Space Travel?

[Joerg Baumgartner]

This thread sent me into a rabbit hole of SF sources I more or less remember having read, read the rules, seen on screen or played that I used AI assistance to create a taxonomy of FTL travel modes. Anybody interested in the intermediary seed prompt?

 

[Bill Zebub]

This thread sent me into a rabbit hole of SF sources I more or less remember having read, read the rules, seen on screen or played that I used AI assistance to create a taxonomy of FTL travel modes. Anybody interested in the intermediary seed prompt?

That’s gonna be the name of my next Cantina band.

 

[Morrus]

Anybody interested in the intermediary seed prompt?

No thanks. I much prefer to see the work of actual people.

 

[Bill Zebub]

No thanks. I much prefer to see the work of actual people.

AI is a trick. There's an actual, very small person inside that computer.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I agree that it's tedious, but I'm not sure it's because each person gets assigned to a role. A lot of games do a similar thing in combat (tank, stabber, healer, ranged nukes, etc.) and that doesn't get old. Or, at least, it doesn't get old as fast.

I think the reason it works maybe is that the different roles are diverse and all contribute in some way directly to defeating the enemy, and are also all personally at risk. It's not like games have "party hit points" that the NPCs are removing when they attack someone - no, the enemy is going after someone specific, like the wizard, the wizard is losing their hit points and he could end up dying or dead while the rest of the party is still fighting.
Most roles even attack the opposition directly (healers might be the ones that do it the least, depending on the specific implementation, and it can lead to the role being unpopular even compared to the more straightforward DPS and crowd control roles). It's all way more personal and direct.

The Engineer might be kind of a healer/buff role - but aboard the Millenium Falcon or USS Lexington, he is not tanking the attacks, the entire party's ship is. He isn't going to be knocked out (usually) from attacks. And he's never going to make an attack! The helmsman might be making fancy aerial or spatial maneuvers, but he's not dealing damage, and he isn't going to get knocked out by the enemy's attackers.