Chapter 4B: Asteroid Battle

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Mar 2, 2024 12:35 am
OOC:
daryen says:
For the record, is the Bureau shuttle armed or anything?
Not at all. Let's hope Alex survives this.

Weapons none, Armor none, Defenses none, HP 15.
Mar 2, 2024 12:47 am
OOC:
htech says:
Not at all. Let's hope Alex survives this.

Weapons none, Armor none, Defenses none, HP 15.
Well, it was nice knowing Alex while he was around. Glad he turned out to be a good guy.

At least we now know why Slaine needs a ride ...

On a different perspective, how fast are rounds of space combat in SWN? Does he have time to dock with the Sentinel and abandon the shuttle before getting blasted? I know that's what I'd be trying to do. If not, maybe he can ram something and go out in a blaze of glory.
Mar 3, 2024 12:09 am
htech says:
OOC:
All right, let's begin. Douklan, you are the pilot, so roll initiative for the Sentinel. 1d8+2 due to your Intelligence bonus
Despite his readiness, Lt. Paravides is surprised at the speed with which the patrol boat and fighters move. He rushes to compensate.

Lt Jr. Fu Chen targets the fighter that moved first in initiative order with the gunnery roll for plasma beam 1 opens the comm to the other gunnery stations, telling them "Just like we've practiced, everyone. Take it slow and steady, and don't fire until you've really got them in your sights." (rolling CHR + Lead, which I figure is either 2d6+2 or 3, in an attempt to go Above and Beyond).
OOC:
Starting at 0, there's not really much to lose by gambling on the possibility of gaining 3.

But we will need to know STATS for these NPCs, so we know both bonuses and how many CP will be earned if we succeed on Above and Beyond checks.
Last edited March 5, 2024 4:18 am

Rolls

Initiative going into combat with Separatists - (1d8+2)

(2) + 2 = 4

Lt. Jr. Fu Chen gunnery roll - (1d20+4)

(10) + 4 = 14

Lt. Jr. Fu Chen Above and Beyond DC9 - (2d6+2)

(11) + 2 = 4

Mar 3, 2024 12:33 am
OOC:
After looking at the rulebook, assuming the two fighters and the patrol boat are bog standard, then Alex has a decent chance to actually live through this. The fighters' weapons are design to shoot at bigger targets, and the patrol boat needs to worry about the Sentinel. If the Sentinel does its job quickly enough, Alex might not even get fired on.
Last edited March 3, 2024 1:17 am
Mar 4, 2024 5:05 pm
OOC:
Initiative ✅!

But space combat is a little bit different in terms of actions. Every PC ship has some Command Points (CP). Some actions generate CP, others consume CP. This is how the crew collaborates with each other. Your ship starts every round with 0 CP.

When I am playing IRL, the department order inside a ship is determined by the captain or commanding officer, one by one (ex: it's the pilot now, now it's the gunners, etc).

But we may have a house rule that however posts, as long as there is enough CP, acts. This way we are not blocked nor we need to guess how many CPs will be available when it's our department turn.

For gunnery actions, if the gunnery head lets someone fire a weapon it costs 2 CP. Letting everyone fire all weapons once costs 3 CP. With a multi-weapon starship like the Sentinel, the latter is usually better. Either way, you can't fire until someone generate that CP, as you can never have a negative CP. There are 2 common actions to generate CP:

- Above and Beyond: Push yourself to help the ship or its crew. Pick an attribute and skill check and explain how you’re using it to help the ship. If the GM agrees, roll it against difficulty 9. On a success, gain your skill level in Command Points plus one. On a failure, take -1 Command Point.

- Do Your Duty: The ship gains 1 Command Point. If invoked by a player, they must name
some plausible act the PC is doing to be useful, and can’t do the same act two rounds in a row.

For the complete list of actions, please refer to page 117.

I will ask you to redo that round spaceseeker19 (keeping the dice if it makes sense) so you can describe the action from that list (with its CP cost) and/or wait for other players to grant you enough CP. Everybody else can also play now as well, in whatever order you fancy.

In space combat, I will always write some tables at the end of my posts, to make it easier to follow what is happening in the current round.
As the Draco Separatist Fleet closed in, the first starfighter unleashed a torrent of charged particles from its Reaper Battery. Lt. Jr. Fu Chen watched intently as the particles streaked towards the shuttle, but he knew they posed little threat for now.

"Particles incoming, minimal threat," he reported, his voice calm as he saw the attack missing its mark.

Meanwhile, Commander Thalos, aboard the patrol boat, targeted the Sentinel's guns with a Plasma Beam, hoping to cripple the frigate and leave it vulnerable to their assault. But his shot missed its mark, much to his frustration.

"Plasma Beam off target, no damage," Ensign Carderas relayed, his fingers flying over the controls to keep track of the enemy's movements.

Undeterred, Commander Thalos adjusted his aim and fired again, this time striking the Sentinel's hull and causing minor damage.

"Hull breach detected, damage sustained," Lt. Katlina Komarov reported, her eyes narrowing as she assessed the situation.

"Return fire. Let's show them what the Sentinel is made of!" - said the Captain.
Round 1

Ship Action CP left Result
Fighter 1 NPC command points 4 -
Fighter 1 Fire weapon, target systems: A09 Engines 1 Miss


Ship Action CP left Result
Patrol Boat NPC command points 5-
Patrol Boat Fire one weapon + target systems: Sentinel's Plasma Gun 2 2 Miss
Patrol Boat Fire one weapon, target: Sentinel 0 Hit: 10 hull damage


Departments may act in any order:
Ship Action CP left Result
The Sentinel Captain: Support Department (Gunnery) 0 Next gunnery action costs -2 CP
The Sentinel Bridge: To be defined ?
The Sentinel Gunnery: To be defined ?
The Sentinel Engineering: To be defined ?
The Sentinel Comms: To be defined ?

Waiting for their turn:
Ship Action CP left Result
Fighter 2 NPC command points 4 -
Fighter 2 To be defined. Waiting for their turn


Ship Action CP left Result
A09 (Bureau's Shuttle) NPC command points 4 -
A09 (Bureau's Shuttle) Escape Combat 0 To be defined. Waiting for their turn

Rolls

Strike Fighter 1 - Attack engines (clumsy vs shuttle) - (1d20-4)

(7) - 4 = 3

Patrol boat - Attack Sentinel's Plasma Gun - (1d20)

(11) = 11

Patrol boat - Attack the Sentinel - (1d20+4)

(20) + 4 = 24

Patrol boat - Plasma Beam (damage, AP10) - (3d6)

(555) = 15

Mar 4, 2024 11:35 pm
OOC:
Post update, above
Mar 5, 2024 12:02 am
Lt. Katlina Komarov in Engineering is going to try and generate command points by making sure everyone is preparing for emergency repairs and aiding by giving her experience so they are ready.
OOC:
(Int/Fix?) I don't know her stats?
Mar 5, 2024 12:10 am
OOC:
Yup. Int/Fix if you're trying to go above and beyond. Roll 2d6+2, DC 9, in that case.

If you just wanna do your duty, no need to roll, your description for the action is reasonable and enough.
Mar 5, 2024 1:04 am
OOC:
Going Above and Beyond doesn't make sense for 1 extra command point for the risk of a loss at a 50/50 chance. Going to do your duty.
(I'm assuming she's level 2 like us)
Last edited March 5, 2024 1:05 am
Mar 5, 2024 4:25 am
OOC:
Holy crap, how did the fighters get so many CP?
Douklan Does His Duty, bringing the Sentinel closer to the Patrol Boat so that the gunnery crew will have a better chance at a shot.
+1 CP
Last edited March 5, 2024 4:25 am
Mar 5, 2024 4:36 am
Ensign Carderas Does His Duty by tracking the combatants to make sure of where everyone is.

So, with Komarov, Douklan, and Carderas all doing their duty, that means that we should be able to Fire All Guns. So ... can we do that?

Carderas recommends firing both Fusions at the Patrol Boat and the Sandthrower at one of the fighters.
OOC:
The NPC Command Points are just what those ships get. The fighters and shuttle get 4 CP; the patrol boat gets 5. If the Sentinel was not being run as a PC ship, it would also get 5 CP.

EDIT: I want to point out that the Patrol boat Fusion Beam only does 10 damage, not 15. The Sentinel's HPO armor reduces the opposition Fusion Beam to just 5 AP, meaning that the Sentinel's 10 armor is only reduced to 5, not completely negated. So that drops the damage by 5.

EDIT2: So, when using the Command Points, a given weapon can fire as many times as you want as long as you have the CP to fire it?
Last edited March 5, 2024 4:45 am
Mar 5, 2024 12:03 pm
OOC:
Quote:
I want to point out that the Patrol boat Fusion Beam only does 10 damage, not 15
Fixed. Thanks.
Quote:
But we will need to know STATS for these NPCs, so we know both bonuses and how many CP will be earned if we succeed on Above and Beyond checks.
In Stars Without Number NPCs have less stats. They don't have attributes, skill levels, foci, etc. For skill checks, they either roll 2d6 (for things unrelated to their focus) or 2d6 + a small bonus (for things they are trained to do). All of the Sentinel's crew rolls 2d6+2 for trained skills (the ones you will probably use in this combat).

Douklan is special, though, because he is a PC. I would suggest that in our next round he goes first, and normally above and beyond. As a PC, the rules are usually in his favor.
Quote:
Lt Jr. Fu Chen tries to go above and beyond
If he does that, the Sentinel can't fire. All general actions are exclusive; if you take one of these actions your department can do nothing else in the round, either before or after you take the action.

So I will let you redo that, as part of our learning experience.
Quote:
So, when using the Command Points, a given weapon can fire as many times as you want as long as you have the CP to fire it?
Yup. As I undid the Gunnery action, so he can act last, now you can Fire All Guns and even have CP left to Fire One Weapon. If you had one CP more, you could Fire all guns twice.
Ship Action CP left Result
The Sentinel Captain: Support Department (Gunnery) 0 Next gunnery action costs -2 CP
The Sentinel Bridge: Do your duty 1
The Sentinel Engineering: Do your duty 2
The Sentinel Comms: Do your duty 3
The Sentinel Gunnery: To be defined ?
Mar 5, 2024 1:59 pm
OOC:
Got a question: If the captain's action makes the next gunnery action cost -2 CP, shouldn't we be able to Fire All Guns with the very first CP we get (the Bridge: Do Your Duty)? Then, as long as Engineering, Comms, and Gunnery also Do Your Duty, we can Fire All Guns again. Correct? Or, we could Fire One Weapon and Target Systems on the Patrol Boat's plasma beam. Or am I missing something?
Mar 5, 2024 2:02 pm
OOC:
Quote:
Or am I missing something?
The Gunnery cannot act twice in the round. He can't act after the Bridge and before Comms, then act after Comms again.
Mar 5, 2024 3:01 pm
OOC:
So let's see if I am following.

Gunnery is now free to act. If they Do Your Duty, then they can't fire any weapons. Instead, they can take one CP and effectively turn it into three CP (because of the Captain's actions) to Fire All Guns. Great. Now we have two CP left. If we want to use that to Fire One Weapon, who takes that action? One of the other two gunners?

And, on the patrol boat, if the gunner fired the gun once, who fire the gun the second time?

Just trying to get my head around all of this. And thank you, this is a great learning experience on the game!
Mar 5, 2024 4:37 pm
OOC:
Quote:
If we want to use that to Fire One Weapon, who takes that action? One of the other two gunners?
Unlike normal combat, Space Combat actions are done by the department. So if the Gunnery department is acting, they can fire the same weapon, any number of times. Or multiple weapons. The person manning that gun would fire, as much as you have CP for it. We have 3 gunners in the Sentinel because the same person cannot man two guns simultaneously. But, if you have the CP, everyone can fire twice. Or just one of the guns fires, the remaining "just watching". Or none of them fires at all and save that CP for other department. =)
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And, on the patrol boat, if the gunner fired the gun once, who fire the gun the second time?
The same gunner. As long as the Gunnery head is acting, has CP avaliable and allows him to fire, he does so.
Mar 5, 2024 5:01 pm
OOC:
So my question is ... It will on average take 3 -4rounds to do any action.
2-3 to generate the command points and one to do the action
(The math on Do Your Duty and Go Above And Beyond is equal for level 2 characters.
Yes? Is this what others see?
Mar 5, 2024 5:28 pm
OOC:
@htech, Thank you!

@PhoenixScientist, I don't think so. Each department gets to do something in their round. So, in this first round, the captain did Support Department to make one gunnery action easier. Bridge, Engineering, and Comms did "Do Your Duty" to generate CP (for a total of 3). So now, still in this first round, Gunnery will be able to fire twice. The first one is Fire All Guns (3CP-2CP from the Captain for 1CP), the second is Fire One Weapon (the remaining 2CP; assuming this is one of the Fusion Beams).

Assuming obvious choices, then in Fire All Guns, both Fusion Beams will fire on the Patrol Boat, and the Sandthrower will try for one of the fighters. For Fire One Weapon, one of the Fusion Beams (gunner with highest modifier) will fire on the Patrol Boat again.

Then, next round we can do it all over again, though Bridge, Engineering, and Comms will have to come up with a new description of how they are Doing Their Duty. Honestly, this is probably what we should be doing until things start going bad. At that point we have to start risking Above and Beyond in order to get extra CP so we can shoot AND do something else. But we have enough of a firepower advantage that would should just keep hammering them until we can't.

IMO. I am not the one running the fight. Just saying what I am seeing. :-)
Mar 5, 2024 5:51 pm
OOC:
Daryen is right. =)

I will let the Gunnery head decide their actions and them we will continue. This is still the first round. As we learn, the next ones will surely be faster. =)
Mar 6, 2024 5:47 am
Following up his earlier pep-talk to take their time, Lt Jr. Fu Chen then orders his crew "Fire all weapons on the patrol boat." Then, seeing an opportunity as one of the fighters hoves into view, "Micah, hit that fighter!"
OOC:
Fire all Guns,
then
Fire One Weapon

Now, as I understand it, you wanted to reuse the roll I did days ago when this round started. But the roll should be 2d6+2, correct? I think then that the total for Chen's shot would be 8.
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