FT Roleplaying (long)

> On 'Fri, 6 Sep 1996 18:03:13 -0400' you wrote:

> CHIEF ENGINEER:

These 2 posistions sound a little slow. Maybe just roleplay the repairs?
Change the scaning rules?

Greetings all!

One of the reasons I first looked at FT, was because I was looking for
something to use for ship-to-ship combat in a sci-fi roleplaying game.
(Does anyone remember Star Hero from Hero Games? Probably not. Very good
ideas,
poor execution, non-existent marketing.) While I quickly fell in love
with
FT, I felt it didn't work well as a role-playing addition -- not
surprising, since it wasn't designed as such.

In FT, everything is based on the ships' characteristics; 2 ships with the
same thrust fly the same, regardless whether one is piloted by Han Solo and
the other by Mr.Magoo. This is fine for fleet miniatures; taking the skills of
individual crews into account would be far too complicated. You simply assume
that the differences between crews are minor enough to be overlooked in the
name of simplicity.

But in role-playing, the story is centered on the characters, and the
relative skills of those characters do make a difference. Han Solo should be
able to out-fly Mr. Magoo even if they have comparable ships. (I know
this could be argued from a technology perspective, but I'm looking at it from
a
story-telling perspective.)

That said, here are some ideas I’ve been toying with. The basic idea is that
each crewman (helm, targeting, so forth) has a skill roll related to
his/her
job, and these skill rolls can affect the ship’s performance. Yes this adds a
couple extra dice rolls, but normally in roleplaying games you’re only
worried about 1 or 2 ships; any beyond that can be handled per the normal
rules.

To keep things generic, we’ll say that skill rolls are made by rolling below
a certain number on 3d6. Rolling below that number equals success; rolling
above it equals failure. Rolling 5 below that number is an outstanding
success; rolling 5 above it is outstanding failure. Make sense so far? Here
goes....

COMMAND: Each ship captain makes a skill roll to determine firing order, with
best success going first. Alternately, you could have only the opposing fleet
commanders roll; the winner chooses which ship to fire first, and firing then
alternates normally.

GUNNERS: (1 gunner per FireCon?)

Success adds 1 to roll(s) to hit. (Alternately, for weapons affected by
screens you could ignore 1 level of screens.) Outstanding success adds
2;
failure subtracts 1; outstanding failure subtracts 2.

HELMSMAN: may attempt any _one_ of the following maneuvers each turn.

Maneuvering: each 2 below required roll allows the pilot to adjust his ships
location by 1” after movement.

Hard Turn: outstanding success allows the pilot to use 1 more thrust than
normal for turning (ie -- a ship with 4 thrust could turn 3 points and
accelerate or brake 1). Less than outstanding success has no effect.

Evasive action: Any result gives a -1 to the gunners on the _evading_
ship.
Success gives a -1 to all enemy gunners firing on ship; outstanding
success
gives a -2. Failure gives +0; outstanding failure gives +1 and ship is
out of control! (Ship may use no thrust next turn and drifts at current
velocity;
roll 1d6 to determine direction, 1-2: 1 point to port, 3-4: straight
ahead,
5-6: 1 point to starboard. Ship’s gunners at -3. Helm must make
successful piloting roll next turn to regain control.)

CHIEF ENGINEER:
Success or failure adds/subtracts from DCP repair rolls.

SCAN OFFICER:
Success or failure adds/subtracts from scan rolls.

There are probably more possibilities, but this post is long enough already.
Comments?

Scott,

The only thing that jumps out at me is the Gunner/Engineer/Scanner
Officers.  In each of these cases, there is always a + or a -.  There
is no result on the skills that will result in a normal
shot/repair/scan.

On these kind of things, I prefer most of the time to have the skill roll
result in no modifier, or a minor success. The next most often would be a
minor failure, then major successes and failures come in at the same odds for
an average character. Again, my opinion.

This just reflects my feelings about the efforts of your average crewman in
these skill positions. Even your average guy, when trying to pull something
off, may succeed at it, or he may not, but if he fails, that doesn't necce
necessarily make things worse. Thus the need for a spread of skill results
that is "no effect", and a negative result being less common than a slight
positive result.

I don't have time right now to figure out how this would apply to a 3d6
system, but that's my thoughts on the whole thing.

Beat Navy!

Out here.

        -monty

> At 10:03 PM 9/6/96 +0000, you wrote:
(Does
> anyone remember Star Hero from Hero Games? Probably not. Very good

> There are probably more possibilities, but this post is long enough

I don't have any rules for characters or Skilled Officers in FT, but I do have
rules for Bridges and wounding characters therein. (I couldn't help it; I just
love those bridge hit scenes in Wrath of Khan). Anyway, attached to this
message are my rules for free systems (Bridges and shuttle bays). I apologize
to anyone who isn't interested.

        James

> I don't have any rules for characters or Skilled Officers in

James,

Ya wouldn't happen to have a basic ascii-text version of this, would ya?

Mk

> At 11:22 AM 9/8/96 +0000, you wrote:

> James,

Whoops, I thought you could read Windows write files as ascii. I've always
been able to "type suchandso.wri" and get it to spill out as ascii.
Oh well, I'll convert the text to ascii and re-post. My bad.

        James

Apologizing again to those who aren't interested and apologizing now to those
who are but need an ascii version of the files, here are the ascii versions of
my Bridge and Boat Bay rules.

        James

P.S. Somebody let me know if you can read them. Ships have various facilities
within them for the control of the

ship, most obviously and notably, the Bridge. There are typically other such
facilities that were either designed for it or not that can be used

to control the ship, such as Main Engineering, Auxillary Control, the
Emergency Bridge, CIC, etc.

Each ship gets for free as part of the 50% of the ship that CANNOT be used for
weapons and systems certain operating necessities, such as
Command/Control spaces. To repeat: you don't have to pay either mass or
cost
for the command/control spaces you start with. However, you may purchase

additional ones.

        A ship gets one command/control space if it is an Escort,
two if it is a Cruiser and three if it is a Capital ship. Additional spaces up
to double what is given may be purchased at one mass and two cost.
So at best, a Capital ship could have six command/control spaces.

        Command/control spaces come in three sizes: Single, double and
triple.
The advantage of a double or triple command/control space is that it
counts as one system for rolling for threshold checks. A successful DCP roll
repairs one
space or repairs the damage done by a single hit to a multi-space
facility.
The disadvantage is that any time a command/control space is hit, you
must
roll for ALL characters within to check for wounds. Command/control
spaces may be targeted by Needles and other such weapons.

        Command/control spaces are affected by threshold checks like any
other system. A double or triple control space requires multiple hits to take
it out of action. Unlike other systems that specifically do something in
combat, the effects of command control spaces go largely unnoticed until they
are
lost. The effects of losing ALL of a ship's command/control spaces are
as follows:

1. The ship requires an extra thrust point for any turn. That is to say if a
ship can allocate two points of thrust to turning, it only makes a
one point turn when it has no functioning command/control spaces to
represent decreased maneuverability.

        2. Helm officers (and/or Player Characters) may not roll for
increased
 maneuverability except to counter-act the above penalty.

3. Aegis fire control loses its special benefits.

4. The ship functions as if it had one less fire control system than it does.
This is ignored if this would reduce the ship's effective number of fire
control systems from one to zero.

5. Enhanced or Superior sensors lose their special abilities. ECM (and ECCM)
may not be used. Tractor beams may not be used.

6. The ship may not lay or sweep mines.

7. The number of DCPs the ship has is effectively cut in half, round down, to
represent an inability to direct DCPs to damaged systems effectively.

        8. All fire is made at a penalty of 1; Gunners/Weapon Officers
may roll as ordinarily but if successful may only counteract the penalty; they
may not roll at an advantage.

If using rules for Player Characters or Skilled Officers, at all

times in combat, it must be specified which command/control space the
PCs or Skilled Officers are in. If that space is hit, a Threshold Check must
be made for every PC or Skilled Officer in that space. If a Check is failed
for that person, they are wounded.

Wounded personnel roll on the Wound Chart: (Roll 2d6:)

2 Killed instantly
   3                       Killed after flashback and/or speech
   4-5                     Seriously wounded; Skilled doctor must reach
person and make a Difficult Skill roll to save character's life; character (if
saved) is out of the next 1d3 battles
   6-8                     Moderately wounded; character is out of this
fight but will definitely recover
   9-10                    Hurt, dazed; character is incapacitated for
the next 1d6 turns 11 Character pushed out of harm's way at last instant;
opponent chooses another character (except the Captain) in the same control
space and rolls a threshold check against them immediately.
                                Ignore this result (and re-roll) if it

occurs twice on the same ship in the same turn. If character is the only
PC/Skilled
Officer in control space,assume an enlisted man bravely dies saving the
character from harm. 12 Character suffers a close call but no real damage

        If a Doctor PC/Skilled Officer is on hand and makes an immediate

successful skill roll, the wounded character adds +1 to the die roll. If
a
modified result of 9-10 results, the character is incapacitated for
1d6+1
turns. If a modified result of 11-13 results, the doctor's efforts
enable the character to return to duty after a delay of one full turn.

James Butler (jamesbutler@worldnet.att.net)

Every ship gets a free Boat Bay equal in size to the mass of the

ship/10, round up. (This is in exception to the More Thrust rules that
permit bays only in a minimum mass of six. Even a destroyer or frigate could
have one ship's boat of some kind, which would be impossible if a mass six bay
were required.) This free bay is filled with single mass cutters. By free it
is meant that neither the mass nor the cost of the bay are counted. If the
designer wishes to expand this bay, it must be expanded to at least a mass of
six and all the ordinary costs and rules in More Thrust apply.

Cutters are small landing craft used primarily to convey small quantities of
supplies and personnel to and from ships, stations and planets. They are
unarmed entirely, with neither weapons for space combat nor planetary combat.
Cutters travel at a speed of eight inches per turn. Cutters may convey troops
in combat. Cutters have a capacity of 8 CS and may thus transport two Marine
Fire Teams. Cutters are not designed for combat; as

such, all *DAF fire against them is rolled with a bonus of +1.

Cutters may be exchanged for Assault Craft. Assault Craft are
full-fledged dropships designed for combat duty. Assault Craft may
defend themselves against dogfighting fighters as if they were Attack Fighters
in More Thrust. Assault Craft are also equipped with weapons for providing
support to ground troops. Like Cutters, Assault Craft have a two-man
crew.
As full-fledged single mass dropships, Assault Craft have a capacity of
10 CS. Assault Craft have a speed of twelve inches per turn.

Cutters and Assault Craft may transport Marines to enemy ships in combat. To
do so, they must end their movement within three inches of the target vessel.
When attempting to deliver troops (by landing on the outer
surface of the ship, forced/crash landing into an enemy boat bay or
simply
making a fly-by while powered armor troops jump for it), they must first

survive enemy *DAF fire. Cutters and Assault Craft attempting to deliver

troops suffer double casualites from such *DAF fire (for cutters, this is
in addition to the ordinary bonus of +1 to all incoming *DAF fire).

The cost of replacing a Cutter with an Assault Craft is 1 pt.

James Butler (jamesbutler@worldnet.att.net)

James,

I really like those rules for FT RP. Quick, and effective.

You left some stuff off, that I assume you use in your games and just didn't
include in your posting.

What are the skill positions in your opinion? I assume you use a floor plan of
the ship while gaming (how else would you determine when a Doctor "gets to" an
injured person?) What time duration do
you give a FT turn--this would affect how much your characters
get done during a turn. You mention skill roles for maneuver, firing, etc. Are
these like the ones that Scott put up, or do you have a different version, or
are those rolls (yes, I'm referring to "rolls" not "roles" just now. That's a
typo 3 lines up.) based on the RP system you use? What RP system do you use? A
commercial set or one of your own?

Enough.

Out here,

        -monty

> James,
I've
> always been able to "type suchandso.wri" and get it to spill out as

Z'alright. Not all of us have Windows or PCs or Macs or anything fancy like
that. I'm stuck with a dumb VT220 terminal logged onto a mainframe 'puter.

Mk

> Apologizing again to those who aren't interested and

THanks!

> P.S. Somebody let me know if you can read them.

Yep!  :)

Mk

> At 09:21 PM 9/8/96 +0000, you wrote:

        I don't have a complete set of rules for PCs/Skilled Officers. I
always intended to convert the Legendary Officers rules from Star Fleet
Battles but I think I'll just go with what Scott's doing. As for moving around
from location to location, I would just assume a one turn delay. Engineers can
start in Main Engineering, Auxillary Control or the Emergency Bridge (or the
Main Bridge, Scotty was hanging around there a couple of times, same for
Geordi). I would assume the Doctor starts in an unspecified Sickbay or on the
Main Bridge (Bones would loiter there pretty often just to find out what was
going on). Everybody else (except for Marine Officers and Pilots) should
probably start the game on the Main Bridge. Pilots obviously go to a fighter
bay, but I have no idea where a Marine Officer would start if he isn't on a
troop transport. If the "Marine Commander" were a ST:TNG Security Chief, he'd
start on the Main Bridge, so I guess that's where he should start the game
too.

I dunno.

        James

I've been giving serious thought to an RPG based on the GZG mechanics;
the basic concept, a five-tiered development environment, with
secondary dice for extenuating circumstances, is a rather concise one. It
doesn't scale really well, however, so I've been toying with ways to extend
it.

Back before the flood, when White Dwarf was a decent magazine rather than a
Wallet Vampire from the Evil Empire, it had an excellent Call of Cthulhu
scenario in a science fiction setting. There wasn't any space flight involved;
the PCs arrived on a backwater planet in the middle of a corporate war a bit
like that described in that scenario in More Thrust, and accidentally became
involved in Something Nasty. The CoC system is very
clean and flexible, and could perhaps be used with FT/MT

On the topic of roleplaying repairs: Either Miniature Wargames or Wargames
Illustrated had a Dambusters game a few months ago. Each player had to
roleplay the entire crew of his aircraft. The flight engineer function was
represented by giving each player an identical small selection of Lego, and
getting them to make various aircraft bits (eg a fire extinguisher or an
undercarriage leg) according to a set plan within a time limit.

> Oh god, I remember those days. They used to do great articles on 1st

Articles on games they didn't publish, fair reviews of other peoples' figures.
Sort of like an SF/Fantasy RPG magazine should have been like....

I liked the cartoon strips, too; Thrud the Barbarian, Gobbledigook, The
Travellers...

Aye, an' if you try telling t'young folks today, they won't believe
you...

:-)

Oh god, I remember those days. They used to do great articles on 1st
edition Traveller............................... ah, those were the
days.

Simon CS ("Knackered old S*!t").

 ----------
From:  FTGZG-L[SMTP:FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk]
Sent:  09 September 1996 14:59
To:  FTGZG-L
Subject:  Re: FT Roleplaying (long)

Subject: Re: FT Roleplaying (long)

Back before the flood, when White Dwarf was a decent magazine rather than a
Wallet Vampire from the Evil Empire, it had an excellent Call of Cthulhu
scenario in a science fiction setting. There wasn't any space flight involved;
the PCs arrived on a backwater planet in the middle of

a corporate war a bit like that described in that scenario in More Thrust,

and accidentally became involved in Something Nasty. The CoC system is very
clean and flexible, and could perhaps be used with FT/MT

On the topic of roleplaying repairs: Either Miniature Wargames

or Wargames Illustrated had a Dambusters game a few months ago. Each player
had to roleplay the entire crew of his aircraft. The flight engineer function
was represented by giving each player an identical small selection of Lego,
and getting them to make various aircraft bits (eg a fire extinguisher or an
undercarriage leg) according to a set plan within a

time limit.