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Monday, August 31, 2015

Drive Shticks and Ship Design

2.5.2 Piloting Shticks

The following are the piloting related shticks. I have removed any that make your vehicle better since I do intend to make vehicle creation rules (albeit very fast and loose ones) since the ship is a key narrative space rather than the thing you grab the wheel of to get in the fight.

Counterslam

Opposing vehicles take +3 Chase Points from
Bumps for each shtick you have in this, up to 3 shticks.

Floor It!

+1 Handling when an opponent narrows the gap with you for each schtick you have in this. Up to 3 shticks/

Hold on Tight

+2 to Chase Points dealt an enemy vehicle when you close or narrow the gap with it; add another +1 for each   extra shtick, up to 3 shticks.

Riding the Edge

For a 1 point Fortune spend you can decrease the shot cost of you ship actions (both drive and guns) reduces by 1 for the remainder of the sequence. Once done the sequence is over the stress does 5 chase points to the ship.

Neve Tell Me The Odds

Pay 1 Fortune to ignore any negative modifiers to Piloting from obstacles and conditions until end of fight.

Oh No You Don't

As an interrupt after your vehicle takes Chase Points spend 1 Fortune and 1 shot to reduce your vehicle’s total Chase Points by 5.

Ram Speed

For each Shtick in Ram speed add +1 Crunch when you ram or sideswipe a vehicle, or +2 to your Damage Value when you hit a pedestrian. You can take this up to 3 times.

Tools of the Trade

After you make a successful Martial Arts attack with vehicle tool as an improvised blunt weapon, spend 1 Fortune as an interrupt to give it a Damage Value of 15 until next sequence.

2.5.3 Ship Design & Shticks

I can, and likely will, build out a whole bunch of vehicle stats, but let me lay out a really simple mechanism for building vehicles as if they were characters; the focus here is on Scout ship to Free Trader sized vehicles that the PCs might actually fly

In all cases they have Acceleration, Handling, and Frame of 5, Classic of 0. They also have 5 points to split between those, with no more than 4 in any stat.

Is this looks like character creation, give yourself a cookie.

Shticks come next: There are 12 ‘spaces; on a Free Trader sized ship once you take out controls, drive and crew cabins (it has space for 3-6 depending on how you partition out the rooms). Each player who has a character on the crew is able to pick a shtick from the list below (though they don’t have to – we let each player pick so everyone has a stake in the shared space of the ship). They all have a space cost on the ship, which reduces the money the ship can make on each trip. And if we were going to go nuts on Resources as a real thing we’d care a lot about, but we don’t. So basically any cargo is going to have a 1 Resources #, which is the number of Spaces you need free for the Jump 1 trip to score 1 Resources. The best cargoes have a low 1 Resources #, while the most common ones have a high number. Illegal ones generally have much lower 1 Resources #s for all the obvious reasons.

Ablative Armor (1 space each)

The ship has armor on it that wears down under attacks. Still, it gives 10 extra life points for each time you take this, up to 20 more. This costs Resources 1 to replace

Classic Model (1 space each)

You’re driving an out of date ship where everything is bigger and clunkier and you lose space because of that but it’s also a classic model, the sort that keeps on working forever. Each shtick you have in this up to 3 gives the ship a bank of Fortune Points to spend on any ship related action – either in chase scenes or to reinforce the bonus of other Shticks.

How is this still flying? (1 space)

The ship is a quirky mess of jury rigs and work-arounds that take up space and confound the unwary. This doesn’t provide you any immediate benefit, but anyone other than the normal crew tries to pilot, repair, sabotage or modify her it is at such a penalty that the original crew will get the ship back when it breaks down and strands the thieves some-where awkward, or be able to escape confinement within in and retake the ship from the pirates.

Hyperspectral Sensors (1 space)

This is a top of the line sensor array that gives a +2 on any rolls made to sense or detect things around the ship. This is usually an Info/Science roll but it could be something else. In any event, this is better than normal.

Jump 2 (3 spaces)

For a sizable investment in space you can have a Jump 2 drive rather than a Jump 1 drive. This opens up several new routes, but the loss of space is prohibitive. A Jump 3 drive costs 10 spaces (7 more than a Jump 2) and is all but out of the range of this sort of ship, though tight quartered scout ships might have one.

Maneuvering Rockets (1 space each)

These give a +1 Handling; Handling can’t be higher than 9, but you can take this multiple times.

Navi-Computer (1 space)

You have a superior navigation system that gives you a +2 bonus on Navigation rolls (or the skill at 8 if no one on board has it). And yes, the navi-computer takes up as much space as a missile bay or tons of grain shipment. It’s Traveller. You’re lucky the damn thing doesn’t have a reel to reel memory tape.

Reinforced Spaceframe (1 space each)

These give a +1 Frame; Frame can’t be higher than 9, but you can take this multiple times.

Repair/Fabrication Space (1 space)

There is a repair shop, with a nice rack of tools and the tools needed to create many key ship components. Having this on the ship gives a +2 on an Repair tests to fix the ship and a +1 on any other Repair tests.

Secret Compartments (X Spaces)

You can designate a certain number of spaces as beign Secret Compartments. These are hidden and hard to access and can’t be used for other cargoes but it does give you cargo space with a Deception 13 to avoid being spotted by the authorities. No more than 1/3rd of your space (round up) be Secret Compartments.

Science Lab (1 space)

This is a well-stocked science and medical lab on the ship. This lets you add a +1 to any Info: Science or Medicine rolls on the ship and gives an increased survival chance for Low Passage guests if you bother to track their status.(It’s now a Medicine 3 roll rather than Medicine 7)

Ship Gun (2 spaces internal, 1 external)

This is a ship to ship weapon that does 15 damage on a hit; that can be Chase Points to another ship (resist with Frame) or Wound Points to a human (resist with Body). What’s that? It makes no sense for a guns that ear through ship armor to do that little damage to humans? Hahahahaha! Have you never seen an action movie? The guns can be obvious or concealed except when firing at no cost as either choice brings advantages and disadvantages. If you have more than one gun you can have more than one gunner shooting on the ships actions. An external gun requires someone outside in a vacc suit to aim and fire.

Ship Missiles (1 space)

Missiles do a damage of 16 against human sized targets or 20 against vehicles (and take out Fighters on a roll of 4+) but have a capacity of 4 and a reload of 10 shots. Damage from these weapons is resisted with the ship’s Frame. (Note – don’t get hit by missiles!) Unlike Ships Guns you can’t have someone outside firing them to save space.

Superior Drive (1 space each)

These give a +1 Acceleration; Acceleration can’t be higher than 9, but you can take this multiple times.

Well Stocked Bar (1 Space)

The ships has a better than normal stocked galley and bar. In addition to any morale improvements this gives you it lets you sell your accommodations as Middle Passage with a straight face (Low Passage is freezing the passengers, or cramming them in like sardines). If you hire additional entertainers (2 entertainers per passenger) you can even stretch things with a good sales roll as High Passage for a one jump trip; each High Passenger takes at least 3 spaces.

Example: IMTU Chimera

Acceleration 6
Handling 7
Frame 6

5 players: Science Lab; Extensive rack of repair tools, Socked Galley & Bar; Hidden Gunnery Unit; Secret Compartments 

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