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[Tyrant Leviathan]

One more question regarding us science folks. What exactly is our own each level at? As in skill department mentions plasma cannons and stuff.

[Smoke Mirrors]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Experiment AV410N (James Avalon)  (Code Name: Expher)
Race: Biological Anomaly
Department: Night Raider, main ship or off ship cycle branch (sometimes on ship missions, sometimes going for attacking others.
Role: Operative
Skill: Pre-Designed Genetic Code (His DNA is designed to make him the perfect being, it didn't work right, however, it did make him equally good looking and hard to distinguish in a crowd, with a talent for lying and controlling his body mechanisms, slowing or speeding up heart rate, holding his breath for a long time, and playing dead, as well as some more interesting powers, such as controlling skin pigmentation, night vision, infrared vision, and ultraviolet vision as well as the ability to make parts of his body glow (Also whatever further mutation I can somehow make work in my favor.) As such, he decided to model himself after action movie spies (James Bond, The Kingsman, etc.) and joined the Night Raiders (for the stealth and espionage, not because he dislikes the main ship).
Liability: Unstable Genetics (As a result of the experimentation, his DNA is unstable and prone to spontaneous mutations at the worst times, such as his skin starting to glow blue in the middle of a stealth mission)

Before it was properly managed, citizen genetic manipulation had a thriving black market, for everyone who came to an official business asking for a different hair color, there was a criminal who wanted his eyes to become the same as a guard's so he could fool a retinal scan. In the center of both, was the hopes of creating a super soldier, but while the proper market worked with volunteers and safeguards, the black market worked with kidnaping and and no ethics. That is what happened to John Avalon, back when he was a lowly street urchin without a name. He was captured and experimented on, leaving him with an unstable genetic code and multiple new abilities. Eventually, he used his new abilities to escape and join the Night Raiders, however, he took part in a special branch that deals with unsavory activity on the home ship, including his favorite mission, shutting down the very people who experimented on him in his youth.

[Glass]

I keep telling you, SM, you need to shorten your character descriptions.

[Smoke Mirrors]

I keep telling you, SM, you need to shorten your character descriptions.

Hmm..... I'll think about it



Thought about it, No

Just realized I am a Mutant Spy.

[chubby2man]

Smoke Mirrors: The Mutant Spy. Very creative, I love it! I personally think that he might be a bit better fit for the Diplomatic Corps as a spy, though if you are seeing him more as an action hero agent, the Night Raiders might indeed be better for that.

Tyrant: Good question! Technology is very generally ranked throughout the Galaxy in Tiers, I being the most advanced to V being pre-warp technology. Starting off, the Randiri fleet is at tech tier IV. The local government in this system is also Tier IV.  The small Empire outpost here is tier III. The difference in Tier's is mostly in power, reliability, and efficiency.

This is not a hard and fast guideline. The refurbished colony ship could be considered a Tier III technology, and character's flagships can easily be a Tier higher than the rest of the fleet. This is more about the rank and file ships and personnel level of technology. You can upgrade your fleets Tier though investment and trade, loot, and of course invention. Upgrading Tier's doesn't require replacing every ship, but the majority should have access to the new technology.

So at the start you have access to all the standard Sci-Fi staples, like missiles, lasers, railguns, and tractor beams. The fleet is scavenged together at the start, so you can have a wide variety of stuff.

There is not a laid out tech tree. You can build up your profile of inventions, and make it easier to research similar things, but will provide less of a bonus the further out you go. Researching advanced armor plates will make it easier to research armor, power suits, and advanced materials, maybe provide a small bonus to shields, and probably won't be helpful much in researching biology.

The scope of the game has expanded a lot from what I was first envisioning. While that is exciting and I think very cool, I'm going to have to expand the system a bit to adapt. So hopefully I'll be posting the first edition of the rules tonight. If you have any questions or suggestions to make, please comment so I can try to address it
(Also, how do you feel about a separate thread for the actual game posting (like rolls and updates) and keeping this one for discussion and planning, vs keeping it all in this thread?)

The basic system of the game, however, will be rolling d6 dice and taking the best one as the result. You can improve the number of dice you roll through your skills and the equipment you bring. Challenging tasks apply a negative modifier (-1) to the result, but you can undertake tasks (like scouting, investigating, disrupt supply lines, or performing experiments) that can give you positive modifiers (+1) to make success more likely.

Example: Mutant Spy James Avalon needs to break into a data site. This is a challenging task, so there is a -2 modifier. His skill with his mutable genetic code gives him a bonus to infiltration, so that adds one die. He also takes an electronic scrambler, which can break through any Tier 3 or lower lock. This adds an additional die, giving him 3 die total. But even if he rolls a 6, with the modifier the most he could get would be a 4, which is a success but with some consequences. He decides to steal an identity card. Rolling 3 dice gives him a 2,4 and a 5, so he successful steals a identity card, but as a consequence he had to kill its owner. This gives him a limited amount of time before the authorities notice that he is missing. Normally this might be a +1 bonus, but Smoke Mirrors makes the argument that with his genetic enhancements he can imitate the owner of the identity card better. I am convinced by this and give him a +2 bonus to the infiltration. He decides to undertake the main mission and infiltrates the tower. I roll for this, and tell him the results of 1, 1, and 4, meaning he completes the mission, but with a consequence. He describes how the infiltration goes, and how he retrieves the data, but when he is leaving his skin starts to glow, and he is forced to exit in haste. Bullets start to fly and during his escape a bullet slams into his shoulder. He makes good on his exit with the data, but is forced to spend a turn recovering.

[Taricus]

A proper IC thread is a good idea. Keeps all the OOC arguments out of the way.

Also:

Something subordinate or otherwise would be good. I'd just love to help in the logistics aspect of running the game//making it easier for the GM [c2man], and that if we're going space nomads, I've always loved the idea of intelligence officer or something like that but as a bridge between the people and the administration

EDIT: She'll make a role on the Executive Officer, but is wondering if you (and the other players) are okay with technically 2 leaders or a Quartermaster/Leader

[Madman198237]

"He describes" seems to leave open a lot of....strategic disadvantages that might be applied by players. Was that a typo, or are the players going to be the ones telling the story entirely? You know, if I wasn't a big part of this game idea, I might have made a sarcastic comment about the GM becoming little more than a glorified dice-roller... Oh wait. That's what a GM is.

Also, coming up with fair disadvantages/problems for my own inventions is going to be difficult, at least for me.

Oh yeah, yes please on the IC/less-cluttered thread.

Soooo....how does turn order go? By which I mean, do I get to invent things for the mission, or do I invent things for the game and hope they apply to the missions we run into later?

So is turn order:
Show Up In System (Done)
Learn About Opportunities
Pick Opportunities
INVENT!
Prepare
Act
Or does it look like:
Show up
Learn --------  INVENT! (Simultaneously/before learning about what we'll be doing)
Pick -------- Watch
Prepare ------- Watch
Act ------- Make exasperated comments about failings of the operatives

[Smoke Mirrors]

I'll think about diplomacy corps instead, maybe he will freelance for both.

[Madman198237]

He can be our first (And possibly last) BlackOps Tier One agent.

[Smoke Mirrors]

He can be our first (And possibly last) BlackOps Tier One agent.

Agent 001, The name's Avalon, James Avalon.

EDIT: +1 to IC thread.

[Tyrant Leviathan]

+1 to ic and this becomes ooc/signup as we still have no quarter master.

[Smoke Mirrors]

I just thought of something, Avalon uses his powers to make himself look like actors who played James Bond (along with other spy film actors) as disguises.

[Madman198237]

You're just daring the GM to interpret a bad roll as "That night guard who just shot you in the head? Yeah, he's a historian, and he saw the James Bond films too. Same holotheater as you, same night. What're the odds!? Oh, by the way, you're dead. Might want to go ask if the good doctors have managed to fit resurrection equipment onto their to-do lists."


EDIT: Speaking of which, one of our first bio/regular-tech mixups is going to be some form of reconstruction device capable of stitching together the meat shield our valuable Tier One operative.

[Smoke Mirrors]

I'll use other disguises.

[chubby2man]

A proper IC thread is a good idea. Keeps all the OOC arguments out of the way.

Also:

Something subordinate or otherwise would be good. I'd just love to help in the logistics aspect of running the game//making it easier for the GM [c2man], and that if we're going space nomads, I've always loved the idea of intelligence officer or something like that but as a bridge between the people and the administration

Oh that'd be nice! I don't think we had a quartermaster character yet, they are responsible for allocating resources and training personnel and stuff like that. If you like number crunching this is good, or if you want to focus more on the personnel side an intelligence officer would also be good!

"He describes" seems to leave open a lot of....strategic disadvantages that might be applied by players. Was that a typo, or are the players going to be the ones telling the story entirely? You know, if I wasn't a big part of this game idea, I might have made a sarcastic comment about the GM becoming little more than a glorified dice-roller... Oh wait. That's what a GM is.

Also, coming up with fair disadvantages/problems for my own inventions is going to be difficult, at least for me.

Oh yeah, yes please on the IC/less-cluttered thread.

Soooo....how does turn order go? By which I mean, do I get to invent things for the mission, or do I invent things for the game and hope they apply to the missions we run into later?

So is turn order:
Show Up In System (Done)
Learn About Opportunities
Pick Opportunities
INVENT!
Prepare
Act
Or does it look like:
Show up
Learn --------  INVENT! (Simultaneously/before learning about what we'll be doing)
Pick -------- Watch
Prepare ------- Watch
Act ------- Make exasperated comments about failings of the operatives

That specific example was for operatives, inventors and the other roles are a little different, but I'll try to keep them fairly similar.
I do see and understand your concern, but I think that is a fair trade for "hopefully" faster going turns and more personal involvement. Also, rolling a 6 means it goes off without any significant consequences, a 5 and a 4 you can choose your significant consequence, a 3-2 I describe what happens with possible multiple consequences. and a 1 you probably will die. I'll probably create a list of consequences you can choose from. If problems develop I may make changes.

Turn order (rough draft)
 GM updates the known situation, opportunities, any updates.
 Leaders ( if present) create missions.
 Inventors decide what to try to invent
Quartermaster decides items to acquire, personnel to train.
Operatives choose mission, equipment, and personnel.

Now I go in and assign difficulty values and any additional information needed.
After this you can decide to either do the main mission, do a side mission and the main, or do two side missions.

Side Mission: in the example this would be stealing the ID, it increases the positive modifier for the mission. So if you had a +1 modifier and rolled a 5, it would improve to a 6. For inventors these can be experiments that you perform, or going out and getting rare materials or creatures.
If you decide to do 2 side missions, you will have to wait till next turn to do the main mission, or to do more side missions if the assignment is particularly difficult.

There are limited consequences for the side missions. I'll get back to you and let you know the modifier (usually these are +1) and you can decide either to do another or the main mission.

I then roll for the main mission, and if it is low will describe the results. For inventions I will probably describe the basic characteristics.
If it is 4,5, 6 you can describe your results.

Quartermasters collect the rewards, and are responsible for distributing out needed equipment to departments. They can really do this anytime, but obviously will need money to distribute it.

Inventions become available the turn after they are invented. I figure people will make requests, and you have your own ideas of what to pursue.

Sorry if it is a bit confusing at the moment, but I'm hoping it will become clearer during actual play.