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Thread: ICON system - how does it play?

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Feb 2000
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    Quote Originally Posted by LUGTrekGM
    http://www.geocities.com/renegadegamer/SFAwards.html

    Is a link to the old campaign page awards. I am in the process of updating it, and greatly revising it. There are a few other pages out there with similar pages, Anomaly Trek Mux is one, and a few sim ships, that I can't recall.
    Cool stuff, LUGTrekGM!

    If you don't mind, I would like to add this to the trek-rpg web index. I won't be able to do it today, but soon.
    “Worried? I’m scared to death. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to let them change the way I live my life.” - Joseph Sisko - Paradise Lost

  2. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by LUGTrekGM
    http://www.geocities.com/renegadegamer/SFAwards.html

    Is a link to the old campaign page awards. I am in the process of updating it, and greatly revising it. There are a few other pages out there with similar pages, Anomaly Trek Mux is one, and a few sim ships, that I can't recall.
    NIce LUG.

  3. #33
    Add away. I am heavily revising the whole website over the next two weeks, as I am going to try to do a LUGTrek Game in the near future. (Started discussion in the recruiting threads area).
    - LUGTrekGM

  4. #34
    I just finished updating the Starfleet awards page (mostly cleanup, spelling corrections, etc.) at:

    http://www.geocities.com/renegadegamer/SFAwards.html

    It now includes Development Point Costs, The renown awarded to a new PC in character generation for buying the award at specified Dev Pt. Cost, and suggested levels of renown needed to qualify for the specific award, during roleplaying. Not all can be bought initially, of course.

    All of this was inspired by the great rules for same in the LUG Trek Player's Guide. My own costs and medal names vary a bit from those examples, heavily influenced by medals, etc. of the U.S. Navy.

    I didn't want to have too many medals, but not too few, either. I think what I have is okay for now. Future expansion will perhaps detail the appearance of the full medals, but I condsider the page more or less good enough for the forseeable future.

    Anyone wanting to use this for their own campaigns, or adapt, have at it. My own group has enjoyed making up their own "Shadow Boxes" of awards and decorations for their characters.

    For Decipher:
    I tried looking through the Decipher Rules, and there is not a similar system, and renown seems to have been greatly simplified.

    In the absense of better rules, I suggest something like 2 picks (Decipher) = 1 DP (My LUG Awards Page) for inital characters.

    For FASA: "Best guess, Mr. Sulu."
    Last edited by LUGTrekGM; 04-15-2006 at 11:55 PM.
    - LUGTrekGM

  5. #35
    Lastly where did you find the "Extra development points to alter character as per the rules - total points = 5 part?
    DS9:

    LUG Star Trek Deep Space Nine Roleplaying Game Core Game Book P. 57, left column, inside "Professional Career" paragraph:

    "...(With the Narrator's permission, a character cna go through different "Careers" during his life before the game begins, perhaps trying different jobs as circumstances require, or opportuninty allows. Each stage after the first gives him 5 Development Points to spend."

    TOS:

    LUG Star Trek Roleplaying Game (TOS) Core Game Book P. 57, Right side column, inside first paragraph:

    "...If you want your character to have served for more than one tour, and the narrator allows it, you recieve another 5 Development Points for each tour after the first. You may only spend these points on an Additional Tours package, or on the elements listed here, or on the Universal Life History list."

    NEXT GEN:

    LUG Star Trek The Next Generation Role Playing Game Core Game Book P. 76, left column, 2nd paragraph:

    "A Tour of Duty can last from two to seven years in length...(Paraphrasing: First tour = First Tour package, or 10 DP), Additional Tours = Additional Tours Package or 5 DP)...(How you can spend them)"

    ADDITIONALLY:

    LUG says It's a d6+1 for tour length, per tour.

    FASA handled it slightly differently, for Tour Length (my guess is because FASA used d10, and LUG used d6):


    P. 24, FASA Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game 1983 Edition "Tour Length"
    Each tour of duty may last from one to five years, depending on the duties that the ship undertakes. Because this length is random (there is no way of knowing ahead of time just how long a tour will be), to find the tour length, roll 1d10, divide by 2, and round down. A minimum of 1 year must pass before the character is transferred elsewhere."
    I also really liked the old FASA "Number of Tours Served" (I use it in my LUG Game) which as I recall, either Don Mappin or Doug Burke did an excellent conversion from FASA to Dechiper Trek, for "Number of Tours Served." (On of those Decipher fan magazine editions, can't recall the specific one just now.)

  6. #36
    I don't have a problem with the Drama Die.

    I liked it in Star Wars:d6, and I like it in LUG.

    It helps me to tell the story, by not making the situation static, introducing a chance for me to bring out the flavor, and make the story gritty with details that I normally otherwise wouldn't come up with.

    Dramatic Success:
    If they get lucky, and make the "Big 6" on the single Drama Die, then typically on average, they will get 3.5 more points to the skill roll from the 2nd die, plus any skill points, plus optional courage points, not including team effort modifiers.

    This means that just based on luck, 16 % of the time, they do a little bit more to a lot more than they thought they could, when attempting to use a skill.

    If they are pretty skilled, and the task is not too terribly difficult in the first place, it will typically lead to rolling a total of 6 or more over difficulty and (optional) Dramatic Success.

    I like the rule that if they roll all 1's, they get a Dramatic Failure, so for an average character with a controlling attribute of 2, (Rollling 2d6+Skill) that's 1 in 36, or ~ 2.8% of the time to fail, vs. 16% of the time delivering good to great success, from the effects of the Drama die alone.

    For an above average character, with an attributes of 3, (rolling 3d6) the chance of dramatic failure based on all 1's alone is 1 in 216.

    So, it's a Dramatic failure rate based on pure luck alone of a little less than half a per cent chance, unless they are trying something REALLY difficult, which only really skilled, and talented characters should do, kicking in the rule of Dramatic Failure based on roll 6 less than needed.


    When I game out a Dramatic Failure, I always describe it as a plot complication, not because "They screwed up" or "they screwed up the roll (Metagaming), or muffed the skill use (Bad for player morale)", but because plot complications make the situation more difficult than previously thought, which makes the story Dramatic.

    I relate it to the group as one of those acts of fate that goes against the character/crew, right at that second.

    It is a tenet in storytelling that if there is random luck, it must be bad for the heroes, to make it more difficult.

    Any good luck in a story/scenario always happens to the bad guys, to make it more difficult for the heroes.

    Heroes that succeed, do so based on skill, despite the fates going against them.

    Heroes that face no difficulty, are not heroes. Those that face a lot of difficulty, are tested thereby, and emerge as those we would emulate.

    So random fate (Dramatic Failure) goes against the characters, but a lucky Drama Die roll reflects on their own skill as a heroic character.

    To do the reverse means they only succeed when they are lucky, and often screw up a lot, and nobody wants to play that game, or be those characters.

    It's a matter of perception/description to me. Failure = bad luck/mischance, Success = skill.

    Not, "You blew the roll, we all know we hate the drama die, unlucky us as gamers." That's Metagaming, and I actively discourage it. I work it all into the ongoing story...

    Typically:
    Sensors Skill Dramatic Failure:
    "A solar flare on the neaby star fuzzes out your sensors screen, making nothing visible for a few seconds."

    "The enemy ship has sailed around the far side of the planet, blocking all scans until it clears."

    "The ship's lights flicker, and your sensors console shuts off, as power is transferred from one system to another, down in engineering."

    (If in combat)
    "The ship rocks with another disruptor hit, and you are thrown from your sensors console!"


    Sensors Skill Dramatic Success:
    "You pick up the faintest signature at the edge of sensors range. You recognize it from your long hours in the simulators at the academy as a cloaked Romulans deBroglie wave emission."

    "Definitely 2 Klingon Vessels. (if have Klingon-skills): You recognize their profiles from your intelligence classes."

    "Definitely 2 Klingon Vessels. (if have Romulan-skills): Initially you think it looks Romulan, but you recall the Romulan-Klingon treaty. Definitely these are ships of the type that the Klingons sold to the Romulans, but your scan shows them without cloaks, so they're Klingon."

    "You have definitely locked on to the target. Your recent diagnostics and maintenance on the sensors in the past weeks is really paying off."

    Hand-Phaser Shot Dramatic Failure:
    "The target crosses behind a large tree/rock/ground vehicle, and you hit [the thing] square on, and it bursts into flames." (Causing a fire, shrapnel from rocks, or a flaming/exploding wreck.)

    "You press the firing stud, and nothing happens." (could be that it's short-circuited, power cell fell out, bad power connection inside, anything.)

    In any case, there's little time to field strip it, but they can if they want to, making it more dramatic, as enemy shots come dangerously close as they take cover to do so.

    Also, I don't tell them what happened. If they "Look around" they might see the power cell rolling merrily along the deck straight toward the bad guys...who start smiling...or the feel the phaser "Getting warm, (building up to overload detonation in their hand, better toss it quick, even though it might not be in any place even near appropriate to do so.)"

    It's just fate, making it tough for the characters.

    Then they recall...

    "That time when I and Ensign Johannsen were working diplomatic security on Altan V, when that assassin showed up. The Ensign's phaser short-circuited, and went to overload. We had a hell of a time explaining it when the sidewalk caved in from the explosion when he tossed it down the sewer. But nobody got hurt, and he got a commendation for quick thinking."

    Or it's skill, making them heroes:

    "Yeah, He's the best Navigator in the fleet. Long Range, this bad guy pirate comes in on an attack vector, "Surrender or die." He's already firing to put us on the defensive, forcing us to divert power to shields. But LCDR Athens is on the Nav console. He raises shields. He raises em so well, it takes EVERYTHING the pirate's got. That pirate guy realizes he's outmatched and flees. The Captain pauses for amoment, and looks around at the bridge. He says "Gentlemen, that's why I hand-picked Athens as my XO. Good work. Secure from Red Alert."

    Or

    "...and then Captain Scott says "Give 'em both barrels, Mr. Engstrom, fire as she bears!" So LT. Engstrom fires a narrow salvo, long range, hits this guy square on with 3 fish, he's already lost a nacelle, and streaming atmosphere. We got a unit citation for that engagement."

    I love the Drama Die.

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