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Systems & Settings => HARP SF => Topic started by: GMLovlie on December 23, 2016, 05:57:00 AM

Title: Shooting while in melee and other questions after 1st session
Post by: GMLovlie on December 23, 2016, 05:57:00 AM

Right, I'll leave it for now. Most of these will probably solve themselves through play and trial and error, and I'll adapt as I see fit, so the question is more about the intention than what is right or wrong. :)
Title: Re: Shooting while in melee and other questions after 1st session
Post by: GMLovlie on December 23, 2016, 10:27:42 AM
Ignore the first question. Sorry. I've looked at that page multiple times... now I noticed it ...  :o
Title: Re: Shooting while in melee and other questions after 1st session
Post by: pyrotech on December 23, 2016, 12:30:35 PM
Well an engagement in close proximity with a gas giant is a pretty difficult fight for pilots.  But it is hard for both parties. 

I have used 1st level characters for a ships crew, but the idea was that they were fresh out of an accelerated training program to meet a colonies very pressing need.  The colony simply did not have the manpower to staff all their new ships with more experienced crews.  The Introductory adventure was set up to get the party to around 3rd level by its completion.  General consensus seems to be that 3rd level is a better starting point for characters who represent new but competent crewmembers.

Page 176 of the HARP SF main book covers the 99-100 damage cap.  But yes natural 99-100 results are both open ended and ignore damage caps.  They tend to be fight enders or Fate point expenditures for the players.

Oddly enough I have not had to get out the collision rules for spaceships in any of my games yet.  So I would have to review those myself.

Regards,
Title: Re: Shooting while in melee and other questions after 1st session
Post by: GMLovlie on December 23, 2016, 01:20:04 PM
I've found, some, of the answers - but thanks for the page reference for 99-100 results.

Collisions only use km/h - I believe - in the text. I guess you could use km/s too and just divide to get km/h and then divide by 5... it's still be quite a high OB... which makes all kinds of sense, I know.

It came up in our last session due to them navigating on the shadow side of Saturn, well within the orbits of the inner moons (Tethys, etc), which I would think is within the gravity well of Saturn. In the darkness they failed on their scanning and sensor checks, so they didn't see the black/grey massive starship looming ahead of them ... I let the Pilot make an evasive check... and they collided. I decided it was a tiny critical, even if the ship is a lot more massive, due to the fact they just clipped a "corner" on one of its sides.

By the end of the session I let them level up, they'd managed not to die, locate a way on to the mysterious ship, they explored it, fought some space ghouls, managed to hack into the network to shut down two security robots just as they were getting ready to let loose some machine gun madness. They discovered the name of the ship and, at last, a working terminal to access the ship's systems.

I felt rusty going in, and the players were all new to this system, but not to the hobby. All in all I think they liked it. But yeah, I need to get them to level 3-4 before I let loose the full plans...
Title: Re: Shooting while in melee and other questions after 1st session
Post by: NicholasHMCaldwell on January 05, 2017, 08:56:28 AM
1st-level characters unless carefully optimised will find many things difficult for them, but then they are only 1st-level characters.

With an experienced group of players, I will typically start characters at 2nd or 3rd level so that they can get on with major plots and risky stuff.

Best wishes,
Nicholas