Actions in starship combat for those with no useful skills

[Eltab]

What self actions can you think of for characters who have no useful skills in starship combat? They have no engineering or medical or piloting or gunnery or computers or sensors etc. skills -- but you want the player to feel involved and not punished for excelling at a different pillar of the game.

The immediate vision I got was C-3PO tangled in a mass of wires aboard the Millennium Falcon as the battle ends: "Artoo, help."

- Give your "face" PC the radio controls and tell him to find out the identity and purpose of that approaching mystery ship.
- Maybe he can fast-talk your group out of trouble without firing a shot?
- Princess Leia, it turns out, can make battlefield repairs with stock parts - the kind you just pull out the malfunctioning one and plug in the new one.
- Almost anybody can jump behind a weapon turret control - but they may have a +0 net modifier because of being untrained. (Have you ever played the 'early' scenarios from Traveller:2300's included space combat game? Good luck hitting anything beyond range=1.) They still have a statistically non-zero chance to roll a '20'.
- Some people have so much aplomb that they can go down to the galley and cook a celebratory feast for our impending victory. It's not what you would think of, but it IS something to do. And it might give everybody else a Morale Bonus to their rolls as the aroma wafts through the air vents.
- As mentioned above, boarding party / counter-boarder action. This guy might want a turn at the radio, too, if the Face isn't doing too well.
- Computer geek gets the hyperdrive coordinates ready 'just in case' or before the ship is ready - he thinks he can bend the laws of physics, too, or at least has located a nearby loophole.

 

[Aenghus]

This is the classic decker problem from Cyberpunk and Shadowrun, which happens whenever there's a subgame in a RPG that only a subset of the PCs can participate in.

To my mind there are two families of solutions - Either don't allow deckers or integrate them into standard play. Translating this to the OP's context, either character generation produces PCs fit for the game as it's played, or the referee changes the game to make what the player/pc care about relevant to gameplay.

In the former set of solutions, everyone has to have basic starship skills, no fish out of water are allowed. This doesn't have to be a draconian imposition, I retain editorial authority in most RPGs I referee, but don't use it that much. If it's made clear from the start that the game involves X and everyone needs to be able to contribute to X, I find most players can accept that and those that can't either compromise or skip that game (or see the third option below).

In the latter, the skills the non-technical PC has need to be made relevant to the plot a significant part of the time. A super social character can negotiate and bluff with enemy captains as the other PCs desperately struggle to repair the busted ship, or ride herd on important VIPs and keep them away from things they shouldn't see etc. If a speciality is too difficult to use regularly in plots, it's possibly not a good character concept in the first place and needs fleshing out or changing.

There's a rare third solution, some players just don't care about being effective or being involved in combat and don't need to be included in activities they aren't interested in. So long as they get something from the game, and others are OK with how things are working out, the "problem" may need no fixing.

 

[Jhaelen]

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?"

If that's the case why should I as the GM be responsible for making sure the 'good-at-nothing' pc feels useful in a space combat? I'm not doing it for a job either; I'm in it for the fun, too!

There also needs to be a good in-game reason why the pc is part of the spaceship crew if he isn't good at anything. I suppose (s)he could have familial ties to one of the other characters, but what would be the purpose of such a character? What are the expectations of such a character's player? Where's the (potential) fun in that?

 

[Lylandra]

If that's the case why should I as the GM be responsible for making sure the 'good-at-nothing' pc feels useful in a space combat? I'm not doing it for a job either; I'm in it for the fun, too!

There also needs to be a good in-game reason why the pc is part of the spaceship crew if he isn't good at anything. I suppose (s)he could have familial ties to one of the other characters, but what would be the purpose of such a character? What are the expectations of such a character's player? Where's the (potential) fun in that?

Woah, wait! Just because a character isn't good at space *combat* it doesn't mean said character isn't useful in the campaign or even in the spaceship crew. Unless the only purpose of your ship is fighting in space.

- your ship could be a bigger exploration, trading or even diplomatic vessel. Of course such a ship would have means of defense and people who'd arm said defenses. Still doesn't mean that every member of the crew has to have space combat training.

- your campaign could simply involve travelling from planet to planet with the occasional space combat, like in Star Wars. Your exobiologist or linguist face or even your special ops bodyguard wouldn't necessarily have skills in using space ship cannons.

As we discussed in the other thread, a main difference between fanatsy and sci-fi is the degree of specialziation in every field that's pretty much a given fact in many sci-fi settings/systems. In D&D, one can expect every character to have at least rudimentary combat skills. This is not equally true in a sci-fi or modern campaign. Unless your system supports training in a broad range of skills without losing viability in your character's main role.

 

[Morrus]

If that's the case why should I as the GM be responsible for making sure the 'good-at-nothing' pc feels useful in a space combat? I'm not doing it for a job either; I'm in it for the fun, too!

Because they're your friend and you care? I dunno, man. I guess our social activities are different to each others.

There also needs to be a good in-game reason why the pc is part of the spaceship crew if he isn't good at anything. I suppose (s)he could have familial ties to one of the other characters, but what would be the purpose of such a character? What are the expectations of such a character's player? Where's the (potential) fun in that?

Not good at starship combat. Not not good at anything. They might be very useful planetside.

 

[Morrus]

So there's some great stuff in this thread. It's got me thinking about it from a different angle.

Instead of worrying how the character can contribute to this specific activity, I'm now thinking along the lines of introducing separate elements directed at such characters. It's harder for those particular characters to instigate stuff, but the GM can instigate stuff right at them. Some of the great ideas in this thread - cooking meals for the crew, etc. - while sometimes a little silly certain have me thinking in that direction.

Essentially, for those characters, they're in a different encounter. But it's blended in well, so it doesn't feel like one.

I just need to come up with the things which I can throw at them. You can only have so many tribble outbreaks. These are basically "minor random encounters on board a ship which aren't just repairing stuff". Nothing that will take too long.

- stowaway
- saboteur
- uncooperative AI (social encounter)
- ammo shortage
- cargo crate breaks open; something in it

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Remember also your tech guys can have "decker" type tasks, engaging in ECM/ECCM tactics- either programming or fighting off jamming or AI takeover/viruses.

 

[Morrus]

Remember also your tech guys can have "decker" type tasks, engaging in ECM/ECCM tactics- either programming or fighting off jamming or AI takeover/viruses.

That's all regular starship combat stuff in my games!

 

[Quickleaf]

So lots of games do the usual suite of starship combat actions for PCs collectively running a ship.

This question is slightly different. What self actions can you think of for characters who have no useful skills in starship combat? They have no engineering or medical or piloting or gunnery or computers or sensors etc. skills -- but you want the player to feel involved and not punished for excelling at a different pillar of the game. 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)?

Or do you just give them a useful crewman to play for the duration?

Do they have any skills at managing people? As in commanding, encouraging, or tricking the crew?

What about "Hunt for Red October" dilemmas with someone running around the ship needing to make the hard choices and physically sealing bulkhead doors and/or rescuing injured crew?

 

[discosoc]

Just because they aren't skilled at something does mean they can't try it. Go man the guns and start blasting at things. Maybe it will encourage the player to throw a few points into the skill next time they get the chance. The bigger issue would be if the encounter is setup so that there is literally nothing they can do. Like, maybe you gave them a spaceship without guns, and you have a scene where the pilot is evading an Imperial blockade or something. That was probably a mistake on the GM's part for setting it up that way in the first place, and the fault lies with him. In that case, maybe set the encounter up so that the crew has to deal with a boarding party while they pilot is shaking the rest.