First Impressions from TNE

[Eduardo]

i liked the 'wear number' deal when I first saw it, and still use it. In a world dependent on salvage survival, it plays a big part in the game, as it should; it increases the paranoia and stress on players. They shouldn't be taking any piece of equipment for granted, no matter how 'insignificant'.

 

[Golan2072]

Comments about the Worlds and Travel Chapter - Part 8 (Psionics section)

This section opens up with the usual description of the treatment of Psionics in the OTU, slightly modified by the Collapse (such as underground Psionic Institute cells surfacing and takig power in the Collapse's aftermath, and other becoming anti-tyranny resistance groups trying to overthrow TEDs).

Hmmm... The psionic faction that thinks that Psions are superior to "mundane" Humans reminds me of the Babylon 5 PsiCorps, but, luckily, with far less resources; the 'Corps were one of my favorite villians in Babylon 5 and the archenemy of two of my most memorable PCs in a Babylon 5 PEBM RPG.

That said, locating Institute branches is done exactly as in CT-LBB3, with an added chance for a violent encounter (on a Catasrophic Failure) with violent anti-PSI elements. Psionic Strength testing is done as in CT-LBB3, that is with a Cr5,000 fee, though there is now an option to perform a non-monetary service to the Institute instead; Psionic Strength is generated as in CT-LBB3 and degrades with aging as in CT-LBB3, except that in TNE the degredation begins at age 17 instead of 18.

There is, however, one major difference between CT and TNE in regard to Psionic Strength: TNE states on p.246 that most NPCs don't even have a PSI Strength of 1, and that the procedure above is intended for interested PCs alone.

The mechanism for resolving psionic uses TNE's normal task-resolution system, with difficulty based on stress (i.e. the more peaceful the environment is, the easier it is to use PSI), but obce success is achieved a roll of 1D10+ PSI Strength + PSI Skill and with the target's INT and Willpower Skill serving as a negative DM is required; this is then compared to a table giving the "stage" of success. A bit cumbersome, IMHO. Also, under TNE, psionic use is as fatiguing as hard work.

Psionic training now usually requires a comitment to the Institution rather than the previous Cr100,000 sum; I like the new way better, as it encouraging roleplaying AND PC political agendas. Plus it has the familiar Babylon 5 "The Corp is Mother, the Corp is Father" air about it, which I also consider as a good thing.

TNE's Psionic Talents are somewhat different from the CT ones: they are Telepathy, Teleperception, Self-Awareness, Telephysics, Teleportation and Arcana. Each Talent is a cascade skill; each specific ability is a skill. Talents are recieved as in CT, i.e. by a series of throws while in training; all cascades start at 0 if they're recieved. Later experience forces the character to choose one skill within each cluster she has and specialize in it, rather than CT's hirarchial approach (i.e. the higher the Talent score, the more abilites you have in it in CT).

It is also noted that using Telepathic powers on creatures biologically and/or cognitively different from the user (i.e. a Human scanning an Aslan) is more difficult and reduces the "success stages". A new Telepathy power was added - Willpower Drain (used to reduce a target's resistance to Psionics); the Shield power no longer provides absolute protection but rather helps resist psionic attacks (as it should do).

Teleperception (i.e. clairvoyance, clairaudiance and so on) is very similar to the CT Clairvoyance Talent.

Telephysics is a greatly expanded version of CT's Telekinesis Talent, with Cryokinesis (psionically cooling objects) and Pyrokinesis (psionically heating objects) added to the old Telekinesis.

CT's Awareness Talent is now called Self, or Self Awareness (both terms are interchangingbly used in TNE), and is similar in composition to its CT equivalent, with the addition of the Orientation power (some kind of a "locations ense" power).

Teleportation in TNE is similar to Teleportation in CT.

Arcana is a new Talent, a replacement of "special", including three interesting powers - Computer Empathy (interacting with computers by psionics, and "mind-probing" AIs such as the Virus), Psionic Healing (healing others by psionics, disallowed by CT), and Prescience (very limited future-seeing and furtune-telling).

Psi Drugs in TNE work essentially in the same way as in CT.

 

[Golan2072]

Originally posted by Eduardo:
i liked the 'wear number' deal when I first saw it, and still use it. In a world dependent on salvage survival, it plays a big part in the game, as it should; it increases the paranoia and stress on players. They shouldn't be taking any piece of equipment for granted, no matter how 'insignificant'.

I liked the basic "wear number" too - but I didn't like the overcomplication of breakdown determination: too many die rolls per breakdown rather than having one roll combining the chance for breakdown AND the breakdown outcome.

 

[Golan2072]

Comments about the Worlds and Travel Chapter - Part 9 (Robots section)

Suprisingly enough, and probably due to space restrictions, the Robots section of TNE is only four pages long and does not include any design rules (these are reserved to FF&S, right?).

Two robot types are discussed, "Drudgebot" (a workbot - a TNE version of the CT-LBB8 term "Dumbot") and "Guardbot" (a security/combat robot - a TNE version of the term "Warbot"), and one example from each is detailed on p.262.

The description on p.259 states that (due to the Virus taking over/killing most sentient robots, I presume) robots in TNE are not truely intelligent, even though they sometimes might seem so, are unable to improvise beyond their programming and "are reactive rather than active". There are "vehicular robots" and "non-vehicular robots", of which no clear definition is given, but it is possible to infer from the related rules that the vehicular ones are "brains" installed in a bigger vehicle (car-sized or bigger?) and the non-vehicular ones probably possess a (relatively) small chassis of their own (roughly man-sized?).

Robot combat is then detailed, beginning with melee combat (unarmed or armed), which is handled similarly to the normal melee combat rules, except for that robots substitute their Agility rating for the Martial Arts skill. Ranged ("Fire") combat is carried using the standard rules. Non-vehicular robots are damaged similarlty to Humans, using Human or Animal (depending on robot) hit-locations, with slightly modified rules. Vehicular robots are damaged as vehicles, with slightly modified rules. Robots are also described as resistant to flames (halve burn damage).

P.261 also states that all Imperial-era robots were never sentient, only - occasionally - good imitations of sentience; Virus infection made robots sentient and self-aware.

 

[Golan2072]

Comments about the TNE Combat Chapter - Part 1

First and foremost, I must say that this chapter intimidates me a bit - it is 64 pages long, and, from a very preliminary look, seems very detailed and complex; TNE's Twilight: 2000 origins probably show very clearly in it, as Twilight: 2000 is a military-themed game and, undoubtebly (I haven't read my DTRPG free-download version of TW: 2000 yet) quite focused on combat or, for the very least, on military-related issues. Thankfully, the chapter opens up with an overview of the combat chapter, and claims that all combat is task-based and uses a (relatively) uniform system for personal, vehicular and space combat.

Combat Turns are far shorter in TNE than in CT (5 seconds rather than CT's 15 seconds).

Initiative is a fixed number, usually 1-5, created for PCs and detailed NPCs during chargen and, in the case of "generic" NPCs, determined by their "type" (i.e. Novice, Experienced, Veteran or Elite). Initiative is modified by burden, panic and by wound level (decreased by one from Slight Wounds, by 3 from Serious Wounds and by 5 from critical wounds). All actions in a combat turn are carried out in order of initiative, with the character with the highest initiative acting first. Similarly to the 3rd edition of Shadowrun, TNE allows characters with high Initiative scores (6+) to act twice per turn. there are also (relatively) simple rules for opportunity fire and ambush in this section.

Movement is then treated, including four movement types (crawl, walk, trot and run), with K'Kree being faster than all other races in trotting and walking but being unable to crawl. Movement is given in meters per combat turn. Movement is then plotted either on a square grid of 2m per square (indoors) or 10m per square (outdoors).

 

[Golan2072]

Comments about the TNE Combat Chapter - Part 2

TNE has several possible "combat actions", reminding me of the Shadowrun combat system, such as aiming fire, driving a vehicle, firing weapons in various modes, performing melee attacks, reloading or readying weapons, moving in various speeds or talking.

There are also "involuntary actions" on p.268, that is, actions forced by "the circumstances" (i.e. the Referee) on a character. The main involuntary action is Panic, which is a variant of the CT Morale check: if a character is knocked down by an attack or surprised, she rolls 1D6, and if the result is higher than her Initiative score, she panics, that is, unable to act for a number of turns equal to the amount by which the 1D6 roll has exceeded her Initiative score. Characters with an Initiative of 6+ will never panic. Note that this is a very elegant game mechanic, one of the best in TNE, that is simple and effective.

Melee Combat is quite complicated in TNE, as the system has several specific moves beyond the basic "strikes" (i.e. normal fists and kicks): leaping-kicks, grappling, escapes (anti-grappling), throws (i.e. throwing the opponent), and diving blows. This adds interest to melee combat, but also makes it complex to perform. Melee attacks are tasks; many of them could be blocked by the opponents using a similar task, but, on the other hand, surprise attacks require no throw (they hit automatically) and cannot be blocked. Melee attacks can also be aimed - that is, target a specific hit-location (yes, TNE has a hit-location table), but this uses a higher-difficulty task.

As I've said, TNE uses a hit-location system, which is a table from 1 to 10. There are 7 hit locations: head, right arm, left arm, chest, abdomen, right leg and left leg, but the abdomen and each of the legs has a double chance of getting hit. Different attack forms are "biased" towards hiting certain areas in the target - for example, fists roll only 1D6 on the table (so that they never hit the legs) while kicks roll 1D6+4 on the table (so that they never hit the head, arms or chest).

Unarmed Melee damage is a stat calculated at chargen and recorded on the character sheet - this is the damage done by fists. Kicks do 1.5x this damage. Armor is hit-location-based and absorbs twice its rating in damage points.

Armed melee attacks have their damage determined by the weapon used to perform them, and (apparantly) roll 1D10 on the p.269 hit-location table.

 

[William]

Originally posted by Employee 2-4601:
Comments about the Worlds and Travel Chapter - Part 7 (Equipment Maintenance and Repair section) Sounds a bit complex: I mean, why roll EVERY DAY for your ship to break down even in a Jump? I'd roll ONCE for the whole jump!

Just a quick note, in the errata for pg 241 it states:
Starships are designed for 24 hour a day operation. Therefore only check for breakdown twice a week (leaving orbit and emerging from jump) Redundancies in vital systems prevent breakdowns from being lifethreatening unless ignored for at least a week.

While going though this book, having the errata close to hand is vital. The full set of fixes really makes the game much much much better. This is especially true wrt high energy weapons.

Heh, you should see all the penciled in notes and taped in corrected tables my Mk1 Mod0 copy of the TNE core book has.

William