[Diaspora] Mini-Game Help

[C. W. Marshall]

Dear Jeff,

Thanks for this. Playing 4 minigames in a single session is a lot,  
but I think it has shown us some things of interest. Brad has gone  
through your specific questions, so I'll just step back an make a few  
general observations.

1. Fate points in the minigames. You are right that in the minigames,  
the agents on the map have fate point pools, not the ref. We tried to  
make this clear by talking about the caller not the ref (the ref is  
just another player at this point). I suspect that if others had been  
caller, it would have been clear that there just isn't a fate point  
reserve to draw on. Perhaps a clarifying statement in the final  
section of chapter 4 is needed, however.

2. Platoon. I think you are correct that in the platoon game, players  
are subordinated into the larger groups. Since we limit the  
application of skills to such a degree (and rightfully, since we are  
not building comparable skill trees for the other ten guys there), it  
is the platoon aspects that should be played. I don't think there's  
an inherent problem of only two platoons (one could use the same  
rules/scale to model a highway chase between two vehicles, for  
instance).

3. Space combat. I think Star Wars dogfights have really spoiled us  
in some ways, and we continue to romanticize the space pilot. I'm  
sorry your players didn't feel they had enough control. the game is  
designed so that each player should get one thing to roll per turn,  
as long as they have a space skill (the guy shooting missiles gets to  
roll that, just as the pilot rolls positioning) and their skills do  
affect ship performance, though not a lot. To turn to your specific  
example about Pilot 1, as Brad says,

> Yeah a great pilot on a crappy ship is going to be frustrated.  
> "This thing STEERS LIKE A COW!"

But he should be frustrated -- an excellent pilot has a better chance  
to get a tanker away from a pirate ship, but it shouldn't be easy.  
And it will take time, as the delta vee slowly increases, as the  
tanker inches away, one band at a time. And a single bad roll means  
that the enemy matches your vector, pulling your ship back to the  
center of the map. So I think your experience is exactly right, and  
tells the story the game is designed to enable. (I'll further add  
that most pilots are three-cap characters have a skill rank of 2, or  
the v-shift of the ship. Your Pilot-5 is an anomaly, and would be  
able to do something meaningful on  the ship with big engines, where  
most pilots wouldn't. What was the v-shift of the opposing ship? If  
it was more than 2, then in normal circumstances a V-shift 1 ship  
should not be able to get away.

I hope this helps. It's great to hear about your experiences, and I  
look forward to hearing about running it "for real".

Toph