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Post by lowkeyoh on May 22, 2015 11:20:40 GMT -8
So, I'm still plowing through the backlog and yesterday I came across S7, Ep2: Tips for GMing Traveller. It was mentioned (and reinforced) that a GM can't really have a game in mind until the PCs are rolled up (due to the random nature of CharGen). Bill Roper or anyone else who knows, how true is that? Bill, it seems to me that you already had a general story prepped and ready. Did CharGen throw any wrenches for what you had in mind? Any tips, or is it not really that big a deal? From what I understand, the players DO get choices in what paths they take (still waiting for my book to arrive), so I imagine if they know the general theme of the game, they can choose some fitting paths. Yes? No? A little later than I had intended to write this, but hey, better late than never. The problem with having plot in mind before rolling up characters comes down to how random character generation is. The first is you don't know what the capacity and backgrounds of the characters are going to be. Want the game to be combat heavy? What do you do when everyone has low physical stats? Or no one has a weapon skill? Or half the party got kicked out of the military? Sure you can choose what paths you take as a player, but you have to qualify for the job with a dice roll and then manage to stay in the job. Your all marine game just got canned because half your marines failed to get into the profession and the other half got kicked out after two terms. Now what? Even within specific careers the skills you're going to get are random. When I want to make a shooty character in Star Wars Traveller I go Guerrilla-Terrorist. Even though that job is all about combat, you can come out with no weapon skills, Deception 4 Stealth 3 and Explosives 3. That's just the will of the dice. Secondly and in my eyes more importantly, players are going to be generating backstory information. They will be meeting on planets and interacting with each other every term. They will be meeting allies, enemies, rivals, and contacts. These people NEED to matter. If someone has the choice between Diplomat 0 and an Ally and they choose the Ally and that Ally never comes into to play, that blows. It also sucks to never have your massive failure when you crashed your cruiser into a planet and got stranded there ever brought up in game. Not weaving in personal stories from character generation is denying your players the ability to feel special and unique and important. So you CAN have a story in mind, especially if it's vague enough. Something like "Find Darth Ynon" is great. There is an impetus for each player to go, the characters from their background show up, and their skill sets are required to make progress. Writing an entire story with a cast of characters and assumptions of what the players are going to need to do to advance the plot isn't ok. Because what if you get four medics and a courier. I ran a one shot at a con and used the Tappy method of 'everyone has to take a mishap to explain why you are mercenaries' and it work out really well. They got hired to do a job and they did it. But even then I had to design the job on the fly to try and fit what the players were capable of doing. I could have done that part better. But there was a few good roleplaying scenes, and the game ended with party stealing the blueprints to the Death Star to sell to some Bothans, but not after inserting an exhaust port into the original blueprints on the construction mainframe.
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Post by weaselcreature on May 22, 2015 14:23:08 GMT -8
Thanks for the feedback lowkeyoh. I think what I have in mind is going to work. While the group will be Imperials, I think the general story I have in mind (they will be an undercover SpecOps team, rooting out rebel terrorists) is loose enough to incorporate their backstories (especially contacts, allies, rivals (I also believe in the importance of bringing in backstory)), as they will be encouraged to branch into other careers for the sole purpose of developing contacts and skills to allow them to work in an undercover fashion and blend in with civilians). I did a couple sample CharGens with my wife to test things out; she Storked her first character, failing out of pretty much everything (but she had the base skills of an Imperial Army grunt (which includes some combat)), but was still workable. Her second character came out with a great story line, some connections, an unofficial Rival, and was brought back into the Imperial fold. I'm realistically hopeful, and excited! Thanks again!
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Post by lowkeyoh on May 23, 2015 14:32:05 GMT -8
Thanks for the feedback lowkeyoh. I think what I have in mind is going to work. While the group will be Imperials, I think the general story I have in mind (they will be an undercover SpecOps team, rooting out rebel terrorists) is loose enough to incorporate their backstories (especially contacts, allies, rivals (I also believe in the importance of bringing in backstory)), as they will be encouraged to branch into other careers for the sole purpose of developing contacts and skills to allow them to work in an undercover fashion and blend in with civilians). I did a couple sample CharGens with my wife to test things out; she Storked her first character, failing out of pretty much everything (but she had the base skills of an Imperial Army grunt (which includes some combat)), but was still workable. Her second character came out with a great story line, some connections, an unofficial Rival, and was brought back into the Imperial fold. I'm realistically hopeful, and excited! Thanks again! That sounds unbelievably rad. Would love to hear updates how the game goes. In your mind what are the chances they're going to defect?
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Post by weaselcreature on May 23, 2015 16:50:05 GMT -8
That's definitely something I'm wondering myself. After starting the facebook group, one member (my groups min-maxer who is also and awesome roleplayer) said something about being very eager to take care of rebel scum. My wife, on the other hand, used to work for LucasArts video game development, and did a LOT of work regarding Kashyyk Wookiee's, so I see her as being the most prone to switch. We'll see what happens! I'm doing CharGen as a group in a week or two (hopefully) and I'll update.
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Post by weaselcreature on May 25, 2015 19:11:46 GMT -8
While Bill did do a weapon conversion, he didn't do armor. So I took a crack at it. If anyone wants to give feedback, that'd be great! I redid the list.I lowered the values for Laminate and Mandolorian armor, and added a couple power suits.
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Post by weaselcreature on May 28, 2015 14:23:47 GMT -8
That sounds unbelievably rad. Would love to hear updates how the game goes. I started my own thread on my game if you (or anyone else) wants to see what happens and/or comment on my conversion bits.
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Post by Bill Roper on Jun 7, 2015 15:18:23 GMT -8
Just used the Armor chart in our 7th Episode. Thanks!
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Post by weaselcreature on Jun 8, 2015 6:54:47 GMT -8
Glad to hear it's still going! I was just wondering about that. Please share any feedback on the list if you have any. We're doing CharGen this Friday, so I haven't playtested any of it. I figure putting the stormtrooper armor at 10 lets them take 2, maybe 3 blaster rifle shots before going unconscious (yeah, I know it's not canon for them not to drop like flies ), but they'll be able to weather quite a few blaster pistol shots, so I'm worried about that aspect.
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D.T. Pints
Instigator
JACKERCON 2018: WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY June 22-July 1st
Posts: 2,857
Currently Playing: D&D 5e, Pathfinder, DUNGEONWORLD, Star Wars Edge of the Empire
Currently Running: DUNGEONWORLD, PATHFINDER
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Post by D.T. Pints on Jun 8, 2015 6:55:31 GMT -8
There's a SEVENTH episode! !
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Post by Bill Roper on Jun 8, 2015 10:48:13 GMT -8
Yes, after a painfully long hiatus, we played our 7th session and WOW we got a lot done. The best part is that we successfully reached the end of what I have been thinking of as Chapter One of the story. Everyone seemed to come away pretty satisfied and there were definitely a couple of things that happened that either I wasn't sure would occur, or took me completely by surprise. I have to do the mix down and then ship it off to Stu for posting.
As for the armor charts, we grabbed a couple of things from them, but I didn't give them a huge run through. I wouldn't be afraid to up the armor rating if Storm Troopers are going to fight against players with Blaster Rifles. Once you start throwing 5d6+3 damage out there, you'll be surprised at how fast damage adds up. It really depends on how heavily armed you're going to let the players get.
If they're more lightly armed, a Blaster Pistol does 3d6, so you're looking at an average of 10 points per shot. If it's a Heavy Blaster Pistol, ad +3 to the roll. so a DR 10 could work well. What I do specifically for Stormtrooper armor is assume it is lightly powered (which is why you need battledress to wear it) and I give it a 1-6 chance of shorting out. Whenever you take any energy hit, roll a d6. On a 1, it locks up and basically drops the wearer to the ground, paralyzed.
ONE IMPORTANT NOTE on the character gen tables - I was thinking of Star Wars as being very Space Fantasy so I actually removed Zero-G and Vacc Suit from the skills tables. I will probably go back and add them back in where appropriate, but you might want to consider giving all the players both skills at 0 as a basic part of character generation.
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Post by weaselcreature on Jun 8, 2015 11:40:09 GMT -8
Looking forward to hearing it! Interesting take on the stormtrooper armor. My party will be Imperials as well (at least at the start), so while they won't face stormtroopers, laminate armor can be found elsewhere. They're undercover, though, so there won't be too many highly armed/armored foes (and they won't be, either) so it should balance out, and when they are going against something heavy, they'll need to bring out the big guns. It'll give them cause to run away/surrender when the best they have is a heavy pistol. I still kept the need for battle dress for laminate armor [edit: I realize that was not on my list originally, but the list has been updated], not because it's powered (as in power-assist; there is some power to it), but because of the integrated systems (with the ability to add on more things as well (like weapon systems similar to Mandolorian armor, but not Mandolorian)). However, if I feel I need to, I'll "Yoink!" your short-circuit roll and have it short out the electronics (including the vision package) to give them problems. And thanks for the 0-G & Vacc suit skill heads up!
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Post by Bill Roper on Jun 8, 2015 13:42:37 GMT -8
I like the laminate armor take. I never did Armor so I'm just now thinking of all this in a holistic way.
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redcy
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 12
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Post by redcy on Jul 31, 2015 10:56:53 GMT -8
I'm not sure if it's answered elsewhere, I see you have done a lot on imperial fleet, but specifically nothing for any rebellion presumably because you don't see you playing it? Has anyone tried this, thoughts, ie just changing it to be rebel fleet, rebel commandos, etc?
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Post by Bill Roper on Jul 31, 2015 16:34:10 GMT -8
As the rebels are usually culled from other sources, I assume that anyone who becomes a Rebel gets there after mustering out from other areas, including mercenary and Guerillas.
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redcy
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 12
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Post by redcy on Jul 31, 2015 23:17:57 GMT -8
Yes I can see that maybe it's better to think of the revel fleet as just guerrillas, and you would advance through them a bit like stork attempted.
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