so far, and Mark is feeling hopeful that this flight will be a smooth one.

---

Mark goes through the galley's stocks to see what he could make from the ship's stores. Seeing as it was getting close to lunch, he decides to ingratiate himself and his daughters with the rest of the crew.

Better to have them be friends when they learn I'm alliance than not.

"Alright, who wants to help me make some fried chicken?"

I don't think anyone has said they are the ship's cook. Mark'll happily take that role.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

I think that's probably the best way to handle that without getting into breaking things down by scene and asking how many scenes are in a session.


Pace: 6, Parry: 5, Toughness: 6(1), Bennies: 2

My sister's about to experience that. She's graduating from nursing school this month, then has the Inclex in January. Pretty excited to get started. She pretty much nailed her dream job when she got hired by one of the local hospital's nurseries.

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