MGT Only: MgT2e Creating Tasks

[Spinward Scout]

I'm trying to find my way around creating new Tasks. Pulling some from MegaTraveller. I'm not sure how to estimate the Timeframe. Does anyone have a way to do that? Here are some of the Tasks I'm working on.

System Crosschecks
Asterisked Tasks
Increase timeframe +1
Boon to Task check

No System Crosschecks
Bane to Task check
Warning Light Event or Malfunction later

* Start up Power Plant
Engineer (M-Drive)
Routine (6+), EDU
Warm Start - less than 8 days powered down
1D x 10 Seconds?
Cold Start - 8 days or more powered down
1D Minutes?

* Engage Main Drive
Engineer (M-Drive)
Routine (6+), EDU
1D x 10 Seconds?

* Initiate Thrust
- Liftoff and Hover
Pilot (Spaceship)
Average (8+), EDU
1D x 10 Seconds?

Travel to Orbit
Pilot (Spaceship)
Routine (6+), EDU
Calculate Travel Time

Manning and Prepping a Turret
Gunnery (Turret)
Easy (+4)
DM -1 for each weapon's fire control
1D x 10 Seconds?

Taking care of a Ship's Pet
Animal (Training) or Animal (Handling)
Average (8+)
Task Difficulty modified by:
Size Trait modifier pg. 81
1D x 10 Minutes?

 

[whartung]

MT as the Time Increment x 3D. But in the task description, if they say "5m" the intent is to divide it by 10 to get the Time Increment, and then role. The 5m is the "average".

Over in the "time to power emergency jump" thread, there's a whole bunch of timings for power plants and jump -- I would just lift those.

The rest, I would just swag. Fill out the details and then give them times. Just what is involved in "Manning and Prepping a turret"?

Travel to the turret, sitting down, strapping in, booting it up. Finally, there's the actual game effects. Does something that takes "10s of seconds" really impact anything on the time scale of ship combat? I don't know how long a personal combat turn is in MgT, so would manning a turret take 1 combat round? 5? In the end, those are the times that really matter, the impact on game mechanics.

So, something else to consider.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

MT as the Time Increment x 3D. But in the task description, if they say "5m" the intent is to divide it by 10 to get the Time Increment, and then role. The 5m is the "average".

No, the time given in the UTP is the time increment. Typical task duration is ten times that.

MT Referee's Manual, p13:

HOW LONG DOES THIS TASK TAKE?
Estimate how long the task typically takes using whatever time increment is most convenient. Approximations are fine.
Divide the time estimate by 10 for use in the UTP. A roll of 3D (whose average result is 10) is used to determine how many of these time increments the task actually takes. Remember the UTP time increment is always one-tenth of the total estimated task duration.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I don't think getting to the Turret should be part of it?

Prepping a Turret

1.) Power Turret
- 15 seconds

2.) Set Turret Actuators
- 30 seconds

3.) Activate Target Control
- 10 seconds

4.) Initiate Fire Control
- 5 seconds per Weapon

5.) Link Fire Control, if duplicate Weapons
- 2 seconds per Weapon

That's 76 seconds or 1 minute 16 seconds.

I'd say 1D Minutes in MgT2e.

Would that work?

I'm a bit confused by the MT entry about times.

I'll look through Starship Operator's Manual to see if there's anything else.

Thanks!

 

[Spinward Flow]

That's 76 seconds or 1 minute 16 seconds.

I'd say 1D Minutes in MgT2e.

Would that work?

How about ... minimum 60 seconds ... plus ...
1D6-Gunnery skill (minimum zero) x10 seconds.

This gives you a range of 60-120 seconds to complete everything, with more highly skilled Gunners more likely to complete their prep faster.
Gunnery-0 = 70-120 seconds (95 seconds average)
Gunnery-1 = 60-110 seconds (85 seconds average)
Gunnery-2 = 60-100 seconds (80 seconds average)
... and so on and so forth ...

 

[Spinward Scout]

There's about 5 different things to do. I wouldn't make it random if you're also going to subtract Gunnery skill. Subtracting skill is a great idea to show proficiency, tho.

 

[Grav_Moped]

I don't think getting to the Turret should be part of it?

Prepping a Turret

1.) Power Turret
- 15 seconds

2.) Set Turret Actuators
- 30 seconds

3.) Activate Target Control
- 10 seconds

4.) Initiate Fire Control
- 5 seconds per Weapon

5.) Link Fire Control, if duplicate Weapons
- 2 seconds per Weapon

That's 76 seconds or 1 minute 16 seconds.

I'd say 1D Minutes in MgT2e.

Would that work?

I'm a bit confused by the MT entry about times.

I'll look through Starship Operator's Manual to see if there's anything else.

Thanks!

If you have the Snapshot game (or AHL), consider using their grid and action point system to track personnel movement to battle stations.

But if so, keep in mind that actions with fixed duration (powered doors opening, elevators transiting between decks, systems booting up from cold) take more action points for characters with lots of action points. Action points are defined as slices of a fixed-duration turn, and the more action points a character has, the smaller the time interval each of their action points represents.

 

[Spinward Scout]

If you have the Snapshot game (or AHL), consider using their grid and action point system to track personnel movement to battle stations.

I'm just going to do it with 'Prepping the Turret', before Space Combat starts.

 

[whartung]

Why does it matter in your game how long this takes if it's basically down to "a few minutes at best"?

In space combat, there's no real impact (ship can't fire first turn out of surprise, i.e. take a turn to prepare). In normal play it's usually not that urgent (in a game impacting way at least) until for whatever reason you're doing personal combat and waiting for someone to get to the turret to strike back.

 

[Grav_Moped]

Why does it matter in your game how long this takes if it's basically down to "a few minutes at best"?

In space combat, there's no real impact (ship can't fire first turn out of surprise, i.e. take a turn to prepare). In normal play it's usually not that urgent (in a game impacting way at least) until for whatever reason you're doing personal combat and waiting for someone to get to the turret to strike back.

I'm not the OP, but my guess is that it's for narrative/RPG-setting detail rather than something that directly interacts with the space combat rules.

 

[whartung]

but my guess is that it's for narrative/RPG-setting detail

Sure, but at that point you can swag it by feel without having any real precision whatsoever. At the "narrative" level, it's as long as the narrative wants it to take.

 

[Garnfellow]

Why does it matter in your game how long this takes if it's basically down to "a few minutes at best"?

In space combat, there's no real impact (ship can't fire first turn out of surprise, i.e. take a turn to prepare). In normal play it's usually not that urgent (in a game impacting way at least) until for whatever reason you're doing personal combat and waiting for someone to get to the turret to strike back.

In MgT time is an important component of task resolution. Doing something faster can increase the target number, doing something slower can lower it.

 

[Fovean]

Probably not really germane to the OP but IMTU I use varying turn lengths based on range, from 10 sec up to 6 min. I can see where some of this crunch could have a mechanical impact and affect some player decisions.

But I do think the increments should be based on whole rounds/turns rather then some “realistic” assessment of how long it would really take. I understand there’s variability and reducing time based on skill is great but you don’t want to end up with a dangling half-turn.

 

[Spinward Flow]

I understand there’s variability and reducing time based on skill is great but you don’t want to end up with a dangling half-turn.

Seems simple enough to round any fractions of a turn upwards to the nearest whole turn ...

 

[whartung]

In MgT time is an important component of task resolution. Doing something faster can increase the target number, doing something slower can lower it.

Yea, I understand that, but I'm struggling visualizing a gaming impact for this specific task. That is, when, in the big picture, would the time it takes to man the turret affect anything?

Like I said, if you have a ship, say on the ground with an armored vehicle and supporting troops coming around the corner of a building, then, yea, we have a combat round race of getting the turret manned, getting the lasers powered up, and trying to get ship lasers on the target of the armored vehicle before they start experiments and studying the effect of HEAP rounds against starship hulls.

But, that seems pretty edge case to be honest. "Good to know", I guess, but, given most use cases when the turret is being manned, mostly trivia.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Yea, I understand that, but I'm struggling visualizing a gaming impact for this specific task. That is, when, in the big picture, would the time it takes to man the turret affect anything?

As with anything, you can either use the Task or Handwave it off. You could say it takes XX minutes to get to Orbit or you can just say "You get to Orbit". You don't have to describe the time if it's not necessary to the story. If you have the Starship Operator's Manual from MegaTraveller, there's a whole page about Opening Doors and Airlocks. It specifically says to not use those rules unless you absolutely need to because they can bog down the game.

Besides, I changed the Task so it doesn't include the time getting to the Turret, but just the time starting it up.

 

[Grav_Moped]

And in an RPG context, it mostly doesn't matter except where it specifically affects the rules in play. In the context of 16-20 minute space combat turns (LBB2/LBB5), all of it happens in the phases of Turn 0, so it's pretty much moot.

In a narrative depiction of the events happening in that Turn 0, it affects the timing and sequence of character actions and dialogue. For example, when "battle stations" is declared, who is the first to report they're in place and their systems are ready? Who's last? Did someone screw up (roll badly) and take longer than expected? Does someone call "ready" out of sequence, confusing the officer in charge? That sort of thing.

If there are canon (rules-driven) task durations, you can foster suspension of disbelief by keeping tasks within the specified times. If not, just make the task durations plausible. Either way, consistency matters more than the exact time -- and having an expected duration can illustrate high or low competency (or skipping critical steps!) when a given task is accomplished more quickly or less so than expected.