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Actions in starship combat for those with no useful skills
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7122491" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>You should design your game so that this doesn't happen.</p><p></p><p>One of the problems I typically have with science fiction games (and to a lesser extent modern games) is that this exact situation tends to come up. </p><p></p><p>But it shouldn't if the game is well designed. </p><p></p><p>Consider the novel Babel-17. In it, the skill of starship piloting exactly translates to.... being a skilled professional wrestler. In fact, pilots looking for work attract clients by showing off their skills in the wrestling ring. There is no reason that a science fiction game shouldn't use similar cross skills to prevent players finding themselves in a silo with nothing to do in the current mini-game. </p><p></p><p>So for example, there shouldn't be a skill of 'knitting stuff'. There should be a skill of crafting, so that anyone that is good at knitting sweaters is also good at repairing broken coolant lines, hydraulic lines and mending blown electrical circuits. If the character is skilled at 'social stuff', then they should also automatically have skill at 'command', and be able to do things like 'assist a teammate' or 'coordinate team' - basically, you are the 'bard'. That only gets boring if you have no real choices to make about what ability to use - do you give someone on the team an extra action, or a reroll to use, or do you give everyone across the board +1 bonus? It certainly no less boring than being the engineer that is fixing stuff each turn, unless you have to make choices each turn about what to fix - can't repair lost engine power and lost shields in the same turn, for example. </p><p></p><p>If you are so niche you can't participate in an important mini-game within the game, then you are too niche and something is wrong with the skill rules or the chargen or both. You shouldn't be able to make an NPC.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7122491, member: 4937"] You should design your game so that this doesn't happen. One of the problems I typically have with science fiction games (and to a lesser extent modern games) is that this exact situation tends to come up. But it shouldn't if the game is well designed. Consider the novel Babel-17. In it, the skill of starship piloting exactly translates to.... being a skilled professional wrestler. In fact, pilots looking for work attract clients by showing off their skills in the wrestling ring. There is no reason that a science fiction game shouldn't use similar cross skills to prevent players finding themselves in a silo with nothing to do in the current mini-game. So for example, there shouldn't be a skill of 'knitting stuff'. There should be a skill of crafting, so that anyone that is good at knitting sweaters is also good at repairing broken coolant lines, hydraulic lines and mending blown electrical circuits. If the character is skilled at 'social stuff', then they should also automatically have skill at 'command', and be able to do things like 'assist a teammate' or 'coordinate team' - basically, you are the 'bard'. That only gets boring if you have no real choices to make about what ability to use - do you give someone on the team an extra action, or a reroll to use, or do you give everyone across the board +1 bonus? It certainly no less boring than being the engineer that is fixing stuff each turn, unless you have to make choices each turn about what to fix - can't repair lost engine power and lost shields in the same turn, for example. If you are so niche you can't participate in an important mini-game within the game, then you are too niche and something is wrong with the skill rules or the chargen or both. You shouldn't be able to make an NPC. [/QUOTE]
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