Boughene Station Blues (OOC & Etc.) Gamestory

[Grav_Moped]

Reference:
To make things a little easier, while an air/raft may take [World size code] hours to reach a particular orbit, it can reach orbital altitude a lot more quickly than that.

Starship enters low orbit, then slams on the brakes with the maneuver drive and hovers on lifters. Air/raft slides out of cargo hold and drops straight down, just using the antigrav to keep velocity at atmospheric entry manageable. Probably an hour and a half to touchdown, and most of that's spent getting down through the last 30km of atmosphere. Getting back up takes a few hours since while it can descend at 1G (falling) it's only got 0.1G going up, and it's drag-limited to 30kph in vertical ascent below 30km altitude (assuming its ascending in a horizontal orientation).

If memory serves -- the site's search function doesn't work all that well so I'm relying on memory -- getting to orbital velocity takes as long as getting up to orbital altitude.

And of course, once you're above the Karman Line, drag isn't an issue. Air/rafts can cover a lot of ground in vacuum -- the limiting factor is actually escape velocity!

But I suppose that if you want a hot rod lifeboat here, you can have one. It just can't be a very large one.

Boughene Station would have a few of them kicking around.

 

[Spinward Scout]

@Spinward Scout : Dayum, we wrote all that?

We definitely did. It was about 2 months of us writing. For a 'Day in the Life'. Pretty amazing!

 

[Spinward Flow]

Reference:
To make things a little easier, while an air/raft may take [World size code] hours to reach a particular orbit, it can reach orbital altitude a lot more quickly than that.

Starship enters low orbit, then slams on the brakes with the maneuver drive and hovers on lifters. Air/raft slides out of cargo hold and drops straight down, just using the antigrav to keep velocity at atmospheric entry manageable. Probably an hour and a half to touchdown, and most of that's spent getting down through the last 30km of atmosphere. Getting back up takes a few hours since while it can descend at 1G (falling) it's only got 0.1G going up, and it's drag-limited to 30kph in vertical ascent below 30km altitude (assuming its ascending in a horizontal orientation).

That's fine for a Green or Amber Zone world where there isn't an interdiction patrol presence.
Victoria and Ylaven are Red Zone systems.

Being able to make an orbital dash in minutes instead of hours (and hours and hours) might come in handy.
Plus, if that air/raft is loaded with 4 tons of slung load cargo, it might have to struggle to make orbit ... which might be time you "don't have" if you're trying NOT to play "tag" with an interdiction patrol (that will have more than 2G on their maneuver drives).

Even a single Gazelle class close escort on interdiction duties will make it difficult to get from orbit to surface to orbit without being detected (and harried). If you need to run a blockade ... it's best to not be slow while you're making the attempt.

Go figure, eh?

 

[Grav_Moped]

That's fine for a Green or Amber Zone world where there isn't an interdiction patrol presence.
Victoria and Ylaven are Red Zone systems.

Being able to make an orbital dash in minutes instead of hours (and hours and hours) might come in handy.
Plus, if that air/raft is loaded with 4 tons of slung load cargo, it might have to struggle to make orbit ... which might be time you "don't have" if you're trying NOT to play "tag" with an interdiction patrol (that will have more than 2G on their maneuver drives).

Even a single Gazelle class close escort on interdiction duties will make it difficult to get from orbit to surface to orbit without being detected (and harried). If you need to run a blockade ... it's best to not be slow while you're making the attempt.

Go figure, eh?

You're working on a PC with a fair chance of being able to order that Gazelle to stand down and back off.
Just saying.

 

[Spinward Flow]

You're working on a PC with a fair chance of being able to order that Gazelle to stand down and back off.
Just saying.

Fair point ... but as a Player I was NOT expecting that to be an option (and if it was, I wouldn't necessarily expect it to be successful if tried).

 

[Grav_Moped]

Test post. Disregard.

 

[Hairy Jim DeGriz]

Commentary:
You know, I probably ought to write up a "The Story So Far" post for this thread, since the gamestory thread makes for awkward reading.

Believe it or not, this is the short version:
...

Thanks - I tried to read the original post and it was difficult to do in one setting, this was much easier to digest, but still a full meal.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I was (inadvertently -- thanks HJD) reminded that I planned to do a full list of characters mentioned in the "day in the life" mini-campaign.

I'll get to that.

Right now, I'm going to annotate the "short version" with the relevant posts and characters used in each, so people can focus on the story elements and characters involved without needing to read the whole thing. At some point I'll go through it and strip it down to just the story, but that's on the back burner.

On second thought, um, that's gonna take a while. I've offered to index posts mentioning the gunners -- that should be a lot simpler.

[Actually the fourth EDIT:] Reading note: Anything in first person is from Captain Puch's POV. Third person should be tagged well enough.

Ok, here's everything with the gunners:
#34: Roland and Annie run into the ship's lounge (that's it for their participation in the scene).
#43: Roland (Thompson), loading the pinnace and co-piloting for the rescue mission to Feri
#44: Roland (trip continues).
#49: Roland: Outline of the firefight [that happens entirely off-screen and is never actually detailed!]
#53: Annie: Guides a drone missile (used as an EVA work platform) to help fix a problem with the ship's Collector Canopy.
#56: Roland: Group debriefing by local gov't official after firefight.
#62: Roland: Pilot of shuttlecraft, going back to Nova.
#81: Roland: Still piloting, radio conversation with Nova, and [just outlined, not written up] radio conversation with Dame Irshinri who's inbound in her ship's boat.
#90: Roland: He's mentioned in passing, for having provided info to Dame Irshinri.
#93: Roland: Mentioned.
#104: Roland: Another recap of the rescue mission (as description -- and no, we never did write it out.)
#120: Roland: Mentioned.
#125: Roland and Annie: (Offscreen, but they manged to place decoy drones in a convenient location)
#127: Roland and Annie: Discussing drone deployment and ship's current tactical situation.
#133: Roland and Annie: Annie set up a decoy drone, she and Roland describe ship's antimissile capabilities, shoot down two missiles.

I think that covers it for the gunners' experience.

EDIT: Nope, I mentioned them in the "Character Name In-Jokes List" post (#165)

Second EDIT: Just noting that I was writing the gunners as basically "cardboard NPCs" with only the minimum characterization necessary.

Third EDIT: Also, any skill levels mentioned in the "game mechanics" sections of the post are in the LBB1/S4 scale, not advanced chargen.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Ok, a shortcut for anyone wanting to take over an existing character (except for the reserved NPCs, and for Chief Doen who's already got a full set of stats and backstory already defined):

Roll up a suitable character, using your preferred chargen system. If you get to roll on a table containing one of the character's known skills from the narrative so far, pick that skill from the table without rolling. Do this until all the known skills are at the required levels, and then proceed with normal chargen from there. Basically, you're rolling up the stats, skills, and backstory that haven't yet shown up in the narrative.

Note: Tenya Cardosa's "thing" is that while she has only Engineer-1, she's got Vacc Suit-1 and 0G Cbt-1, and is maxed out on JoT. In T5 I think the max usable JoT is level 3; I'll have to look up what it is in MgT2. (Belter character, with high DEX, END is her dump stat)

 

[Grav_Moped]

Ok, a shortcut for anyone wanting to take over an existing character (except for the reserved NPCs, and for Chief Doen who's already got a full set of stats and backstory already defined):

Roll up a suitable character, using your preferred chargen system. If you get to roll on a table containing one of the character's known skills from the narrative so far, pick that skill from the table without rolling. Do this until all the known skills are at the required levels, and then proceed with normal chargen from there. Basically, you're rolling up the stats, skills, and backstory that haven't yet shown up in the narrative.

Note: Tenya Cardosa's "thing" is that while she has only Engineer-1, she's got Vacc Suit-1 and 0G Cbt-1, and is maxed out on JoT. In T5 I think the max usable JoT is level 3; I'll have to look up what it is in MgT2. (Belter character, with high DEX, END is her dump stat)

I might as well do "sales pitches" for the other characters as well, in case we get more participants (though to be fair I'm not really expecting any).

 

[Spinward Flow]

is maxed out on JoT. In T5 I think the max usable JoT is level 3; I'll have to look up what it is in MgT2.

Please do and report it here for those of us who don't have access to T5 or MgT2.
I only have access to CT, and in LBB1.81 the writeup for J-o-T is that the skill functionally maxes out at J-o-T-1 because it basically gives you Skill-0 in "everything" but it can never amount to Skill-1+ in anything at all ever (so how are additional levels of J-o-T beyond 1 of any use whatsoever?).

If other editions have alternative rules/interpretations I'm curious to know what they might be.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Please do and report it here for those of us who don't have access to T5 or MgT2.
I only have access to CT, and in LBB1.81 the writeup for J-o-T is that the skill functionally maxes out at J-o-T-1 because it basically gives you Skill-0 in "everything" but it can never amount to Skill-1+ in anything at all ever (so how are additional levels of J-o-T beyond 1 of any use whatsoever?).

If other editions have alternative rules/interpretations I'm curious to know what they might be.

T5:
Can't exceed the stat you're using it with (T5 is "Roll under 'stat + skill on nD6," with difficulty increasing the number of dice ( n ) rolled.)*
Can't be used in place of or in addition to a skill you otherwise have, except:

Shields against invocation of the This Is Hard! task resolution mechanic (which is, if the applicable skill level is less than the number of dice required to be rolled, add one more die to those rolled -- and remember, this is a roll-low system).

* Easy: Automatic with skill, Skill-0 rolls 1D. Average: 2D. Add one more die at each of the following difficulty levels: Difficult, Formidable, Staggering, Hopeless, Impossible, Beyond Impossible. Time is doubled if Cautious but reduces difficulty by one level. Time is halved if Hasty but adds one difficulty level. Extra Hasty tasks are completed before any competing task, but are escalated by two difficulty levels.

Haven't done much with that for task resolution yet, but it seems interesting. Tasks like plotting high-Jn Jumps often use equipment TL in place of the PC's stat... (edit: or something like that.)

 

[Grav_Moped]

MgT2 (roll-high, 2D) has an unskilled penalty of -3, JoT reduces that by 1 for each level of JoT, up to -0 (that is, at JoT-3 you're rolling at Skill-0 but JoT-4 doesn't get you to Skill-1 for anything).

I've seen house rules (which I vaguely recall being associated with Mr. Miller) where JoT gives skill-0 in everything, but each level of JoT lets you retry a failure using a different approach (i.e. a different skill) at -1 per attempt. Example: jammed stateroom door. First try: electronic (hotwire control panel) at Electronics-0. Second try: mechanical (manipulate door mechanism) at Mechanical-0 with a -1DM. Third try: computer (hack into master door control system) at Computer-0 but at a -2DM. And so forth, with high JoT skill.

 

[Grav_Moped]

In practice, I wrote the character's use of JoT as "can try anything, pretty much, but the result will be quirky unless she's really lucky".

Yeah, I was winging it.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Need to repost my reply to a DM (lightly edited) here too because it's useful info for anyone following this (but who hasn't gone through all 200+ posts of the gamestory thread).

All of the characters except Engineer Jones, Doc Martin, and Scout Ketonic were aboard the IISS Spinward Poni when it discovered Annic Nova. Of the 8 characters who were on the Poni, one died from the disease, one left at Feri (second time through, shortly before the "24 hour" scenario begins) and was replaced by Jones, and one (Scout Jon Smithe, the navigator) left at Boughene and left a vacancy.

Doc (Scout, active duty) Martin was detailed to the ship the first time they came through Feri (when the ship was decontaminated) to monitor for possible breakthrough/new cases of the disease. He has since gone back to Feri because Annic Nova ain't going anywhere for a while.

Scout Melissa Ketonic was a prisoner (under Medical Fast Drug) being exiled from Feri. It turns out that this was a cover story; she's actually a Scout working undercover. Due to events that happened shortly after she boarded Annic Nova, she now wants to find the ship's crew (alive, or not -- she wants closure for her experience) and has been allowed temporary Detached Duty status to come along. In fact, the local Scout Base insists she be taken along (she can be a medic if one is eventually needed).

NOTE REGARDING SCOUT KETONIC:
Of the crew remaining on the ship, only Captain Puch knows that Miss Ketonic disabled the missile that struck the pinnace, and how. He is also the only one that knows that the events of the Ghost Story post [Oct. 31, 2020] were something other than a panic attack.

Please don't meta-game this information. Your characters don't know it and I think only Tenya Cardosa was in a position to even begin to suspect otherwise.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Other secrets:
1. The crew and Dame Irshinri (and her crews) are covering up the attack on Annic Nova and the small craft by the Windsor SDB. (Windsor is one of the Imperial-backed governments on Feri, a balkanized world enduring a seemingly neverending war). It's blackmail material against both the Windsor government and the Feri nobility, and so far they've paid up.

2. The Collector Drives on Annic Nova are (were) anomalous.
2a. General Products' shipyard knows that there was a pocket of something in the accumulator section that imploded like a bubble of trappped jumpspace when they tried to take it apart. They don't know what it was, though, or why it was there. They don't want this known, because they accidentally destroyed something that might have been Ancients-level technology.
2b. The AN crew and Dame Irshinri (but not necessarily her staff) did not know of the something, but did know what it did (and in retrospect connected the two): unlike any Collector Drive known to the Imperium, it was capable of retaining a charge indefinitely -- the ship could jump twice in a row without recharging. The Imperial Navy inspectors who checked the ship out at Efate/Regina failed to discover this capability, and the AN crew have kept it secret. It might be Ancients-level technology, or not; in any case, it's above TL-15.
2c. It's not Ancients technology, it's a side-effect of how the ship showed up in the rimward edge of Lanth Subsector. The Collectors were TL-15 but picked up some "accidental magic" along the way. Nobody knows this, and please don't meta-game this information.

3. There was a map of Victoria/Lanth on board Annic Nova. (This isn't secret.) What's secret is that the map, and the ship's original navigation database, had annotations of Ancients sites in and around Lanth Subsector -- some publicly-known, some known only to Imperial intelligence, and some that are unknown (and which may not actually exist). That navigation database itself is oddly wrong: Stars and planets are in their correct positions, but all of the civilization-related data (starports, population, etc.) is often wildly incorrect. This is known only to the original crew, not Dame Irshinri and not (yet) any crew members to be hired on here at Boughene. Again, please don't meta-game this information.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I've seen house rules (which I vaguely recall being associated with Mr. Miller) where JoT gives skill-0 in everything, but each level of JoT lets you retry a failure using a different approach

Skill-0 limit (each time) but can make JoT skill level attempts (so higher skill levels allow more retries of failures) makes the most sense. Don't particularly care for the -1 per retry baseline ruling though. Adding a penalty after a fumble result makes sense, but not for a mere failure to succeed.

Other secrets:

Thanks for letting us newcomers know what we should and shouldn't know about what's going on from the perspective of our characters. Just because the Player knows something doesn't mean the Character should too (and vice-versa, although the latter is mostly a matter of character skills).

 

[Grav_Moped]

Skill-0 limit (each time) but can make JoT skill level attempts (so higher skill levels allow more retries of failures) makes the most sense. Don't particularly care for the -1 per retry baseline ruling though. Adding a penalty after a fumble result makes sense, but not for a mere failure to succeed.

I think the principle is that the first thing you try is the one most likely to succeed, and subsequent attempts use increasingly unlikely approaches.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Thanks for letting us newcomers know what we should and shouldn't know about what's going on from the perspective of our characters. Just because the Player knows something doesn't mean the Character should too (and vice-versa, although the latter is mostly a matter of character skills).

I'm pretty sure that none of this is new info, though some of it was only implied rather than stated outright. But it's spread out across more than 200 posts, and ain't nobody got time for that.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I think the principle is that the first thing you try is the one most likely to succeed, and subsequent attempts use increasingly unlikely approaches.

And like I said, a fumble ought to apply a penalty as opposed to a mere failure.

There's a difference between Didn't Work and Made It Worse ...