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Actions in starship combat for those with no useful skills
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<blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 7125742" data-attributes="member: 2656"><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aenghus, post: 7125742, member: 2656"] 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. [/QUOTE]
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