My second draft of my Science Fantasy Hack is now up!
Everyone's feedback from the last draft has been a big help and made a gigantic impact on how this version shaped up. Again the PDF is only 6 pages long. I plan on keeping it to that size and have everything in those 6 pages be super high quality. I'd love to hear more feedback: What do you love? What do you hate? What is confusing?
Everyone's feedback from the last draft has been a big help and made a gigantic impact on how this version shaped up. Again the PDF is only 6 pages long. I plan on keeping it to that size and have everything in those 6 pages be super high quality. I'd love to hear more feedback: What do you love? What do you hate? What is confusing?
- 29w
- Nice revision. The hack continues to improve.
The new encounter tables are much better. Here are my concerns:
Armor: Without shields the max armor is 8, and starting armor is 7 making Maze Rats even squishier. I would either add medium armor at +2 and bump heavy up to +3 or add force fields that give +1.
Starships:
Are there no basic starship weapons? All I see are laser/projectile at +3 damage and the harpoon cannon.
Starship armor is 10 and hull points are 12. Won't this make starship combat take forever? Without bonuses only 1 in 12 shots will hit. Even if all weapons are laser/projectile at +3 damage it will take an average of 36 shots to take out a ship. I assume characters can add their to hit bonuses which will speed it up a bit but it seems at odds with the Maze Rats ethos of quick, decisive combat.
And that's about it, so again good job.29w - +Kat Bailey Thank you! A lot of the improvement is thanks to your suggestions in the last thread!
I have been thinking about the personal armor situation. One of my goals with this hack was to not dramatically alter the rules of Maze Rats. By removing shields though I see it has dramatically changed it after all. Adding a medium armor had not occurred to me. I've been debating either reversing my decision again and upping all armor by 1, adding force fields like you said (if I do that, that brings up the question of should I add a starship shield upgrade as well?), or perhaps the simplest solution of just adding shields like Maze Rats has and calling them "plasma shields," my only hold up is I just don't know if that "feels" right.
Yes, laser/projectile and harpoon weapons is the extent of the weapons. Originally I had stuff like torpedoes, homing torpedoes, breaching torpedoes, nanomachines, etc. but found I was adding too many fiddly rules that just overly-complicated the lean, super-sleek game Ben had expertly made.
I gotta be honest here, I am ashamed to say, your analysis of the starships and how long a space battle would take has totally blindsided me. Since a destroyed ship spells danger for the whole party, not just one PC, I wanted to make the starships a bit tougher than individuals (relatively speaking), but 36 shots to take out a starship is just plain broken. I have not playtested space combat with my player group yet and it shows!
You are right, your attack bonus adds to your rolls to hit like in normal combat (I should make that clear in the text for the next draft). I originally liked ship's hull being 12 since it essentially gives ships 3 hits before being destroyed, which I figured would give a group a chance to escape if things turn south. I think I'll start to fix this by reducing armor first and then perhaps tweak hull if needed. Clearly, my group's next game night should have a lot of space combat in it, so we can get this straightened out.
Thank you again, you rock!29w - I've been thinking a lot about the armor situation. Removing shields has two huge effects, that of making everyone squishier, as +Kat Bailey mentioned, and making two-handed weapons much more valuable over one-handed weapons. It has taken me a while, but I've come around on the idea of adding shields back into the game working just like Maze Rats shields do but renamed as Plasma Shields (unless a better name comes around). I'm curious what others will think of this, does it fit with other folks view of science fantasy?
Still playing around with starship's armor levels and hull trying to figure out where the sweet spot is that fits with the Maze Rats quick and decisive combat.
I've also been thinking about an earlier suggestion I received to change the name of the hack to Star Rats. The more I think about the current logo I have been using, with Maze Rats prominently displayed with Science Fantasy Hack underneath, the more I think it may be stepping on +Ben Milton's branding and may confuse some people into thinking it's officially endorsed or something, which is not my intent.
Thinking about going against my original plan of 6 pages and increasing the PDF by one or two pages in order to add tables for treasure and a few other things.29w - After reading your reply I realized that I had not thought the armor situation all the way though as regards to two handed weapons. I believe you have come to the correct conclusion. "Plasma shield" seems just fine in terms of a name. A force field might be a good item for your proposed treasure tables as it gives an advantage in being able to use a two handed weapon and not sacrifice armor. It could introduce an element of lost tech to your setting which IMHO all good science fantasy settings should have.
I am in favor of you adding a couple of pages. Moar plz! I would like to see a background table and treasure tables would be most welcome. Look at the Wonderful Gadgets (also called Useful Tools depending on which version) table in Time Rats. Something like that would be great. If page count is a concern you could combine the space ship sheets and character sheets into 1 page.
Keep plugging away at spaceship combat. What I was getting at with the weapons thing was weapons with different damage as opposed to all being +3. Like light laser at basic damage, medium laser at +2 or whatever. Maybe not worth the additional complexity just food for thought while you are playing with numbers.
I am in favor of the name change. More evocative and a palindrome to boot.
Keep up the good work. I look forward to the next revision.29w - Any news on the next update? I like your work and I'm looking forward to seeing more about your campaign world.24w
- Thank you +Chris Morgan your comment made my day! I have been chugging along on it. I've added two pages to the game, I still plan to keep it minimalist, but have stepped out on a limb a bit to add some more detail to the world.
I have changed the name to Star Rats with Science Fantasy Hack as a subtitle. I've put shields back into the game, reskinned as plasma shields. I've added a Background table for beginning characters, fleshed out the Vehicle and Starship rules a bit more so they have a dedicated page, added random tables for Space Environment, Other Dimensions and Tablet Contents (a replacement for the Book table in Maze Rats). Right now I'm working on a new page of Treasures and Powerful Artifacts spitballing unique powerful devices that do some cool stuff.
I can't wait to share it once I get it to a point where it is presentable. In the meantime, I'll give you a sneak peek at a new item the Powered Exoskeleton, which my hope is that it will allow melee weapons to be a bit more usable (since right now there is no reason to choose a melee weapon over a ranged weapon) without being too overpowered.24w - Nice! I have a mental image of hugely oversized melee weapons, that are specifically made for mech use.24w
