Building Our Ship

[Crimson_red]

lol, When creating names and such, I always forget to consider just what exactly it could be confused with.

I was go more for an 'err-awn-nis' sound...

Reminds me of the time I gave a character the surname, Phallan... I was thinking 'fallen' or 'fell'...the next person to read it, not so much ...

Normally they're not so dirty sounding/looking mistakes. . . luckily

[Downstrike]

just gave me GWAR flashbacks. Been singing Techno-Destructo, Techno-Destructo, Techno-Destructo.....

[vanir]

Sorry if I'm lagging too much to weigh in on vehicle specialisations

With military pilot training you qualify for type and specific aircraft (eg. single, twin, jet, then type of jet in a progression), without ever having flown that type of jet.
You need to be qualified to operate it before they'll let you transfer to a trainer version, from then on you're adding hours of flight in it although several will be in a trainer version if available first, as second seat.

Many jet fighters don't have an operational trainer version though, like the F-22 Raptor. You use a conversion trainer, which is a training jet set up to resemble the aircraft you will fly. And simulators, you have to do a lot of sim time.

So it goes like this, learn theory, do basic sims, fly single piston jobs, qualify for twins, transfer to jets then fly a trainer like an L39 or Alphajet or whatever, do more sims and qualify for the input and control systems on a Mirage 2000-5 say. Then you might just go straight from the seat of an Alphajet to a single seat 2000-5. You might've started your whole career intending to move to the Mirage, you might be specialised in that plane, with no seat time in one.


In fact all aircraft pilots are technically specialised only for the type of plane they're qualified to fly, especially with high performance military planes.

There's only rare unique cross overs. You can use an F5E to qualify on a MiG-21 did you know that? Handling/performance under 20000ft is pretty much identical, main reason it became the aggressor type in the 70s.
You can also setup a viper control system to respond like a Fulcrum, and the Eagle can work a lot like a Flanker, so those are their respective aggressor/dissimilar trainers today for NATO pilots (using actual MiGs is very expensive since you don't make spare parts for them the Russians do).

But by and large, qualifying for a jet type only qualifies you for that jet type. Specialisation is the name of the game, it's kinda by default.

[Crimson_red]

[Kaloth Varsk]

[Fallon Kell]

[garhkal]

[Crimson_red]

Well the first part of the adventure is complete... boy was it hard fitting time in between house hunting, wedding planning, and final exams (not to mention Skyrim absorbing more than a little free time... ). It went relatively smoothly all considering having one green player, and me along with other having not had a chance to play D6 in almost two years.

The sisters, Ina and Ellee, started off coyly, unsure if they could convince Uncle to let them have the derelict YT-1760. After some dithering and planning to keep it a secret, they final approached him, realizing they need his equipment to pull the half submerged ship out of the mud and to find an adequate work space. With the recent disappearance of their parents Uncle thought this would be a good distraction for them and he agreed to let them have the derelict as long as he had final approval before they were going to try and take off with it.

Securing a work space was a little more difficult; the girls toyed with the idea of just building a sheet metal lean-to or hollowing out a larger space hulk to get the ship out of the elements, but they were able to convince Uncle to use one of his smaller work bays. In exchange the two would be logging a goodly amount of unpaid labor in the scrap yard each week. They also agreed to make deliveries for Uncle at a reduced rate, allowing them to make at least a little bit of credits to put towards repairing their ship. [The primary task. They were able to excel at it, since they started bargaining by offering surprisingly advantageous terms to Uncle, thus reducing the difficulty. They may have more difficulty with other tasks as they will have less money to put towards their ship as the story moves on]

Over the following months, the sisters would begin sorting through the scrap yard looking for necessary and helpful parts. They met early success when the found, among other things, some Subpro DT2 Distributor & Phasing Linkages for the power system, unfortunately they were unable to scrounge a complete set of the high performance and expensive links and had to install a more common set. [The first optional task they started, and would become the first they failed at. If I had allowed their rolls to apply to the greatest difficulties first instead of having them meet them in ascending order they may have succeeded]

While searching through the yard the two had a very harrowing encounter with a scrats nest; seeing what she thought was a lone scrat, Ina took a shot at it to rid the yard of one of the pests unintentionally revealing a nest way to close for comfort. Having spotted a Roche Bi-linear Catalyzer in the nest at risk of being devoured by the creatures, the sisters decide to fight it out, despite the great risks of attacking a scrat nest unprepared. Both sisters find it is a bitter and dangerous fight that took all they had. In the end they successfully slew the scrat Alphas (a mated pair) causing the last members of the nest to flee in confusion. They grabbed their prize and headed back to the homestead to receive some sorely needed medical attention. Seeing the two so battered, and close to having been killed, all over an optional part, gave Uncle his first misgivings about letting the girls have their ship, but scrat were a common hazard and the girls did mostly have the sense to avoid a nest, so he tended their injuries, gave them a stern rebuke for their foolishness, and made sure they didn't stray too far over the next few weeks while recuperating. [A very rough and dangerous fight, they used all their CP and a force point each to survive; Ina Wounded and Ellee Wounded Twice. When making a worksheet for this fight I had made reduced stats for the scrat to compensate for their increased numbers, but deleted those when formatting the sheet, using the more dangerous stats. The fight was a lot more dangerous than I intended, but it was an exciting encounter for everyone and they did scrape through alive if a little more cautious.]

While on their search for parts, they followed a rumor that someone had seen a working CEC FLJ-22 Particle Shield generator in a half crushed YV-545, a much more efficient model than could be found in their 1760. They found the generator, but it was wedged in tight with an old Gallofree hulk resting on top of part of the smaller ships hull. With a combination of wits, physical strength (and a droid companion called Scraps), and Uncle's prized power jack they were able to get the generator out (and pull off some pieces of engine housing and outer hull plating to boot). Retrieving the power jack proved somewhat harrowing when hull began to crumple, forcing them to hightail it to the exit Indiana Jones style before being crushed. Uncle is never to hear about that last part, they agreed, and threatened Scraps. [This one went relatively easy, they made all their rolls to spot the weakness of the hull and to prop it up, so I added the complication of the power jack to end the game on a exciting high note, seems to have worked.]

[Raven Redstar]

Sounds like a good start to a game. Another advantage to having your players work so hard to build their ship is that you are building an attachment to it. Kind of like Mal with Serenity. I foresee a great deal of adventures just keeping the old girl running. Well done!
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RR
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[ZzaphodD]

Given all the 'name dropping' regarding spaceship parts in the thread I have to ask.

Anyone having a good list of such parts that one can use instead of just saying 'you need eeeh, these replacement parts'?
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My Biggest Beard Retard award goes to: The Admiral of course..

[Crimson_red]

[garhkal]

[Crimson_red]

[garhkal]

Glad my write up of the Skrats worked well.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Crimson_red]

Some scheduling delays have prevented my group from getting together for a while now, with those (hopefully) clearing up, I'm brushing up on my material in anticipation of the next session. While doing that I figure I see if I can't get any last minute help. I've two questions:

First, I've been debating whether I should do the 'Wastes' act next or the 'Town.' Originally I planned to do the wastes first, but I can't deny that it is, by far, the most dangerous act, between the swoop races and dealing with the swoop gang, who wont hesitate to use lethal force. Admittedly, the characters wont be advancing any skills between acts, but they do earn CPs and potentially FPs. The town act is a lot more tame, but has another problem, funding. It offers few opportunities to make money or acquire means of trade so they can better negotiate - something they will be doing a lot of in town. Which brings me to the second question.

I'm still looking for ways the PCs to gain leverage in negotiations (like winning swoop races or finding a crashed salvaged ship). I think they could benefit from a few more options, particularly while in town.

So, any suggestions? Would you run the wastes or the town act first? and and new ideas for potential funding/trading opportunities? The players may likely make their own, as they are often want to do, but having a few extra up my sleeve can't hurt.

I included the summaries of the two acts in questions below, if that helps: