Campaign Discussion

[Antman9]

The Alliance Thinkin' specialty is free due to you having it as a Highlighted Skill and being at or above a d6

Can you explain this to me? I don't get what a highlighted skill is. Marullus said the same thing for my Know - that I need to pick a specialty for that... How did Know become highlighted?

Sure thing Rusty...


If you look at the bottom of any of the Distinctions (pages 194-203), there are three types (Roles, Personalities, Backgrounds), the last line shows Highlighted Skills.

i.e.
Brothers d8
Nothing can come between you and your brother. ’Cept maybe girls. Or liquor. Or cards. Or….

• Gain 1 Plot Point when you roll a d4 instead of a d8.
• Squabblin’: Gain a PP when you spend a scene arguing with your brother instead of the task at hand.
• Thick as Thieves: When you share a scene with your brother, you may share Plot Points with one another.

Highlighted Skills: Fight, Influence, Trick

If a Highlighted Skill for one of your Distinctions is Know, then it gets bumped up one die, and you get a free Specialty in Know

SKILL SPECIALTIES
Specialties are subsets of Skills that cover specific areas or subjects otherwise included with the Skill. If you want your Crewmember to be especially talented in a certain area, take a specialty in a Skill.

• All specialties add an additional d6 to your dice pool when applicable.
• Skills with a d4 rating cannot be assigned a specialty.
• If you have a Know rating of d6 or higher, you may assign a Know specialty for free when assigning specialties. This free Know specialty does not count against the total number of specialties you can mark in this Step.
• Examples of specialties include Zoe’s Carbines specialty for Shoot, Kaylee’s Engines specialty for Fix, and Mal’s Leadership specialty for Influence.

[Antman9]

Marullus

Ah, yes, apparently when I copied your crewmember to word and printed it (I like to have that tactile feel sometimes ) the kevlar longcoat got mixed in with the future triggers paragraph. My bad!


Thanks for clearing that up.

[Antman9]

Jack

Thanks for the updated table Jack. Doesn't look like anyone will be throwing anything soon, at least if they hope to hit anything larger than say, the sun.

Top 5: Influence, Notice, Know, Fly, Operate
Mediocre: Focus, Shoot, Drive, Fix (oh my)
Ruh Roh Raggy!: Move, Trick, Sneak, Throw

Quite the crew we have going here...

[Antman9]

Quaid

On your CS...

1) You get a free die jump in the following:

• (1) Fight
• (1) Fly
• (1) Notice
• (1) Labor
• (1) Operate
• (2) Treat
• (1) Focus
• (1) Influence

That will give you the following

• Craft: d4
  Drive: d4
  Fight: d6
  Fix: d4
  Fly: d6
  Focus: d6
  Influence: d6
  Know: d4
  Labor: d6
  Move: d4
  Notice: d6
  Operate: d6
  Perform: d4
  Shoot: d4
  Sneak: d4
  Survive: d4
  Throw: d4
  Treat: d8
  Trick: d4

That leaves you with 9 Skill points to assign. You can bump up any of the Highlighted Skills one die for 1 point. The non-Highlighted Skills require 2 points to bump up one die. So to bump up Operate (a Highlighted Skill) from d6 to d8 costs one point. To bump up Shoot (a non-Highlighted Skill) from d4 to d6 will cost 2 points. You have one too many points allotted presently.

You also get 5 points to assign to Signature Assets or Specialties. And since you bumped up Know, you can add a free Specialty for that Skill.

ASSIGNING POINTS TO SPECIALTIES AND SIGNATURE ASSETS
You have five points to assign to specialties and Signature Assets at character creation. Each point may be used to:

• ‘‘Add a specialty to a Skill rated at a d6 or higher
• ‘‘Create a Signature Asset at a d6
• ‘‘Step up a d6 Signature Asset to a d8 With your five points you might:‘‘
• Assign five specialties and create no Signature Assets‘‘
• Assign four specialties and create one d6 Signature Asset‘‘
• Assign three specialties and create one d8 Signature Asset
• ‘‘Assign two specialties and create three d6 Signature Assets
• ‘‘Assign one specialty and create one d8 and two d6 Signature Assets

Once you’ve assigned all your points to specialties and
Signature Assets, remember to assign your free Know specialty
if you have at least a d6 in that Skill.

SKILL SPECIALTIES
Specialties are subsets of Skills that cover specific areas or subjects otherwise included with the Skill. If you want your Crewmember to be especially talented in a certain area, take a specialty in a Skill.

• All specialties add an additional d6 to your dice pool when applicable.
• Skills with a d4 rating cannot be assigned a specialty.
• If you have a Know rating of d6 or higher, you may assign a Know specialty for free when assigning specialties. This free Know specialty does not count against the total number of specialties you can mark in this Step.
• Examples of specialties include Zoe’s Carbines specialty for Shoot, Kaylee’s Engines specialty for Fix, and Mal’s Leadership specialty for Influence.

SIGNATURE ASSETS

Signature Assets are personal possessions that your Crewmember has a special connection to. These add a die to your dice pool whenever you decide to use them. You can’t share Signature Assets with other characters, but it’s possible that you might steal one and eventually make it your own! If ’n you’re looking for ideas, each archetype has two sample Signature Assets. There are also Signature Assets on the Crew Sheets of several members of the Main Cast and the characters found in What’s Yours Is Mine, on page 298.

Now, it may not make sense for your Crewmember to have a Signature Asset. Folks ain’t always tied to possessions, relying more on their training than on anything they own. Inara and River, for example, have more Skill specialties to reflect their training and experiences. Remember, you’re making decisions for your character at the start of a Season; they’ll grow and change as you play the game. Though both River and Inara start off without any Signature Assets, both could add them after playing through a few Episodes.

Examples of Signature Assets from the Main Cast include Mal’s Serenity, Jayne’s Vera, and Shepherd Book’s Bible.

[Quaid Slauson]

Question regarding the Bounty Hunter distinction...

Cortex Sniffer: Spend 1 PP to use Operate instead of Survive to track down a fugitive.

...why on Earth (or any other planet) would I be using Survive as the skill of choice for tracking?

[Quaid Slauson]

Jack

Thanks for the updated table Jack. Doesn't look like anyone will be throwing anything soon, at least if they hope to hit anything larger than say, the sun.

Top 5: Influence, Notice, Know, Fly, Operate
Mediocre: Focus, Shoot, Drive, Fix (oh my)
Ruh Roh Raggy!: Move, Trick, Sneak, Throw

Quite the crew we have going here...

To me it would seem the most glaring deficiency is Sneak. It's always good to have a bit of stealth when emulating adventure programming, yes?

[Antman9]

Question regarding the Bounty Hunter distinction...

Cortex Sniffer: Spend 1 PP to use Operate instead of Survive to track down a fugitive.

...why on Earth (or any other planet) would I be using Survive as the skill of choice for tracking?

That is an excellent question...Ummmmmm, um...Ummm.......

Maybe what their thought is, when you have to track down a fugitive on foot (so to speak), it requires a lot of crappy traveling and uncomfortable conditions to get your man. So maybe by using Operate, you can set in the comfort of your own domicile and use the Cortex computer system to track your man digitally. The fugitive might mess up and spend a credit, or something, perhaps they get logged somewhere under an alias or something. I couldn't find any other skill that might apply for tracking a bounty.

Survive: Endure less-than-ideal conditions and live to tell the tale.
Operate: Use mechanical devices ranging from computers to thermal cutting torches.

[Marullus]

Yeah, Survive is tracking by foot through the Wild West theme of a planet. That makes sense.

Operate would work two ways, imho.

One is "digital footprints" to track their purchases, communications, etc. Like the FBI finding fugitives because they check in with relatives and get tagged on Facebook, or their credit cards and bank accounts are accessed, etc. This only works in the Core worlds and is mutually exclusive from a survive scenario.... electronic footprints don't apply on backwoods Wild West moon, right?

The second method would be directly comparable to survive - using tech instead of manual search. You have personal drones (hand thrown d6, ship launched or AI d8 maybe), tracking bugs, infrared sensors for heat signatures, or using ship sensors in orbit to emulate anything possible by today's satellites. It is more a Star Wars/Boba Fett approach than Wyatt Earp from Tombstone.

[Quaid Slauson]

All that makes sense. I guess I wasn't expecting my character to say, "See you later, Crewmembers. I'm off to spend two weeks getting bucked off a horse and sleeping in the tumbleweeds while I follow footprints in the dirt that have left society completely." That could happen, I was just expecting to be looking for people who relocated within society or who were just beyond the reach of the law, not completely off the map. I guess there would be different strengths and realms of experience for different bounty hunters. I guess there could be multiple variations of Survive (like surviving a rough part of town?).

I bumped up Move (Run) assuming that upon confrontation my Quarry might choose "flight" instead of "fight," but should I be bumping up Survive? It still feels odd that Survive would be the default tracking choice since we are primarily ship-based and not horse-based.

More: I'm sure Jubal Early had great survival skills, but I can think of seven other skills that would come in handy in tracking down the Serenity and then trying to get to River.

(Lots of grammar edits as I hurriedly peck at my phone.)

[Marullus]

Your logic about Survive makes sense to me. I would say to adjust the highlighted skill, but it doesn't even give you Survive as a skill.

I think your logic for picking Move is great and I am glad we have someone athletic.

[Quaid Slauson]

It seems a case can be made for rewriting the Trigger.

I don't have any specific ideas yet.

[Rusty Tincanne]

If a Highlighted Skill for one of your Distinctions is Know, then it gets bumped up one die, and you get a free Specialty in Know

I missed that completely. Thanks for the clarifications.

I chose "Know - tools."

I was thinking about the assessment of Specialties vs Assets to replace "Fix engines." What are your thoughts on Bosco carrying around a digital copy of "Engines for Dummies"? It would be a manual that might apply to different types of motors or other mechanical things, combustion, nuclear, fission, fusion, ion, clockworks, steam locomotives, etc. Basically a rough guide to get him started (d6) whenever repairing most any-sort of thing.

Also, ANtman, I am still waiting to hear your ruling about changing one of the triggers in Hideous to "When faced with fire or a situation that could result in fiery death (engine fires, ship combat, atmospheric entry), create or advance an I don't wanna burn! complication and receive one PP."

[Antman9]

I was thinking about the assessment of Specialties vs Assets to replace "Fix engines." What are your thoughts on Bosco carrying around a digital copy of "Engines for Dummies"? It would be a manual that might apply to different types of motors or other mechanical things, combustion, nuclear, fission, fusion, ion, clockworks, steam locomotives, etc. Basically a rough guide to get him started (d6) whenever repairing most any-sort of thing.

Also, ANtman, I am still waiting to hear your ruling about changing one of the triggers in Hideous to "When faced with fire or a situation that could result in fiery death (engine fires, ship combat, atmospheric entry), create or advance an I don't wanna burn! complication and receive one PP."

I could see it would get old if it stops play to deal with it. As a Complication die, it becomes more a part of the scene - the GM uses the die in rolls against you so effectively you are less successful as a PC during times when you're afraid of fire. It is just the thing your guy struggles with, like a Reader getting Paranoid or a Decorated war hero dealing with Guilt. Eventually your character would grow through it and perhaps change to a different distinction/trigger. (That said, I still don't know how/where Antman would implement it as a custom trigger.) Sure, it is a gimmick. But it could be used for depth.

Hey Antman, what are your thoughts on this? I think it would be great to incorporate it, particularly with his Hideous trait. Maybe just add that to the Hideous trait as a trigger (replacing another?)? I would start with that as an unlocked trigger.

For clarity, the proposed Trigger is something like:

• When faced with fire or a situation that could result in fiery death (engine fires, ship combat, atmospheric entry), create or advance an I don't wanna burn! complication and receive one PP.

Right?

(Personally, I like it. If you are hideously burned by fire and saw other crew-mates immolated to death, I think this is a perfectly plausable PTSD trigger.)

I'm down with you using that trigger. Gives depth to your crewmember. I think every character should have at least one weakness.

And as for the "Engines for Dummies" book, I love it. It's kind of like a mechanical engineering 101 guide. Fits perfectly with your character, and the crew as a whole for that matter.

Green on both counts sir.

[Quaid Slauson]

Quaid

On your CS...

1) You get a free die jump in the following:

• (1) Fight
• (1) Fly
• (1) Notice
• (1) Labor
• (1) Operate
• (2) Treat
• (1) Focus
• (1) Influence

That will give you the following

• Craft: d4
  Drive: d4
  Fight: d6
  Fix: d4
  Fly: d6
  Focus: d6
  Influence: d6
  Know: d4
  Labor: d6
  Move: d4
  Notice: d6
  Operate: d6
  Perform: d4
  Shoot: d4
  Sneak: d4
  Survive: d4
  Throw: d4
  Treat: d8
  Trick: d4

That leaves you with 9 Skill points to assign. You can bump up any of the Highlighted Skills one die for 1 point. The non-Highlighted Skills require 2 points to bump up one die. So to bump up Operate (a Highlighted Skill) from d6 to d8 costs one point. To bump up Shoot (a non-Highlighted Skill) from d4 to d6 will cost 2 points. You have one too many points allotted presently.

Too many points? Hmm. I thought I had it figured out. This is what I did. Is the double jump on Move the issue?

• Craft: d4
  Drive: d4
  Fight: d6 + SP#1 -> d8
  Fix: d4
  Fly: d6 + SP#2 -> d8
  Focus: d6
  Influence: d6
  Know: d4 + SP#3 + SP#4 -> d6
  Labor: d6 + SP#5 -> d8
  Move: d4 + SP#6 + SP#7 -> d6 + SP#8 -> d8
  Notice: d6
  Operate: d6 + SP#9 -> d8
  Perform: d4
  Shoot: d4
  Sneak: d4
  Survive: d4
  Throw: d4
  Treat: d8 (double highlighted)
  Trick: d4

[Quaid Slauson]

Good for a chuckle...

Besides putting Edmund's home on Aphrodite, Murphy Sun in the Georgia System, I put him from the Town of Clarence. Planets are generally big, so I thought Clarence would at least need a province as well. I decided to go with Chinese. I thought of going with something simple like Yellow, but being named for the wheat fields is boring, so I advanced it to Yellow Rock. One website gave me Kǎn for yellow and then Shí Kuài for rock, or stone.

Now he's from Kǎn Shí Kuài Province, a.k.a. Yellowstone. Oops.

After a bit more research, I found out that if the accents are applied incorrectly, he might be from Pleased Profiteer Province, or from Depend on Mutilated Body Parts of a Corpse Province, or a dozen different things.

[Quaid Slauson]

You also get 5 points to assign to Signature Assets or Specialties. And since you bumped up Know, you can add a free Specialty for that Skill.

I added these...
Signature Assets

• Heart in a Box: d6 - A collection of digital captures from home to bring a little warmth out into the Black, including captures of his family, his close friends, his ex-fiancée, ... Hey, life is uncertain, and lonely, and confusing.
• Lei-Kung's Fingernails: d6 - Quick-cinch poly-tech limb restraints (~handcuffs) with electromagnetic signal dampers. Don't let 'em get away, and don't let 'em dial a friend.

Skills (Specialties)

• Know: d6 (_____?)
• Move: d8 (run)
• Notice: d6 (emotions)

I still need to choose the free one and also use one more point. "Run" seemed good for chasing bounty hunter Quarries, and I chose "Emotions" to lean towards a Reader skill.

Gotta sleep...

[Jack]

Now he's from Kǎn Shí Kuài Province, a.k.a. Yellowstone. Oops.

After a bit more research, I found out that if the accents are applied incorrectly, he might be from Pleased Profiteer Province, or from Depend on Mutilated Body Parts of a Corpse Province, or a dozen different things.

If you listen just right, it could also be "angry cancer" or "cool cancer" province in a pidgin-like language spoken here in South Africa.

[Quaid Slauson]

Now he's from Kǎn Shí Kuài Province, a.k.a. Yellowstone. Oops.

After a bit more research, I found out that if the accents are applied incorrectly, he might be from Pleased Profiteer Province, or from Depend on Mutilated Body Parts of a Corpse Province, or a dozen different things.

If you listen just right, it could also be "angry cancer" or "cool cancer" province in a pidgin-like language spoken here in South Africa.

[Marullus]

Quaid: perhaps consider changing the Treat skill on your Heart of Gold (i.e. Farm Boy) Distinction to Move? It makes sense with his upbringing and is clearly important to you.

Move: Run, Notice: Emotions, and two d6 assets adds up to four points. Did you spend the fifth?

I love the idea of him having Robot Drones (d6) for his tracking/targeting/surveillance needs, using Operate to track.

If you are considering changing out the Distinction Trigger about "swapping survive for operate" (which I agree is weird), what would you switch it for? Spend a PP to double Operate when tracking?

[Quaid Slauson]

Quaid: perhaps consider changing the Treat skill on your Heart of Gold (i.e. Farm Boy) Distinction to Move? It makes sense with his upbringing and is clearly important to you.

It makes sense for him, but the connection between Move and Heart of Gold doesn't seem very strong to me. I'll have to think about it.

Move: Run, Notice: Emotions, and two d6 assets adds up to four points. Did you spend the fifth?

I still have one to spend.

I love the idea of him having Robot Drones (d6) for his tracking/targeting/surveillance needs, using Operate to track.

That sounds fun!

If you are considering changing out the Distinction Trigger about "swapping survive for operate" (which I agree is weird), what would you switch it for? Spend a PP to double Operate when tracking?

I'm not sure. For now, I just made a different trigger active.