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Sounds good to me. We could have Aghnar and Wei generate CP if they're still missing.

Your department heading was how I figured it would go, if everyone is happy with their designation we'll go with that.

Marullus wrote:Aghnar and Wei Xi'an are both AWOL... Will they be NPC'd?

We'll see how the first couple of rounds goes without them, if you're severely outgunned I'll have to add them to the mix.

Assuming combat starts before they reach 1km, do you want to continue with your magic bomb plan?

How would it work into a ship combat model? Is it a distinct action, or do we script it into the listed actions?

I checked over the rules again and I'm really not sure. We might just go into ship combat if that's alright with you?

Sure.

I haven't done ship combat before in SwN, so I want to make sure I understand what is happening. The pirates were successful in sneaking up on us, beat us in initiative, then made a successful targeted shot against our weapon? If that's the case, we're already 0-3.

It looks like we need to decide on what stations everyone's going to be in. Story-wise, Stavros seems to expect Odo to be the Captain, though this would be his first space battle. (Ironically, if Aghmar's player were here, Aghmar might make a better captain, given his Lead rating. Here are my proposed stations:

• Bridge: Silas, our expert pilot
• Captain: Vyrner Odo
• Comms: P1LF3R, our resident hacker
• Engineering: Stavros
• Gunnery: Romer, who's already in position!

That fills all the stations and conveniently uses all the PCs we have that are active on the forums at the moment.

In that case, I suggest that we accept the Crisis (most of the results are less immediately bad than suddenly losing our best weapon against what looks like a fairly good opponent). We can order the actions once we know what the crisis is, but I'm thinking in general we probably need to focus on generating Command Points for Engineering and Gunnery this round (I can use the Support Department action to reduce a Gunnery or Engineering action by 2). Romer will have to decide, based on the CP left when it gets to Gunnery, whether he wants to Fire All Guns or a Target Systems to see if we can take out one of their guns instead, or something else.

The other possibility, given that they seem to have made 3 very tough rolls, is that we're simply overmatched, and we generate points for Bridge instead and let Silas try to get us out of here.

That sounds about right, this is my first time in space combat too, as a player. My plan was for Romer to target their guns and then fire, providing I had the available CP. But generating Bridge CP to support Silas makes a heck of a lot of sense, given our situation.

Enoch wrote:The pirates were successful in sneaking up on us, beat us in initiative, then made a successful targeted shot against our weapon?

They even rolled a nat20 on their attack. Challenge ratings are a little hard to pin in ship combat but you can probably take these guys if they stop rolling like gods.

Yikes.

Can we say Wei Xian and Aghnar are "doing their duty" and generating 2 CP? We don't have any NPCs and this is pretty intimidating.

Saying "the fight started more than 1km away" makes perfect sense. I would like to keep it as a held action for if they try to close and board - is that okay? (I don't want that 13 to go to waste! I can reroll if we need to, of course...) Mechanically, the spell use could work as a Targeted System attack the way I described it and fit into play well. It could cost 1 CP at that time. Sound good?

Also, what's the ship configuration? Do I work engineering from the bridge stations or do I need to run to the engine room? Is Romer in a gun pod hanging off the ship?

Marullus wrote: Is Romer in a gun pod hanging off the ship?

Tailgunner Romer.

Okay, learning the rules. Correct me if I get any of this wrong.

....this is going to be a tough fight.

As a Pirate Ship, the NPC vessel probably has a flat 5 Command Points (CP) to spend. That lets it take several actions each round, and it can pick from multiple departments in using them.

Each round, we must generate CP before we spend them (they dissappear at the round's end and can't be saved).

• As Captain, Odo can pick a department and they reduce the cost of one action by 2 CP. (Essentially, +2CP for that dept.) That's a better deal than having him generate CP in other ways.
• Odo can also knock a PC out of the fight (the Crew Lost crisis) to earn CP, but he doesn't have the Lead skill so this may do nothing. Even so, it would be a desparate way to get a third CP.
• Each PC then has a choice of Do Your Duty to get 1 CP at no risk or Above and Beyond to get more with risk. Doing either of these is your whole turn, so you (and nobody else) can take no actions in your Department this turn.
• The Above and Beyond action lets you do a test with a skill you pick that you describe as helping, with a difficult of 9. If you fail, it is -1 CP. If you pass, it is 1 + your Skill Rank in CP. Since we're all level 2, we have a maximum of 1 in any skill, so at best, we're risking a -1 to get up to a +2. The odds of getting a 9 with a good attribute and skill at second level are close to even and since we can get +1CP at no risk, this is at its base a bad deal to take.
• Silas rolls 3 and drops 1 for Pilot. Damian does this for Fix and Heal. Benedict does this for Program if hacking a database or system. These could help improve the odds of a good roll, but it's still a risk for only 2 CP. Benedict also gets one re-roll on any skill check as our only full Expert class, but that may be better spent winning an action because it can only be used once in the whole combat.
• If Odo reduces a cost by 2 CP, three PCs all spend their actions to get CP, and the department Odo chose acts, then that one PC can do up to 5 CP in actions on our round as everything we can do. If someone gets lucky we might have more CP, but again it is a big risk to be -1 CP to hope for 2 CP instead of 1.
• If Aghnar and Wei Xian are NPCs and Do Their Duty then that lets us begin with 2CP from them each round. That probably makes a difference as to whether one or two PCs get to take action on any given round.
• If someone has to handle a crisis (which is where we're starting), they spend their action to get a roll as their whole action and they can't contribute to earning any CP, so that's a lower total for whomever is acting to spend CP that round.
• Escaping combat requires 4 CP, winning a roll, and doing so three rounds in a row (without them succeeding on the countermove option). So that's a big investment. Everything else requires 2-3 CP be spent to allow you to attempt a roll for an action.
• Again, if everyone generates CP to get 3 CP and Odo lowers a cost, then the department he chooses is the only one that gets to act and can do up to 5 CP worth of stuff. Odo's directions as Captain end up being really important.

That sounds about right to me. We're about even to the pirates on CP generation, and out-generating them with Aghnar and Wei. On the downside, we have a crisis to deal with, but we have the potential to do the same to them.

Note that if we gener8enough CP we can take multiple actions. In theory we could make those 3 escape rolls in a single round (if unlikely in practice).

True, but I don't think it is mathematically possible for us to earn the 12 CP to do all three piloting tests in one round (let alone win them!)

It is 3 CP to "fire all weapons" (we have two) and do hp damage, or 3 CP to fire one and target a specific system with it to disable that system, or 2 CP to fire one weapon for hp damage. So, with our safe actions we can fire three times for hit points or once against a system and once for hit points.

Assuming their ship probably has 40-50 hit points? Very unlikely their armor will pose any challenge to our armor piercing levels. Hopefully it has a slower speed than us.

Our laser does 1d4 (armor piercing 20).
Our fractal impact charges do 2d6 (ap 15), but we only have four charges.

They are shooting TWO reaper batteries, which do 3d4, no armor piercing, and clumsy. Clumsy applies a -4 penalty to target small fighter-class hulls, so doesn't help us. Perhaps Silas can do some kind of fancy flying that takes advantage of it?

Info on our ship for reference: It is unclear what our speed, armor, hit points, and armor class are. Since our ship can be crewed by less than 5 people without NPCs and our extended life support lets us house only 12 people, that sounds like we are equivalent to a Free Merchant. Which is...
Speed 3, Armor 2, hit points 20, AC 14.

Is that right?

The size of their ship is a big factor here. Can we clarify that? They probably have 40-50 hp and speed 0-1 or they have 20-25 hp and 3-4 speed. If our choice is to fight or run, those numbers make a BIG difference.

Hence why I said it was unlikely in practice

So...

Hopefully answers from Faanko on what we can discern about the other ship's size/speed and confirmation of our own.

Then, Odo needs to give orders as the Captain.

Then we can begin moving through turns!

...this is exciting. I'm really stoked to try this rules system.

Yes, the two errant PCs will count as doing their duty for +2CP each turn.
The enemy is a slightly modified generic free merchant as opposed to a pirate vessel, with 4CP a turn.

It is unclear what our speed, armor, hit points, and armor class are. Since our ship can be crewed by less than 5 people without NPCs and our extended life support lets us house only 12 people, that sounds like we are equivalent to a Free Merchant. Which is...
Speed 3, Armor 2, hit points 20, AC 14.

The "Eriboan military boat" Kal mentioned is a Laakarin-class Medivac Frigate, a free merchant with a rating-2 spike drive, atmospheric configuration, extended medbay, extended life support, fuel bunkers (1), and armed with a multifocal laser and fractal impact charge.

Your stats are correct.

We'll accept the Crisis instead of the crit to our weapon. Once we know what the damage is, we can decide the order of stations.

The hull has been damaged in a way that is currently non-critical but is about to tear open an important compartment or crumple on vital systems. If not resolved by the end of the next round, the ship will take damage: 2d10 for frigates, ignoring Armor.

Looks like those fractal charges are primed to explode!

Well, we're in it now. Luckily, "Deal With a Crisis" is 0 CP.

Our order will be:

1. Engineering
2. Captain
3. Comms
4. Bridge
5. Gunnery

We currently have 2 CP.

Enoch wrote:Odo shudders with the ship as the reaper rounds strike their ship. His eyes widen as the metallic groaning grows in intensity rather than lessens. "Damian, get back there and figure out where that's coming from! Romer, are our guns ready to fire?"

Cool.

Assuming from that post - You're giving the Captain's -2 CP to Romer in Gunnery? If we get off as many fractal charges as a can, hopefully we have a chance to knock out their hit points.

You have Engineering first - I will have Damian "deal with the crisis" instead of generating CP and we can see how it goes.