dekrass
Member

It seems that the Action Careers chapter isn't updated to v1.2. There are references to the stunned and immobilized conditions in several career exploits. The universal exploits all seem to be the old versions as well. Redownload it! You’ll know you have the right file if the character sheet is at the end.

I mostly treat them like knowledge skills are treated in other games. There are probably a few other uses, too. I can think of a few examples for telepathy. As you suggested you could try to identify the use of telepathy by others. You could use it to assess an area's security from telepathic intrusion or set up countermeasures if your setting has telepathic countermeasures. I would also allow telepathy to be used as a mental defense skill against telepathic attacks. Biopsionics might be used on checks to hold your breath or in other instances of bodily control. Of course, all of this is subject to GM approval and may not be appropriate for all settings. I've let PCs use telepathy for a variety of attribute checks - an interrogation using CHA (telepathy) springs to mind.

Is it just me or does the updated pdf have no bookmarks? Download it again. I actually updated the file today with the bookmarked version!

Will the Xenomorphs book have any new material, such as careers, exploits, creatures, or equipment? If so, how much is new? It's a 60-page book. Detailed more here. 24 pages detail the setting, including new equipment, new creatures (though I have put those creatures on the WRRD), vehicles, ships, info about the United Marine Corps, the Chen Zua Corporation, plot hooks, stuff like that. There's a list of recommended careers from NEW, and a handful of relevant NOW careers printed in the book because it's designed to be used with just the NEW hardcover, along with the human variants (Clones, Belters, Jovians) from Universal Upgrades. 8 pages describe Somerset Landing, a sample terraforming colony. 15 pages is an adventure. Plus 10 pregenerated characters for the adventure (as it's survival horror, and the likelihood is you won't end the adventure alive). 90395

The math here is out of my depth, but in the hope of a simple solution I'll throw in an idea. What kind of difference would it make if the Defense penalties were halved, like the shield bonuses were in the errata? With a -1 for medium armor and a -2 for heavy would things improve? I think that particular thing is a perfect opportunity to bing back the armor skilll reducing defence penalties. The defence penalty is reduced by -1 for each die in the armor skill (that means you don't really need a light armor skill, but I think that works thematically -- wearing a synthetic weave shouldn't require skill; wearing powered combat armor should).

The social career list in Action Careers has an Ambassador career listed, but that career doesn't seem to be present. Ah, it became Diplomat.

It's contamination, not containment. Given Pinnacles past I'm sure it's an excellent adventure no matter the title. Opps. Changed :)

I think you mean psionic is the equivalent of magical. N.E.W. already has natural SOAK. Biofeedback doesn't specify a type in the Careers book. If psionic SOAK is equivalent to magical does that mean they don't stack? I expect a crossover game of O.LD. and N.E.W. eventually. Yeah, I meant psionic not natural. Another equipment question was brought up by a player. Should the laser rifle and assault laser have the beam trait? Beam specifically mentions phasers and lasers and all the other lasers have the trait, but not those two. No, those two particular weapons fire laser bolts not beams.

I ran a session of N.E.W. that was almost all combat. It brought up several questions. This'll be a long post, but here goes. Which modifiers apply to psionic attacks, like psi-blast, that target mental defense? Are those attacks modified by the same things as ranged attacks? Yep! Though it takes some cues from 5E's "rulings not rules" philosophy in that the GM is free to add complication die penalties or refuse bonuses if they really don't make sense (charging before a psionic charm effect, for example). Does cover apply to adjacent targets while using a ranged weapon? If you can justify the cover, yep. It's a little harder to convince me as a GM that a PC is in cover when the target can literally just reach over it though. Definitely a GM call! In the movement section it says you can take an action at any point during your movement, and the section on cover says that if line of sight is blocked you have to spend a move action to get in position to attack and another to block line of s...

I was building a ship using the Starship Construction Manual and noticed something that seemed odd to me. A mess hall takes up 4 Cargo Units, and if I'm reading it correctly that accommodates one crew member. That's 4 times the size of a cabin. Why is that? Mess halls include dining areas, some entertainment facilities, and so on. Cabins are a lot smaller. Another thing I was pondering comes from the Space book, jump drives. Why do they take as long to get somewhere as other drives? They're described as teleporting instantly. Is there supposed to be some kind of cool down period between jumps or something? I'm not familiar with fiction that includes jump drives so I don't really have anything to go on. Generally, you need to decide on your setting 'fluff' - the game doesn't really distinguish between types of drives (other than speed, efficiency, etc.) A jump drive might for example, as in BSG, need multiple jumps at 33-minute intervals.

Page 31 under making an attack. Thanks. However, that sidebar does not actually state that you can exceed your dice pool on anything other than Luck so if it is meant to imply it then it is contradicted by the section on maximum dice pools (pages 8-9) since that says that if your pool is larger it gets reduced.

Okay, guidelines are good. If you update the pdf in the future it might be good to add the word maybe or usually to the lines that tell you how many attribute points you should have from careers. It could help avoid confusion for newer players. That's (well, will be - they're written, but not in layout yet) dealt with in some detail in the world building book(s) which have detailed guidelines for designing career, races, and so on.

I think of those ideas I favor drawing schematics, but any of those have the problem of drastically changing how a spell path works. Yes, and no. The spell path mechanic alters how the spell creation/casting works. The question boils down to this. Do I have a 'create farming tool' spell or do I have a 'create shovel', 'create pick-axe', 'create rake', etc.... And if the former, how do we avoid the 'Create any object' type of spell? Or do we have a 'Create on the fly' spell that takes 1 minute to cast, allowing the caster to still have the flexibility in what they create. From my group the Druid had developed a Create Nature spell that raised a wooden fortress wall with stairs, archer walkway, and crenellations, useful in preparing for combat.

When you increase a rank in an existing career do you apply the age adjustment as you do for a new career? If so "leveling up" mid-adventure will be impossible. That's not necessarily bad, but it strongly influences adventure design. Nope. Just at character generation.

I think the recklessness combat trick is using an old version of defense. As is it would give low AGI characters a slight boost to defense. xD I didn't even notice that! I had read it as it becomes the lower of 10 or your normal score, whichever is lower. As it is though, would make it an interesting trick for a barbarian or mage.

If N.O.W. gets a separate KS later I would pitch in, but I'm still holding out hope for the stretch goal. Upon reflection, I don't want an answer. Let's not taint the last week, by saying we might get the stretch goal anyway. That's just silly. I'll ask again if we don't meet the goal. Here's hoping we do and the point is moot!:cool:

I would really like to see spellbook casting more fleshed out, and cooperative magic. Both are classics in fiction and woefully neglected in games. This is the current draft. The difficulty values may be too low, though. Casting from a Spellbook If you have access a spellbook, you can cast directly from it even if you have no magical ability. You simply need to follow the instructions exactly. This requires an INT check based on the total MP of the spell in question. The time taken to cast the spell is also significantly longer. The difficulty benchmark to cast the spell is based on its total MP. You can never cast a spell with a higher MP value than your own INT attribute - it is simply too complex for you to understand. However, if the spell's total MP is equal to or lower than your INT attribute, you may make the attempt. Determine the target difficulty in the same way that you would determine a target's DEFENSE value, using MP in place of AGI. A spell cast in this manner takes on...

Is there any way to learn a spell list aside from taking a rank in a magical tradition? There will be, yes. The current playtest iteration doesn't include it, but there will be XP-based spell list acquisition like there is for psionics in N.E.W. As far as I can tell 7MP is the strongest you can make a concoction, according to the text. The tables indicate much higher numbers. Why is that? There's room for future higher-tier traditions granting the ability to do so, and so on. Also, the catalyst bonus of precious gems isn't intended to count towards that limit (it's a way to "pay" to exceed your normal limits) - I'm not sure if the text is clear on that or not.

That's interesting. That means the roll only matters if you get lucky. Yeah; or in other words - you can't be unlucky.

That sounds like a good fix to me. On another note. For health it says if you roll less than 3 times your END you increase it to that amount. Should that be 3 times the number of dice rolled? Used to be, but it was coming out a little low, so now it's 3xEND (which is the score used to calculate monsters' HEALTH). The odd quirk of that is that it benefits you much more on an odd number than an even number (5 health x 3 = 15, and you roll 3d6; whereas 4 health x 3 = 12, and you roll 3d6). That makes that additional END point worth having; otherwise improving it from 4-5 has no benefit to you.