Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 6660415" data-attributes="member: 386">What choices are the players making when they are doing Science!?I had a half-formed idea a while ago that went something like this:All tech has three blocks to it.The primary block describes the basic function of the tech: weapons, shields, cloaking, genetics, power, etc.&nbsp; The secondary block describes any requirements, using a similar list of keywords.The third block says what it actually does.So some kind of dna-destructor ray might have weapon + genetics as keywords.You'd create tech using the keywords, mixing and matching them.&nbsp; You'd fix and jury-rig tech by using another piece of tech that has the same keywords.&nbsp; You could hand out bonuses/penalties to the check based on matching primary/primary, primary/secondary, etc. keywords.You'd probably want some kind of tech level for each piece of tech - a blaster might be weapon (TL 5) + power (TL 7).&nbsp; If you try to fix or create it from lower TL equipment you'd get penalties (and at some point the TL is too low to help).It would take time to balance out everything, because you're basically making a little puzzle game.&nbsp; You could lie most of that on the DM's shoulders; you might only have to make sure the tech levels are well thought-out.*Anyway, the technobabble got me thinking of that.&nbsp; If the items of technobabble that you get when you consult the random table each have properties and certain values (e.g. &quot;warp core: very unstable, on a critical failure it explodes!&quot;), and combine with each other in interesting ways (even if it's open-ended for the DM to figure out), you might have something there that will engage the players and give some heft to the technobabble.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="LostSoul, post: 6660415, member: 386"] What choices are the players making when they are doing Science!? I had a half-formed idea a while ago that went something like this: All tech has three blocks to it. The primary block describes the basic function of the tech: weapons, shields, cloaking, genetics, power, etc. The secondary block describes any requirements, using a similar list of keywords. The third block says what it actually does. So some kind of dna-destructor ray might have weapon + genetics as keywords. You'd create tech using the keywords, mixing and matching them. You'd fix and jury-rig tech by using another piece of tech that has the same keywords. You could hand out bonuses/penalties to the check based on matching primary/primary, primary/secondary, etc. keywords. You'd probably want some kind of tech level for each piece of tech - a blaster might be weapon (TL 5) + power (TL 7). If you try to fix or create it from lower TL equipment you'd get penalties (and at some point the TL is too low to help). It would take time to balance out everything, because you're basically making a little puzzle game. You could lie most of that on the DM's shoulders; you might only have to make sure the tech levels are well thought-out. * Anyway, the technobabble got me thinking of that. If the items of technobabble that you get when you consult the random table each have properties and certain values (e.g. "warp core: very unstable, on a critical failure it explodes!"), and combine with each other in interesting ways (even if it's open-ended for the DM to figure out), you might have something there that will engage the players and give some heft to the technobabble. [/QUOTE]

Verification