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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 7440542" data-attributes="member: 7464">OK he took the Android exploit Armor, for 5 SOAK. From Marine Tour career, he took Battle Scars, which is a natural SOAK bonus of 2. Specifically says bonus (bonuses stack) but doesn't have the "+" callout (which is supposed to indicate a stackable bonus). From Street Thug career, he took Street Tough, which says you gain a natural +2 SOAK. This one does use the + indicator, which means it's supposed to be a bonus that adds to existing natural SOAK.He picked Tough as Nails Trait, for +2 SOAK, which specifically says it stacks any other SOAK scores.He purchased a Helmet, which gives +2 SOAK. (Uses the + so I assume it's stackable.)This gave him 13 SOAK at start (grade 5).He uses a longsword, which is very cheap and does more damage than the laser pistols the rest of the party is using. His tactic is to leap into battle and engage as many enemies as possible in melee, which gives the other enemies (if they're using ranged) a -2 dice penalty to hit him, which is as good as cover. If they do hit him, his SOAK absorbs the damage.There have been only two major combat encounters so far (a couple minor ones that were so trivial I shouldn't have bothered including them). And these ones were against fairly unintelligent enemies. The next part of the adventure involves fighting through a pirate base, and I'm planning on having the pirates be far more organized and strategic.It IS fun though. They gathered intelligence at a nearby space station and learned the pirates are based in an old asteroid mining complex, which was abandoned after the asteroid's diamond core was extracted. They've set up anti-ship batteries, making a frontal assault suicidal. But an old asteroid miner told them about a secret tunnel he and his friends used to sneak in booze, so the crew went in through the tunnels. This was a fun zero-G sequence. Now they're getting ready to assault the pirate base proper from the rear. They were clever enough to plant rumors of a soft, wealthy target in a nearby system, hoping to draw out some of the pirates and make the assault easier. They might be sneaky enough to get through the base without an alarm going off, which I guess is the reward for proper Sneakery -- easier encounters. More likely, though, the base will be alerted to their presence and organize a proper defense. I was looking at the stat blocks for Thugs, Bandits, and Captains for a quick way to get some quick, rough-and-ready stats for them. But from what the PCs have demonstrated so far, I'm going to need to kick things up a bit, use different damage types, maybe include roles in the pirates as though they were an opposing adventuring party, really make it varied and interesting.</blockquote>

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