| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
atgxtg
Rear Admiral
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 2460
|
 Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:02 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
| MattMartin23 wrote: | | garhkal wrote: | | If you are going to ignore the roll (if its too high) and just script out what happens, why bother rolling in the first place?? Just script it out from beginnig to end. |
I want there to be some damage to the ship. I have not decided how much damage will be done yet. I want to leave that to change but do not plan on destroying the entire ship. That is the point I was trying to make. In any event the ship will most likely be damaged to some degree.
MM |
THat is precisely what it means to script something out. If you need some event to come off for the story, then you fudge things so it happens. THe event is just too important to the story to leave it up to chance. A good example, from the original film would be the Death Star Trench run. After going though the who space battle and trench run, it would have been terrible if at the end, Luke failed to destroy the Death Star. Even if the GM gave a bunch of modifiers for hitting the exhaust port, there is always the possibility that Luke could roll all 1s for damage, and then the Death Star destroy Yavin-4, killing all the rebels except Luke, Han, Cheiwie, and Wedge. Obviously, that would probably have ruined the film, so the outcome was scripted.
So if you really need something to happen for the storty, make it happen. You can either run it behind the scenes, and just dictate the outcome, or , if you want to roll it, fudge the outcome. But, the really tricky buit if you do fugge things, is to not be obvious about it. You want the players to think that you are fair. If they think you are cheating on rolls they will loose faith in you as a GM. Pre-scripted stuff is okay, 'cuz that's just part of the adventure, but anything you roll is supposedly random.
If I were you, I'd not have the trooers throw the detonators (check the trow ranges, three TD will toast the troopers),, but instead have one guy run up and attack it to the hull, or even toss it into the comparment for the landing gear.
Then, a few rounds later, when the ship is airborne and the PCs are heading for space, the detonator explodes, the ship rocks, and a light comes on on the control panel showing that the hull is breeched and the ship is venting air. So space is out of the question until they can patch up the hull. That way it seems fair, and part of the adventure. If you want, you can secretly roll dice for the explosion and the ships hull behind the GM screen (and ignore the result).
I'd also disable the landing gear, so the pilot would have to land the ship on it's belly (or keep the repulsorlift engine running, and have the ship hover a few cm off the ground, if he is clever). |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
MattMartin23
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 25 Jun 2012
Posts: 102
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 12:13 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| atgxtg wrote: | | MattMartin23 wrote: | | garhkal wrote: | | If you are going to ignore the roll (if its too high) and just script out what happens, why bother rolling in the first place?? Just script it out from beginnig to end. |
I want there to be some damage to the ship. I have not decided how much damage will be done yet. I want to leave that to change but do not plan on destroying the entire ship. That is the point I was trying to make. In any event the ship will most likely be damaged to some degree.
MM |
THat is precisely what it means to script something out. If you need some event to come off for the story, then you fudge things so it happens. THe event is just too important to the story to leave it up to chance. A good example, from the original film would be the Death Star Trench run. After going though the who space battle and trench run, it would have been terrible if at the end, Luke failed to destroy the Death Star. Even if the GM gave a bunch of modifiers for hitting the exhaust port, there is always the possibility that Luke could roll all 1s for damage, and then the Death Star destroy Yavin-4, killing all the rebels except Luke, Han, Cheiwie, and Wedge. Obviously, that would probably have ruined the film, so the outcome was scripted.
So if you really need something to happen for the storty, make it happen. You can either run it behind the scenes, and just dictate the outcome, or , if you want to roll it, fudge the outcome. But, the really tricky buit if you do fugge things, is to not be obvious about it. You want the players to think that you are fair. If they think you are cheating on rolls they will loose faith in you as a GM. Pre-scripted stuff is okay, 'cuz that's just part of the adventure, but anything you roll is supposedly random.
If I were you, I'd not have the trooers throw the detonators (check the trow ranges, three TD will toast the troopers),, but instead have one guy run up and attack it to the hull, or even toss it into the comparment for the landing gear.
Then, a few rounds later, when the ship is airborne and the PCs are heading for space, the detonator explodes, the ship rocks, and a light comes on on the control panel showing that the hull is breeched and the ship is venting air. So space is out of the question until they can patch up the hull. That way it seems fair, and part of the adventure. If you want, you can secretly roll dice for the explosion and the ships hull behind the GM screen (and ignore the result).
I'd also disable the landing gear, so the pilot would have to land the ship on it's belly (or keep the repulsorlift engine running, and have the ship hover a few cm off the ground, if he is clever). |
I see your point. Basically, the only reason the Stormtroopers are planning to use a detonator on the ship is due to the fact that when the Troopers came into the bay they were opened fire upon by the underbelly auto turret. Now even more suspicious than before they want to destroy and disable the vessel. Thus due to the current series of events I think having the explosions occur in the bay makes more sense storywise... Imp want to make sure this craft is grounded for investigation.
MM |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MattMartin23
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 25 Jun 2012
Posts: 102
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 1:01 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| vanir wrote: | If it's an event important to the adventure, the ship being damaged by stormtroopers and forced to remain within atmosphere and land on the other side of the planet for repairs, why not make it a cut scene.
Run the firefight as per normal but once the PCs get aboard their ship and fire it up, describe the stormtroopers throwing thermals as a cut scene rather than an action declaration by combat rounds, eg. "two stormtroopers continue blasting at the entry ramp with their rifles, one with a light repeater starts raking its pulse-blasts across the engine complex trying to hit a vital location, whilst two stormtroopers throw thermals under the rear of the ship. From inside you can hear the muffled blasts all across the hull, then suddenly a tremendous explosion beneath the rear of the vessel rocks the entire craft and emergency horns begin blaring throughout the ship. The fuel cells are ruptured and leaving atmosphere will be extremely dangerous until repaired, making hyperspace will be impossible."
Then have an NPC (it's smart for the GM to always have at least one NPC with a PC party, I usually have one or two mixed in as regular party members), simply suggest they take off and take a suborbital path to the other side of the planet for repairs. |
Thanks for the ideas. I will apply your suggested actions for the Stormtroopers. Important to the plot is the fact that the PC group has 3 ships. The NPC Wookie and 3 NPC Twi'Leks have a 1930 Stock Light Freighter, the doctor PC has an Old Republic Style ship and the PC Bounty Hunter has the ship that is opening fire on the Stormtroopers.
The NPC astromech programmed to open fire when any unfriendlies enter the cocking bay opens fire on the Stormtroopers leading to the retaliation
by thermal detonators. Theoretically the PC crew can leave this ship behind and leave in the other 2 vessels. This could be very climatic as the bounty hunter may have to leave his crippled vessel behind.
Another option is that the 2 vessels take in hyperspace for their next destination and that the bounty hunter stays behind with the other PC and an NPC and meets the others on the next planet.
MM |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
atgxtg
Rear Admiral
Joined: 22 Mar 2009
Posts: 2460
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 2:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| MattMartin23 wrote: |
I see your point. Basically, the only reason the Stormtroopers are planning to use a detonator on the ship is due to the fact that when the Troopers came into the bay they were opened fire upon by the underbelly auto turret. Now even more suspicious than before they want to destroy and disable the vessel. Thus due to the current series of events I think having the explosions occur in the bay makes more sense storywise... Imp want to make sure this craft is grounded for investigation.
MM |
Okay, know the bad guys' motivation is fine, but what do you want or need to happen as the GM? If you need the PCs ship to get damages so they can't leave the planet then make it happen. If it isn't crucial and you don't need it to advance the story, play it out. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MattMartin23
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 25 Jun 2012
Posts: 102
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 4:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| atgxtg wrote: | | MattMartin23 wrote: |
I see your point. Basically, the only reason the Stormtroopers are planning to use a detonator on the ship is due to the fact that when the Troopers came into the bay they were opened fire upon by the underbelly auto turret. Now even more suspicious than before they want to destroy and disable the vessel. Thus due to the current series of events I think having the explosions occur in the bay makes more sense storywise... Imp want to make sure this craft is grounded for investigation.
MM |
Okay, know the bad guys' motivation is fine, but what do you want or need to happen as the GM? If you need the PCs ship to get damages so they can't leave the planet then make it happen. If it isn't crucial and you don't need it to advance the story, play it out. |
Got it. Basically I do not have a specific plan for them to stay on-world, however, if this happens I do have some options for them. The doctor will probably leave in his ship for their next destination. The Wookiee and Twi'Leks will leave world as well for their next destination. This will leave the Bounty Hunter PC, bounty hunter apprentice NPC, Droid NPC, Jedi-in-training PC, Jedi's girlfriend NPC and maybe 2 more NPCs waiting for the ship to be repaired.
I will play it out though. Better to let fate decide. All I was saying is that I won't have the ship get to a point where it is completely destroyed using GM discretion, but allow it to get jacked up enough to not leave for hyperspace right away. I want the dice to play out how bad it gets short of exploding. No damage is fine, alot of damage is fine, totally destroyed does not work for plot.
MM |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
vanir
Jedi
Joined: 11 May 2011
Posts: 793
|
| Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2012 6:14 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Well for what it's worth I think if the Falcon can come streaking out of an exploding death star, taking a thermal or two outside the armoured hull of a bounty hunter ship ought to be no problem. My GM ruling would be along the lines of only specific systems could be damaged or destroyed.
ie. if you roll damage with scaling as normal and still get a "ship destroyed" result, I'd circumstantially rule only the hyperdrive motivator was destroyed, or only a gun turret was destroyed, or only a shield projector was destroyed, and the overall structural integrity of the ship itself was only lightly damaged by a character scale thermal or two.
I mean basically you want heavy walker scale laser cannon at a minimum to take out an armoured, starfighter scale starship.
Plus, I use 2e scaling with the die caps too. It seems more realistic to me, whereas I believe the idea of 2r&e scaling is to speed up the action and bring it all back to character scale adventuring.
Basically you can run around blowing armoured hoverscouts to bits with a blaster rifle in 2r&e where in 2e a hoverscout is like trying to take down an APC with an M16, just not going to happen without a proper antivehicle weapon. I like 2e better and it works for situations like these. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14034
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
|
| Posted: Sat Aug 18, 2012 9:16 am Post subject: |
|
|
If you can tell by many of my posts, i dislike fudging, just to prevent pc ship/pcs from biting it, and feel if you DO decide to roll, then the roll should stand. So with that said i do feel in this situation the scripting it as getting damaged is the lesser of the 2 evils..
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MattMartin23
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 25 Jun 2012
Posts: 102
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 3:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| garhkal wrote: | | If you can tell by many of my posts, i dislike fudging, just to prevent pc ship/pcs from biting it, and feel if you DO decide to roll, then the roll should stand. So with that said i do feel in this situation the scripting it as getting damaged is the lesser of the 2 evils.. |
You will be happy to know that no die rolls were fudged during the gameplay of our last session. The three thermal detonators went off underneath the ship and severed one of the landing gears, blew up the lower turret and disabled the primary hyperdrive. Basically the hull rolled poorly and suffered damage by each explosion using the 2 point damage cap rule on 10 D. Scatter rule applied so that each damage roll hit different locations doing severe damage to landing gear destroying it, severe damage to auto turret destroying it, severe damage to hyperdrive causing it to short out. Carbon scoring also scarred the hull without destroying it. Crew is able to leave world on back up hyperdrive. Takes 5 days instead of 3 for them to meet up with rest of party.
MM |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14034
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
|
| Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 9:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Good to know.... Hoped they sweated it out!
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
MattMartin23
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 25 Jun 2012
Posts: 102
|
| Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 2:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| garhkal wrote: | | Good to know.... Hoped they sweated it out! |
Yep, the look the Captain gave me was, "Ahhh great..." when I told him some thermal grenades exploded under his ship and disentigrated his underbelly auto turret and one of the landing legs and shorted out the main hyperdrive. Biggest inconvenience was hooking up back-up hyperdrive and dealing with a longer travel time to Malastare. The most frustrated of the bunch was a Jedi in training who needs to return to Malastare to locate his lost lightsaber. Ah the fun and adventure of space odysseys...
MM |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
