Retrocloning 4e: Shouting hands back on

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Retrocloning 4e: Shouting hands back on

Speleothing: May 6, 2008; Spare batteries are pretty key.

Maxwell Lord posted:

Okay, brainstorm on spaceships based on thread input-

A spaceship is basically a collection of modules, each with HP based on level. (For the sake of simplicity all modules in a ship are the same level.) A module has a level, HP, powers, and a role. Starfighters are usually single modules, cruisers are 4-6.

It works like monster math, I think- the basic level 1 module has a certain AC and damage and so on, you add to that based on its role and level.

Keeping things moving fast will be a concern- there should be a way to disable a ship without taking out every single module. HP could be lower or damage higher.

Capital ships get built around "elite" modules. So a cruiser vs a capital ship is a bad proposition but if it's a big battle with allies taking fire you may be able to target single modules. For something like the Death Star you'd have the equivalent of a landscape with individual modules for gun towers, etc.

I really like the idea of collections of modules, with each one getting a bonus based on whether it's crewed (and by class/level of the crew). Fighters probably still end up needing at least engines, a weapon or two, and shields, which means the Pilot will have to leave some of them uncrewed and swap his bonus from one to another during his turn. Which means station-swapping should be a in-turn resource crews need to manage.

Cruiser-level combat seems like the sweet spot for PCs all being on the same ship's crew - maybe with a small complement of redshirts to fill things out. If you include boarding action, then the PCs are encouraged to disable just enough modules to be able to board the enemy cruiser, and unlike boarding between capital ships, they can actually expect to incapacitate the whole enemy crew at the cruiser level.

Have you played FTL at all?

- - - - -

Also, for your commander class, isn't there a Shaman build that's focused on ranged combat and directing fire?

Speleothing fucked around with this message at 02:08 on Feb 17, 2015

# ¿ Feb 17, 2015 02:04

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 12:41

Speleothing: May 6, 2008; Spare batteries are pretty key.

P.d0t posted:

Further to my musing about ability scores, how does this sound for a form of point buy (assuming you won't be adding racial modifiers after the fact) with the aim of coming out with 4e-ish arrays/spreads?

use six 6s and four 10s;
combine any way you wish, but:

no score can be 0

no score can exceed 20

at least one score must exceed 16

That seems to leave you with only three possible ability sets
18 16 16 10 10 6
18 16 12 10 10 10
18 18 10 10 10 10

# ¿ Sep 9, 2015 23:09

Speleothing: May 6, 2008; Spare batteries are pretty key.

P.d0t posted:

That's sort of what I'm thinking of, with all of this; is it possible to write a Race that is rich enough to cover all the mechanics and design space that a Class currently does?
I think it probably depends on the race, and monstrous races are tougher to make it work for. It's an important question to ask, particularly in the context of TNP, where your class is the entirety of your character.

For monstrous races, race-as-class really makes more sense than skill adjustments and a special ability. I think the question you need to ask yourself is more about how many do you want to build? I think I'd make four to serve as examples, with a system for building new ones as players ask for them.

# ¿ May 9, 2016 23:13

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