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Thread: Player's and Narrator's Guides Core Rules: What's broken?

  1. #91
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Burke
    The problem there would be more accurately addressed by a "mook rule" similar to what LOTR has as an option. In short, heroes never fall down after one hit (unless it's dramatically appropriate), but the bad guys do (cinematically speaking, of course)...
    Getting back to this for a moment...anybody have any ideas or preferences on how to implement this for Star Trek RPG? I've got a couple, but I'm curious about other input.
    Patrick Goodman -- Tilting at Windmills

    "I dare you to do better." -- Captain Christopher Pike

    Beyond the Final Frontier: CODA Star Trek RPG Support

  2. #92
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    Quote Originally Posted by tonyg
    Here is a NG problem.

    When you push the engines to go past sustainable speed the Engineer makes a skill test. Okay.

    Now once, you are at these speeds a reliability test is required each hour to keep at maximum speed or the ship drops out of warp and must be repaired. The realibilty test is a 2d6 roll plus the realiaibly mod of the engines against a TN10+Speed. THis means that most ships can't maintain max speed for more than a hour or so. For example a TOS-era Constiution class going at Warp 8 with Reliabilty D (+6) engines would need to roll a 12 on 2d6 to contiune at max warp after one hour. This is typical of the TN's for most ships. About the best is something with the LF-47 engine (TN18, with +8 relaibility means a 1in 6 chance of pushing the engines for more than an hour). This doesn't make emergency speed very useful (can't get far in an hour, even at warp 9.9), plus it doesn't fit in well with sources that say that most ships can mintain max warp for 12 hours or so.

    How do we calculate the TN for TNG er ships with wf9+ max speeds. For example a Galaxy-class starship has a max of 9.6, is this a TN 19 (10+wf9), 20 (10+wf9, +1), or 25 (10+wf9+6)? (with a +6 relaibilty mod the ship needs to roll a 12+ just to make the 19!).


    Maybe this should be a engineering skill test (modifed by relaibilty) rather than a straight reliaiblty test?

    Maybe the TN should be a bit lower. How about starting at the ship's warp speed and increasing 1 per hour?


    Maybe the TN shouldn't be set by the actual warp speed at all, by by how hard you push the engines. My theroy being that running a PB-4 engine (wf 3/4/6 reliability B) at Warp 6 is probably pushing that engine as much if not more than pushing a PB-32 engine (wf6/7/8 Reliaiblity D) at Warp 8.

    Maybe a ship can travel a max warp for 2xrealiblty mod in hours before it needs to make the relaibilty test?
    Just keeping this fresh in my mind, since I'm not in that portion of the book at the moment.

    Hey, Doug? What say you to this?
    Patrick Goodman -- Tilting at Windmills

    "I dare you to do better." -- Captain Christopher Pike

    Beyond the Final Frontier: CODA Star Trek RPG Support

  3. #93
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    Quote Originally Posted by PGoodman13
    Just keeping this fresh in my mind, since I'm not in that portion of the book at the moment.

    Hey, Doug? What say you to this?
    I like the idea of making it a Propulsion Engineering (Warp) test, modified by reliability. In that case, the TN should be more static, I would think. How about TN 10 +2 for each test after the first (12 on 2nd, 14 on 3rd, etc.)?
    Former Decipher RPG Net Rep

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  4. #94
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    I always made it a propusion (warp) test in my games modified by reliability. However, altering the TN to be 10+wf (+1/.1 over warp 9) and adding +1/hour sounds like a good idea to me.

  5. #95

    Pulse Setting phasers

    Ok my players love continious setting its +2 to hit for 2 extra energy but we cant wrap my head around pulse. +1 damage for 2 extra energy sucks. any house rules on this I was thinking +2 damage per die or soemthing

  6. #96
    Quote Originally Posted by PGoodman13 View Post
    Getting back to this for a moment...anybody have any ideas or preferences on how to implement this for Star Trek RPG? I've got a couple, but I'm curious about other input.
    Hi there. Ineti and I, who are friends and have gamed together for many years now, set out to develop a mook rule for CODA Trek. Below is a rough draft of what we came up with. This a bit long, and I never really revised it so it could have some holes, but maybe you can take this and polish it for your own purposes.

    STAR TREK ROLEPLAYING: NEW CHARACTER DAMAGE SYSTEM

    1 Keypoints

    • Every character now has a Health rating that takes the place of the prior Health attribute and wound levels system. The new Health rating is a number, generally from 1 to 10, that measures how many damage markers a character can absorb before becoming incapacitated.

    • Damage markers are colored markers given to a player when her character takes damage. Yellow markers represent stun damage, while red markers indicate wound damage. For each marker on a character, that character suffers a penalty. Each stun marker inflicts a –1 damage penalty to the character, while each wound marker inflicts a damage penalty of –2. Damage penalties affect all die rolls made by the injured character, though there might be exceptions at the Narrator’s discretion.

    • Most player characters will begin with a Health rating of 6. Exceptionally tough characters might have a 7, while unusually frail or weak characters might have a 5 instead. This also applies to some non-player characters, such as an important NPC ally, or a particularly formidable or important enemy.

    • Many other characters, such as petty thugs, guards, common soldiers, civilians and other less-important folk will generally have a very low health rating. These characters, called “mooks”, will usually have a health rating between 1 and 3.

    • When you strike an enemy with a weapon, you’ll usually inflict a single damage marker on her. If you use a nonlethal weapon like a fist, a chair, or a phaser set to stun, you’ll inflict a yellow ‘stun” marker. Oftentimes, this is enough to knock out a mook. If you attack with a bladed weapon like a sword of Bat’leth, or a phaser set to kill, you’ll inflict a red wound marker instead. The same applies when the bad guys attack you, so watch out!

    • Depending on the weapon being used against you, you might have to make a reaction test when you take damage. This is usually to avoid some additional negative effect, like being knocked unconscious or paralyzed. Sometimes, if you’re wearing armor, hiding behind cover or using a personal force field, you can make a reaction test to avoid taking any damage at all where you might norrnally have otherwise. For example, you might make a Quickness reaction to dive out of the way of an explosion, or a Stamina reaction test to avoid taking damage form extreme cold. This is pretty much the same as the current CODA system.


    2 Player Character Health

    Player characters will have a health attribute of 6 to start with. This can be raised to 7 if either of the following are true:

    • The character is a Klingon, Nausican, or other particularly hardy alien race
    • The character has a Vitality attribute of 16 or higher

    The player’s starting health might be set to 5 if:

    • The character’s Vitality attribute is lower than 8
    • The character is a member of a particularly frail alien race

    All of this is at the discretion of the Narrator

    3 Weapon Damage

    Dice-based weapon damage is not used in this new damage system. Rather, a weapon does damage based on its relative power, which in turn is modified by the character’s strength (for armed and unarmed combat), and whether or not the attacker scored an extraordinary success on the attack roll. As a reminder, an extraordinary success is scored when the attacker’s total is 11+ higher than the Defense value of the target.

    Most attacks will inflict a base damage of one marker. Attacks that fall under this category include:

    • A phaser set to stun
    • A punch
    • Getting hit over the back of the head with a chair
    • Being slashed with a knife or one-handed sword

    Some attacks, however, might inflict two markers as a base damage.

    • A punch from a burly Nausican
    • Being caught in the blast of a plasma grenade
    • Being slashed with a bat’leth

    There are a few simple modifiers that might add additional markers:

    • +1 marker if the attack roll scored an extraordinary success
    • +1 to armed and unarmed attacks by characters with a Strength of 16+

    4 Hazard Damage

    Hazard damage is the terms used to describe the damage a character suffers that isn’t caused directly by an attack from an enemy. Examples of hazard damage include exposure to extreme cold, falling from a great height, illness caused by a virus, or poison.

    In many cases, hazards damage the character in ways other than stuns and wounds. For example, some diseases and toxins damage the character’s attributes directly. The rules for Hazards can be found in chapter 13 of the Narrator’s Guide, beginning on page 222. Just about all of these rules can still be used as written, with one small exception. When a hazard does wound damage to a character, rather than use the damage formula given, simply give that character a number of damage markers equal to the number of dice in the damage formula.

    For example, Paranisti Measles has a listed effect of “1D6 wounds per four hours until death”. This would instead be treated as “1 damage marker per hour until death”. Polaron radiation’s effect mentions that it causes 2D6 wounds. This would be changed to 2 damage markers.

    So, which markers to use? Usually, stun markers will suffice, but wound markers may instead be given at the Narrator’s discretion. Wound markers should typically be used if the character has taken damage from fire, explosions and falling. Diseases, toxins, radiation and asphyxiation should typically inflict stun damage markers instead.

    Note that damage markers caused by hazards are not always healed in the same fashion as normal damage markers. The healing rules state that a character may remove a stun marker every hour, but this assumes the stun marker was the result of a normal attack. Specialized treatments, cures or antidotes are usually the only way to cure the effects of a disease, toxin or radiation. Damage from falling, fire, asphyxiation and explosions can be healed as normal, if the Narrator approves.

    5 Incapacitation and Death

    Incapacitation is what happens when a character has already got the maximum number of damage markers (ie, has as many damage markers as her health attribute), and she receives another one. The character is rendered unconscious and helpless, and is in need of medical attention. The character will remain in this state until some form of healing brings her back to her within her limit of damage markers (which is equal to her Health attribute).

    An incapacitated character can of course continue to take damage. If an incapacitated character recieves three more damage markers, that character is considered to be at death’s door, and must pass a TN10 Stamina reaction test every round to avoid dying. Ignore damage modifiers for this test – the character’s will to live is unaffected by injury. If the character receives medical attention of any kind, she will stabilize and no longer be in danger of death. Such a character will take a long time to heal, and might suffer permanent affects from her injuries.

    6 Healing

    Healing comes in many forms, and different kinds of injuries heal at different speeds.

    6.1 Healing from Stun Damage

    Stun damage heals quickly. A character may remove one Stun marker every hour. This represents that character shrugging off the effects of the stun damage.

    A character may remove a single Stun marker from a comrade with a full-round action, assuming a medkit or sickbay are at hand. This is a TN12 test that can be made using either the First Aid skill, or the Medicine skill. Standard modifiers for physical tests apply.

    6.2 Healing from Wound Damage

    Wounds are more serious injuries than stuns, and take longer to heal. Wounds will heal naturally, but it is a slow process. For every full day of rest the character gets, she may roll a Stamina reaction test at TN15. Success means that healing has occurred, and one Wound marker may be removed. The injured player may be aided in this test if she, or a comrade, first makes a First Aid (or Medicine) test at TN12. Success in the First Aid test reduces the TN of the Stamina reaction test from 15 to 12. This is the most the First Aid skill can do to help a character with Wound damage.

    If the injured character is fortunate enough to find herself in the care of a medical professional, the outlook improves. A character with the Medicine skill may spend one hour of time diagnosing the wound, and may then attempt to heal it. To do so, the medical professional must pass a medicine test at TN15. This test assumes that the doctor is armed with the proper tools, such as a medkit or sickbay. If no such facilities or tolls are available, the doctor cannot properly diagnore and heal the wound, and can only help with the natural healing process as described in the above paragraph.

    All rules for Combined tests apply to healing rolls, and in fact, represent one of the most common uses of the rule. Doctors often rely heavily on medical support personnel, and with good reason. Similarly, an injured character being actively looked after by another will usually stand a better chance of healing quickly and successfully.

  7. #97
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    I haven't read the rest in great detail yet, though I think most of it looks good. I'll read further. In the meantime, I had a suggestion to alter the following:

    Quote Originally Posted by Rannd View Post
    2 Player Character Health

    Player characters will have a health attribute of 6 to start with. This can be raised to 7 if either of the following are true:

    • The character is a Klingon, Nausican, or other particularly hardy alien race
    • The character has a Vitality attribute of 16 or higher

    The player’s starting health might be set to 5 if:

    • The character’s Vitality attribute is lower than 8
    • The character is a member of a particularly frail alien race

    All of this is at the discretion of the Narrator
    I think it would make a little more sense (and be less of a system change) if we simpy used a character's Stamina score to be their red marker pool and their Willpower to be their yellow marker pool.

    That way, the character's race already accounts for higher or lower stats (Klingons and other tough species generally have higher Staminas than others). This also allows for some versatility in character builds.

    FWIW, I don't think I remember anyone in Coda ever having an attribute higher than 16.

    While a starting character with zero advancements would have low Stamina and Willpower, smart character builds, and good picks of edges and the like should make the difference. Also, as a character gains advancements, reactions are inexpensive to raise up. An experienced character, like Picard or Sisko or the like, would probably have Stamina and Willpower scores up in the 6 - 7 -8 range, making them pretty hardy folk.

    Just some ideas.

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