08-13-2013, 07:46 PM | #11 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
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If you sent the full team of 30+ you still have to choose which one of them to make PCs. If you let the PCs choose they're quite likely to choose somebody who won't be needed. possibly for multiple planets in a row. Large crews of npcs don't really help roleplaying either.
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Fred Brackin |
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08-13-2013, 08:08 PM | #12 |
Ceci n'est pas une tag.
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Vancouver, WA (Portland Metro)
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
Drone probes? Send out hundreds, and have them go into various star systems. Then they report back, and you decide from there.
At that point, who cares if it takes a couple years for it to respond? You've sent out hundreds, and you'll be getting a dozen reports every year.
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I'm a collector, not a gamer. =) |
08-13-2013, 08:56 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
'Good idea' and 'fun for an RP group' are often opposed concepts. However, in this case I disagree: big ships are bad for RPGs.
The fact is, regardless of ship size, 95% of systems are going to be boring, so it's the job of the GM to have the PCs coincidentally arrive at the interesting ones. Most of the interesting ones are also systems where sitting and doing nothing isn't an very good option. |
08-13-2013, 09:20 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Mar 2010
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
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In that iconic franchise, the realism that they worked into some areas was absolutely destroyed by the need to focus every problem, every episode, on a small and fixed cast of stars. Gaming with large ships provides the same problem. If you only have six people on the ship it makes perfect sense that those six people will need to solve every problem, but if there are a hundred then the fact that you are using your command crew like marines gets stupid fast. The only way this works is if you have the kind of players who like having several characters each, so that they can switch between them and use them only where appropriate. Otherwise, I would recommend narrowing the mission so that you can have a small crew. *: As a note, Roddenberry's original concept was for a NASA-like crew of just a few highly trained officers. The decision to expand the scope was a result of negotiations with the network, and like all committee decisions was a bit messed up as a result. |
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08-13-2013, 11:18 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
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Are these people in dire straits because they lack suitable crop plants? If so, the follow-up mission had better include agronomists and genetic engineers specialising in crop plants. Or would their food shortage due to a pestilence? They'll need ecological engineers. Or would some irrigation project help them best? In that case they need engineers, economists, and diplomats. Are they dying of a plague? Or a trace-element shortage? Do they need a vaccination program, a targeted eradication program against a disease vector, sewers and clean drinking water, or lessons in basic hygiene? In one case the follow-up program needs immunologists and pharma engineers, in another it needs entomologists and genetic engineers, in another economists and diplomats and civil engineers, in another satellite TV receivers and public education experts. Is this a promising trade opportunity, and if so for what? What samples should the Universal Imports bloke bring when he comes? You can't tell from orbit, and a naval officer probably can't even work out what data to collect. A mission that flits in, takes some photos, and flits out without talking to anybody can tell whether there are still people in the system, whether they have radio, whether they have TV, whether they have spaceflight, and whether they have a honking great orbital laser to defend themselves against pirates. And when that mission reports in you still have to send a mission to investigate circumstances on the planet so that head office can decide what response to make and what resources that needs.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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08-13-2013, 11:43 PM | #16 |
Join Date: Mar 2010
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
Some options:
1) Go covert. If the team can keep their ship and ideally their identities hidden, they may be able to avoid the bulk of combat. This would inevitably refocus the campaign on the "contact team", largely ignoring actions involving the rest of the crew. 2) Automation. Replacing people with computers and robots means the crew will get smaller and more versatile. 3) FTL communication. With good sensors and the ability to communicate with the home office, many of the rather vulnerable experts can be safe, consulted only once the combat phase is over. You have to decide where you think you balance realism vs playability. Your scenario is plausible, but assigning a job that reasonably requires a crew of 70+ people is all but unplayable. Can your players handle that? |
08-14-2013, 12:40 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
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In setting up my campaign I have taken several steps to reduce this problem.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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08-14-2013, 01:08 AM | #18 | ||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
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James Cook didn't mend a single one of the places he explored. That didn't stop his people from having fine tales to tell when they got home. Quote:
I think that that would work for, as you say, some players. You'd have to be fairly clear about the switch from mode to mode, and discourage dithering back and forth between characters. But I think that ought to work.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 08-14-2013 at 01:26 AM. |
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08-14-2013, 01:12 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
Note that the exploration of the Americas had special bait for independent explorers: the opportunity to claim new territories for king and country, and to exploit your advantages over the natives. If your goal is 'first to exploit planet X', the ship design is different from simple exploration.
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08-14-2013, 01:22 AM | #20 | |||||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: [Spaceships] Crews for exploration
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Someone will be along presently to tell me to Hat up and rehearse my roars: the players should play the characters the adventures are about, and if they ask to play naval officers or marines instead be told that I will call them when I'm running a marines campaign. Quote:
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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Tags |
exploration, flat black, sci-fi, spaceships 5 |
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