Buffalo Heavy Transport for Star Smuggler and Other Science Fiction Games

On page two of the Star Smuggler rules comes some sage advice. "Gamemasters of science fiction role-playing games may wish to use this as an adventure or campaign guideline (with appropriate rules adjustments to suit their own RPG system)."

It is now time for some adjustments.

This is the Buffalo Heavy Transport. It tops out at 290 CU.

The Buffalo has some rather interesting quirks. The boat bays are mounted topside of the ship meaning that replacement boats must be flight ready. The boat bays also have enough room for the boat plus skimmer, usually deployed on the boat. The centerline bay is meant for ingress and egress and also has sufficient space for single skimmer. A ramp deploys out the bottom of the ship. The port and starboard bays are big enough for a tank or a ship's boat. Crew quarters are shown in their spacious configuration and can be further partitioned for more crew. This ship has no hidden compartments. Pilotage is so spacious, players must purchase one stasis unit per chair (3) to protect everyone in the space. The Buffalo has 8 hypercharges and can take 15 hits before being destroyed.

If you would like to incorporate this into Star Smuggler, I have pricing and other information here to mix into e001 and e036.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 076 – March 16th.

We get to start rolling at the prison. We get 5 rolls today.

We get 3 offers to hire bodyguards, the much needed stasis units and our final roll is “no more rolls”. Mission accomplished!

Ok, so what did I have? In the crew quarters, I had 8 one CU Stasis Units. I am converting these to four 2 CU Stasis Units per ship. I also move some of those 1 CU stasis units to Engineering and the Alicorn’s Turret. All of the remainders, I scrap. So far as I know, there is no way to sell a Stasis Unit.

The cost of this operation, not counting the lost units was 1,200 secs.

I have 166,783 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.

Dragons Gonna Drag Added to the Reading List

Over on the right column, I added another blog: Dragons Gonna Drag. I feel like that should have an exclamation point. In Justin Stewart's latest post, he talks about "Official House Rules". I love house rules, while he is talking about B/X and I play a fusion of B/X and AD&D, I dig a lot of what he says. 

One of my long time annoyances is the spell "Read Magic". What the heck, didn't the wizard go to school for something? Why make this a spell? Mr. Stewart nails it will his house rule on this. Personally, I just ignored the whole spell but this method is better. 

I have a feeling I am going to have some free time on my hands, so it's time to update that reading list. Join me!

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 075 – March 15th.

Ok, we are moving the fleet to orbit and heading off to Uruskop.

There is a quirk with getting certain supplies in certain places. For most areas, a roll of 2 is Stasis Units. There is only 1/36 chance of doing that at a spaceport or other place known for Stasis Units. Prisons are the best place with a 1 in 6 chance. They use them to store prisoners, which kind of makes sense. Uruskop is the closest planet with a prison.

As we enter the system, we hear a clunk on the hull. This is e414 and is one of my favorite events. A robot craft of some sort affixes itself to the hull. If an engineer goes out there to remove it, there is a 1 in 6 chance of discovering that it is a shuttle craft of some sort. It's cool ride, you can't mount weapons but it's far more stylish than the hopper.

This ship is super dangerous. There is 1 in three chance that it will explode and kill an engineer. A 3 in 5 to kill anyone else. We roll in the middle and do not find the super cool shuttle craft. In fact, we don’t understand any of it and simply pry it off the hull. I figured Duke is acting as benefactor lately, not a boss or pirate so he risked himself with the engineer to no effect.

We land at the prison and are rush by a horde of escaped prisoners. We take off again to avoid them. The rules don’t say we can do this, but they are unarmed and want to steal our clothes. I’m not shooting them over boots. If we hadn’t been landing, I would have played it differently.

1 Antelope starship with TL-5 Guns. I owe nothing.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-3.

Cargo of note:
1 Boat guns, TL-2,
4 CU Status Unit (e103),
120 Side Arms, TL-6.
7 Side Arms TL-1, 1 TL-3 Side Arm, 1 TL-4 Side Arm
2 TL-4 heavy hand weapons with explosive effects,
5 TL-1 Heavy Hand Weapons,
4 Doses of pheromones (e009) in Duke’s pocket,
and the ship is fueled with 5 hypercharges.

1 Alicorn starship with TL-1 Guns. We owe nothing.
1 Hopper with TL-2 Boat guns,

Cargo of note:
5 Military U-suits (e044)
5 TL-1 Heavy Hand Weapons,
130 Side Arms, TL-6.
and the ship is fueled with 5 hypercharges.

I have 167,983 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 074 – March 14th.

The gambling area has a strange assortment of goods available, in addition to gambling.

Duke and Emily are off with the crew to gamble again. I was hoping to get side arms or heavy side arms, but e071 it is.

I’m not doing tables again today. Only Duke and Emily are gambling. After more than a dozen games, we walk out with a cool 180,000. Since the deal with the team was 1% of all profits, each crewman receives 1,800 each. That leaves Duke and Emily with 163,000 in gambling profits. I forgot to do this yesterday, but the crew made out like bandits anyway.

On our way out, we get jumped by 4 guys with TL-6 side arms. The combat is short and brutal as we are toting heavy side arms with explosive rounds on a planet with no air. Emily goes down unconscious  but suffers no hits. Duke, Left and Bones are all hit for 1 point of damage, which isn’t much of a problem.

We walk off with our winnings and the 4 TL-6 side arms, which the crew distribute among themselves.

1 Antelope starship with TL-5 Guns. I owe nothing.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-3.

Cargo of note:
1 Boat guns, TL-2,
4 CU Status Unit (e103),
120 Side Arms, TL-6.
7 Side Arms TL-1, 1 TL-3 Side Arm, 1 TL-4 Side Arm
2 TL-4 heavy hand weapons with explosive effects,
5 TL-1 Heavy Hand Weapons,
4 Doses of pheromones (e009) in Duke’s pocket,
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

1 Alicorn starship with TL-1 Guns. We owe nothing.
1 Hopper with TL-2 Boat guns,

Cargo of note:
5 Military U-suits (e044)
5 TL-1 Heavy Hand Weapons,
130 Side Arms, TL-6.
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 167,983 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.

Since I didn't do tables, let me share my character sheets. Duke and Emily's cash in combined in the total above.

Modeling Multiple Shots for Skilled and Unskilled Combatants in a Science Fiction Setting

Skill using the logo, even though I will
likely change it.

Wow. That is a wordy title for a simple idea: "How are combat skills applied?" 

In this game, we have established that a target has a defense of 2-12 and an attacker must match this number on 1, 2, or 3 six sided dice. 

Technology in a science fiction game permits a character a ridiculous amount of attacks with a weapon. In a 10 second combat round, someone with a six shooter can shoot six times, no matter their ability or skill. Without any applicable skill, that person gets one shot with 2 six-side dice and 5 shots with only one die. They are shooting fairly indicrimatly, they aimed with the first shot then switched to random blasts. Without any skill, the aimed shot MUST come first subsequently followed by random shots. This is the penalty of not having a skill. 

When a person has a skill, they are entitled to more aimed shots at a rate of one attack per level of skill. When attacking one target once, they get to roll all 3d6. However, if they attack more than once or at more than one target, they may only use 2d6 per attack. Skilled persons may mix aimed and indiscriminate fire in the same round at will.  

For example, a marine with 3 ranks of skill is guarding 2 hatches with a 6 shooter. He sees 3 robot drones approaching from his front and engages them. He rolls 2d6 for the first attack. Then rolls 2d6 for the second. Before he can shoot at the third drone, the hatch on his right opens and he indiscriminately fires a shot at the person opening the door. He rolls a single 1d6. The hatch slams closed. 

He still has 3 bullets and one aimed shot, so he returns to shooting at the drones. He aims with the first shot using 2d6. Since he has 2 more bullets, he fires them indiscriminately at the robot drones for two more attacks made with a single die each. 

In the image, shots are numbered in order.
Red is for aimed shots and green is for indiscriminate.  

This combat does not describe damage resolution as it would occur in the game. It is merely an example of a single person shooting. In later examples, we will see that this marine would have plenty of time to reload and/or move.

Modeling Combat for a New Science Fiction Game

I had a science fiction game on the back burner of my brain for a while. The working title was Accretion Disk. I liked the style of the logo, but fell out of love with the mechanics and perhaps the title.

Based on my last post about Star Smuggler, I have been thinking about game mechanics with 2 and three six siders. Probably the most common or useful scenario is to consider a single combat roll. In order to do that, I need to think of a way to compare defensive skills vs. offensive skills. How big do I want my numbers and what does each number mean.

It's funny, but most games have a mechanic to strike a stationary object with a die roll. My game will have that too, but I think that hitting a bullseye painted on something is far different that hitting an active opponent.

How do I roll to hit? 

In order to hit a target, you have to overcome its defenses. In order to explain an attack, let’s look at a target’s defense. 

Every target has a situational defense. Is it close or far? Is it moving faster than the weapon you are using? Is it cloaked or obscured? And so on. Those situational defenses change from moment to moment and are worth 1-6 points of defense. A target may have a different situational defense for different attackers, even in the same combat round.

Next, every active opponent has a set of physical and mental attributes, also rated from 1-6. This is a person instinct for danger or a device's preprogrammed defensive measures. The player determines which attribute is used for defense, which will likely be their highest. Since each attribute can only be used once per round, there are consequences for picking the highest attribute. Devices don't get to pick.

These two numbers are added together to generate the target roll number. For stationary targets, that will automatically be a number from 1-6 for a situational defense. For people or creatures, it will more likely be 2-12. 

This number, 2-12 is compared to a roll made by the attacker.

The attacker receives one six sided die for simply making the attempt. They receive a second die for having an attribute which is applicable to the roll. Attackers who not have an applicable attribute of zero do not get this second six sided die. An attacker can also receive a third six sided die for possessing an applicable skill, such as marksmanship. This will generate a number between 3 and 18, depending on how many dice are rolled. No more than 3 dice can be rolled for each attack. 

In order to hit the target, one must match or roll higher than the target’s defense. 

Higher rolls are not necessarily better as the goal is to match the target’s defense exactly to be most effective. An exact match does damage, prevents the target from taking an action during that round, places them flat on ground and might cause them to lose consciousness. 

While every number over the target’s defense value is a hit, all pairs or triples which are higher the target’s defense are nearly as good as a matching roll. A pair (6 and 6) will do damage and stop an action. A triple (such as 3, 3 and 3) will do damage, stop an action and put the person on the ground. Neither will automatically knock the person out. 

Let me know what you think either in the comments below or by taking a survey. You can also go back and answer the first survey or poll here.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 073 – March 13th.

We are going to continue rolling at the Casino/Gambling Establishment. In 3 hours, we get the e071, which is a gambling mini-game which takes the rest of the day.

You put your money on the table and roll two dice. Doubles will win back whatever you bet (Break Even). 5 or 9 doubles your money while 3 or 11 triples it.

There is also a game called jackpot in which the only winning roll is a 12. That will net you 30 times your initial bet.

Jackpot has a 2.78% chance of winning, which a bad deal. In the other game you have 16.7% chance of breaking even with doubles. There is a 11.11% chance of rolling a five or a nine. There is also 5.56% chance of rolling a three or eleven. A little math helps here. Believe it or not, there is almost a 50-50 chance of not losing.

Emily and Duke both bet 5,000 in two independent games.

Emily rolls an 11 while Duke gets an 8 (a 6 and a 2). Duke loses 5,000 while Emily wins 15,000. We are up 10,000. We do it again, this time with 10,000 each. Duke rolls a 5 and Emily gets a 9. We doubled our money each. Third round. Duke decides to have a drink and hands out 9,000 secs. to the crew to play. I haven’t listed the crew in a while.

Crewman	Bet	Die 1	Die 2	Total	Results
Ratchet	1000	1	5	6	Lose 1000
Doc	1000	4	5	9	Win 2000
Lefty	1000	1	4	5	Win 2000
Deadeye	1000	6	1	6	Lose 1000
Bones	1000	5	1	6	Lose 1000
David	1000	2	5	7	Lose 1000
Lucy	1000	2	4	6	Lose 1000
Michael	1000	2	2	4	Break Even
Jonathon	1000	5	3	8	Lose 1000

Well, six of the crew lost, so Duke throws issues another 6,000 secs. to the losers so they can try again. Michael broke even, so he tries again, too. The winners each ante up another 1000 from their winnings and Emily and Duke join them with another 5,000 each.

Duke loses 5000 while Emily breaks even.

Crewman	Bet	Die 1	Die 2	Total	Results
Ratchet	1000	2	2	4	Break Even
Doc	1000	6	3	9	Win 2000
Lefty	1000	6	6	12	Break even
Deadeye	1000	2	2	4	Break even
Bones	1000	5	4	9	Win 2000
David	1000	5	4	9	Win 2000
Lucy	1000	1	4	5	Win 3000
Michael	1000	6	3	9	Win 2000
Jonathon	1000	5	5	10	Break Even

Duke foolishly drops 1000 on the Jackpot game and loses again. One last time, Duke tries his hand at the first game with a 5000 and rolls a 9. He doubles his money.

Crewman	Winnings
Ratchet	1000
Doc	4000
Lefty	3000
Deadeye	1000
Bones	2000
David	2000
Lucy	3000
Michael	3000
Jonathon	1000

The crew is pretty happy now. They all have cash in their pockets. Collectively they took in 20,000.

Duke and Emily did worse, but managed to score 9,000 secs. Walking home with our winnings, we roll a 5 and nothing special happens. Isn’t that ominous?

I have 54,183 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.