Does this make sense for A Pirate's Life (25th century space pirates).
The ship has stats like Hull and Crew. It has resources like Supplies and Guns. Supplies and Guns are capped at the lowest of Hull and Crew. A crew of zero is a skeleton crew like Serenity, a crew of 3 is like Enterprise.
If the ship takes damage, anyone can fix it up by spending one supply. So, the rating goes down by one. This'll heal one box of harm.
The Mechanic may roll plus the supplies on hand to fix the hull. On a 10+, she completely fixes the hull. On a 7-9, she heals one box of hull damage, and . On a 6-, still heal one but hard move. The Mechanic may spend 1 as if she rolled a 10+.
If you don't have a specialist (the mechanic), then you just move stuff around. If you do, then you have a chance to really fix things!
Does this make sense?
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Spend 1 instead of rolling?
ReplyDeleteThe crew range from 1-3 seems awfully...whatever the opposite if granular is. Is there a different way to rate crew and yet still have the limited PbtA appropriate range of values.
Perhaps: skeleton, reduced, full regardless of overall complement.
Yeah, spend instead of rolling.
ReplyDeleteThe idea being that if you know what you are doing you can use the resources of the ship and have as much when you're done as when you started. If you don't, you use stuff up.
Its 0-3, which is slightly more granular than 1-3. Maybe toss in a -1 or even -2, representing being ridiculously understaffed. Like the Roci (Expanse Series) probably has a crew of -1, as the ship is designed for so much more.
By "enterprise", I presume not the one from Star Trek, as that had a crew way larger than three.
ReplyDeleteAnd it seems sound, although I don't see anything particularly pirate-y about it. If you're pirates, you need magnetic grappling hooks and cannons to blow holes in ships so you can grapple 'em and board to get the loot.
John Hattan "3" being the stat and yes, I meant Kirk's Enterprise. I waffled between that and Sisko's Defiant, which is closer to the right size. Point is, dozens or low hundreds, not the thousands of the Enterprise-D.
ReplyDeleteThe guns and crap are another stat. The way I want to work this is there are never enough competent people. You have either a surgeon or a mechanic. Either a Chief Gunner or a boarding party leader. Either a Navigator or a Watch Captain. Either a Purser or a Fence.
The Gunner/Boarding party leader is responsible for Guns and crap.
Limiting supply to Crew seems a slightly odd choice. I imagine the equivalent of tanker trucks with a dozen bodies just making sure inertia keeps working as they travel across the Black.
ReplyDeleteSuggestions, Jesse Cox ?
ReplyDeleteHmm. Maybe that's "ready supply" -- you can have more junk stowed in bulkheads somewhere, but this is all the crew can lay its hands on in short order.
ReplyDeleteUnless you've got a skilled quartermaster or something.
Quartermaster is a really important roll.
ReplyDeletePirate ships divided the captaincy into two -- basically battle captain and not. The not was the Quartermaster.
I'm adding on a third one tentatively called Boatswain, who is in charge of the ship in dock. They get're ready, repair the hull, even hire more crew.
I think it's important to note that "understaffed" is a very relative term and so is "skeleton crew". Skeleton crew that runs Enterprise is many more people than full crew running Serenity. Also, I think it would make a very interesting choice if the players had an ability to decide which parts of the ship are going to be turned off/unstaffed/delegated to AI controls. Making a choice of "all hands to the guns, even if it means no one is keeping a proper eye on thrusters" delivers a very powerful narrative, especially for a pirate game.
ReplyDeleteHow are Supplies and Guns refueled? Whenever we dock? By trading specific resources? If dock allows us to reset everything, is the default scope of the game that most sessions start and end in dock, but not between?
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't steal my title, bro.
Jay Treat Shoot, I did unconsciously steal your title because it is the best title.
ReplyDeleteI suppose Piracy: An economics simulator is too verbose.
And yes! Supplies and Guns and crap are rebought in dock is what I'm thinking.
Pieces of Octal
ReplyDeleteThe Space Pirate Roberts
Star Scourge
Solar Wind & Sail
Void Corsairs
The Null Flag
Treasure Among the Stars
Skull Planet
Bit of Marque
Tritium Ships & Cyber-Men
+1 for Void Corsairs and Treasure Among the Stars.
ReplyDelete10:30 was about when my day got busy. Jay is insanely good at names.
ReplyDeleteI'm liking Solar Wind & Sail for now.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Solar Wind & SALES, though.
I've got way too many stats right now. There are stats I want for the spaceship, and I want a stat for the Captain / Quartermaster / Boatswain. Finally, I kinda want a victory measure of the Prizes you've captured. The spaceship stats are things like crew, supplies, guns, and cash. And that's ignoring hull.
That's 8, which is OMG TOO MANY. Right now, three of those are for a particular PC, 4 of them are for the ship, and one is for VICTORY.
I thiiiink I can make a fourth "captain" along the lines of the Captain / Quartermaster / Boaswain, in charge of keeping the fleet under track. That turns the Victory stat into a PC-specific stat.
I think I can relate Discipline / Popularity / Thrift / PRIZES to Crew / Supplies / Guns / Cash, though I'm not quite sure how to relate them yet.
Suggestions are, as always, sought after. Thoughts, feels, telling me I'm stupid. All that stuff.
Remember, piracy is all about piracy. Whenever a game has space pirates, they always seem to exist just to blow you up. The whole point of piracy is to steal stuff. Getting in a fight is the last resort. If you destroy your enemy, it's gonna make taking his stuff way more difficult.
ReplyDeleteJohn Hattan Yes! That's why we need prizes, and booty.
ReplyDeleteI've got two crew-type playbooks dedicated to getting stuff. There's the Master Gunner and the Boarding Leader. The Master Gunner softens ship up to let you get Prizes. The Boarding Leader gets onboard and steals booty.
Then, of course, you've got to sell it. There's gonna be a dude in charge of that, I think.
This is getting bigger'n I want. But, hey, at this stage having too much is better than having too little!
Make a mostly-playable prototype and try it out before you get attached to anything. See if it's too much. Then adjust.
ReplyDeleteAbs, Jay Treat !
ReplyDeleteAt least in my brain, I got things nicely reduced. We'll see if I can actually make that happen.
With the theory of having competency be limited, I'm thinking there are 4 "captain" roles, and you start with just two.
I should have something workable, but this is a crazy week at work and this unfortunately has to wait.
A few simplifications.
ReplyDeleteStats: Supplies, Guns, Cash, possibly Occult. Everyone shares the same stats.
Ship Stress Tracks: Hull, Crew
Person Stress Tracks: Harm
Playbooks: Mechanic / Surgeon, Gunner / Boarder, Master of the Watch (Purser) / Fence, maybe Brainer/ Hacker or Brainer / Hocus.
Command positions: Quartermaster, Captain, Boatswain. These are all mandatory positions, and have associated rolls with them when they take over. Each of these, on a 6-, has a vote of no confidence at the end -- and they have to do something truly spectacular to keep the position. If it is lost, it goes to another PC. A PC can hold multiple positions at once.
Discipline gives the Captain hold to use during a battle, mostly giving bonuses. Popularity can modify the other stats up OR down, and can avoid triggering the downsides of the ship. Thrift is used to sell prizes you've taken and repair your ship in port. Again, on a 7-9 you can activate the downsides from the ship.
Each playbook gets big things: a 12+ option on a playbook, and a room where they can do cool stuff. The cool stuff in the rooms can cost stats.
The ship starts off with:
50-85 souls, gigs: piracy, mostly airtight, hand weapons from the last war, no shuttles, no gang, no ship's weapons, unruly, and a half dozen space suits, Hull and Crew stress tracks both maxing out at 2. Choose 2 increases, from a list.
And choose one: judgement, drugs, disease, violence, savagery, poverty, local warrants.
As soon as I write this into a word doc, it'll be a mostly playable prototype. I think.
I'm not feeling "Occult". Pirates aren't into self-actualization. They just want your valuables. If you're gonna classify pirates, it's probably by the stuff they find valuable. Some just want gold. Some want equipment to improve their ship. Some want irreplaceable antiquities.
ReplyDeleteAgreed they don't want the occult, John Hattan But, they stare into the abyss like, for a living.
ReplyDeleteJohn Hattan What do we call it if not occult?
ReplyDeleteThe same stat in AW is Weird. This is the stat river tam brings to the table. I'm open to names!
Esoterica?
ReplyDeleteVoid? Void!
ReplyDeletePirates are known for superstitions, as are all sailors and those whose lives depend upon the sea.
ReplyDeleteJesse Cox Absolutely!
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what sort of descriptors would make sense along a superstition track. Got any ideas?
Along a track, like a countdown clock?
ReplyDeleteBlessed or Auspicious, Clear Sailing, Getting Rocky (or some sort of hyperspace-storm metaphor?)
(Then, for the quick countdown at the end)
Ominous Rumblings, Bad Luck, Marked by the Black.
Or maybe No More Slack, Bad Luck, Comes in Threes
Something like that.
References to St Elmo's fire or Jonah would probably also work.
Jesse Cox Not quite what i meant, but what i mean is probably fairly ... me?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that was actually helpful! I was looking for what to call Void = 1, Void = 2, Void = 3, and Void = 4.
Blessed, Clear Sailing, See Into The Flux, and The Abyss Stares Back sound pretty great, especially for the a first playtest. This one could maybe -- but maybe not -- teach me what I want.