Actions in starship combat for those with no useful skills

[LordEntrails]

It sounds like several of you are trying to disagree with me, but are actually saying something similar to what I'm saying;

... Now, that doesn't mean someone who is an expert in piloting or gunnery couldn't do it better. They would know advanced options or routines that the opposing computer would be using and how to compensate for that, but such would not be required to atleast be moderately effective...

Remember, [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION] was basically asking how can PC's feel useful on a starship if they don't have starship skills;

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 ...

In short, there is no reason a PC can't do something useful on a starship, they just won't be able to do it as well as an expert. So, from a play perspective, all the characters (assuming the ship have enough systems) can do something interesting. Saying you can't man the laser canon unless you have a gunnery skill, can't work damage control unless you are an engineer, can't pilot the ship etc is a poorly designed system (imo).

 

[Mallus]

Besides, just telling the AI to fight your tabletop RPG encounters for you doesn't sound much fun!

What if the AI was named Zen and the crew was the crew of the Liberator?

 

[Eis]

I mean...they can fetch drinks for the useful members of the crew....or fold some laundry maybe....tidy up the cargo bay....that kind of thing

 

[Morrus]

In short, there is no reason a PC can't do something useful on a starship, they just won't be able to do it as well as an expert. So, from a play perspective, all the characters (assuming the ship have enough systems) can do something interesting. Saying you can't man the laser canon unless you have a gunnery skill, can't work damage control unless you are an engineer, can't pilot the ship etc is a poorly designed system (imo).

Sure. And that's not in question. It's more about making the player feel useful by contributing something unique and fun. Piling everybody onto guns or whatever is an easy option, but I feel like there might be more interesting ideas out there which utilise a wider variety of skills.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In a modern horror campaign, I was playing a medic when got real. Darn near zero combat skills.

My character did 2 important things: I helped evacuate trapped kiddies from the most dangerous areas, and used my medical training & gear as a weapon- Mr. Monster did NOT appreciate the defibrillators to the back...

 

[LordEntrails]

Sure. And that's not in question. It's more about making the player feel useful by contributing something unique and fun. Piling everybody onto guns or whatever is an easy option, but I feel like there might be more interesting ideas out there which utilise a wider variety of skills.

Well, in starship combat? What can someone do who doesn't have starship combat skills?

Might be some interesting ideas, I don't think I have them but I will try...

Can't really leave the ship, space is too big to think that a PC in a suit could sneak onto or be close enough to the enemy actually effect them. Maybe if they were laid as a mine, but that's a pretty small use case.

So, other than weapon systems, how can they reach out? Maybe try some computer hacking? Use comm systems to try and access and hack the enemy ships? Or at the min, perform electronic countermeasures. But that just might be spaceship skills again, depends on the system I suspect. Maybe make something useful from the cargo? Mines or debris fields or decoys maybe (I'm thinking Firefly like).

I think that only leaves things to do within the ship then. And as others have said, not much useful there. Repairs, coffee & laundry...

Putting the party into a space ship is pretty limiting, and then putting that ship into combat limits actions even more.

 

[Kobold Stew]

First, at the point of character creation, I encourage players to think about what they want to be doing during starship combat. As a result, if a player finds herself in this situation, it is because it is a *choice* not to have a relevant starship combat skill.

For someone who has chosen that situation, there are usually other things that can need taking care of:
* calming passengers
* shuttling wounded to sickbay
* searching for the bomb in the luggage
* keeping rioters from storming the bridge
* assisting the engineer (with a Help action or equivalent -- "pass me the hyper spanner")
* combatting boarders
* manning/monitoring communications
* hacking into enemy ship controls
* jamming radio frequencies of guidance systems of incoming missiles (with a computer skill or equivalent)
* (or, embracing the player choice) by "being in the way" "complaining loudly" "bothering crew".

 

[MarkB]

It's pretty much the same issue as the perennial "what does the melee fighter do in a combat against flying creatures?" issue, except that it tends to be easier in many sci-fi systems to build characters whose skills don't translate well to starship combat.

Back when I was regularly running Star Wars Saga Edition, I tended to try and ensure that the players had several gunnery positions available. Non-proficient characters got somewhere around a -5 penalty to attacks, but starship ACs were generally fairly low, so even with the penalties, the non-proficient gunners could land a reasonable number of hits.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Bar Tender
Red shirt
Rookie / side-kick that is learning a new skill, basically following a crew around to learn new stuff and become useful for later missions, this way they interact with the other players and remain part of the group.

 

[GMMichael]

I provide them with an airlock.

Not bad. Look at what Drax did with his airlock in Guardians 2: he dangled out behind his ship and used a man-mobile blaster to harass (destroy?) an enemy ship.

No, that wouldn't happen if I were GMing.

I think we've seen some good suggestions in this thread (I dropped XP for some), and Joe-Schmo PCs can still contribute on an average basis to things they're not experts in. One way to keep PCs from feeling useless is to spare them from pass-fail mechanics; few things are more boring than, "oh, you didn't roll high enough? You fail and you're useless."