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More precisely, the problem is that most ship related skills are merely pass/fail maintenance of the ship that only involve dice-rolling when abstracted but offer no interesting decisions to the player. Even getting past the question of in a cooperative game is the dominate personality allowing...

It's got about 5 good episodes - the first 3 of the first season and the last 2 of the second season. It's got maybe three other episodes that are watchable. Beyond that, it might as well be Book of Boba Fett or Obi Wan Kenobi. It would perhaps capture the idea I'm going for here to say it...

The general rule in the game is that ships normally jump one planetary diameter away from the planet in order to minimize the turbulence that hyperspace experiences in the presence of real space gravity. Systems with complex moon or ring systems often have correspondingly more hyperspace...

This is a problem in my experience with every single Sci Fi RPG in one way or the other. The solution in my opinion actually draws inspiration from Delany's "Babel 17" of all places where he has each ship crew position actually have an off-ship skills that correlates to ship skill at a...

This does create weirdness though. Typical Star Wars space travel involves a ship leaving the planet's surface and getting a few thousand miles away from the planet to reduce the mass shadow of the planet while calculating a jump to hyperspace. Normally this takes 3-30 minutes depending on...

Facetiously, I need them to publish things that I would like rather than things that would sell for a profit. More seriously, I need RPG publishers to actually put in some hard work rather than doing all the easy stuff and then leaving me to do all the hard work. So many publishers out there...

I will say that working up how everyone knows each other works best for less mature players but I by no means agree that intraparty RP or banter is in any way wasted. In fact, as a GM, sitting back and watching good well done intraparty RP is one of my favorite things. The transcript of play...

It is desirable to establish connections between characters, but you can come up with scenarios that don't require that. Disasters are a big one. Another is to have them all be friends and acquaintances of some NPC who knows them even if they don't yet know each other that well, and have that...

Always start a campaign with a BANG!!! My favorite way to start a campaign is with a massive disaster. Start it with something absolutely nuts. Then once you've got everyone to buy the hook, you can slow down and explore characters and setting. My last D&D campaign began with a...

I read her discussion and found it interesting how she was open about how much of a fantasy heartbreaker this was (which I define as taking rules inspiration from multiple other sources and putting them together to suit your own mechanical preferences). But she was also very open I think about...

My first RPG was Basic/Expert D&D in the red and light blue boxes. I GMed for about a year at age 9 before graduating to AD&D after an introduction by a friend's older cousin home from college. I continued that until I was 16, but with time for Gamma World, Chill, Star Wars, and one shots in...

Homebrew Star Wars rules: Astrogation Calculation time using Precomputed Cached Coordinates: 1 minute Calculation time using Nav Computer to Charted Destination: 30 minutes Calculation time not using Nav Computer OR not to Charted Destination: 24 hours Calculation time not using Nav Computer...

The same way a Hulking Hurler is capable of throwing a hapless victim to the moon I'd imagine - by abusing and staking multiplying effects that were published in multiple official sources without editorial oversight because moving fast wasn't considered an abusable effect. Go look around the...

I think the rules show why the conceit of the story doesn't work so well in a magical setting, as well as the sheer size of the earth no longer boggles the mind of the average modern person so the original story doesn't work so well for the modern reader. As an obvious loophole, I could summon...

Yes. If the "inputs" of the rules include things that exist outside of the fiction, that is they are in the meta about the fiction but not in the simulated reality, then that rule doesn't simulate something. "Rule of Cool" is an example of a rule that almost certainly isn't simulating...

Good for you, but I am saying based on stories that I've heard that DMs do play "Gotcha! Muahahahahaha!" and do not inform players in advance. No, I don't think this player was fully informed in advance. In general, not knowing everything about the outcome as a player is to be expected. The...

As fantasy heartbreakers go, it's pretty well done - at least at the level of reading. It is a hodge podge of ideas stolen from other game systems ("Blades in the Dark" looms large as it seems to over almost all recent game designs) and it is interesting reading a fantasy heartbreaker that...

No. They just mean that they'd prefer you not fill up the thread with an argument about how simulation is a dysfunctional play style and Real Gamers don't play that way.

I'm aware of the history here. Among a dozen or more other books I've read Peterson's "Playing at the World", Fine's "Shared Fantasy" and Dunnigan's "The Complete Wargames Handbook". We can assume we are both very familiar with the history of games and the development of roleplaying games in...

I strongly suspect that sensors and fire control are the dominant factor in space warfare. Can you see them before they see you? Can you calculate a firing solution? Can you predict how they will try to evade? If you are doing the Yamato vs. Iowa comparison and you are focusing on shell...