Coda House Rules

[K.G. Carlson]

I know that I've shamelessly plugged my house rules piecemeal on the site over the last couple of years, but I thought I'd make a nest and drop the whole thing in one place. Hopefully, some other board members will stop by and share their own house rules.

Mine are attached as a pdf below. Questions/comments/suggestions welcome!

[PGoodman13]

Pinched for the site.

[Cdre Bob Wesley]

I'm running a TOS campaign with 4 player characters.

We do two things that would be considered "house rules." Both of which relate directly to one another.

House-Rule #1. Players LOVE handouts. So I simply take it to the next level.

- Captain gets orders from Starfleet a day ahead of time. Thus, the players get the opening exposition from the captain, and not me. This creates an interactive involvement like you wouldn't believe.



^ NOTE: This episode was based on The Protracted Man, by David Gerrold. Lots of fun. And yes, of course the experiment failed.


- The science officer gets all planetary data for the "planet of the week" a day ahead of time. Any extra info is stored in the library computer, which I do up as either in-game handouts or I role-play as the computer (*click-click* "wor-king"). I try to narrate in-character as much as possible.

- So if it's information from instruments/computer, it gets a Narrator's note.

- If it's from another NPC, then I roleplay it as the NPC, voice and all.

I also try to provide as many visual aids as I can. I got the pics from Trekcore and altered them to suit my game.



So instead of describing what they see on the viewscreen. . .they simply see it on the viewscreen.

All of my exposition is in pre-fab handouts to immerse the players and cause them to interact more with each other. I print up everything I need to narrate, cut into strips, and then attached with a staple. This way, I can keep events in order and still tear off what I need when I need it.



Then whenever a particular character uses the applicable skill, or tries to investigate a certain area, they obtain a part of the narrative. Then they role-play sharing it with the rest of the group.

And they're really role-playing; not just bouncing back & forth with the Narrator (and none of this, "I tell the captain what the narrator said," stuff). This mass-handout method is truly amazing to watch!!!

Captain: Viewscreen on.

[Narrator hangs visual to Narrator's screen w/paper clips.]

Crew (reacts): Oh, wow. What's that?

Captain: Talk to me people. . .

Officer on Communications (to Narrator): I attempt to hail the vessel. I rolled a 15.

Officer on Sensors (to Narrator): I attempt to scan the vessel. I rolled an 18.

[Target numbers already factored in. Narrator passes handouts directly to players..]

Officer on Communications: Captain, the ship is not answering hails at this time. (thinking) Maybe their communications are damaged.

Officer on Sensors: Captain, the vessel is severely damaged, systems are neutralized, and its original Federation registry is missing; quite possibly stolen. There are several dead life forms, but not nearly enough to make up a crew. No escape pods have been jettisoned. Cargo holds are completely empty.

Captain (thinking): Should we beam aboard for a closer look? Maybe it's been scuttled. . .

^ This makes the captain a true bridge manager. This also keeps everyone on their toes. A week or two of this and they almost forget I'm there unless I step in for a rules judgement or something. It's awesome to watch!

Some of you might be reading this thinking it's counter-intuitive. It isn't, because everyone is included. All I'm doing is narrating with the handouts and talking less (a lot less). If a crew member is holding something back, then they have the rest of the table to deal with.

House Rule #2. I didn't like how in the NG, the rest of the bridge crew was pretty much left out during starship combat.

So I made a house rule where starship combat actions are divvied up among bridge crew, depending on their operations station.

So it kind of goes like this. . .

Captain - Runs the maneuver cards and has final executive decision over maneuvers.

Navigator/Tactical - Rolls the dice whenever a tactical or navigation maneuver is decided on. <- From a narrator's perspective, you might not think this is a big deal, but players covet the dice. Dice are empowering. Furthermore, you get the same interaction chatter that you do from TV/Movies.

Science Officer - Runs sensors on the enemy ship(s). All successful scans get to take a peek at the shield status, damage track, and systems on the enemy ship. There is a pre-fab handout passed back and forth between sensors and the Narrator with up-to-date details on the enemy ship(s).

Communications - Gives damage reports. There is a pre-fab handout of the player's ship passed back and forth between communications and the Narrator with up-to-date details on internal damage reports.

Here's the catch that ties ^ this all together:

If any one of these stations/personnel are knocked out, then that portion of starship combat does not function until the station is repaired or the crewman is replaced. The relevant handout gets locked away behind the Narrator's screen. So if communications panel or the communications officer is down, there are no more damage reports (even the feed to the captain's chair is out).

The group likes this one a lot. I think it pulled them together nicely. All that time wasted narrating leaves me to run the soundboard for sound-effects, red alerts, phaser blasts, etc.

[Fugazi Grrl]

KG Carlson, you are a blessing from the Goddess !!

I have been looking for this all over, as you showed it to me once and it is the perfect way to handle my flamboyant Muay Thai expert, Baxala Sodi. The Yo Adrian ! rule is perfect for fast HTH, (our security chief can now pack a punch on a par with Worf !) and I love the idea of borrowing the 1-3 Successes thing from LOTR !

I actually used that just because LOTR had it in (without seeing it or remembering it from your rules), when we were doing a big brawl recently !

Thank you, so much for posting this !!

[K.G. Carlson]

Always glad to help...

BTW, much thanks to Commodore Wesley for some awesome ideas I will be working to incorporate ASAP.

Game on!

[Fugazi Grrl]

Always glad to help...

BTW, much thanks to Commodore Wesley for some awesome ideas I will be working to incorporate ASAP.

Game on!

Indeed we will. We've got a pretty big game planned for tonight, actually.

And I look forward to what you and the Commodore are able to put together.