Space Pirates. Oh Yeah.

[Gizmo]

It came up in chat that Jack of all Blades has some tendencies which are not un-pirate-like. A nautical, swashbuckling adventure seemed inevitable. Also: awesome. But then I remembered! Everything is Better IN SPACE! It's not just true, it's science.

With that in mind, the scintillating swordsman is looking to save some alien princesses and fight some evil emperors! The idea is for a thread in the vein of The Starjammers or Flash Gordon, presumably featuring Captain Kraken. Jack needs a few hearty rogues to serve as a crew ready to sail the solar winds to high adventure, so if you're cosmic and/or swashbuckling by nature, it's time to get your space legs!

If a ref is willing to give me a hand with this too, that'd be excellent. I suspect more than a couple of rules questions will come up over the course of things.

[Heritage]

Grim is so there it's not even funny.

[Geez3r]

"We're gonna need a bigger boat." Jester's totally signing up for this. If, for no other reason, than so I can describe his ability to walk in space as wearing a fish bowl on his head.

[Skysong]

Like I said in chat, definitely count me in. This will be good.

[Ecalsneerg]

If you need a fifth person, someone to compete with Jack in taunting, and a space-worthy craft, call Geckoman?

[Gizmo]

It's pretty much ridiculous that Jack and Gecks haven't met up yet, so absolutely. I think five people should be a good, round number; I'm thinking there will be an NPC to provide exposition and a ship. I'll start nailing down some things now that I know there's interest.

Heritage, you mentioned in chat that you were thinking about swapping out Grim for Gossamer - come to a decision?

[Dr Archeville]

I'm thinking there will be an NPC to provide exposition and a ship.

JoAB and Grim (or Gossamer) learn of Doc's experimental FTL ship, and talk him into letting them take it for a spin?

[Ecalsneerg]

I decided to swap Geckoman for Hawky. He's not as jokey, but still snark aplenty :D

[Gizmo]

I think I'm going to go for an Abin Sur Special on this one, with shades of R2-D2's recorded message, Doc, but I'll keep it in mind.

So, post-chat it looks like we're looking at:

• Jack of all Blades
  Gossamer
  Jester
  Physicus
  Arrowhawk

Geez, how determined are you to have Jester in this? I only ask because I can see his whimsical insanity clashing a bit with the genre conventions we're going for here. I'm not heavily opposed to him or anything, but it seemed worth bringing up. If Atlas was interested, we could always use a Ch'od stand-in. (Hmm, Jack as Corsair, Gossamer as Hepzibah, Arrowhawk as Raza Longknife, Physicus as... Lilandra?)

There's some time to think about it, since I have to work up the NPCs and refine the plot a bit first. I'll let you guys know when things are ready to get rolling.

[Skysong]

... Gee, thanks, Giz.

On another note, I just remembered that I have a Millennium Falcon-style junker spaceship sitting in orbit, if we need it.

[Gizmo]

What, they're both royalty! It works!

Anyway, a ship will be provided (I'm not sure whether or not Physicus's ship would need to be properly paid for with Equipment or Device to be used in-story). I've been working up an NPC pilot, and some quick-and-easy starship combat rules. How does this strike you guys:

• Pilot check DC 25 to use the pilot's Defense for the ship for one turn.
  Ranged attack to use the ship's weapons.
  Computers check DC 20 to Aid an attack or confer an equal bonus to the ships shields (read: Toughness) for one turn.
  Bluff, Intimidate or Knowledge (tactics) check opposed by the enemy captain to Aid an attack or confer an equal bonus to the ship's Defense for one turn.
  Craft (mechanical) jury-rigging check DC 20 to remove 'Bruised' conditions from the ship.

I think that should give everybody something meaningful to do, and simulate a classic 'bridge crew' situation.

[Geez3r]

If Jester clashes too much, I'll swap out Atlas, no problem.

[Gizmo]

It just strikes me that Jester turns a regular superhero thread into something hilarious, but if the story's already got a specific spin on it... Well, I'd go with Atlas, anyway. I might by biased 'cause I think Atlas is freakin' awesome, but there you go.

Speaking of which, what's the current deal with Atlas's 'Grue-ness'? Is it something he knows about, or something that's apparent to people familiar with the Grue, or is it still under wraps?

[Geez3r]

He only started exhibiting the shape-shifting powers recently, and currently has no mental powers. So, on the list of theories of where the heck Atlas got his powers, Grue jumped up a few notches, but no one is sure of it, or even all that suspicious. Grim's the only one that knows he can shapeshift and she may be a little mum on the subject for alternative reasons. The one stumbling block is of course the fact that Samael Nitorvich was born a human.

But those that are more space adept would pick out the similarities quicker.

[Skysong]

Yeah, it would probably have to be paid for unless we go on the "plot device only" approach; I'm fine with having it blown up at the end if we use it, as I have no long-term plans for it. No plans at all, actually.

I like the combat rules. They remind me of the ones in the Saga Edition of the Star Wars RPG, which worked well for me.

[Ecalsneerg]

What, they're both royalty! It works!

Anyway, a ship will be provided (I'm not sure whether or not Physicus's ship would need to be properly paid for with Equipment or Device to be used in-story). I've been working up an NPC pilot, and some quick-and-easy starship combat rules. How does this strike you guys:

Pilot check DC 25 to use the pilot's Defense for the ship for one turn.

Actually, MaMa takes a different tact. Essentially, the pilot uses his standard action, and makes a pilot check modified by the ship's size modifier.

[Gizmo]

Alright, cool, Geez. Let me know if you want to use this as an opportunity to reveal anything in that vein, or not. For the time being, I'll assume nobody makes the connection immediately.

'Size modifiers', Ecal? Pshaw! That sounds way too much like more numbers to me! But, for the sake of argument, where are you finding those rules? The write-up for Pilot in the core rulebook is basically, "Harder maneuvers have a higher DC! Durr."

Oh Saga Edition, voiding all my source books. Grr, argh. Grr, argh indeed. The original version of WotC's Star Wars RPG was where I cut my teeth stating characters from scratch and learning the ins and outs of the d20 system. Admittedly, the starship combat rules there were sort of a pain; it's not hard to imagine the Saga Edition improving on them.

The pilot is stated out, just need to fill in some fluff for her, then work up a few bad guys to have ready. Anybody have a link to an example of running a fight with minions? I get the idea, but I'd feel better if I had something to base it on.

[angrydurf]

We dealt with a buncha minions in the first YF thread here

[Gizmo]

So, I've spent some time looking around at a few different starship/vehicle combat rules, and I'm not exactly in love with any of them. But since Ecal's worried I'll hurt Ben Grimm's feelings or something, I'm going to crib a bit more from the Saga Edition rules, and say that the pilot can make a DC 20 check as a standard action to basically use Defensive Attack, giving the ship +5 to Defense and imposing -5 to Attack on all the gunners. Flying the ship in general takes a move action each turn. I'd get fancier than that, but like I said, it kinda seems like a waste when then one doing the piloting in an NPC, and it's only gotta work this one time anyway.

Beyond that, I guess I'll say that you can Aid with a DC 10 Computers or Knowledge (tactics) check, since, doy, that's the DC for Aiding. Opposed Bluff or Intimidate checks will allow for the usual slew of Feinting, Demoralizing and so on; it's space pirates, so that sort of thing should be prominent, I think, and I'll make sure the opposing captains are suitably prepared for such.

Okay, so, they're quick and dirty but I think those should serve our purposes pretty well. Most of the combat will be up close and personal anyway.

[Gizmo]

IN SPAAAAACE! IC

IN SPAAAAACE! OOC