Star Trek (2009) characters & ships...

yeah in the new Star Trek, it's just supposed to be understood as a kill setting. we aren't really sure how powerful the phaser is. Neither Kirk nor Spock get hit and the Romulans die like mooks are supposed to die. The Stun setting just drops you and presumably so does the kill setting. I go with the assumption that they don't act like Star Wars blasters... those were essentially bullets that looked like lasers.

couple of notes... I'm treating those Abrams phasers as having a whopping 300 charges (that's 100 stun shots or 20 kill shots) and you can treat the fast action of a phaser like the continuous beam feature (+2 to hit, +2 charges spent). Yeah. Phasers are terrifying. They should be. My only qualm is that they make PCs a little too vulnerable. There's only so much cover you can come up with or courage bonuses before getting hit at some point. I like the idea of some kind of "plot armor" being in place in star trek. Kirk, for example, doesn't get shot because he's Kirk darn it. The official Kirk has +3 Quickness, 12 health, and 6 courage. He's going to get smoked in a fire fight at some point.

UPDATE: almost finished the adventure. Pretty good stuff I think. If anyone can put pdfs together, I might have it ready in a week.

Note that the prop has a setting dial on it (ambidextrous, so it can be read from either side), so both "stun" and "kill" could have multiple settings...

I noticed that, but I could imagine that being an ammo counter (or battery charge reader. like a cell phone)

quick question, y'all.

I'm new to the game so maybe this is nonsense. Does it seem to you like the combat is a little sloppy? Initiative seems way too important. You could go first, draw a phaser, and easily kill anyone. I feel like a more balanced system might be to let everyone have one action in order and then handle the other actions. That way, everyone at least gets a fighting chance against a weapon on a high enough setting.

thoughts? Anyone else get this same impression from the system?

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Originally Posted by BaronVonStevie

Does it seem to you like the combat is a little sloppy? Initiative seems way too important. You could go first, draw a phaser, and easily kill anyone.

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Having done this in-game, I agree that this is possible and indeed likely.

Given that people are toting around hand-held artillery pieces, though, I'm not really sure that's a bad thing. I like the idea that you either try to draw first (Wagon Train to the stars!) or seek cover to fire from next round.

I was thinking about the wagon train to the stars tagline. Of course, Gene always intended on Star Trek having an appeal like that (at least it's what he told the network).

I would say though that even in an old west style gunfight, you at least have a chance to draw too or start running before a shot gets off. I might try the idea I had in my previous post. I don't see people just getting wasted like that in Star Trek, so I think something needs to be amended. Wouldn't be the first time; I also have my renown trade system.

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Originally Posted by BaronVonStevie

UPDATE: almost finished the adventure. Pretty good stuff I think. If anyone can put pdfs together, I might have it ready in a week.

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What do you need in the PDF department ?

oh it's the appearance of it mostly. I just want something cool looking. :cool:

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Originally Posted by BaronVonStevie

oh it's the appearance of it mostly. I just want something cool looking. :cool:

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You can check out the files I've posted to Patrick's site and see what you think. If anything like that would do for what you're needing.

oh sure! it looks fine. I might supply you with some pictures to include or something. Let me finish up the adventure itself and we'll hammer it out. I appreciate any help.

As regards initiative, you're right that it could be quite deadly. As Narrator/GM you can choose to not have the adversaries have their shots set to kill, especially if they're faster than the PCs.

As long as one PC is the fastest, and hopefully he/she has Quick Draw and is a good shot, it shouldn't be a problem! ;)