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Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

Ok, good to know. The Duty and the Rank I had pretty much cancel each other out anyway, so the fact that they don't count for points won't really change anything. I think I actually come out a bit ahead.

My characters are just about finished. They will both be from the US. The captain is a veteran officer who distinguished himself in the earlier part of the war when the IAH was struggling to make headway. He's a national hero in America, but he's recognized everywhere as a superb officer and he is an attractive choice due to his lack of political connections or partisanship. Skillwise he has a very broad assortment of soldierly skills which are actually rather lower than his reputation makes it, but he is undeniably a tactical genius and a master at leading people.

The other, his sister, is a rising star in the field of xenology. She has an incredible gift for communication, and talked her way into this expedition because she is determined to find and make contact with alien life forms. In the meantime, she will apply her talents to ensuring that the ship's passengers and crew remain sane and content.

Mechanically, both are very focused characters, designed to excel in a single role, although they both have a respectable assortment of low-level background skills.

Oh, that reminds me: are the average officers in this setting more likely to carry beam weapons or conventional sidearms?

Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

Depends on the militarily force. I'd say that the IAH and the larger but poorer earth nations prefer propelled weapons, while the US, European and most Space nations (they're forced to be nations to join the IAH) prefer lasers, the US and Europe because its high tech, the space nations because for them energy is cheaper than metal.

oh, and as a thought, who's older and by how much? do we have a captain who's overprotective of his little sister, a fierce rivalry between the two, or a scientist who tells stories about the captains youthful misdemeanors? or something else. you might want to make note of other siblings (or lack thereof) and parents as well, as it might come up between the two.

Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

Okay, hashing the finer details out with ericbsmith, but my other character is going to be one of the scout pilots. He's something of a general pilot, but is best suited for scouting.

Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

PCs

The Mechanic

Spoiler:

The Marine

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Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

Does the ship have spin gravity?

Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

[QUOTE=Poonbahbah;1395639]Man portable or ship portable only? If man portable, via St 30 or less, how effective is it at stopping bullets which in my mind are just very small shells. Maybe we should all pack some beam weapons just in case.[QUOTE]

current bullets are intentionally made to avoid the problem. Yes, Its man portable, and you have access to it. Against shells its drops the rate of fire by 80%. vs. metal(not lead) bullets it gives a -1 to hit to the attacker. If you use heat-armored bullets (which are standard at the moment) you can ignore the effects.

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Is there going to be gravity manipulation in game, or accelerating for some semblance of it, or mostly free-fall, or the ship or parts of it thereof rotating, or something else I've not thought of? At least at game start.

gravity manipulation is superscience, so unless its the one surprise out there, you won't get it. The ships are rotating for gravity. This means that Space combat is in null G, and you won't stick to the side of a ship, so if you intend to go outside, be sure to get free fall.

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What year is it exactly? I know it was 2098 When Wood got his drive and there's a mention of enemy being driven back to areas unobservable a hundred years ago so 2198? The answer to this question will likely affect my charecters' backgrounds.

The wood period lasted about 45 years, and the war ended 5 years after that. That was 8 years ago, so the year is 2156.

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The Engineer

Mostly good, but some of the skills need to be more specific. Are you a warp drive engineer, a high energy engineer (covers drives, nuclear reactors), or a space construction engineer (The physical construction). You don't need to note cutting edge tech, its normal for the setting.

are you sure weird science is what you want? in this setting it doesn't have much to do with reality. You might want to convert that into warp physics or something like that.

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The Marine

good except for perhaps for weirdness magnet. Its kind of made for a campaign where every one isn't on the same ship. If I let you keep it it will come out looking a little more like unlucky: a military wierdness magnet will attract the weapons and tactics that haven't been seen before.

you're also spending a lot of points on skills: you might want to put some of those into talents or attributes, which will have the same effect for a better price.

Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

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Originally Posted by ericthered (Post 1395594)

Combination of overprotective older brother and rivalry. He's already made his name, while she has yet to have her big break. They probably haven't had much contact with each other in recent years, since he's been out masterminding skirmishes and she's been feverishly working on plans for First Contact.

Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

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Originally Posted by ericthered (Post 1395662)

Engineer (Vehicle Type) is a valid specialization covering the design of a single broad class of vehicles such as automobiles, ships, and starships. Paraphrased from Basic Set pg 191 top left column. Unless you want to disallow it?
And Mechanic (High Performance Spacecraft,) since it's definitely not contragravity, covers; controls, hull, motive system, power plant, transmission, and even the paint job. para from B pg 207 I'll put some more points into other tech skill though not that I've got some more freed up.

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Originally Posted by ericthered (Post 1395662)

Okay, and good suggestion

Thanks for the feed back. I'll edit them soonish.

Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

Ahhh.... There is a huge FTL/STL gap in design. They are separate skills, but I'll let them default at -2 instead of the normal -4. You can specialize in Mechanic or engineer for either version, which will include the structural parts for both of them. The main ship is FTL, with many STL craft.

Ships in this setting rely on a "carrier" model. you have the main ship, with lots of other ships to perform individual tasks. So you have fighters for both FTL and STL, as well as small freighters and landers for STL. Also keep in mind that the ship is quite large.

sorry to anyone who hasn't realized the FTL/STL paradigm yet: A ship that is half decent at one isn't good at the other, unless doing both is the only thing the ship does well. Common ships include Massive FTL carriers, Small fighters of both kinds, Mid sized STL freighters, planetary landers, and scout ships (which do both FTL and STL). If you're thinking isn't FTL new? yes, it is, but the technique is over sixty years old.

Re: [OCC] Strange Neighbors

Would anyone who is familiar with the weapon options care to help me design a really tricked-out laser pistol to be my character's sidearm? In the past I've always played melee fighters or non-combat characters so I'm a little lost. Money is no object within any reasonable limits, as I have points available for Sig Gear if needed.