Project NEPTUNE Part II: Crew as Damage Control

 

Made with Daz 3d, Bryce and GIMP

   As we said last week, space combat in RPGs is generally a pain. This is one of the reasons I started designing my own SF RPG as soon as I discovered my favorite rules system was now OGL.

     Part of that effort, the Black Desert Project, led to my series of blog posts about Crew as Mission Control. The premise being that given the way computers have advanced, the crew of a realistic spacecraft will not be occupied by actually flying or fighting the ship - they will be there to monitor, manage, and direct the various Computer networks. It became the most popular series of posts in this blog's history and has stood as my humble contribution to Hard Science FictionTM.

    I stand by that series. I am convinced that it's the best way to include people on spacecraft in Hard Science Fiction. I would love to see the Mission Control model used in novels, television and movies.

     I'm equally convinced that as far as Role-Playing Games are concerned, the Mission Control Model does not work.

    As much as I like the idea of Crew as Mission Control, it still does not address the necessity of a Tactical Mini-game to resolve space travel and combat at the table.  The players are still locked into using a different set of rules and different skills and are still robbed of agency by putting them all in a tin can with few chances to make meaningful decisions.    

    What I’ve come to desire is a space travel and combat system that keeps the focus 100% on the Player Character scale. PCs - their goals, skills and opportunities, and most importantly agency - should always be the focus of a role-playing game. This is what inspired my take on the idea of “Starship as Dungeon”.

    “Starship as Dungeon”, however, runs into problems with the types of scenarios it can support. The classic “Bug Hunt” trope exemplified in the movie Aliens is perfect for Starship as Dungeon, but what about other tropes? How can Starship as Dungeon be used in a free-trader campaign? Or what if you want to actually have space combat between Fleets- how do you keep the rules for that type of scenario from taking the focus away from the Player Characters?

    Like the title says, Crew as Damage Control.

  This is far from a new idea, as we see examples dating back at least to the 70s in stories such as Northshield’s Triumvirate. In this concept, the computers on a spacecraft do all the actual flying and fighting, since they can do so faster and more accurately that people can. Organic crews exist to maintain and repair the various systems of a spacecraft. We also see it used the classic The Mote in God's Eye.

  

This wasn't a game.

 In studying first-person accounts of naval battles, particularly memoirs from the Pacific theater of WWII, we see some great examples of the "player focused" perspective. The sailors, soldiers and marines who recall those iconic battles do not do so the way we're shown in films or other fiction - which is the point of view most licensed RPGs try to capture. As much as I like to watch SF media, the cinematic spectacle is not best seen from the table top.

    The people who actually fought and survived major naval actions in the bowels of their ships recall their own personal viewpoints which are focused on their immediate situation. Often, this can be just trying to keep their ship afloat. They usually didn’t know what is going on with the battle, whether they are winning or losing, or how much damage the ship had sustained. 

    In other words, the ships these people are on became a hostile environment of rupturing steam pipes, flooding compartments, shrapnel, and darkness. A Dungeon.

    This point of view, the completely personal perspective, is one that can be used in a Player Character-focused RPG.

    At first blush, this may sound like a railroad waiting to happen. Without command level decisions to make, can the Players truly be masters of their own destiny? To this as ask a question in return: Can players whose characters are optimized for non-space travel skills be said to have any more control over the ship that they are on? 

    This is a big complaint about space travel and combat systems I have heard at my tables; that there’s nothing for most characters to do. In the Crew as Damage Control concept, everyone has something to do, even if Character’s actions revolve around survival while the ship they’re on falls apart around them. Survival in a hostile environment may be stressful, but it's still PC-focused, which is the goal.

       With Crew as Damage Control, the aftermath of a space battle is where Characters really get to shine. Their ship is now a dungeon in fact, full of hazards like decompression, ruptured tanks, radiation leaks, boarding hostiles, and more. Navigating this kind of environment is challenging enough; repairing the damage is even more so. One thing I’d love to see is a party of PCs scavenging the wrecks of other spacecraft or nearby asteroids for supplies to repair their ship. 

    That's Character focused play.

    Admittedly, this perspective is still focused on combat, which is only one small facet of space travel. Other character-focused scenarios are possible. Space is full of hazards that must be overcome, from debris strikes to solar flares to mechanical failures. There can also be passengers, mysteries, and more in a space-faring location. As long as the action is focused on the Players and their Characters, the focus is where it should be.

    More to come on this topic.

Art Previews! (T-MINUS 6 DAYS)

   That's right, RocketFans - Issue 1 is only six days away!  While we're all waiting in breathless anticipation, here's a look at some of the art in the upcoming issue:

Our Glorious Cover!

One of the big tasks this month has been designing and modelling Varangian, the diplomatic cruiser from the Stargosy series.  It's still a work in progress.

And I just cannot be a Blue Max Studios product without some deckplans somewhere, now can it?

  Hope you all enjoy!  I gotta get back to work...

 

Let Freedom Ring Excerpt (Issue 1 Update)

Here's a look at some of the upcoming stuff from LAUNCH WINDOW's first full issue!

Let Freedom Ring (exerpt):

One does not simply decide to go into space.

    The distance is not great, as these things go - a home-built rocket made by amateur enthusiasts can easily cross the hundred-odd kilometers needed to reach open space around Terra.  However, since gravity that high is still roughly ninety-seven percent of what it is at sea level, these rockets will fall back down as soon as their propellent is gone and burn up in the atmosphere. To actually stay in orbit requires a staggering change in velocity - the same amount used by the first expedition to Saturn.

 

    Annabelle Li was able to take her crew on that kind of jump only by flagrantly cheating at every possible turn.  Her current body started life a CASSTOR catapult-assisted rocket back when Annabelle herself was being assembled by the Brazillian military.  The orbiter had since been modified with a collapsible L-Drive dish in order to take advantage of the boom in ground-based laser installations.  The little rocket carried no on-board propellant - she could make orbit with just the energy of the ambient atmosphere exploding under her bell.  This gave Annabelle and her crew enormous leeway in their available launch window - after all, staying in the thick atmosphere longer actually extended their delta-V- but it required waiting for an available beam to launch on.

     “I can get us a beam in twenty-one hours.” Wade leaned back into his flight chair and rubbed between his eyes.  “That’s literally the soonest I can get.  It’ll cost 50% over standard and we’ll have to portage to Cape Troy to use it.”

    “That’s...really awful.  You know that, don’t you?”  Niles Demirkan had a talent for sounding mildly amused.

    “Well, unless y’all wanna go up as cargo on another ‘Bell, that’s our situation.”

    “That’s an option?”  Tilde looked at her husband. “You can get us up in a Liberty Bell?”

    “Uh...yes?”  Wade shrugged and grinned sheepishly. “I was actually joking, but one of my Hive-fi followers is PLO on a ‘Bell that flies local, I think. Lemme check real quick -”

    “Wade,” Niles still sounded amused. “Do you know everybody in the Solar System?”

    “Nah.  Mebbe one percent - tops.”

    Tilde ignored the exchange between her husband and their friend.  She was thinking.

    “Wade, did you think to check and see if anyone on Lucky Libby is one of your followers?”

    “Tilde…That would’ve been smart.”

    It worked out that Wade, by virtue of “knowing” almost a hundred million people, did have a Hive-fi follower on the crew of a Liberty Bell boosting out of Redstone XTA.  Two hours of negotiation and a five-figure transfer of funds from Tom got Annabelle Li loaded as freight on the Liberty Bell Roll Tide Roll. They would space in less than twelve hours.

    The time was far from idle.  Annabelle Li was herself a launch vehicle, and therefore had many features that were ideal for launching cargo and impossible for being cargo.Wade, Tusk, and Annabelle’s robotic minions worked furiously to dismantle the CASSTOR’s twelve-meter high launch fairing.  Since the rocket’s only on orbit power source were solar panels mounted on the interior of the fairing, the crew spend several hours more installing aftermarket panels in Annabelle Li’s four equipment pallets.  Port inspection took another hour and a half, during which Wade and Tusk both desperately jogged the two kilometers to the terminal building, showered, and took a tram back in time to for Li’s loading procedure.

    Which started nearly forty-five minutes late.

    “Look on the bright side,” Tilde playfully nuzzled Wade’s cheek as he stood fuming on the tarmac. “You smell much better.”

    Liberty Bells were the unappreciated workhouses of surface to orbit transport. Resembling a massively upscaled Mercury capsule from the days when spacecraft were glorified warheads, Liberty Bells were cargo liners that rode into space on leased L-Drive bells from spaceports across the world.  There were not only the most common spacecraft in production, there were the most common ever made - only the single use megatankers from Titan are produced in higher numbers.  Liberty Bells were reliable.  They were trusted. And most of all they were cheap - the lasers were already paid for, and the air was free.

    Roll Tide Roll was typical of the breed; a cone eighteen meters tall serving as a command module, waiting to be attached to a payload fairing.  These were voluminous enough to hold eight standard “Conestoga” cargo containers and was also part of the L-drive assembly - a ring of turbofan compressors surmounting a twenty meter wide parabolic dish.  The Liberty Bell was currently in a vehicle assembly building, awaiting her cargo.

   “They’re having to add an extension to the cargo fairing.”  Wade, Niles and Tusk were in the attached lounge, with a dozen other people who were waiting to board the rocket. “And Annie’s too wide to dock anywhere but the center ring - we’re gonna be the only cargo.”

   Tusk signed at the other two men.

  “Yeah, we just might lose money on this job.  Mebbe we can get Annie a new body for her birthday.”

   Niles smiled.  “Do AI have birthdays?”

   “Why not?  You do, and you’re an asshole.”

   “Touche.”

  Tilde missed this exchange by virtue of being Annabelle Li’s Payload Officer.  Despite Li being part of another rocket’s payload, Tilde still considered the CASSTOR very much her responsibility, especially since Annabell’s processor was to remain on board.  There was also the rest of the cargo, break-bulk life support supplies for the Libby, and an inflatable cargo module to carry them once in orbit, that had to be carefully arranged around Annabelle Li and secured for launch.  Again, this was PLO of Roll Tide Roll’s responsibility, but it was Tilde’s cargo.

   Tilde made hir life hell until the everything was loaded to her satisfaction.

   The last hurdle was a minor one - Tuskegee, being nearly twice as wide as a human being, was too large for the passenger coaches in the Liberty Bell’s cabin.  The logistics were solved by Tusk simply agreeing to ride in his own custom flight chair in Annabell Li, but the problem was that Roll Tide Roll’s PLO wanted to charge for his seat anyway.  Tilde, oblivious to karma, argued with hir until Wade offered to do a video tour of the rocket for his channel gratis once they were in orbit.

   One does not simply decide to go into space.

What I've Been Working on Instead of Posting...

     Happy Wednesday, RocketFans!
     Profuse Apologies for not posting anything for awhile; the Thanksgiving holiday was busy.  In other news, hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and I've stated the obvious.
     I've (naturally) been working on Issue 1 of LAUNCH WINDOW when I haven't been working on the rules updates for Issue 0.5.  Issue 1 is shaping up well.  It's a monster of content - two stories, several articles and features, some nano-fic, an isometric bonus, and lots of artwork I've got to get finagled.  I've also received offers of help from some of the talented RocketFans - for which I am most grateful.
    Anyway, let's take a look at what we've got going on for Issue 1, shall we?

Stargosy Part 1: The Stargosy series of stories, which we began back in April, have turned out to be enormously popular and I've received more requests to continue the series than I have for just about anything else.  So Issue 1 will see a reboot of the series where the story is expanded and the world building cleaned up a bit.  By which I mean that the series started very "Royal Navy" in feel, then became very "Egyptian Transhuman" as it went on.  So the new version will start out Egyptian and get a more unified theme.  It's turning out well so far!

The Hichikar Ankhmesh (pleases no one) gives his towel
to Imhotep, upon whose lap he has spilled beer.

Let Freedom Ring:  This story is exciting to me, as it will be the first Black Desert fiction to see print!  The Black Desert is by far Blue Max Studio's oldest property - in fact, BD predates Blue Max Studios by over a year.  So to finally see the characters I've developed for the setting come to life is most gratifying.
Species Spotlight: Hichikars: That's not a typo, it the return of of the Species Spotlight feature!  In this entry, we meet a race of shape-shifting humanoid vagabonds that star-hop across the galaxay, trying to kedge a pint at the pub and bringing towels to the masses.  Loads of fun to hang around with but check your pockets afterwards.
Nano-Fic: I've got a few ideas kicking around.  I'll probably put at least two in this issue...
Technical Readout: Pinnace: A brief write-up and plans for a short-ranged aeroshuttle suitable for a wide variety of settings.
Starmorphs: Barracks: Continuing the series, we offer more random tables and another ten by twenty map for your gaming peasure.
     That's...wow, that's a lot of stuff.  What am I wasting time chatting fore?  I gotta get to work -