VAST02 - Vast Dominions Actual Play

[Nobody]

Wow, I feel like we needed a thread for this game because...

WOW, what sass. If my 11 year old said that to my wife, he would have to move in to the corner.

[fredrix]

Now, on shooting at airships. You can't "pop" airships like you can balloons. Read the report of Leefe Robinson, the first man to shoot down a "Zeppelin" (though it wasn't an actual Zeppelin, but a different make). He emptied two canisters of ammo into one and did't hurt it at all. There are a couple couple of reasons for this, one is that the gas-bags are compartmentalised, and the other is the the cow-hide used to make the bags has some sort of self repairing quality (I can't recall the details of this, but I vaguely remember it from a BBC documentary).

Leefe Robinson was using special incendiary ammo in an attempt to make the gas-bag explode but even that didn't work in level flight. The bullets went through the gasbag and out the other side before properly catching fire. Only when shooting from below (when, IIRC, gravity slowed the bullet down just enough to ignite the gas) was he successful.

[fredrix]

Actually stu, I wanted to ask in that pirate fight, Kimi (?i think) was shooting at extreme range at the pirate crew with her rifle and failing. In MoT would it have been legitimate to say "I fail" for the first couple of shots, and earn a couple of MOTs to add to my roll on the third shot?

[Nobody]

BTW, I did like the story.

[Stu Venable]

Aug 15, 2016 1:37:40 GMT -8 fredrix said:

Actually stu, I wanted to ask in that pirate fight, Kimi (?i think) was shooting at extreme range at the pirate crew with her rifle and failing. In MoT would it have been legitimate to say "I fail" for the first couple of shots, and earn a couple of MOTs to add to my roll on the third shot?

Combat rolls are the one exception to the "take a failure" rule. That got changed in an early playtest (I believe it was Gina who found that loophole).

[fredrix]

Aug 16, 2016 10:15:28 GMT -8 Stu Venable said:

Aug 15, 2016 1:37:40 GMT -8 fredrix said:

Actually stu, I wanted to ask in that pirate fight, Kimi (?i think) was shooting at extreme range at the pirate crew with her rifle and failing. In MoT would it have been legitimate to say "I fail" for the first couple of shots, and earn a couple of MOTs to add to my roll on the third shot?

Combat rolls are the one exception to the "take a failure" rule. That got changed in an early playtest (I believe it was Gina who found that loophole).

Interesting. Given the way the MoT economy has changed since those early days, is it worth reconsidering that exception?

[Stu Venable]

The system has always had a problem with people electing to fail (or add complications, etc). That's the part of the system that's still looking at major revisions. (the rest of the game mechanics seem to work fine)

In the next session of Vast Dominions (Session 4, I think) I'm going to try something different to earn MoTs, that doesn't involve player choice. A dice failure (any failure) earns you 1, a success with a setback earns you 1, and a critical failure earns you 2.

There seems to be a problem with players electing to fail. No real surprise.

[Deleted]

I don't know how similar MoTs are to plot points but what you've just described is very similar to how players earn plot points in cortex+ games such as Firefly and it works really well there.

[mrcj]

A quick thought about two weapons.

Thought you might want to look at how Steve Jackson handled that issue pre-GURPS in his old TFT game. Maybe it will give you an idea. I can't copy from the pdf, but on page 13 of Advanced Melee there are rules for left handed weapons, like for the player who holds a rapier in one hand and a dagger it the other. Here is the link to Advanced Melee, www.thortrains.net/downloads/AdvMeleeLarge.pdf


Also in TFT it was a talent, the rules part will not match but look at the structure of it with different effects depending on what the character chose to do. Someone put In the Labrynth on line, nice little resource and I copied it below, inthelabyrinth.org/:

TWO WEAPONS: (3) [In The Labyrinth] This is the knowledge of the Florentine style of fighting–or, in the Orient, the Nitto style of the Katori Ryu of Izasa. In other words, the ability to use two swords (or, if you want to be unconventional, any two one-handed weapons) at the same time. You MUST have DX 13 or better to learn this.

Any character can fight with two weapons at once–IF one of the weapons is a dagger, main-gauche, or spike shield, or IF some combination like net-and-trident or two cesti is being used. However, a character that wants to fight with two swords, sword and mace, or other such combination MUST have this talent.

This talent permits a character fighting with two weapons, on any turn he attacks, to do any one of the following:

(a) attack with both weapons, at normal DX for the first attack and -4 for the second one. The attacks may be against the same OR different figures.
(b) make a normal attack with one weapon and parry with the other. The second weapon acts as a shield to stop 2 hits.
(c) parry with both weapons, stopping 4 hits of damage, but not threatening the enemy.

It is permitted to combine the Fencing ability with this one–but you must use either two rapiers, or a rapier and main-gauche, as your two weapons, since these are the two-weapon techniques taught to fencers. If you are not using the Fencing talent and its accompanying bonuses, you may fight with any two weapons that you have the ST to use.

Prerequisite: You MUST have the talents for any weapons you use this way.

[egerog]

Hi stu i love your setting for vast dominions
i had and idea about the physics of gravity in space. you might conciser that down in interplanetary space be to the sun
so near a planet it is to the center of the planet and when you get a certain distance from it you abruptly enter solar gravity.
also the odd gravity situation in how you have it or i suggest could make some interesting maneuvering and strategic issues when landing on a planet with a lighter than air ship. pilot needing to approach in a way that both interplanetary gravity and planitary gravity are pointing in the same direction. limiting craft to landing on a small quadrant of a planet and it being more difficult the further away from that sweet spot

[d47]

mrcj,
Any reference to TFT for the WIN!