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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tun Kai Poh" data-source="post: 8402257" data-attributes="member: 6761960">Character Creation: Captain Caspian Var, Union Naval CorpsLike in Lancer, the player character is defined by stats that affect narrative play, as well as stats for combat. You don't roll for these, and the first set of stats is assigned completely independent of the second; as such, there's no way for a player to min-max a character by minimizing their narrative stats to maximize their combat stats.Caspian Var grew up on the factory world of Marshall as a member of the Creative elite of the planet. Inducted into the UNC at a young age as an honorable occupation for a highborn child, Var quickly proved his skills as an officer cadet and later as a line officer during the battles of Hierarch's Veld and Orpheus IX where he demonstrated calm under fire when his ship, the UNS-LS Lake Champlain, was struck by a Karrakin Nearlight Kill-Pack.Now newly promoted to command of the UNS-BB Richard Wagner at the head of Battlegroup Splinter, Captain Caspian Var desires nothing more than to enforce the Union's goals on a Galaxy filled with squabbling corporations and petty tyrants that stand in the way. After all, without peace and order, there can be no progress or freedom.Caspian's player is aiming to get Reputation: Scion for Caspian, which will give access to a number of the Reputation's advances, powerful special narrative abilities.Traits:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Cool</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Professional</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Arrogant</li> </ul>These Traits provide positive (Cool, Professional) and negative (Arrogant) modifiers to the character's rolls. Using up a positive Trait means you cannot use it again until you use a negative trait to recharge your positive ones.Unlike in Lancer, an individual character doesn't really have any stats that improve the combat performance of the fleet - although that will change after a couple of missions' worth of experience. Instead, they have equipment - a Battlegroup, to be precise.So now it's time to spend 20 points on Caspian's battlegroup, which must consist of 2-6 Capital Ships.Battlegroup SplinterFlagship: UNS-BB Richard Wagner (14)26 HP, 13 Defense, 1d6+2 InterdictionHull - FKS Calendula Class Battlecruiser (7)Superheavy Weapon - Spinal Petajoule Kinetic (2)Superheavy Weapon - Spinal Petajoule Kinetic (2)Primary Weapon - Dorsal Razorback Missiles (0)System - "Sandstorm" Vanguard (3)System - Veteran Crews (0)[ATTACH=full]144104[/ATTACH]For the flagship, the player has chosen what he calls "A bit of a meme build but its an experiment in throwing really dense objects really fast really far." This is a battleship with two slots for Superheavy weapons (other battleships only have one!) and the ability to Overcharge Superheavy weapons that use the Charge tag, pouring more energy into them than is normally advisable - at a cost of damaging the ship. For anyone who wants to power up enormous cannons over multiple rounds before unleashing them, this is what you take. In this case, Caspian's ship has two Spinal Petajoule Kinetics, which are basically giant railguns capable of punching through one or two ships with a single shot, effective anywhere between Range 5 (the maximum range) and Range 2 (Collapsing Range, one step up from Short Range).The Primary weapon is a basic 4x10 missile array capable of doing a solid amount of damage, but taking multiple rounds to reach their targets - again, this is another example of how some of Battlegroup's weapons are an exercise in patience. If you launch missiles at, say, Range 3, the missiles will arrive at the Range 0 (enemy fleet) about 2 or 3 rounds later. Like in the X-Wing miniatures game, this is an example of a 0-cost upgrade. It's a baseline weapon you get to fill your slot with, if you can't afford a more powerful one.Finally, the battleship has two Systems, representing other equipment that can modify the performance of the vessel. Veteran Crews provide a one-time re-roll on a missed attack, which can be recharged under a certain condition. "Sandstorm" Vanguard is a cluster of asteroids, shepherded with thruster systems, that can shield the battlegroup from incoming damage (by providing Overshield, the Lancer equivalent of Temporary Hit Points). Once per battle, the ship can take a Maneuver to slingshot a cluster of asteroids at an enemy Capital Ship for 10 damage, plus additional Area damage to the entire hostile battlegroup, plus a lingering debris effect that can hit more enemy ships that attempt certain types of movement (a complicated thing I'll explain later on). This is a powerful and unique upgrade - you can only have one in your battlegroup.UNS-LS Björn Járnsiđa (6)14 HP, 12 DefenseHull - HA Turenne Class Frigate (4)Auxiliary Weapon - Harbinger Confidence Lasers (1)Auxiliary Weapon - Harbinger Confidence Lasers (1)System - Predict/Overlay Shield Projector (0)In the Lancer: Battlegroup setting, a Frigate is not a small ship - subline ships such as Cruisers, Destroyers and Corvettes are all smaller than this class. Frigates are merely the smallest Capital Ship class - they're still considered ships of the line, with powerful nearlight drives and capital-grade weapons, and they would be capable of being assigned for independent missions. Their classification harkens back to Napoleonic-era warships, where frigates were powerful enough to overcome anything smaller than a ship of the line, but fast and flexible enough to be used for scouting and other independent duties.Caspian has chosen this Turenne to maximise the long-range sniping potential of Battlegroup Splinter. The twin banks of Harbinger Confidence Lasers are targeting lasers for long-cycle Charge guns like the Spinal Petajoule Kinetic, albeit powerful enough to blast small ships out of the sky. They contribute damage at long or extreme ranges for each round that the battlegroup's Charge weapons are powering up.The Predict/Overlay Shield Projector is a one-use shield that can power up to stop a single shot from an enemy Superheavy weapon, and is more effective at Extreme range (Range 5) than at any other. Again, an upgrade that goes well with the Calendula's optimal fighting range.Lastly, the Turenne has a special Trait, Active Defense, which gives the battlegroup +2 Interdiction against Payloads and Area damage whenever the frigate is assigned to Defensive Screen. This is a special tactic only available to frigates, providing cover for other ships and taking hits instead of the ship they are defending 50% of the time.And that's the first player's battlegroup - at least, the starting version of it. Ships can get modified and given special Legacies as they go through a campaign. But this is certainly a game where the power level is much higher than normal. One battlegroup has the power to shape the destiny of entire planets...Next time on Character Creation: The frontline slugger joins the fleet.</blockquote>

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