Please could we have a clarification regarding the MVAM rules?

[Steve Long]

The concept of MVAM is one that looks great on screen, but translates horribly into gaming. It creates so many questions and issues -- questions and issues the writers of a TV show can conveniently ignore -- that I doubt it's possible to come up with a simple, easily workable, let fully simulationist rule set for it. I chose to go with something a little on the "simple" side.

I may at some point sit down and come up with a more precise list of what must be bought multiple times and what does not have to be, but I don't have such a list at present, nor the time to prepare one. (It never fails to amaze me how quickly my time seems to vanish. ) By and large I think that you and the other members of this list who want to create ships with MVAM are capable of exercising common sense and good judgment when deciding what does and does not require duplication, based on the guidelines given in Spacedock.

As for the Size of the sub-ships, I most definitely do not agree that each should be -1 from the Size of the combined ship. Not only does that strike me as illogical, it seems contradictory to the one example of this technology we've seen on the screen. (Heaven knows, I'd love to see more.) The Prometheus, as a Size 7 ship, certainly does not split up into three Size 6 ships. There may be occasion and reason to revisit the current rule on the Sizes of the subships in future iterations of Spacedock, but I'm not prepared to engage in any research or speculation on the issue right now.

After all, I have to finish writing up rules for creating de-assimilated Borg characters for Don's ST: Voyager core rulebook project.

And then tomorrow I have to go back to work on the Wheel of Time RPG.

Steve Long

[This message has been edited by Steve Long (edited 12-10-2000).]

[Swampy]

Wheel of Time RPG? There's a Wheel of Time RPG? Gimme, gimme, gimme!!!

[Steve Long]

Yes, there's a Wheel Of Time RPG. It's being written by myself, Charles Ryan, and Christian Moore, primarily; Dave Eckleberry up at WOTC offices in Seattle is also doing a small part of the project. Charles handled all the One Power-related stuff, I'm doing abilities, backgrounds, classes, encounters, history, the world, and magic items; Christian's handling the rest.

Don't ask me when it'll be released, though, 'cause all I know is "next year." There will also be a big-ass WOT adventure book -- a 100,000-word-plus epic scenario. I'm not having to work on that, thankfully; I think Charles is handling most of it.

On a more relevant point, it occurred to me that I could answer your question about which systems to duplicate, and which not, simply by examining my Prometheus writeup. So, I will try to do that sometime soon and post a list.

Steve Long

[Swampy]

Thanks Steve you're the dogs! (Trust me, that's very, very good!)

WoT & Spacedock? That does it, I'm starting up a new religion called Stevelongism! Or maybe Stevelongianity? What would you prefer Oh Wise One?

Humble Acolyte Swampy

[Steve Long]

The dogs, eh? I'll have to ask some of my Aussie (British? Somalian? Javan? ) friends what that means.

As for a religious title... hmmm... I shall have to give that some thought.

Steve Long

[JohnD]

Originally posted by Steve Long:
Yes, there's a Wheel Of Time RPG. It's being written by myself, Charles Ryan

Charles Ryan wasn't an employee of Chameleon Eclectic or the Babylon Project RPG developers, was he? For some reason, the name sounds familiar.

[Steve Long]

He wasn't an employee of Chameleon Eclectic -- he was the owner. After he closed down CEE, he was with Pinnacle for a while, until LUG hired him. And now, of course, he's with WOTC.

Steve Long

[Swampy]

Steve

I'm finding the MVAM rules a little unclear. Could we have a nice simple list of which components must be bought seperately for each sub-vessel (eg. warp systems, phasers, etc), which get bought once but divided amongst the 3 sub-vessels (eg, cargo, crew quarters, etc), which get bought once & the benefits are shared by all 3 sub-vessels (eg. ablative armour) & the special cases (eg. shields get bought once but each sub-vessel has an effective shield rating 2 classes lower).

Finally, what should be the effective size of each sub-vessel for targetting purposes? Dividing the merged size by 3 seems a little odd: a size 6, 1750000 tonne MVAM vessel dividing into 3 size 2 sub-vessels getting the same bonuses as a mere 30 tonne shuttle? Hmmm. Isn't giving each sub-vessel an effective size of one lower than the merged vessel a better idea?

Swampy