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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Laurefindel" data-source="post: 7961960" data-attributes="member: 67296">Playtest Update:I did not have enough players to playtest a combat with all battlestations filled. The exercise was not in vain however as it demonstrated the need for mobility between stations, as Morrus noted repeatedly <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />So here were my observations:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Battlestations can bring variety between combats and a more situational tactical element which players can apply to each battle. To what degree? This remains to be seen with more playtest. At one point, players might be tempted to stick to an "optimal" choice for their characters. I'm wondering as to what extent this would be a big "bug".</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Battlestations remain Helm, Comms, Engineering, and Tactical. Alternate battlestations such as leading a fighter squadron were not tested. So far, fighters have the ungrateful role of taking hits for their mothership as an expensive and limited resource (but consequentially make combat longer; must be explored further).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It's essential that battlestations be allowed to be selected by multiple players (essentially be duplicated indefinitely), and that not all stations need to be filled. ATM, the Helm is the only exception to that.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Command roles aboard the ship (captain, deck officer, engineer, etc.) need to be detached from battlestations. Let the captain run engineering if they want to; the first mate can man the helm.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Battlestations need to bring significantly different options to be justifiable. Some combat tasks (i.e. alternative actions to attacks, some of them being special attacks in their own) are in the process of being re-written to reflect that better. Will require more playtesting.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Characters must be able to a) change battlestation halfway thru battle and/or b) perform combat tasks of other battlestations at need. At the moment, this comes at a cost of personal resources (more or less the equivalent of hope in The One Ring rpg). Presently working on rules to swap position, share shields, shunt damage to another (empty) station etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Combat structure between ground combat and space battles mesh well enough to insert both fights in the same combat round, merging both fights as one combat using the same rules (but with different options). Some compromise had to be made to allow that but are justified IMO.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Some of the free "beginning of round choices" (attributing arsenal, routing power etc.) are a bit heavy, slowing down the flow of combat. Requires revision.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">A party of 2 is less powerful than a party of 4, but a cruiser should remain as powerful as another cruiser regardless of the number of characters on board. A formula applied to enemies allows to balance that. Hesitating between a more-complex-but-more-acurate and a very-simple-but-rougher conversion. The former require a conversion before combat and takes a good paragraph to explain it. The latter can be made on the fly and fits into a sentence. Leaning on the latter ATM.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Warships offer more options than transports; logical assumption but wondering if it can be detrimental to game experience/enjoyment. Aiming for a middle compromise...</li> </ul>I think that's it so far...The premise of the game, if you'd like to know, is a Twilight Imperium (as the board game) RPG using The One Ring mechanics (yes, I know about FFG's Genesis, and I know that Twilight Imperium stemmed from Traveller rpg. I like TI and I like TOR. There isn't more to it, but TOR works well with faction-based character options, as opposed to class-based)</blockquote>

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