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Astro Force Quest - Be the Redshirt (New Frontiers)

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Okay, here goes.

First up, rewriting your character sheet. Go check that first page; you'll notice you have a shitload more skills now. Skills are more important than ever: You only get dice at all if you have related Skills, but to soften that blow, you have a LOT of skills.

When you make plans, tell me what skills you want to use in that plan! There's no better way to sell a plan to the group than to say "if we do it this way, we get more dice!" Don't worry about something "being a stretch", that's the whole point!

Especially because you'll need those dice. The default Success target is now 6+! You'll want to spend resources on anything important now, and build them up hard.

Oh, I'll need everyone to check the Ethics sheet, as there's one additional question now. I just need to know...
- [ ] Philosophical
- [ ] Material

Remember, neither of these are wrong, it's up to interpretation.

I'll answer more questions as they come up. Once we have the ethics question answers, quest is back on.
 
[X] Material
[X] Scout-Detective

While Tai and Nessus scan through the files, making notes, you all take turns at the disguise station, which rapidly paints your skin and dyes your hair with the local yellows and whites. A spray nozzle even covers the deep red of your jacket and your black pants with a yellow film to blend in better, jagged lines of colour matching the patterns of the long grass and scrub. Only your white boots are left pristine.

You load your pockets down with telemat beacons, clip the spare ACER to your belt, and make sure your laser goggles are on tight. Your translator hookup is flush with your neck and ear under a latex patch, rendering it almost invisible. You even find a bag made of native material for your scanner's processor. Tai likewise gets dolled up, in between reading the records, but unfortunately there is little of immediate use. The records are sprawling, and mostly anthropological; you get very little you can use.

Your Camo gives you 1 Advantage. You gain no Understanding.
​
Ensign Kalmai skips the makeup station, though. As the rest of you are getting prepared, you see why; her leaflike skin is already shifting to a more yellow palette, the flowers in her hair losing their colour. By the time you step into the telemat tube, her colouration matches the local fauna to an impressive degree, and she's already removed her excursion jacket.

As Security, its your job to go through the telemat first. You step inside, and the glass seals with a hiss, followed by an unpleasant static sensation as the engine spools up. The machines don't make you nervous, not really; you know the principles of their operation, and you don't really truck with the people who get all existential about them. They just convince an area of space to switch quantum signatures with the area inside the tube; as far as most scientists are concerned, it even preserves continuity of consciousness. One planck unit, you're here, the next, you're wherever else. The electric sensation builds to an uncomfortable level, pinpricks on your skin, you brace your knees, there's an electric whine...

And suddenly, you're on the surface.

Well, not quite. You fall a good two feet first; a good telemat operator like Fassbender always makes sure to leave some wiggle room. You won't actually fuse with whatever you teleport into, but it uses up more energy that strictly necessary to haul a cylindrical cross-section of dirt up a gravity well. That's why you brace!

You breathe out air from the areostat, and in a fresh breathe from the surface of an alien world. It's strangely sweet, clean, a welcome change from the recycled air of a spacecraft (or the perfume hell of your quarters). You seem to have arrived atop a gently rolling hill, overlooking a picturesque vista of yellows and purples. The wind plays against long grass, bringing strange sounds and scents. Beige flowers bloom under your feet.

Here you are, an alien world.

You give the all clear, and there's a crackling and *pop* of pressure differential as Tai and Kalmai arrive, dusting themselves off. Kalmai immediately crouches low, taking samples of the local plant life and running them between her fingers. As you watch, the flowers in her hair start twisting and curling to resemble the local fauna, her skin growing rougher to take on the texture of grass here. Tai unclips her pistol, muttering to herself.

To the west, you can see the campfires of the village.

What do you do?
 
[q] Equip your cardboard box and scout the village.

Oh wait wrong game.

[x] Get a lay of the land. Then see if there is any elevated or concealed (both would be nice) areas which you can observe the village from.
 
[x] Get a lay of the land. Then see if there is any elevated or concealed (both would be nice) areas which you can observe the village from.

Let's count your Mastery in Physical & Martial Training for 2 dice on this, +1 for Kalmai's Survival skill. So roll me 3d6.
 
(I've never actually done that before and I deleted a post before that one where I definitely did something wrong. Did I mess that up at all?)
 
You immediately set off for higher ground; somewhere to observe the alien village. You wisely cut through lower ground on the approach to the hill, and scramble up.

Unfortunately, as you crest the top of the hill, you learn two things. The first is that the village is still out of sight, recessed in a small dip in the ground behind low trees.

The second is that you aren't the only one to have thought of using the high ground, because cresting the hill at the same time are a small band of what look like native hunters. About six in total, shirtless, armed with light, long javelins and with what look like bolos strung around their waists. They yelp in shock, distorted through your translator. They're less than 15 meters away.

What do you do?

When you don't get any successes, I get to do Bad Things. In this case, put you face to face with the natives before you're ready!

This is why crafting your plans to your skills is very important. It's more important than coming up with an objectively sound plan. This is Trek; it's more important to be in-character than to be right.​
 
So aplan that includes our Friendly and Xenology 101 and Simple Negotiation mastery. Preferably our Reckless trait as well. Though that should come to only four or five dice and roughly 52% or 60% probability of at least one success.
 
[x] Greet the Hunters (Defiant [Prime Directive], Reckless)
-[x] Try to build a rapport w/ them. (Friendly, Xenology 101)
--[x] Propose a test of endurance/skill. (Simple Negotiation, Physical & Martial Training, Nonstandard Weapons Training, Endurance Training, Tough)
-[x] After attempting to build a rapport, discretely see if you can get any information about the village and/or [rumors of] the observation team. (Simple Negotiation)

So, depending on whether or not duplicates count for a plan of action, we have 10 skills or 9. (Or possibly that the QM will apply them to the specific sub-actions.)
 
open_sketchbook said:
When you don't get any successes, I get to do Bad Things. In this case, put you face to face with the natives before you're ready!

This is why crafting your plans to your skills is very important. It's more important than coming up with an objectively sound plan. This is Trek; it's more important to be in-character than to be right.​
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hm... so would have just going straight to village have gotten a better dice rolls. (I totally hadn't forgotten how the rules worked not at all.)
 
Shark8 said:
[x] Greet the Hunters (Defiant [Prime Directive], Reckless)
-[x] Try to build a rapport w/ them. (Friendly, Xenology 101)
--[x] Propose a test of endurance/skill. (Simple Negotiation, Physical & Martial Training, Nonstandard Weapons Training, Endurance Training, Tough)
-[x] After attempting to build a rapport, discretely see if you can get any information about the village and/or [rumors of] the observation team. (Simple Negotiation)

So, depending on whether or not duplicates count for a plan of action, we have 10 skills or 9. (Or possibly that the QM will apply them to the specific sub-actions.)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

...It's kind of been established that these guys aren't exactly friendly.
 
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HOLY SHIT RESURRECTION

I just did a rewrite of this system for Metatopia, and I'm currently updating character creation and skill systems to match. It's a pretty big and substantial update that overhauls a lot of things, and I think you'll really like it. And I missed this quest, so it's coming back!

I'll be updating your sheet in a moment, then we'll get back where we left off.

(I'm also updating all the threadmarks. God why didn't I do this before.)
 
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Okay, lemme tell you about the new system and we'll get going.

The new system runs on a more traditional skill system; you roll relevant skills against a target determined by the difficulty. So it'd work like... you want to shoot somebody, you roll as many d6s as your Acer Marksmanship skill, against a difficulty the GM picks. So say your in a firefight and you take a bead on somebody behind cover, I as for 5+ rolls. How many successes you get determines how thing go.

The old Moves still exist, though; this is just a change to the dice system. The system for getting bonuses on your roll results by spending resources is also still in place.

Your Tricks are basically bonuses you can add to a roll if they are relevant, the way the old Skills work. So if you were in microgravity for the shootout, you could add another dice for Zero-G Training.

Finally, the ethics system got a bit of an overhaul, and its important for experience points. Basically, when you say the magic words "My ethics demand..." in your vote, and you point to one of your ethics to guide your actions, if you do it, you get an experience point. Play to your ethics!

Your character sheet has been updated, so roll me Mediate (2d6) looking for 4+!
 
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