Star Wars: The Tide Turns (VOIP Game)

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:33 am

Looks good Stofsk.

I did notice that Starship Tactics are based, oddly, on Wisdom. These abilities work much like force abilities for Jedi, but it strikes me as odd that both of these are based on the same stat. I may houserule it to INT, since fighter pilots are traditionally pretty hotheaded, rather than nice and serene.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:55 am

We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:53 pm

Fluff for my Mon Cal character is now up.

Also, since Hotfoot will make the joke anyway, it must be pointed out that with a Wisdom bonus and Skill Focus Perception when they take Perception, Mon Cals are the ones most likely to notice ambushes, planted explosives, and other disguised means of ensnaring or otherwise harming an individual or group.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 3:52 pm

I will not respond to that comment, as clearly it's a trap.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 4:04 pm

Hotfoot wrote:I will not respond to that comment, as clearly it's a trap.

Wrong!!!!

The correct response is as follows:

You really think so? MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Ahem. I mean certainly.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:31 pm

Why CynCat, I don't know what you mean. It's not like I intend for evil things to happen to them.

Not at all.

I mean, what sort of GM would do horrible, evil, unspeakable things to his players?

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 10:47 pm

Hotfoot wrote:Why CynCat, I don't know what you mean. It's not like I intend for evil things to happen to them.

Not at all.

I mean, what sort of GM would do horrible, evil, unspeakable things to his players?

I know that he's already giggling evilly about the idea of making my character's long-term nemesis.

That nemesis'll get shot in the face eventually, though. I can be patient.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:44 am

Today I took temporary leave of my senses and purchased Starships of the Galaxy, Scum and Villainy, The Legacy Era Sourcebook and KOTOR Era Sourcebook.

When I start hobbies I go in full throttle (that ought to keep those fighters off our backs)

*Cough* Ahem.

So, looks like I chose right by taking Dodge as one of my feats, as that +1 to defence can be used in starfighter combat as well.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Tue Aug 25, 2009 6:44 am

You'll note I never said anything at all was wrong with dodge as a pilot. There's a reason why.

At this point, I just need Academia Nut, Marcao, and B4 to contact me. Marcao is in Cancun for the moment, but when he comes back we'll sort it out. The rest of you, snap to!

I did manage a kludge to get Screenmonkey working, which is good since it means that we don't have to organize any player end software outside of Skype.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 6:42 pm

Bad News: The microphone for my headset was busted

Good News: I got a new headset and it works

Bad News: It seems my microphone port is damaged because I don't come in very loudly

Bad News: I have no idea when I'll be able to go looking for a USB microphone

Other News: Family barbeque tomorrow at 7PM MST (9PM EST)

But, as Hotfoot can attest, it is possible to have a Skype conversation with me as we chatted for 5 hours today. How are the rest of you for connections and scheduling?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:21 am

Okay, so does 3pm to 8pm EST work for everyone for tomorrow?

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 1:30 am

I think 3pm EST would translate into 5am for me, however that might not be a problem a few red bulls and computer gaming session couldn't fix.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:35 pm

Good first game. Though I personally would've liked my character to get the armor BEFORE he got shot twice...but he survived, so no complaints.

I'm still amazed the Brick can fly again.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:53 pm

I'm amazed we all didn't die in that first Benny-Hill shoot out where no one could hit anything except for that first spectacular disarm move by Antares. Also, I pity our Infities selves. Poor bastards killed three times over. A moment of silence.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:54 pm

The game went well, despite a few technical difficulties and some scheduling issues. I hope that when my new router is installed, I don't have to do my tethering workaround to get Screenmonkey to work, but this setup should do for a while yet.

250 XP to everyone involved, and I hope we can continue this next week as well.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 2:45 am

By the way, if there's anyone who wants to make any alterations to their characters, now is the time. Since we're all new to this, I don't want anyone thinking that they messed up anything for later on. If you have any questions, just let me know.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 11:24 am

The system is certainly a good one, however I've thought about it and a couple of things bug me about SagaEd. I'm only thinking out loud here, if anyone has an opinion or disagrees with me I'd be interested in reading differing opinions.

-Skills. Any RPG I play usually has characters who are skilled. I've always played a character who is intelligent and able. While there are elements of the skill system that I do like, I'm not sure I am too thrilled about the way you gain skills in SagaEd. Essentially you will need to spend a feat in order to gain a class skill as a trained skill (assuming you didn't select it in chargen of course).

That said, it does make skill selection pretty important and worth thinking about. I tossed up whether to select Mechanics as a class skill over, say Use Computer, or Knowledge (Tactics), and my ultimate decision came down to thinking about what would be appropriate for my character (Use Computer and Knowledge (Tactics) gel well with being a fighter pilot, while Mechanics doesn't - how many Top Guns bother to fix their jets after a sortie?)

So it's a plus and a minus.

-Armour. From my understanding of the rules for Reflex Defence, armour will basically end up being worthless as soon as your heroic level bonus exceeds the highest bonus in the best armour available (which for the purposes of the game we're in, would be Stormtrooper armour - an armour none of us would likely be wearing other than in special circumstances, like with what happened in the game).

This bothers me more than the skill issue. I can learn to like the way skills are done, because like I said it at least makes you think hard about what skills to go for. Unfortunately, I don't like the armour rules at all, and this is basically the one thing I've found so far where I think the previous edition got it right.

I think armour works best if it is treated as damage reduction for attacks. That way, wearing armour is still worthwhile at higher levels because it gives a very important combat role: keeping you alive after you've been shot (something which real life armour does incidentally).

Basically everything else about the game is good. I like the rules, it's made me fall in love with D20 again, and I am actually looking forward to playing in this game. I just wish they hadn't nerfed armour. :)

Oh Hotfoot - only 250XP?

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:34 pm

Actually, armor works wonderfully, especially if you're a soldier, since with two soldier talents, armor always remains more than just a little useful. Other than that, some armors can be useful throughout, thanks to various modifications that can be applied, like a powered armor's bonuses to strength, or the bonus to fortitude defense that keeps you from going down a step on the condition track

I don't disagree with you that armor should be a damage reduction, that's how I usually run most of the games I'm in, but here, I think it works out nicely.

Cynical Cat · Post by **Cynical Cat** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 2:46 pm

The armour issue comes with the D&D game mechanics. It works okay in Saga Edition mostly because they put a fuck load of work into it, but you play most forms of D20 and you're stuck with some variant of D&D's crappy armour system. The Conan rpg is the only one I can name off the top of my head that is d20 and has good DR armour rules.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » Sun Aug 30, 2009 3:48 pm

The rules for armor lend themselves to higher-level characters going more heroic, and not wearing armor except as adornment, whereas specially trained characters (e.g. characters with Armor talents) make use of them better.

The skill system in Saga I like. In D&D3.x, one usually gets a bunch of skills, but a giant hemmorhoid of a system to use or better them. SW:Saga greatly simplifies this, at the expense of having a broader variety of skills. I'm still getting used to it, but time will tell.

So far, I'm digging the changes; particularly the multi-classing rules (and lack of uber-builds to bend the game rules over a table and roughly have your way with).

My character in particular is making me think carefully about things, as there aren't many Force-users that don't specialize in a glowstick as their weapon. As an end result though, I'm digging my character's development more.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 3:52 am

As for skills, since I didn't cover that earlier, the simple matter is that in D20 in general, you don't usually get more skills, you just tend to stick with what you're good at. In Saga, at least, there is the option to improve what you have. Still, the basic way of things is that if you want to be a skill monkey, you should look at Nobles and Scouts, who get the most skills, then maybe multiclass to something else, but each class has something unique that they bring to the table, and while multiclassing helps you have more options, it hurts in general specialization. Remember that D20 is not nor never has been a skill-based system.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 4:18 am

Cynical Cat wrote:The armour issue comes with the D&D game mechanics. It works okay in Saga Edition mostly because they put a fuck load of work into it, but you play most forms of D20 and you're stuck with some variant of D&D's crappy armour system. The Conan rpg is the only one I can name off the top of my head that is d20 and has good DR armour rules.

Traveller T20 had a good system I thought. The damage reduction worked by removing the damage dice used by weapons, and armour had different qualities that worked better against certain types of weapons.

For example, Reflec works against Laser weaponry, does provides a bonus to AC and damage reduction vs Lasers, but against anything else the defence bonuses shape off like you would expect. Ablat also works against lasers, but it's defence/DR bonus drops off after repeated hits, and that's because the armour descriptions for both Reflec and Ablat are different. Reflec can be worn with other armours (say a flack jacket or ballistic cloth) so you get the combined effects of two different armours. While Ablat is something that is supposed to fall apart when hit by lasers (works like ablative armour works, hence the name) so while it has an impressively high DR value vs lasers, repeated hits drain this value to nothing (eventually). Ablat is much cheaper than Reflec too, so it works for the poor-man-merc character type.

Things like that really made me like Traveller's take on d20.

Academia Nut · Post by **Academia Nut** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 8:31 pm

Quick question now that I'm thinking about it: did anyone have any major difficulties hearing me over the mic because mine has been acting up but it didn't seem to interfere with the game. I know I was told to speak up more than once, but it didn't seem any more frequent than is standard for these sorts of things.

rhoenix · Post by **rhoenix** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 9:01 pm

Academia Nut wrote:Quick question now that I'm thinking about it: did anyone have any major difficulties hearing me over the mic because mine has been acting up but it didn't seem to interfere with the game. I know I was told to speak up more than once, but it didn't seem any more frequent than is standard for these sorts of things.

No issues here with Skype and hearing you. I had my volume most of the way down out of necessity, but could still hear all of you just fine.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:52 pm

Okay, just a quick check, is everyone cool for 8 PM Eastern this Thursday?

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Star Wars: The Tide Turns (VOIP Game)

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