Playtest Feedback (6/3)

[LucasC]

I don't have a lot of new feedback to add here. The night was spent with the PCs exploring an old abandoned laboratory. There were lots of opportunities for skills and several combat encounters. As I mentioned last week, everyone moved up to Heroic Tier and subsequently switched their dice out to d8s.

The combination of d8s and increased skill ranks continues to fundamentally alter the power level of the game.

• For trained checks, the lowest results were always in the high-twenties with 25-29 being the most common low-end and numbers in the mid-40s not uncommon.
• Mixed checks, where some people are trained and others not, are even worse. There were numerous PERCEPTION checks made and results ranged from as low as 3-5 for those without any training to as high as 50 for those with some skill ranks.
• Damage is often high enough that many things are one-shot kills. There is also a growing divide between those that have focused on combat skills and careers and those that have focused on other careers.
  • Here are the damage results from one round of combat:
    50-41-41-23-20-15-13

 

[Morrus]

I don't have anything new to add yet form the last time, other than to reiterate that eventually those tiers will be much further apart so a to be spread over more than a year of play.

There is also a growing divide between those that have focused on combat skills and careers and those that have focused on other careers.

In combat, I would expect that. Once we have lots of non-combat encounters, these characters should start to shine. I also plan to add "scientific tricks" to the combat tricks section, which will allow other characters to do cool, nifty things in combat. This part is, unfortunately, a slow process.

It does sound like the compound effect from various advancements at that tier are quite large. With appropriate challenges and enemies, that could be a good thing or a bad thing - we would want Darth Vader to be extremely difficult for a starting party to defeat, for example. From what you're saying, it sounds like multiple skill ranks are rearing their ugly head again and playing their old trick of increasing swinginess!

 

[Morrus]

So this is an interesting result. I just got some playtest feedback from my own playtest game. We tried some different things.

What we found is this: we like it better when PCs stay at d6s but some monsters get the advanced dice. That does mean monsters are operating under a slightly different mechanic to PCs, but it seemed to work. It makes iconic monsters powerful without inflating their dice pools to silly sizes, and keeps PCs in the range we want them to be.

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this. It's asymmetric, which could feel a little odd. But it seems to achieve the goal elegantly.

 

[LucasC]

I like the idea.

Before the PCs moved up to d8s, we had an encounter with mixed monsters (some starter, some heroic). The heroic monsters (using d8s) stood out as clearly more dangerous and powerful despite having similar sized dice pools. It created a nice diversity inside the group w/out inflating dice pools.

 

[Tigerlil]

Without having tried higher tier games, it does seem neater to keep at the d6s.

It also means the group doesn't have to invest in 70odd small size d8s (everyone likes to have their own dice) and can use the very normal small sized d6s that comes in packets of 45. For the less math savvy it's also quicker to tot up a handful of d6s compared to d8s

That said, if you WANT the characters to be Legolas or Starbuck or Darth Skywalker, then the d8s or *shudder* higher might be appropriate. To talk in D20 language, it seems fitting for Epic level characters. Most sci-fi games compared to fantasy also usually aim for a more realistic approach, so maybe what works for OLD might not work for NEW in this context? Which of course would be completely the opposite of the coolness that makes this "cross genre" rpg interesting.

 

[Morrus]

It needs to fit in with the revised difficulty benchmarks coming in the next iteration, and accomodate long-term character advancement. I've been working on them for a while now. Here's a sneak preview. The playtest feedback has been *so* useful in this process (I can't believe that some games get published with little or no playtesting!)

This still bothers me a little, based on Lucas' report, above (d8s would increase rolls only by an average of about 1 per die). Assuming a high attribute of 8 for a starting character, plus 2d6 in equipment and skills, you'd be rolling 7d6 for tasks in your "wheelhouse" from the start of the game (and likely 3d6 or 4d6 for tasks not in your wheelhouse).

That makes a character accomplish Demanding tasks half the time if in their wheelhouse. Which is OK, but I worry that those dice pools will be much larger pretty quick.

 

[nivek1385]

In combat, I would expect that. Once we have lots of non-combat encounters, these characters should start to shine. I also plan to add "scientific tricks" to the combat tricks section, which will allow other characters to do cool, nifty things in combat. This part is, unfortunately, a slow process.

We're still in the early stages of character creation, but I was thinking that more tricks were needed. I've been trying to develop some space-based ones that my players could choose from as the only ones in the playtest guide are for piloting.

 

[Wojorides]

how many dice are they using?

Offense seems to have all the advantage. No skills to raise Def, and limited SOAK. Superior quality Powered armor has 16 soak. Endurance of 7 means HP of 21. You get into a shooting war you better be shooting first and you better have some outstanding cover. Star wars troopers are really not that common are they??

I don't have a lot of new feedback to add here. The night was spent with the PCs exploring an old abandoned laboratory. There were lots of opportunities for skills and several combat encounters. As I mentioned last week, everyone moved up to Heroic Tier and subsequently switched their dice out to d8s.

The combination of d8s and increased skill ranks continues to fundamentally alter the power level of the game.

• For trained checks, the lowest results were always in the high-twenties with 25-29 being the most common low-end and numbers in the mid-40s not uncommon.
• Mixed checks, where some people are trained and others not, are even worse. There were numerous PERCEPTION checks made and results ranged from as low as 3-5 for those without any training to as high as 50 for those with some skill ranks.
• Damage is often high enough that many things are one-shot kills. There is also a growing divide between those that have focused on combat skills and careers and those that have focused on other careers.
  • Here are the damage results from one round of combat:
    50-41-41-23-20-15-13