Actions in starship combat for those with no useful skills

[RangerWickett]

Maybe 'follow orders' is an option, and the character who has no useful skills just rolls as a surrogate for the crew, to see how well the ship operates this round.

To turn the question back, it matters less whether the character is useful than it matters that he's engaged. If we're in a Warhammer 40K setting and the useless character is drafted to grab a rope and manually drag a 5 ton autocannon shell into the barrel, maybe he witnesses two rival gangs among the crew about to break into a brawl and he has a chance to forestall that so the petty grievance doesn't get them all killed. Or maybe he just has to roll to see if, when they load the huge bullet into the barrel, he's able to get out of the way and isn't crushed or fired out into space.

In a more Trek-style sci-fi, maybe there's a minor hull breach and he has to save himself from decompression. Perhaps the power goes out in whatever room he's in and he's got to fix the power (which he's no good at) before the enemy vessel detects a chink in the ship's defensive systems. He could witness a single enemy beam aboard and start planting a bomb.

In a small-crew vessel a la Star Wars, maybe he's got to batten the hatches to keep cargo from flying around the ship and losing value - or possibly even tumbling into the cockpit and messing up their piloting. The droids might need to be held in place as the ship's gravity compensators struggle to keep up with the erratic maneuvers. It even be as simple as, "Bob, go look out the aft window and tell me what you see," and then you describe the enemy TIE pilot noticing him through the window and cocking his head in confusion.

Just create some narrative beats that involve the character, even if they're not integral to the resolution of the conflict.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Another thought, inspired by RangerWickett: depending on the nature of the campaign, "uselessness" might be weeded out in the character creation process.

In a purely militaristic setting/society, almost no PC- with the possible exceptions of a true science expert- would lack some kind of military training. Think of Sparta, modern day Israel, modeled in sci-if by societies like those depicted in Starship Toopers or by Klingons.

In a mixed civilian/military setting a la the Federation, BSG, or a ragtag group on a ship like Firefly, the likelihood that a PC lacks combat skills rises. In such situations, "Hang on!" might be the best thing they can do.

 

[Jhaelen]

What if the character is only good at whacking things and knitting; or social stuff (some social buffing, I guess, but that gets dull quickly)?

Yeah, my first question would have been asking what the character _is_ good at. If the answer is nothing, then I'd do nothing. It's clearly the player's responsibility to create a character that is useful to the group.

As you already pointed out, social skills can be put to good use in a spaceship encounter. You could also have them communicate with the commanders of enemy ships during combat, I guess.

A character that is 'only good at whacking things and knitting'? I cannot recall a single sci-fi RPG that has knitting as a skill. I'd suggest the player should immediately retrain that.
And a character focused just on melee combat in a sci-fi setting? Imho, that's also problematic. Imho, _every_ character needs some skill in ranged combat. So, it's quite obvious to me that a combat-centric character would also know a bit about a gunnery.

P.S.: I actually consider spaceship combat to be one of the most problematic features of a sci-fi game. I prefer combat encounters with real consequences, and you simply cannot do that with spaceship encounters. Imho, it only works for cinematic campaigns where it's basically a given that the hero's ship(s) will never blow up, killing everyone. Just one of the many reasons I prefer fantasy settings.

 

[Lylandra]

Now... can we add the restults of this discussion to the sci-fi vs fantasy thread?

We had the same situation when we were playing RIFTS in space. Most of our characters had some kind of useful space combat skill (and mind you, you'd also need some "handgun" or "melee" skill in order to hurt someone when you were not sitting in a ship...), but two players didn't, including me (a scientist) and our spy/master of disguise/comic book author. So we had to improvise in order to make ourselves useful.

The spy went down to the engine room and helped out the engineers at first, but he soon started cheering them up by promising them to play a part in the next issue of "Captain Trenor". This raised the overall efficiency and morale of the engine crew.

My scientist connected to the main computer and started simulating some really difficult and strange attack vectors based on their surroundings. I could then contribute by giving the piloting character a bonus via physics and computer science rolls.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, my first question would have been asking what the character _is_ good at. If the answer is nothing, then I'd do nothing. It's clearly the player's responsibility to create a character that is useful to the group.

Well, it's just a game with my friends, not a job. I don't really think in terms of "responsibility", more in terms of "are we all having fun together?"

P.S.: I actually consider spaceship combat to be one of the most problematic features of a sci-fi game. I prefer combat encounters with real consequences, and you simply cannot do that with spaceship encounters. Imho, it only works for cinematic campaigns where it's basically a given that the hero's ship(s) will never blow up, killing everyone. Just one of the many reasons I prefer fantasy settings.

The way I handle it, which seems to work, is that the ship has escape pods and if a ship explodes, all the PCs automatically survive in the escape pods. Losing our ship is a situational/logistical/financial blow rather than death.

 

[Morrus]

Yeah, my first question would have been asking what the character _is_ good at. If the answer is nothing, then I'd do nothing. It's clearly the player's responsibility to create a character that is useful to the group.

Well, it's just a game with my friends, not a job. I don't really think in terms of "responsibility", more in terms of "are we all having fun together?"

P.S.: I actually consider spaceship combat to be one of the most problematic features of a sci-fi game. I prefer combat encounters with real consequences, and you simply cannot do that with spaceship encounters. Imho, it only works for cinematic campaigns where it's basically a given that the hero's ship(s) will never blow up, killing everyone. Just one of the many reasons I prefer fantasy settings.

The way I handle it, which seems to work, is that the ship has escape pods and if a ship explodes, all the PCs automatically survive in the escape pods. Losing our ship is a situational/logistical/financial blow rather than death.

 

[Lylandra]

The way I handle it, which seems to work, is that the ship has escape pods and if a ship explodes, all the PCs automatically survive in the escape pods. Losing our ship is a situational/logistical/financial blow rather than death.

In my (rather limited) experience, this is a good solution and losing a space ship is really a bummer for the group. In contrast to fantasy, there is almost no bigger resource for a space-faring group than their ship, unless you play something like Star Trek where the federation etc. will give you a spare vessel. And gaining a new one generally involves more than just a simple side-quest.

 

[Morrus]

In my (rather limited) experience, this is a good solution and losing a space ship is really a bummer for the group. In contrast to fantasy, there is almost no bigger resource for a space-faring group than their ship, unless you play something like Star Trek where the federation etc. will give you a spare vessel. And gaining a new one generally involves more than just a simple side-quest.

You just price them like cars. 20K will get you a small used ship. Like in Star Wars where Luke protested that he could buy his own ship for 10K.

 

[Bluenose]

Imho, _every_ character needs some skill in ranged combat. So, it's quite obvious to me that a combat-centric character would also know a bit about a gunnery.

Skill in ranged combat where that combat consists of firing a rifle or pistol at targets within visual range is not good practice for shooting guns from one ship to another, unless the model for space combat is Napoleonic naval warfare (which, incidentally, is not so uncommon in SF). Operating drone vehicles ten light-seconds from your ship isn't even quite like atmospheric combat employing combat drones, where light-speed lag isn't a significant factor. The skills are very different.

P.S.: I actually consider spaceship combat to be one of the most problematic features of a sci-fi game. I prefer combat encounters with real consequences, and you simply cannot do that with spaceship encounters. Imho, it only works for cinematic campaigns where it's basically a given that the hero's ship(s) will never blow up, killing everyone. Just one of the many reasons I prefer fantasy settings.

Real consequences that aren't a ship blowing up and killing everyone are hardly difficult to devise.



To answer the main question of the thread, a very simple function would be doing all the things that the people actually engaged in vital tasks don't have time for but still want to keep them operating effectively. Preparing and bringing meals, eyeball-checks on the inventory of drones/missiles, checking the status of individuals environment suits and fetching replacement consumables, patrolling the corridors for people being transported aboard, and I imagine those are withing the capabilities of anyone capable of surviving on the ship.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You just price them like cars. 20K will get you a small used ship. Like in Star Wars where Luke protested that he could buy his own ship for 10K.

For some reason, I just had a vision of a party buying a small ship and painting it to look like The Mystery Machine.

Then somehow I thought of a wookie named Scooby and a certain princess wearing glasses...