[Sotff] Ship combat

[Brad Murray]

Well, the core team finally got a solid day's playtesting in on
Saturday. We concentrated on starship combat as that's the subsystem
that's still giving us the most grief. Here are some of the changes
that are likely to make it into the next release:

* Software stunts are going. They have a nice Traveller feel but they
are basically broken: overpowering your computer is just too powerful
and the complexity added is too high.
* A system of ship stunts will be created along similar lines to the
current character stunt framework. Number of stunts will probably be
based on tonnage.
* We're leaning towards changing the positioning roll from pilot skill
to M-drive rating. A stunt will be created (either character, ship, or
both) that allows rolling pilot skill instead of M-drive. Currently
high-M ships are just not represented as being all that maneuverable
because of the low variation in pilot skills and the tendency towards
zero of the fudge dice curve--getting enough shifts to use your
M-drive is nigh impossible.
* Some rules for crewing ships will be created for wargaming. These
rules will have somewhat different results than the ship examples
currently in our Book 2. Specifically they will lean towards higher
skill levels for some stations depending on ship purpose.
* The "boarding problem" is solved with a conceptual shift. No rules
need to change. We realised that it was possible to "take out" a ship
without causing lasting harm to it (you can fill a stress track
without forcing a consequence and then get a hit that cannot be
mitigated, forcing a take-out negotiation) and the result of that
might well be a boarding action. No special rules are needed to steal
starships. Hurray!

-- 
Brad Murray (halfjack)