bookwyrm

Babylon 5 came close at times, especially with the machinations of the Psi Corps.

The biggest, most powerful, most incompetent country in the world!  By the way, did you know the best way to insult a Canadian is to mistake them for an American?

Wow, that took off!

Whats the best way to do floorplans?

Wow, that took off!

Whats the best way to do floorplans?

Well, I finally dug out those railgun stats, so here they are.

Type

Exotic

WA

+3

Conc.

None

Avail.

Unique

Dam (Ammo)

3D10+1 (2mm penetrator)

#Shots

10,000

ROF

1/10/30

Rel.

ST

Range

400m

The railgun itself weighs about 2.5kg with 10 capacitor banks weighing 20kg, which are recharged from 600kg of rechargable batteries.  The whole is mounted on a motorised trolley with the railgun on a pintle mounting.  The length of the gun is 80cm.

The projectile is a 2mm by 20mm steel flechette with a weight of 0.425g and a muzzle velocity of 2175m/s.

So what does everyone think?  By the way acording to Maximum Metal it has a Penetration of 4 which is enough to go through 20cm of armour!

Technology used in a realistic way, not as some panacea that will make everybody happy little bunnies (such as in Trek).  It also looks for the flaws in the heroes and the heroes in the flawed.

That's because they're desperate to be anything other than American.  Can you blame them?

It's quite a good idea actually, although maybe instead concentrate on 'flavour' locations?  So if you need a gang base, a small shop, an appartment block or a fixers hideout you could pick one up quickly.  If something gets going I would be willing to contribute.

It's quite a good idea actually, although maybe instead concentrate on 'flavour' locations?  So if you need a gang base, a small shop, an appartment block or a fixers hideout you could pick one up quickly.  If something gets going I would be willing to contribute.

Quote:

Quote: from Thorn on 7:15 pm on Aug. 12, 2001

Apart from the ones that are of Irish, Scotish, Welsh, French, Spanish, Dutch ... do you want me to continue?

Yeah, but the French are only over there so you have someone to look down on!

Thanks golgotha, the idea I was thinking of was that anyone new to the system would use the essential and recommended rules, and once they were used to it they could start trying out some of the optional ones until the system meshed with their GMing style.

As opposed to the 200 channels of fantastic you have?  At least the adverts over here don't make you want to shoot the TV, you poor colonist.

Okay, here we go.

Overall it's good, if a bit too linear.  The trick is to give them lots of different options that all end up in the same place - gives them the illusion of choice!

Bit by bit this is how I would change it (although some of the changes are to fit it more to my reffing style).

The best way to handle starting them off with no equipment is to have the rail company ban weapons and armour from the passenger compartments.  That stuff gets shipped as cargo (and shipping charges can be used to eat up any spare cash).  Of course, when they try to retreive their baggage it will be gone and all records of it will have been erased.  Hunting down their stuff and the thieving choombas who took it can be made into a plot hook.

Act 1

I would handle the awareness rolls differently.  Rather than repeated rolls giving more information, I would have one roll and give the information different difficulty levels.

I would start by having them make an awareness roll as soon as they get off the train, giving the following info.

10 - gawking like a tourist

15 - general layout of the station (entrances/exits; ticket office; baggage retreival; lost property)

20 - something odd (2-300 yards away) - three people loading crates into a rail company van.  They are not wearing uniforms and look somewhat suspicious.

25 - details about the three men and the van; the crates they are loading are yours.

The players now have a decision to make.  Get their stuff or wait for Tom (either way it doesn't really matter).  Have them make another awareness roll when Tom shows up.

10 - basic description

15 - his shades are psychogoggles; he has twin pistols under his coat

20 - he moves very gracefully (player assumes martial arts training); his pistols are modified

25 - he is both a trained dancer and fencer; his glowing eyes change to reflect his mood

Act 2

This would be a good time to hand out maps, maybe as part of a Night City orientation package.  I would also have Tom explain a bit more about the tunnels and how dangerous they can be (he is supposed to be showing them the city).  Sort of like "See that thing painted on the wall?  That means that this is Vampires turf." and then a bit about the Vampires (how dangerous they are, who they fight with, etc.)

The Vampires Encounter

Firstly, I would introduce luck right at the beginning rather than here (stops cries of "If I'd known that, then...").  Secondly, Tom is an NPC, so the players shouldn't have access to his stats or be rolling for him.  To make it more interesting for them try this.

Describe the face off between Tom and the Vampires, but afterwards have him tell them to stay there whilst he scouts ahead to make sure the way is clear.  Several minutes after he has gone they here someone returning, but instead of Tom it's a corp (looking very lost).

Corp

Int  8

Cool 7

MA   6

Luck 4

All his cool rolls are at -5 (just about everything down here is going to spook him)

He is dressed in a standard grey suit and does not appear to be carrying a weapon.

He is a low level Corp who has been sent to hire some Gangers for a job (maybe the Vamps Tom scared off).  Just play the situation as it falls.  Almost anything is going to make him run, but if the players do manage to calm him down he will give them his card (and they might get a job as well).  If he does run and they want to chase him, just have them run round the corner straight into Tom, who bawls them out for not listening to his instructions.

Act 3

I would have Tom spot Dawn leaving the bar as the food arrives.  He tells everyone to stay there as he goes after her.  As soon as they are alone have them all make awareness rolls.

10 - Mmmm!!  That food looks good

15 - there are several different gangs in tonight

20 - two people are aguing over by the stage, it could get nasty

25 - People here are looking for a fight, it will probably start soon

If they get caught in the riot then it should require several cool rolls to get out.  Also remember that the riot squad is likely to give people plenty of time to get out, that way the only ones left are injured or unconscious - much easier to deal with.

Act 5

I would probably skip this part because I cover most of this in character creation.

Act 6

I would just give them some crappy armour and weapons as a stopgap until they can get their own stuff back or earn enough to buy some more.  After all, the credit card is probably going to be cancelled as soon as the hotel bill hits.

Act 7

I would end this by saying "You punks owe us bigtime, which is good since I just have a little job for you to do..."

Hope this is useful to you.

A sofa.

We turned it into a trike and rode it around to annoy the Bozos.

One way to increase friction might be to offer a nice piece of kit to "the best solo in the team" letting them decide who that is, of course!

Don't forget to let us know what you decide to do and how it plays out.

Quote:

Quote: from Thorn on 8:45 am on Aug. 8, 2001

Humm ok it sounds interesting but with the amount of optional rules that we all add to the basic interlock system all we might be left with are several systems that are vaguely similar with the same name. Its not like we all like the same ones, for example I happen to like the roles(admittedly with a few house rules) while alot of people on this site would prefer not to use them.

Remember a compromise leaves everyone unhappy

One way to solve this is to separate the rules into three catagories -

Essential

Recommended

Optional

The Essential rules would (obviously) be everything that you actually need to run the system; Recommended could be everything else in the official rules (such as roles); and Optional would be all the house rules etc.

Just a thought.

Bauhaus is good for a goth mood.

I have actually played a very talented weapons techie before now (who designed some very nasty in-game weapons), and what I did to avoid the munchkins was to take all the requisite backup skills at at least half the value of my weapons tech skill.  That eats up a lot of character points, and most of my pickup skills also went into them.

I have found this a useful technique in other games as well.  I have yet to see a truly munchkinish starting character that I couldn't cripple in some way.

But if all that radioactive dust mutated all those Londoners, how would you tell?

However, they were using bullpup rifles, so the plasma would have been by their temple when they were firing, and also I was punishing them for NEVER mentioning anything about weapon maintenence.

I use this in all the systems I play and its just a staight d% roll, the higher hte better.  The luck stat I use as an indication of how often to roll.  Generally the one stat to get sacrificed is ATTR.

hehe!

Nah, the luck check was to see how observant they had been as to the rooms layout!

"I run to the door."

THUD!

Pretty much this whole area is glow-in-the-dark.  We've got Sellafield, Heysham and Barrow in Furness just up the road (that's where they refit all the nuclear subs).

I'm in Lancaster, thats the north of England.

I tend to use the luck rolls to see just how nasty I'm going to be!