[Diaspora] Space Combat comments and questions

[Yunus Wesley]

Another:

130 "If the winning positioning roll is tied, the next highest roll is the
winner."

What if there are only two ships? This came up today in a practice wargame.
There had been no compels: we got out of it by tagging a consequence of an
earlier hit.

On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 6:11 PM, Yunus Wesley <yunuswesley at gmail.com> wrote:

> Bizarrely, this didn't come through into my email, but it did fall into the archive... thanks again for the answers! I'll probably ask again when I hit the social combat section.
>
>
> *Brad Murray Thu Feb 18 18:50:22 MST 2010*
>
> On Wed, Feb 17, 2010 at 9:17 PM, Yunus Wesley <yunuswesley at gmail.com <http://box547.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/diaspora_phreeow.net>> wrote:
>
> >* Firewall, Vector Randomization, and Point Defense stunt defenses cannot be*>* modified --certainly not by a PC's skill. Does "no modification" extend to*>* tagging or compelling aspects that might feasibly interact with the stunt?*
>
>
> "No modification" is an unclear way to say that the base for the roll is
> zero. With or without a defensive stunt like vector randomization, the
> player can always tag ship aspects.
>
>
> >* Ships without Vector Randomization roll at 0 to defend against beams.*
> >* In-universe, does this mean the ship's pilot is actively moving the ship in*>* an attempt to be harder to hit? Simply the random difficulty of getting a*>* hit in? The chance of the ship's frame and components physically resisting*>* damage? Any of the above and more seem appropriate.*>**
>
> The intent is that the pilot is busy making the ship achieve the separation
> and vector variance required to achieve positioning success: that is, he's
> trying to maintain an advantageous range, pursue, or escape. He's not
> playing any defensive tactical games at all but rather strategic ones. The
> software (or whatever story you have for that) does the tactical jinking for
> him.
>
>
> >* The defensive roll made for Beams stands throughout the Torpedoes phase;*
> >* there's a separate defensive roll made against Torpedoes. What is the*>* purpose of keeping the defensive Beams roll into Torpedoes, if torps are*>* resisted with a separate action?*>**
>
> The defensive roll made during the Beam phase stands only through the Beam
> phase. The confusion is that in the Torpedo phase, you are rolling your
> Beams *again* to shoot down incoming ordnance. Defensive rolls stand through
> their phase (so against multiple torpedo attacks) but no longer.
>
> A hit of e.g. 8 shifts beyond the stress track cannot be reduced by
> >* consequences... and suffers no Consequence damage. The attacker narrates the*
> >* Taken Out status, which can be ka-blooey or ready for boarding. If it is*>* frame damage, what does this mean? The crew and control systems are knocked*>* all akimbo and cannot feasibly get the ship to work, even though nothing is*>* essentially broken? I don't know how to interpret this.*
>
>
> As there are no consequences, the attacker may choose how to narrate his
> victory. He can choose to dictate that the enemy vessel is blown asunder,
> scattered as confetti, or that the crew has surrendered without taking any
> harm at all -- the excellent roll represents a fire control solution so good
> and so obvious that no sane man would keep fighting. Or anything in between.
>
> If you're uncomfortable with handing that story to the players to describe
> (and many are, and there's nothing wrong with that -- just a matter of
> taste) then I would insist on either complete destruction or three
> consequences and a dead/surrendered crew.
>
> --
> Brad Murray (halfjack)
> VSCA Publishing
>
>
>
>
>
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