Scum and Villainy out-of-character (OOC) thread.

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Nobby-W said:
What that was saying is taking 1 stress from the push and 1 XP from the desperate roll in total. I think I just had the rules wrong; I've been charging 1 stress for a push but it looks like it's meant to be 2..
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I think I may have had an easier time with the rules because I read Blades in the Dark first. The core rules are about identical, with the exception of gambits. What they do with ships is interesting, I’m not 100% sold that your ship defines your campaign arc, narratively it makes sense. It’s just a little awkward on the game design side of things.
 
RuinZealot said:
It’s just a little awkward on the game design side of things.
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Agreed, the ship stuff is standout to me as something that's quite awkward. I get that they were trying to narratively shift your 'base' into the lore here and have it make sense for moving around, but then your players have to marry into a narrative setting early on, and their only room for improvement is just adding bits and bobs to their ship for narrative and mechanical boons. There's no way RAW to step up the ladder to a freighter, or an assault frigate for example.
 
Smith said:
Agreed, the ship stuff is standout to me as something that's quite awkward. I get that they were trying to narratively shift your 'base' into the lore here and have it make sense for moving around, but then your players have to marry into a narrative setting early on, and their only room for improvement is just adding bits and bobs to their ship for narrative and mechanical boons. There's no way RAW to step up the ladder to a freighter, or an assault frigate for example.
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Yea that was my first thought. It’s a bit off putting to look at the ships and see the campaign you want to play has nothing to do with the ship you want.

I think the bits and bobs are fine. SWN usually sets you up with the generic free booter ship that you can upgrade into a bad ass. But SnV kind of leans your initial load out with what you can do with it. I’m curious how often people pick a campaign based off the ship they want and it just loses steam because they were guided to a game they weren’t excited about.
 
I imagine the intent of the designers was "this is Firefly in space - Cpt Mal wouldn't want to trade in Firefly for anything else as the Firefly was a character in it's own right", but I don't think that translates as seamlessly into every other RPG group out there who might not have as much love, especially when the design/name/purpose of these ships are laid out for you during character creation.
 
Wedang

A category of beverages originating from parts of Asia - essentially teas made with various botanical ingredients. Usually quite sweet, instant Wedangs are a popular hot drink on may worlds.
 
Chekhov Small Arms (CSA)

A major manufacturer of small arms in the Commonwealth; CSA designs are viewed as inexpensive and utilitarian, and often issued as service weapons in poorer regions. They are often manufactured under licence. CSA does make some commercial products but they are best known for their military kit.
 
Spoon Bender

Somewhat derogatory term for mystics and Way users. There is some perception that Way users are charlatans and the term Spoon Bender refers to cheap tricks. The origin of the term is lost in history.
 
I confess that I've lost track of stress from rolls and helping. Has this been tracked or should I go back and figure it out?
 
RuinZealot RuinZealot - JEAGL[1] - The joke here is the use of 'Vanilla' as in 'plain vanilla' and the barista thinking you meant you wanted vanilla flavouring added.
_________________
1 - Jokes Explained At Great Length
 
In unrelated news, somebody's done a Star Trek FITD hack called 'To Boldly Go.' A planning-horizon level project is to do an exploration campaign in a region in the Tannhauser-verse. I feel that I should adapt those rules and call it 'To Go Boldly' on the basis that as it's not in the Star Trek 'verse it's no longer necessary to split infinitives.
 
RuinZealot said:
Yea that was my first thought. It’s a bit off putting to look at the ships and see the campaign you want to play has nothing to do with the ship you want.

I think the bits and bobs are fine. SWN usually sets you up with the generic free booter ship that you can upgrade into a bad ass. But SnV kind of leans your initial load out with what you can do with it. I’m curious how often people pick a campaign based off the ship they want and it just loses steam because they were guided to a game they weren’t excited about.
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The ship I've picked is one from the Tannhauser-verse, and I've sort of shoehorned it into the trader ship, but I think I would just do a template for a custom ship if this campaign goes far enough that it matters. S&V isn't the only system I have in mind for using with this 'verse either. I really kicked off this campaign to experiment with the system as much as anything.
 
I'm going to be out of the country come wednesday til jan 10th, so my replies will be slow-to-none. Feel free to progress my character as you see fit!
 
Smith said:
I'm going to be out of the country come wednesday til jan 10th, so my replies will be slow-to-none. Feel free to progress my character as you see fit!
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Have a good trip and enjoy Blighty. I've been out of the country for the past two weeks and I'm (mostly) lovin' it. As we're coming up to Christmas, I'm expecting things to be a little slow for the next week or two anyway, although Christmas is a bit of a non-event in Indonesia as most of the folks here are muslim.

I'll pull the marionette strings a little if we need some action from Kal but by all means try to drop in.
 
I hope you don't mind my butting in. I've been reading the game thread with interest, it's my first exposure to such a system. You've been very civilised, not a punch thrown! Also I think you're doing a good job Nobby.

With regard to the system working as a Play-by-post I agree with:

Smith said:
I personally find that post games progress faster when the player dictates what they want to do, the GM translates that into a roll and does it for them - this game has some variance from that though, due to adding gambits, support, basically all the extra negotiation tidbits that come from player-GM discussion.
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The negotiations are adding some turnaround time which is fine face-to-face but maybe a drag in PbP? I was wondering whether you might bodge a fix something along the lines of a character trait that would determine which option was chosen on the player's behalf by the GM. Not knowing the system the following suggestion probably makes no sense but I'm hoping you'll get the gist.

Thus an 'impulsive' character would take the extra stress and die (RNG, not the other die), a 'cautious' one wouldn't. And so on. If there's more options....
 
mikethehat said:
I hope you don't mind my butting in. I've been reading the game thread with interest, it's my first exposure to such a system. You've been very civilised, not a punch thrown! Also I think you're doing a good job Nobby.

With regard to the system working as a Play-by-post I agree with:



The negotiations are adding some turnaround time which is fine face-to-face but maybe a drag in PbP? I was wondering whether you might bodge a fix something along the lines of a character trait that would determine which option was chosen on the player's behalf by the GM. Not knowing the system the following suggestion probably makes no sense but I'm hoping you'll get the gist.

Thus an 'impulsive' character would take the extra stress and die (RNG, not the other die), a 'cautious' one wouldn't. And so on. If there's more options....
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There are some specific mechanics like taking stress, teamwork, devil's bargains that could be marked as a tendency for the characters, but it may be a little presumptive to assume the player would take them all the time. This type of conversation is cited as a shortcoming of the system for pbp games, and I've attempted to sort of march it along to some extent.

I suppose an interesting question is 'What would a PBTA variant optimised for PbP look like?'

Metacurrency ('Oops - looks like I need to spend a benny') and 'Yes but' are intrinsically fairly chatty as they really require the player to follow up unless you require the player to spend or declare options first - which sorta-kinda defeats, or at least nerfs, the purpose of the mechanics in the first place. The other option would be to go with something like Cepheus that doesn't have metacurrency or yes-but mechanics at all.

I did briefly put some thought into modifying FITD to optimise for PbP but didn't really get far with it.
 
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My observation on the system and myself is this. I don't have a mastery of the system so every time I am called to make a mechanical decision I have to go look up my character again for the skills/current stats, look up the mechanics and what they mean and evaluate decision options and then decide. Make the appropriate roll and report back the results.

Face to face I suspect I would see all the other players actions and learn the system both on their turn and mine and it would all happen often enough to reinforce it in my mind. As it is I might actually interact with the system once a week which isn't enough to burn it in my brain.

That's not a criticism of the game or PbP but more an observation on how it's working for me. As long as the slowdown it takes me to relearn the system each week isn't a drag for you all it's fine by me.
 
Bunch said:
My observation on the system and myself is this. I don't have a mastery of the system so every time I am called to make a mechanical decision I have to go look up my character again for the skills/current stats, look up the mechanics and what they mean and evaluate decision options and then decide. Make the appropriate roll and report back the results.

Face to face I suspect I would see all the other players actions and learn the system both on their turn and mine and it would all happen often enough to reinforce it in my mind. As it is I might actually interact with the system once a week which isn't enough to burn it in my brain.

That's not a criticism of the game or PbP but more an observation on how it's working for me. As long as the slowdown it takes me to relearn the system each week isn't a drag for you all it's fine by me.
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Fine by me - Also, it's fine to ask 'how does this work?' questions on the OOC thread or just state a move as 'I want to do X.'
 
Séadna said:
I was planning on starting again today
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Sounds good to me.

I'll be in Solo until about 2 Jan, then training to Jakarta (which takes about 8 hours) then in Jakarta until 5 Jan when we fly home. Will be somewhat jet lagged on the week of the 6th so we'll see where the balance between compus and asleep falls that week.
 
Stan said:
I'm free.
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If you've never seen Are You Being Served? do a web search for videos with keywords 'John Inman I'm Free.' A British icon from the 1970s.

In unrelated news, I still have bad breath from my durian ice cream mochi.
 
I watched a lot of Are You Being Served, decades ago. Inman was great.
 
Really when everyone else is.
 
Way capabilities

Here's a starting point.

You can ATTUNE to things - particularly way-charged Ur-artifacts. This can reveal information, and control items if they are controllable in this way (basically just applies to way artifacts without some other ability)

You can use it to get clues about people's intentions by attuning to them. It can inform subsequent crap artistry but it's not a Jedi mind trick (there's a specific mystic power for that).

You can use it to scan the area for beings, and glean some information about their identity and intentions, or sense stuff in the surrounding area.
 
Stan Stan, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Séadna Séadna, Bunch Bunch, Smith Smith -

I'm flying back to the UK tomorrow afternoon (GMT+7) and arrive back in the UK about 5:30 GMT on Monday.

If you could state your actions in the IC thread today I can probably move the game along before I go.

IC thread posting here.
 
Police forces in the Irulan State region

Most of the cities, including Nusantara, Meridani and Acheron have their own local police force. Irulan state (the region you're in) has the state police force, which (amongst other things) plays a similar role to national forces such as the FBI.

The department of antiquities also maintains its own police force, and there is also a state police ranger division. Jurisdictional boundaries between the state, dept. of antiquities and Acheron police forces are unclear and turf wars are the norm.

The local police in Acheron are substantially in Hubba's pocket.
 
Crawler

Tracked transport vehicles capable of getting over rough country or traversing sand dunes. Ranging from small examples the size of a ground car through to large one big enough to carry a shipping container. Typically powered by an air-breathing fuel cell, larger ones sometimes have fusion power plants.
 
GE Camels

Minor genetic modifications made to Terran Camel stock have adapted them for Raquos. They are commonly used by dries or other parties in the wasteland regions of Raquos.
 
Metasaur

A cold-blooded reptilian draft animal engineered from Terran reptilian stock. Metasaurs are large, weighing over a ton, and omnivorous but eat much less food than a warm blooded creature. Sand folks sometimes use them, although they are considered too tempramental by many. Feral metasaurs are a nuisance in some areas.
 
I have returned! I actually found a paperback copy of SnV whilst in London but it was too pricey for me to grab it.
 
Stan Stan in college my class was pretty tight except for a few people so being dicks to each other was unthinkable. The year after me was ultra competitive to the point of being asshats to each other like you mention. I recall a girl from that year asking how we all had time to go out and party. I told her it was simple we helped each other get work done instead of spending time screwing each other over. I think she wished she was in my year.
 
Is the tranquility armed? I was considering a flashback to set up remote firing of a couple of missiles or something.

If not, maybe a remoter starter and a remote on the loading ramp? We could drive fast onto the ship and leave. We'll get shot at a bit but we're in the rover.
 
Stan said:
Is the tranquility armed? I was considering a flashback to set up remote firing of a couple of missiles or something.

If not, maybe a remoter starter and a remote on the loading ramp? We could drive fast onto the ship and leave. We'll get shot at a bit but we're in the rover.
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No. It was sold with all the electronics intact but the weapons were removed. It can take turrets with two Mk 23 rapid-fire blast cannons or a single Mk 30 cannon, which is more powerful. You know someone who knows a fellow who can hook you up with a dealer that can source and fit the turrets with legit paperwork and you're currently trying to scrape the cash together to do that. If you can arm the ship you can operate anywhere int the Neutral Zone.
 
Séadna Séadna, RuinZealot RuinZealot, Bunch Bunch, Smith Smith, Stan Stan -

Have I left you guys a bit lost for ideas on what to do - would more of an intro to the scene have helped?

Also, it occurs to me that a side channel for the party to discuss with each other might help. My D&D group uses one to co-ordinate stuff, and a fair bit of other chat. Would you guys use a whatsapp group if I set one up?
 
If we actually started using this thread, I think it would suffice for coordination.

Ok, our failure to deal with sightings at the hospital have caught up to us. I don't think a full on shootout would go well. How about if Steevo has the ship setup for this with a flashback and a rig roll so the ship starts and the ramp comes down, the driver of the rover (who is? Twitch is the pilot, I assume he's recovered? Wait, I just realized our pilot and the junky are the same person. Good thing there are no guard rails or stop signs in space.) makes a roll to dodge the baddies (badderies?) and hit the ramp. To screw future coordination and fun repercussions, someone could take out Hubba. Can Ida do any kind of Jedi mind trick to either blur their memorues or impair their shooting?
 
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