Federation vs. Klingon Playtest

[mwaschak]

Just to keep you guys updated, we are currently busy going over the rules so that editing can commence. Book size is currently at 165 pages.

Right. Thank you for the update Rainer.

That is the current page count in the Word layout with the scenarios included. A great deal of the bulk is assigned to section 5.0, which are the special rules for mission generating. There are hundreds and hundreds of different mission types which I hope can endure edits.

-Jay

[Asguard101]

Are some of the missions going to be impossible for the player to complete? Like that klingon missing in space, unless you had a ship near by with a strong enough lab you could never do this mission, or am I missing something in the reading?

[mwaschak]

Are some of the missions going to be impossible for the player to complete? Like that klingon missing in space, unless you had a ship near by with a strong enough lab you could never do this mission, or am I missing something in the reading?

There are hundreds and hundreds of missions in the Objective Campaign system. First, there is a huge variety of overall objectives. Then there are the specific minor objectives ("Incoming Orders from Star Fleet Command!"). These are the high priority, very specific missions like the missing officer which appears at a certain turn, at a specific place dictated by the mission outline, and with a specific way to accomplish it. They are set up so most players have a reasonable chance of getting most missions done, but there are some difficult ones in there as well.

The game plays well without the objective system too, but they exist to give the game a VP overlay. Managing a region of the border may not be about warring with your neighbor, but building up your trade and infrastructure, or chasing off pirates. But your superiors may call upon you to do more, and that is when the minor objectives come in to play. Not accomplishing them does not penalize the player except for the mission opportunity to gain VP, which have a number of uses besides winning. That is effectively a player's prestige as well.

-Jay

[Asguard101]

Ok, On the above mission to rescue the lost Klingon, was there anything he could have done to complete it or was it a no win mission?

I'm looking / asking if the mission generator takes what assets you have into consideration when a mission is issued, or is it just random luck to get a mission you don't have the proper tools to complete?

[Gareth_Perkins]

Ok, On the above mission to rescue the lost Klingon, was there anything he could have done to complete it or was it a no win mission?

I'm looking / asking if the mission generator takes what assets you have into consideration when a mission is issued, or is it just random luck to get a mission you don't have the proper tools to complete?

I guess a GM could moderate the likelihood of success,

But really you don't want to, otherwise players will just build war-fleets (or other "specialist" fleets) and wait for the appropriate objectives to roll it. You want the players to build more varied fleets with multiple capabilities (makes resource management more interesting for a start, and rewards intelligent fleet design rather than just building a honkin' big fleet),

Of course, it might be entirely appropriate to adjust probabilities of different types of mission appearing according to race (you would expect the Federation to pursue more science-related missions than say the Klingons for example - although the Klingons should still expect to see some science missions),

[mwaschak]

I guess a GM could moderate the likelihood of success,

A CM certainly could. There are also optional rules that let players pick their own operating objectives and dynamically control overall difficulty by empire size too. There are some very easy way to control which missions could be generated but the missions are designed with a mean difficulty in mind.

But really you don't want to, otherwise players will just build war-fleets (or other "specialist" fleets) and wait for the appropriate objectives to roll it. You want the players to build more varied fleets with multiple capabilities (makes resource management more interesting for a start, and rewards intelligent fleet design rather than just building a honkin' big fleet),

I believe it creates a less war driven campaign (which we fully support and has a rightful place) and a real need for all those ships outside a tactical game. Also, fleet deployments become exceedingly important to watch out for pirates, patrol the borders, and react to things like a science station in need of rescue or finding a traitorous Gorn.

Of course, it might be entirely appropriate to adjust probabilities of different types of mission appearing according to race (you would expect the Federation to pursue more science-related missions than say the Klingons for example - although the Klingons should still expect to see some science missions),

That is also a possibility I could work in. Right now everyone pretty much has an equal shot at any mission type showing up. My reasoning there was that even if a race is more warlike it still needs to drop off medical supplies or investigate space relics.

-Jay

[mriddle]

Of course, it might be entirely appropriate to adjust probabilities of different types of mission appearing according to race (you would expect the Federation to pursue more science-related missions than say the Klingons for example - although the Klingons should still expect to see some science missions),

That is also a possibility I could work in. Right now everyone pretty much has an equal shot at any mission type showing up. My reasoning there was that even if a race is more warlike it still needs to drop off medical supplies or investigate space relics.

-Jay

I do not know if the missions would different for Klingons vs Feds, but the "victory points" might should be slightly different... ie humanitarian missions bring less "honor" than raiding some planet for Klingons.

Ie some missions would give bonus points to certain races. In a more generic VBAM setting, missions would give bonus points to Menagerie racial traits.

[Gareth_Perkins]

I do not know if the missions would different for Klingons vs Feds, but the "victory points" might should be slightly different... ie humanitarian missions bring less "honor" than raiding some planet for Klingons.

Ie some missions would give bonus points to certain races. In a more generic VBAM setting, missions would give bonus points to Menagerie racial traits.

I wasn't suggesting different missions, just weighting the missions - the Klingon empire probably isn't as bothered about humanitarian missions (like delivering medical supplies - unless it's to an army perhaps), or picking up stranded astronauts (unless they have important information perhaps) - so while the missions should come up, it might be quite appropriate to slightly adjust the odds (this really only works if the missions are easily catagorised I might add),

While that would be more flavourful to adjust the VPs, it would penalising the (in this case) Klingon player for something completely out of his control, which seems quite harsh? After all, the Klingon player has chosen his force-mix (even if it's too late to adjust it when the mission comes up), but he can't choose his objectives, and a string of bad rolls could really be bad even if he achieves all of them,

[mwaschak]

Good morning everyone,

I was actually away from the forums while I polished up the pre-Tyrel draft of the rules. So he will be going over the manuscript, rules, and maps, then Federation Admiral is off for a repeat of the same edit and playtest process at ADB. I will keep you posted. I wrote a seperate 47 page integrated example to show a 12 turn game cycle for players to see how a game plays. Anyone familiar with VBAM will be right at home.

What I was thinking, and it could take some time to do this properly, was weigh the overall objectives (where the big points are scored) and minor objectives on a bell curve. So the Klingons would be more likely to have an operating agenda of Prowess while the Feds may have Economic Expansion. Either way it is very controllable in scenario design or by the CM. The optional rules let players pick. I find it more likely that the Klingons would still have different modes of operation and still have an equally high risk of having to repair a failing station or intercept lost art.

Where this gets tough, at the Local level anyway, is that with tension involved the aggressive agendas can force a player to either not achieve VP or run the risk of starting a larger conflict. So that is why in many games a more aggressive empire, like the Romulans, may be happy to have 12 turns working on technology or infrastructure until things cool down.

-Jay