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Cake day: January 3rd, 2025

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  • I was looking into the skill list of Bulldogs, one of my favorite sci-fi Fate creations. Things I like about the changes they made:

    • no Lore, not setting appropriate.
    • no Notice: players will use any skill related to what’s being noticed. A good burglar is better at detecting plain clothes cops and break in weaknesses, for instance.
    • Academics is broken down into setting appropriate skills (they used science, and systems).
    • replaced Resources by Haggle, with a simpler mechanic. You may want to ditch this entirely since buying and selling doesn’t mesh that well with T2.
    • no Investigate: it’s an action RPG, Science can be used for general deductive reasoning, otherwise another specific applicable skill (i.e. Systems to investigate a hack, Larceny to investigate how the safe was broken into, etc.)

    Notes:

    • if you fragment skills, you make it harder for someone to progress along that field (needs more advancements to raise it all), which may be what you want.
    • The opposite for coalescing skills.
    • A skill list smaller than 18 will make your characters stronger, bigger than 20, weaker (they start with 10 trained skills out of 19 existing on the default list).
    • keep in mind characters have only 6 starting skills at +2 or above.


  • There is something to be said about non combat focused accessories. Water reclamation & filtration system. Air purification, I can see a vacuum rated suit that has the air storage and CO2 scrubbing as an installable module to reduce weight in breathable atmosphere missions. Jetpacks. Battery pack, with standard connectors so not only it powers the suit for an extended time, it can also power your energy weapons and tools. A grappling hook/winch.

    And, not an accessory, but hook points all around the suit to haul crap around in satchels and the like. Logistics is paramount for war.










  • I got sidetracked for a while, but here are some answers from that chat:

    Ideally you just swap planets. Whatever you have set up for them on planet one is now surprise on planet two.

    [in response to the above] This is the default solution for story focused games. The story continues to the next act, the players dictate how.

    “I hadn’t thought of that! I don’t have anything prepared. Why don’t we just pause things here for now and chat. I’ll have it ready next time.”

    I guess the question is how far off the path? Jump 1 away or Jump 6? GM completely unprepared? Or not as prepared as you’d like? As a Traveller GM I’ve got

    • The notes for every planet and system within range of the PCs ship x2. I.e. for J2 every system within 4 parsecs.
    • A list of 100+ random NPC names
    • A couple sentences about each system
    • Same for the two to five largest factions in my setting

    So if the PCs wander I’ve usually got enough material for one night’s worth of material

    An easy delay is simply to go into more detail. For example, have them go through the steps of Customs at the new starport, or notice something interesting about another ship, etc. It adds texture to the game, is interesting, and gives you the extra time to prep.

    For my group (not sure if it will work for every group) i just leveraged their completionist mindsets. I told them “here are 15 jobs” and the first thing they did was plot an exact course to hit all of them, so they prevented themselves from wandering.

    The last one is my favorite of this bunch, because as a player I’d fall for that hook, line, and sinker.

    Thank you everyone for participating!