MGT Only: Back the truck up...

[Spinward Scout]

I just did a search through the Cluster Truck pdf and it has 12 different Pilot checks in the document.

That's outstanding!

Just that alone makes it definitely a supplement worth getting, if you want to enhance Piloting in your game.

I have been working on a document with 37 different Pilot or Pilot-related checks - some from the Core rulebook and others I made up or wondered about. I'll have to double check with what's in the Cluster Truck document. I think there are some duplicates.

 

[whartung]

Boy, Piloting sounds dangerous if you have to check everything all the time.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Boy, Piloting sounds dangerous if you have to check everything all the time.

It is dangerous depending on what you need to do with the ship.

Cluster Truck index

1.) Atmospheric braking manoeuvre
pg. 25

2.) Trailer detachment
pg. 25

3.) Slingshot manoeuvre
pg. 26

4.) Regaining control of an out-of-control vessel
pg. 27

5.) Maintaining control during any manoeuvres
pg. 27

6.) Clear a docking area with style
pg. 103

7.) Reverse slingshot manoeuvre
pg. 104

8.) Applying thrust to melt ice and pull free
pg. 153

9.) Avoid whanging off a cavern wall
pg. 153

10.) Reaching a docking area with obstacles
pg. 155

11.) Docking with another Vessel
pg. 113

12.) Docking at a docking area
pg. 124

 

[mike wightman]

Dice should only be rolled if the outcome can not be decided by the referee, 17 different pilot checks suggest 17 critical situations where the referee can't just say, yes your pilot skill and characteristics are good enough to pull it off.

I don't run games like that.

The above list contains many situations that would be routine to trivial. Imagine if in the real world truck drivers had to make a 2d6 roll for every maneuver...

it sums up everything I dislike about task library "roll the dice for everything" games

 

[Spinward Scout]

I don't run games like that.

Which is your choice.

But I'm not a Space Pilot.

I need a list of different things I can do.

 

[kilemall]

Saving throws not mother may I.

Also I don’t like some of them. Slingshot and other precise course skill checks should rely more on the navigator, only being Difficult or worse because the pilot is freehand hotdogging it.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Saving throws not mother may I.

Also I don’t like some of them. Slingshot and other precise course skill checks should rely more on the navigator, only being Difficult or worse because the pilot is freehand hotdogging it.

It's Pilot checks in Cluster Truck for Gravity Slingshots, too. They expand on it more. I should probably play test them.

 

[coliver988]

Dice should only be rolled if the outcome can not be decided by the referee, 17 different pilot checks suggest 17 critical situations where the referee can't just say, yes your pilot skill and characteristics are good enough to pull it off.

I don't run games like that.

The above list contains many situations that would be routine to trivial. Imagine if in the real world truck drivers had to make a 2d6 roll for every maneuver...

it sums up everything I dislike about task library "roll the dice for everything" games

on the other hand, even trivial things can have issues. A lot of games have a fail forward sort of thing: it is not that you did not succeed in the simple task, but if the roll was bad, there may be some minor consequences. Nothing to impact the actual success but some added chrome to the situation. And it is always good to have lists to at least spark the imagination.

For instance, docking at a docking area. Should be routine, heck, should be fully automated. But a missed roll means that the ship is not aligned properly with the docking ring, or that the support umbilical can't reach the ports correctly. Nothing that directly impacts actual game play, but can add a moment of something other than "you come to the port and dock".

I try to think of these things are more flavor enhancements. One of the reasons I like random tables.

 

[mike wightman]

They are such rare events they should be left to a roll of 5 1s on 5d6.

The trouble with rolling the dice is every time you are increasing your odds of failure, not success. Even if you only fail on a natuural 2 you are still failing way more than real world statistics show.

Yes it is hilarious when the pilot 5 scrapes the drydock walls on the maiden flight, after the tenth such occurrence it stops being so funny.