What's broken?

[AslanC]

Every review/forum of the CODA mechanic not here (specifically the LotR game) says it is broken, but I have never seen one of them really mention what they mean.

Any ideas?

Do any of you see broken mechanics in CODA?

What house rules do you use?

[Aldaron]

I've not seen anything "broken" in CODA. There are a couple of things that could be described as "clunky", namely character generation and combat.

Character generation is only complicated because of the odd way the book is set out - there is a lot of page-flipping, but once you get used to the layout of the book, it's bearable. There are a couple of PDF-ed guides for char-gen on here, though I can't find them off the top of my head (a search will, and I'm sure someone will point it out).

Combat can be a bit clunky in a couple of ways. One problem is that it's a bit "all-or-nothing"; you remain conscious until you become Near Death, IIRC. A lot of people (myself included) house-rule that once you go past the first wound level you must make a Stamina test (TN 5, +5 for each level) or lose consciousness. This allows for fist-fights to replace phaser fire in a lot of instances, especially in the sense of being able to knock someone out without pounding them to within an inch of death, which is very Trek (if not very realistic...the irony is that the combat system is actually quite realistic: in reality, it's extraordinarily difficult to knock someone out without giving them permanent brain damage).

The other problem I've found is that it's just not deadly enough - at least, not in LotR. Personally, I like the idea of a hero taking down one Orc per arrow! This has been fixed with us by each level of success doubling damage. It allows for mooks to fall pretty fast (since PCs tend to have higher skill levels), while allowing for some real danger to the PCs.

Hall of Fire has had some great suggestions, too, for fast-combat in LotR.

It's a little different in Star Trek, since phasers are pretty lethal (at least on higher settings), and you don't tend to get big battles with lots of mooks.

I have to add that I'm a complete slut with both Trek games. I wander between ICON and CODA very promiscuously, and I still can't decide which I love the most...

[Doug Taylor]

I have played it a lot as well and have not found anything "broken", either. There's some stuff that's clunky, and character creation takes about a decade for each one, but the system is solid and enjoyable.

[Fugazi Grrl]

I wouldn't say CODA has anything broken about it. Granted I've only played out a couple of "playtests" with the canon characters in the back of the NG, but the mechanics played smooth, including combat.

Very much like my beloved FASA game, actually. In the ease of playability, and speed in which an action scene resolved it's self.

My only problem so far has been converting all the characters from my FASA campaign into CODA.

These characters have been around, some of them, for as long as 17 years, in the case of one and at least five for the majority. They've been through a lot of missions, and seen a lot of action. So, they're pretty experienced characters.

I've found no problem converting their main attributes, or skill levels from FASA to CODA. But, when it comes to Edges, Flaws, and the like I find it hard to work out.

This is to be expected, though... since I'm converting established characters instead of generating new ones. I've also generated a character or two and it went very well.