Psi Wars: The Third Iteration - Technology

In the previous iterations, we started with a scratch concept, and then expanded the templates and rules with a helpful dose of GURPS Action.  Now, we'll take a look at technology.

Technology drives science fiction. Technology allows our characters to reach distant worlds, it shapes conflicts, and it provides the props and stage dressing that signals genre to our audience. Without the right technology, our game will just be a slightly overwrought reworking of GURPS Action.  With the wrong technology, we'll undermine the human-centric, whiz-bang space opera themes we've worked so hard to build. Our choice of technology will build our setting, it will shape our players' choices, and it will establish the themes of our game.

Let me make my usual disclaimer before I begin this iteration: we don't need to do this step. We've already seen in two playtests that the technology we've already selected works well enough.  I'm trying to refine and make my choices explicit, so I can improve my templates and my rulesets.  You'll notice throughout this process that I don't really diverge much from what I've stated in previous iterations so much as add greater clarity.  That said, what technology you allow and disallow and why really impacts a sci-fi campaign like this one.  Thus, fittingly, this iteration will go on for quite a while (I hope you like reading Ultra-Tech as much as I do)!

Iteration 2 Retrospective

As promised, at the end of every Iteration, I post a summary of the iteration for those who want to just dive in without my droning on about the whys and wherefores. And so, here it is:

• Psi Wars: Iteration 2

Looking Back

I expected Iteration 2 to be much better received than it is.  I'm not saying people disliked it, I just expected it to make a much bigger splash than iteration 1, and it didn't.  I suppose in retrospect that makes sense.  People tend to be excited when something new happens, because something is more than nothing, but each iteration is only an improvement on the idea.

Overall, my views are down, but not by very much.  I think this is to be expected as well: Everyone tunes in when a new blog starts, and then a portion of them tune out when they realize the current content is not for them.  For example, one of my largest posts in the past year has been my announcement that I would start a blog.  Since then, I've been pretty consistently at about 2400-2600 views "a month" (blogger keeps a running tally).

Word is getting out, though.  Someone dropped a link to the blog on reddit, and I've managed to get onto a sight called "Feedly."  Douglas Cole's GURPS Day is starting to funnel traffic my way: He's now neck-and-neck with Dungeon Fantastic for the amount of referral traffic I get. Incidentally, joining him for Melee Academy resulted in one of my more popular posts: Wu Wei.

Google+ remains a better option for me than Facebook, though I'm not sure why.  Most of my posts on facebook generate a small amount of traffic and get, perhaps, one like.  Google plus, however, inevitably results in a like or two, often more than five, and generally more traffic.  Given that facebook is supposedly more heavily trafficed, I find that odd.

Edit: Oh, I forgot my traditional break down.

The winner of the most liked character this time around was Dun Beltain.  He was also the most viewed.  The most liked template was the Space Knight, but it was also one of the least viewed.  The Spy was the most viewed.  The most liked post of this iteration was the first one: Adjusting the rules, of which I approve (I think it was the most innovative and broadly useful of the posts).  It was also the most viewed.  The second most viewed was the post on adjusting templates, which I also approve of.  When I spoke of expecting this to make a bigger splash than it did, I refer to those posts, and they certainly did make a splash... I was just surprised Iteration 1 seemed to generate more discussion and likes than Iteration 2.

Looking Forward

The next iteration is technology, because you can't run a sci-fi game without carefully defining your tech.  This is the heaviest iteration I've done yet, and it took me the entire month to put it together.  I originally had it set up for nearly 4 months of posts, but I took a gamble and condensed it down into several data dumps, so we're going to have a very busy two months!

• Next week is all your basic technological concerns, from FTL to infrastructure to gear.
• I'll discuss robots, how they fit into the setting, and how to make use of the robot templates in Ultra-Tech to rapidly prototype your own robot companions
• Then we get into ships.  And we go on and on about ships
• First we playtest the space combat system, find its flaws and its strengths.
• Then we rewrite the space combat system to better fit our vision
• Then I discuss how to use, and modify, the various ships given in the GURPS Spaceships series for campaign
• Then I discuss how the various choices I've made impact the game design and the templates, including introducing a few additional rules to cover more general technological concerns
• Then I'll rebuild the old templates (and introduce a few more!) and run one last playtest to see that it all works.

I hope you like Ultra-Tech as much as I do.

Psi Wars: the Second Iteration -- Playtest!

Galaxy Saga: Lance Wielder Regular by Ukutakumuki

At last, I let rubber meet the road, and we see how well "theory" holds up against the hard edges of "practice."  Same scenario as before: A simple fight between our three characters and some troopers, acknowledging the new designs and the rule-set we've added.  Again, we won't cover every possible situation.  Instead, we're doing this as a sort of "sanity check."  Do things hold up?  Do they work out like we expect?  What pops out?  What can we improve on?

Ken and Robin have a patreon

My dear and faithful readers, I haven't had the chance to get around to some of my favorite topics, like demonology or history or GURPS Cabal, but all of them have their roots in my misspent youth scrambling for whatever scraps of the Suppressed Transmission that I could get.  Kenneth Hite helped inspire many of my campaigns and I often quote him.

 At some point, I'll get around to my own Apprentice Consulting Occultist series. Lo and behold, on a great and joyous day, Kenneth Hite started a podcast with Robin Laws. Robin literally wrote the book on game-mastering and his excellence in tightly focused game design joins my pantheon of inspirations with Sirlin and Raph Koster's "A Theory of Fun" for how I work on and design my own games or campaigns.

 So, if you like my stuff, I recommend listening to them on Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff. And if you like their stuff, if I may finally get to the real point of this post, they've launched a patreon campaign. I've already bid my dollars in support of these giants of the RPG industry, and I encourage you to do the same. Thanks for your time, dear and faithful reader. I return you back to your regularly scheduled force sword duels.

Psi Wars: Troopers 2.0

Just as before, we need someone for our heroes to face, and just as before, we're going to use troopers.  However, this time, we have some additional trooper options available (Alright, we had recon before, but the Action 4: Specialists book gives us piles of potential mook options!), so we'll expand the trooper out to include simple recon, assault and heavies.

As a general rule, I've tried to follow the idea of BAD: Basic mooks are only BAD 2 (I figure guys who pick fight with random moisture farmers in a starport bar are probably BAD 0), so most of their skills are 12. Specialist troops are more elite, and thus BAD 14.  I've also removed the disadvantages from the standard mooks (you just kill them and don't worry about the details), and given a single interesting disadvantage to each specialist, so you can get an idea of how they might "fight" and how a clever player might exploit them.

Trooper Mooks

ST 10
DX 10
IQ 10
HT 10
Basic Speed 5.0
Dodge 7 Parry (Unarmed) 8

DR: 100 (Torso) 60 (Limbs), 32 (Skull) 24 (Face)

Blaster Carbine (12): 5d(5) burn sr, Acc 10, Range 500/1500, RoF 3 (17 shots), bulk 3, rcl 1
Carbine Butt (12): 1d cr, c
Punch (12): 1d-2 cr, C
Plasma Grenade (12): 6dx4 burn sur exp, 30 yards

Traits: Fit. IR Vision, Hearing Protection, Small Radio, Biomedical sensors, micro-climate control, filter mask, sealed.
Skills: Soldier-12, Pilot (Contragravity)-12

Class: Human

Elite Trooper Mooks

Assault Trooper

ST 11
DX 11
IQ 10
HT 11

Basic Speed 6.0 Basic Move 6
Dodge 7 Parry (Unarmed) 8
DR: 100 (Torso) 60 (Limbs), 32 (Skull) 24 (Face)

Blaster Carbine (14): 5d(5) burn sr, Acc 10, Range 500/1500, RoF 3 (17 shots), bulk 3, rcl 1
Assault Flamer (14): 5d burn, Jet, Range 50/150, RoF 1, Bulk -3, Rcl 1
Neurolash baton (14): 1d+1 cr or 1d-1 cr + HT-5(2) aff, Reach 1
Plasma Grenade (14): 6dx4 burn sur exp, 30 yards
Carbine Butt (14): 1d+1 cr, c
Punch (14): 1d-1 cr, C

Traits: Fit, Impulsive. IR Vision, Hearing Protection, Small Radio, Biomedical sensors, micro-climate control, filter mask, sealed.
Skills: Running-14, Soldier-12, Pilot (Contragravity)-12

Heavy Trooper

ST 14
DX 10
IQ 10
HT 10

Basic Speed 5.0
Dodge 7 Parry (Unarmed) 8
DR: 100 (Torso) 60 (Limbs), 32 (Skull) 24 (Face)

Blaster Carbine (12): 5d(5) burn sr, Acc 10, Range 500/1500, RoF 3 (17 shots), bulk 3, rcl 1
Heavy Plasma Gun (14): 3dx5(2) burn ex, Acc 8+3, RoF 3, Bulk -6, Rcl 2
Heavy Blaster (14): 8d(5), Acc 10+4, RoF 3, Bulk -6, Rcl 1
Plasma Grenade (14): 6dx4 burn sur exp, 30 yards
Punch (12): 1d cr, C
Carbine Butt (12): 1d+2 cr, c

Traits: Huge Weapons, Fit, Overconfidence (12 or less). IR Vision, Hearing Protection, Small Radio, Biomedical sensors, micro-climate control, filter mask, sealed.
Skills: Explosives-12, Soldier-12, Pilot (Contragravity)-12

Recon Trooper

ST 10
DX 12
IQ 10
HT 10

Perception 12
Basic Speed 5.0
Dodge 8 Parry (Unarmed) 8
DR:

Blaster Rifle (14): 6d(5) burn sr, Acc 10, Range 500/1500, RoF 3 (17 shots), bulk 3, rcl 1
w scope
Plasma Grenade (14): 6dx4 burn sur exp, 30 yards
Punch (12): 1d cr, C
Carbine Butt (12): 1d+2 cr, c
Vibroknife (12): 2d(3) cut

Traits: Fit, Bloodlust (12 or less). IR Vision, Hearing Protection, Small Radio, Biomedical sensors, micro-climate control, filter mask, sealed.
Skills: Stealth-12, Observation-12, Survival-12, Soldier-12, Pilot (Contragravity)-12

Psi Wars: Lady Leylana Grey 2.0

Let's see how Lady Grey fares with her upgrade

Lady Leylana Grey, Aristocratic Spy, 250 points

Drawn into Darkness by Tara Phillips

Attributes

ST 10 [0]
DX 14 [80]
IQ 14 [80]
HT 11 [10]

Secondary Characteristics

Dmg 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs; HP 10 [0]; Will 14 [0]; Per 15 [5]; FP 11 [0]; Basic Speed 6.0 [-5]; Basic Move 6 [0]

Advantages

Beautiful [12]

Combat Reflexes [15]

Craftiness +1 [5]

High Heeled Heroine [1]

Honest Face [1]

Impersonator +2 [10]

Luck [15]

Sartorial Integrity [1]

Title [1]

Wealth (Comfortable) [10] 

Disadvantages

Duty (Intelligence Agency, 9 or less, Extremely Hazarouds) [-10]
Jealousy [-10]
Overconfidence (12 or less) [-5]
Secret (Is a spy) [-20]
Sense of Duty (Team) [-5]

Skills

Acting IQ+4** [4]-18
Beam Weapons (Pistol) DX [1]-14
Body Language Per+1* [1]-16
Computer Operation IQ+1 [2]-15
Current Affairs (High Society) IQ+1 [2]-15
Current Affairs (Politics) IQ [1]-14
Holdout IQ+2* [4]-16
Intelligence Analysis (H) IQ+1 [8]-15
Judo DX-1 [2]-13
Karate DX-1 [2]-13
Lip-Reading Per-1 [1]-14
Observation (A) Per+1 [4]-16
Pickpocket (H) DX [4]-14
Pilot (Contragravity) DX [2]-14
Savoir-Faire (High Society) IQ+3* [2]-17
Search (A) Per+1 [4]-16
Sex-Appeal HT+5* [4]-16
Sleight of Hand DX-2 [1]-12
Stealth DX+3* [8]-17
Streetwise IQ+1* [1]-15
Vacc Suit DX-1 [1]-13

Gear

Formal Dress and fab shoes: $1500, 2 lbs
Blaster Pistol: 3d(5) Acc 5, 1.6 lbs, RoF 3, Bulk -2, rcl 1, $2200
Tiny wrist-mounted radio: 5 mile range, $50, 0.05 lbs

Notes

No Encumbrance

Dodge: 10, Parry (Judo) 10.

In a lot of ways, Leylana has changed the least.  We've managed to tag her, officially, as noble, but she's lost her Security Clearance: Clearly the intelligence agency sees her as an asset rather than agent, even if she disagrees.  Thus, she walks the line between a genuine spy and a politician.  A friend of mine looked at her and said "She's like Princess Leia meets James Bond," which was what I was going for.

She remains primarily a non-combat character, but she feels more effective at combat: Faster, a better shot, and vastly more stealthy.  For her spy-skills, I originally chose Impersonator over Craftiness because she felt like the sort of spy who get her intel straight from you, rather than going behind your back.  She's a master networker, and in her element in almost any social situation.

And, of course, I chose the aristocratic lens.

Psi Wars: Kendra Corleoni 2.0

Let's take a look at how our alien bounty hunter fares in the second iteration

Kendra Corleoni, Felinoid Bounty Hunter, Escaped Slave, 250 points

Attributes

ST 9 [0]
DX 14 [60]
IQ 13 [60]
HT 11 [20]

Secondary Characteristics

Dmg 1d-2/1d-1; BL 18 lbs; HP 10 [2]; Will 13 [0]; Per 14 [5]; FP 11 [0]; Basic Speed 6 [-5]; Basic Move 6 [0]

Advantages

Attractive [4]

Felinoid [35] (found on page B261)

Gunslinger [25]

High Pain Threshold [10]

Legal Enforcement powers [5]

Luck [15]

Penetrating Voice [1]

Disadvantages

Bad Temper (12 or less) [-5]

Greed (12 or less) [-15]

Intolerance (Slavers) [-5]

Obsession (Free her family from slavery) (12) [-5]

Secret (Former slave) [-5]

Sense of Duty (Team) [-5]

Social Stigma (Minority) [-10]

Skills

Acrobatics DX-1 [2]-13

Beam Weapons (Pistol) (E) DX+2 [4]-16

Brawling (E) DX+2 [4]-16

Climbing DX [2]-14

Computer Operation IQ [1]-13

Criminology (A) IQ+1 [4]-14

Dancing DX [2]-14

Esape DX [2]-14

Fast-Draw (Pistol) (E) DX+2* [2]-17

Intimidation Will [2]-13

Judo DX+1 [8]-15

Jumping DX+1 [2]-15

Law (Galactic) (H) IQ-1 [2]-12

Observation (A) Per+1 [4]-15

Pilot (Starship) DX+1 [4]-15

Running HT [2]-11

Savoir-Faire (Mafia) IQ [1]-13

Shadowing (A) IQ+1 [4]-14

Stealth DX+1 [4]-15

Streetwise (A) IQ+1 [4]-14

Throwing DX [2]-14

Vacc Suit DX-1 [1]-13

Gear

Tiny wrist-mounted radio: 5 mile range, $50, 0.05 lbs
One Heavy Blaster Pistol: 4d(5) burn sur, Acc 5, RoF 3, Bulk -3, Rcl 1, (3.3 lbs, $6,000)
Bioplas body suit and a stylish jacket:  DR 15/5 (5 lbs, $1800)
3 plasma smart grenades (3 lbs)

Notes

No Encumbrance

Dodge: 10, Parry (Brawl) 12.

This Kendra has far more options and is more cleanly designed than the last one.  She relies on her agility and her grace to get her through combat more than her armor, as her last incarnation did.  I've also given up, for now, on the idea of a dual-wielder.  She remains a gunslinger and because her Felinoid package cost so much, I was forced to buy down her ST to allow her to pick it up, making her certainly the weakest member of the party.  I also gave her penetrating voice because I wanted this kitty to have a roar.

I chose to follow up on that obsession by giving her a past as a slave.  I chose to go with an angry, resentful route: this is the reason she bounty hunts, to take down slavers and, perhaps, to get enough money to buy her family back.  This version is more "tough-and-angry" than the last one, who was tough-but-honorable.  And, to make her even more tragic, I've given her "Minority."  Apparently, in Psi-Wars, nobody likes furries :(