[Diaspora] Mini-Game Help

[Brad Murray]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 9:24 PM, Jeffrey Hosmer <jhosmer1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> First off, it seemed to me that in most of the mini-games the GM's usual
> "infinite supply" of fate points should vanish.  The mini-games seemed to
> run smoother and more quickly if only the actors in the mini-games (the NPCs
> and their finite pool of fate points and the PCs) could compel, and tags
> swiftly removed chips from play until there was nothing to do but pick up
> consequences and take damage.  Is this an accurate reading of the rules?  My
> players and I seemed to feel that if the GM still had his infinite pile of
> chips, then it would quickly give him an advantage.
>

Yes, give the ref a supply based on the NPCs aspects.


> In the Personal Combat mini-game, one of the players attempted to do a
> maneuver to place an aspect on himself.  I couldn't immediately find any
> thing that ruled it out.  Is this possible?
>

Sure. It's not as useful as it sounds, though, because it's in the same
scope as his other aspects (see p. 6). It's more powerful on a zone or an
enemy where you can not only free-tag it but also use it as a new scope
after the free tag.


> The Platoon combat was the worst of the lot, partially because I only
> placed two platoons (one for all the PCs and one for the enemy.)  I trusted
> to Fate's fractal system (it scales up and down easily) and for the most
> part it went OK.  I think I screwed up by compelling the PC's personal
> aspects, rather than their platoon aspects.  Is this part of how the
> mini-games have no mechanical link with the rest of the game?
>

Yeah I would stick to the platoon stats and not represent the players
themselves. Platoon Scale is easily the most involved of the four, though,
and can eat up a lot of time -- it's a real throwback to old school
wargames.


> The Platoon Combat ended when the players managed to Spot the enemy leader
> and stack a truly horrendous Direct Fire roll on him.  They tagged his
> aspects, their platoon, and a maneuver to do 12 shifts (he rolled very
> badly, and a reroll didn't help much)  Even taking consequences wouldn't
> save him.  Once he was gone, all his units, it seemed to me, would be out of
> command range and just sulked off the field.  It seemed rather quick to me,
> but is this how a decapitation should be handled in platoon combat?
>

Yup, a leader taken out that thoroughly pretty much ends that platoon. We
have allowed another leader unit to take the disconnected units under his
command, but if you only have one platoon then wiping out the command unit
is final. If you don't like that, though, you can promote another unit to
commander but don't change its stats. We've done this and it remains fun. So
protecting the leader unit is vital -- that's your HQ!

The players really had trouble with how little their character skills seemed
> to impact the Space Combat Game, especially a Pilot with Skill 5 on a ship
> with a V-Shift of 1.  Again, it seemed to me that keeping the fate pool
> finite helped the mini-game move to a final and bloody end.  (They managed
> to blow up one torpedo boat, whereupon it's partner decided to do search and
> rescue rather than chase.)  Questions:
>

Yeah a great pilot on a crappy ship is going to be frustrated. "This thing
STEERS LIKE A COW!" Generally though, you're right -- player characters
don't have a huge impact on space combat. The "characters" in play are the
spacecraft. Consider handing any player with a character that has zero
impact the role of Caller -- let them "run" the sequence.


> If two enemy ships are formation flying, does each ship still get its own
> fate pool?
>

Yes. Only when tethered does the fate point pool get restricted.


> Can you erode space band shift values?  i.e. If you have a 1 shift on the
> Position roll, can you still move "halfway" to one of the higher value
> bands?  (I didn't think so in the game.)
>

No.


> Can one composure attack a Pawn?  I didn't think so, because the pawns had
> no stats, but the PCs were interested in getting the judge sitting in the
> Guilty box to recuse himself.
>

Nope, pawns don't have stats. Maybe the judge would be better modeled as a
full NPC.


> Can the PCs tag aspects on my NPC when doing an unopposed action?  I think
> I let them do that... (it was late)
>

Sure, if everyone buys the story.


> Is there any good tactic for fighting the obstructions?  I was at a bit of
> a loss, as moving through them just left me at range from the judges I had
> to motivate.  The PCs seemed to get pretty high values, too.  (Maybe make
> the lawyers 3-cap skills rather than 5-cap?)
>

They erode, and moving is unopposed, so the best way through them is indeed
to move yourself and knock them down that way. Regarding skills, play hard
-- make your NPCs as good as the PCs. Get up in the same range as them
defensively and offensively. Play tactically -- smack them down on the
composure if they are weak there. Play to win and offer concessions if
you're getting close. The complications from failure are at least as fun as
winning.


> Anyhow, any answers you can offer would be greatly appreciated.  All in
> all, the playtesters had fun.  I run this thing for real on Saturday for
> some other players, so please let me know what you think ASAP.
>

No sweat! I'm glad you had fun with it and your questions tell me that you
really stressed the system in detail. That's way cool. If you're in North
America, send me an address and I'll send you some dice -- this counts as a
public Actual Play report as far as I'm concerned.

-- 
Brad Murray (halfjack)
VSCA Publishing
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