Belter Survival - A contradiction in terms?
- Thread starter robcooper
- Start date
One of my players rolled up a belter. My other players elected to use the option to lessen the survival number, while also lessening the possibility of the other good stuff. Well, the belter didn't.
First term, survival of 18 to roll...
me: So, you might want to think about reducing the score by ...
him: no WAY! Here I go, [rolls an 8]
Second term, survival of 16
me: hehe ok, so how much you want to reduce for...
him: no WAY! I'll roll it this time...[rolls a 6]
Third term, survival of 18
me: ok, what do you want to do this time
him: hmmm.. well, I have to roll well sometime [rolls a 4]
him: so, tell me about the rogue class...
He ended up getting his claim jumped each time, and got 0 xp for his 3 terms in the belters. Because of someone stealing his claims over and over again, his character believed that evil psionicists had been reading his mind to reveal his secrets. His character now wears a helmet 24/7 lined with anti-psi materials and is very paranoid of psi everywhere they go.
First term, survival of 18 to roll...
me: So, you might want to think about reducing the score by ...
him: no WAY! Here I go, [rolls an 8]
Second term, survival of 16
me: hehe ok, so how much you want to reduce for...
him: no WAY! I'll roll it this time...[rolls a 6]
Third term, survival of 18
me: ok, what do you want to do this time
him: hmmm.. well, I have to roll well sometime [rolls a 4]
him: so, tell me about the rogue class...
He ended up getting his claim jumped each time, and got 0 xp for his 3 terms in the belters. Because of someone stealing his claims over and over again, his character believed that evil psionicists had been reading his mind to reveal his secrets. His character now wears a helmet 24/7 lined with anti-psi materials and is very paranoid of psi everywhere they go.
The odds of a huge payout are pretty much like winning the lottery. Ok, you get a survival XP bonus...
Ooooo, big deal. An Army class PC can pretty much survive a roll of twenty on the Assignment table with his eyes shut, AND HE IS BEING SHOT AT!!!
You get the chance for an XP bonus, Another long shot...
And finally, the CASH BONUS. Long shot #3.
With the way the Belter is designed, they should just call it the Bum class and leave it at that, because any PC Belter is going to be woefully behind the experience curve of any average group.
Just bitchin really , I really like the idea behind the Belters. Growing up on an Asteroid in the middle of BFE and no one to rely on but yourself and your tools to get by.
Ocana
Ooooo, big deal. An Army class PC can pretty much survive a roll of twenty on the Assignment table with his eyes shut, AND HE IS BEING SHOT AT!!!
You get the chance for an XP bonus, Another long shot...
And finally, the CASH BONUS. Long shot #3.
With the way the Belter is designed, they should just call it the Bum class and leave it at that, because any PC Belter is going to be woefully behind the experience curve of any average group.
Just bitchin really
, I really like the idea behind the Belters. Growing up on an Asteroid in the middle of BFE and no one to rely on but yourself and your tools to get by.Ocana
notagoodusername
SOC-13
You still get 1000xp for a failed survival roll (an "unmissable learning experience" they call it in the book). You just don't get to roll for XP bonus, comission, promotion or cash bonus (you do get a decoration roll, though). THB page 125, left column, under "2) Survival".
Plus the belter does get easier to survive as you go , with +1 per term on survival rolls (even so I may drop the survival DCs for 11+ on the table by 2). Also the cash bonus is a Prospecting skill check (much higher chance than a D20 - a level 1 Belter could likely have +6 on the skill).
The XP bonus should be a little easier for the belter, perhaps 2 points less (a high-risk occupation bringing the rewards.)
But overall it means you have to play it safe as a belter (at least to begin with), but if you take the risks and make it the rewards are maybe worth it.
Shane
notagoodusername
SOC-13
I've just sat and created a handful of Belter PCs whilst fiddling with the numbers on the tables. In my experience most PCs with about 4 terms have between 15 and 25 thousand experience points dpeending upon history.
I rolled for four terms on the prior history table getting Rush Region, Trojan Points, Eush Region, Trojan Points. I used an identical prior history track for all the characters.
First up I rolled a belter via the standard rules. I found to have a chance at srvival I had to take -8 or more on my survival difficulty, so I had no chance of getting cash or XP until term 4 when the +3 for prior terms meant I could take a risk at only -4 on the survival difficulty! I ended up with 13000xp - way below the 4-term average.
Next I tried lowering survival difficulties by 2. Overall this increased my xp at the end over the range of three characters to 16000, and I got lucky and got a cash bonus.
Next I went for normal survival difficulties and +2 per term to survival. This had roughly the same effect as above as I had to be cautious at the start and was better off later on.
Finally I went for the two together. This had the effect of brinig me in line with the 15-25k average by getting 19k. I still had to be safe on all the terms, but less so later on.
Looking overall I think I'll amend the belter table as follows:
1d20.....Assignment.....Surv.....Cash....XP
-------------------------------------------
1-4......Portside.......3........none....16
5-10.....Contract Work..7........22......12
11-14....Rush Region....12.......20......8
15-17....Trojan Points..14.......18......8
18-19....Belt Fringe....16.......16......6
20.......Rumour.........14.......14......8
Ability Modifier........*........**......*
*= +1 per Term
**= P/Prospecting skill check
I have gone for this so that starting belters have to play it very safe and won't really hit it big, but at the 4-term point the survival DCs start to drop near to 10, so they can take more risks and get bigger rewards.
A term 1 belter who gets Rush Region, for example, will need a 12 to survive, so really make it they need to take -6 to -8, so thier cash DC is 26 to 28 (need a 20 with 4 ranks of P/Prospecting and Wis 14), and thier XP bonus is 14 to 16.
By term 3 a Rush Region result brings survival DC 9, so the belter has survival DC9, so can take only a -4 to almost guarantee survival, so cash and XP bonuses are more forthcoming (DC 24 and 12 respectively).
This will make the average young belter reasopnably skilled and cautious and the older belters being very skilled, and able to take bigger risks.
Even so the survival, cash and xp difficulties are higher than any other class in the book anyway, so being a belter is still a harsh life.
However, I haven't had the chance to extensively test this stuff in actual campaign use, so if anyone tries it out could they please post the results here.
Shane
I rolled for four terms on the prior history table getting Rush Region, Trojan Points, Eush Region, Trojan Points. I used an identical prior history track for all the characters.
First up I rolled a belter via the standard rules. I found to have a chance at srvival I had to take -8 or more on my survival difficulty, so I had no chance of getting cash or XP until term 4 when the +3 for prior terms meant I could take a risk at only -4 on the survival difficulty! I ended up with 13000xp - way below the 4-term average.
Next I tried lowering survival difficulties by 2. Overall this increased my xp at the end over the range of three characters to 16000, and I got lucky and got a cash bonus.
Next I went for normal survival difficulties and +2 per term to survival. This had roughly the same effect as above as I had to be cautious at the start and was better off later on.
Finally I went for the two together. This had the effect of brinig me in line with the 15-25k average by getting 19k. I still had to be safe on all the terms, but less so later on.
Looking overall I think I'll amend the belter table as follows:
1d20.....Assignment.....Surv.....Cash....XP
-------------------------------------------
1-4......Portside.......3........none....16
5-10.....Contract Work..7........22......12
11-14....Rush Region....12.......20......8
15-17....Trojan Points..14.......18......8
18-19....Belt Fringe....16.......16......6
20.......Rumour.........14.......14......8
Ability Modifier........*........**......*
*= +1 per Term
**= P/Prospecting skill check
I have gone for this so that starting belters have to play it very safe and won't really hit it big, but at the 4-term point the survival DCs start to drop near to 10, so they can take more risks and get bigger rewards.
A term 1 belter who gets Rush Region, for example, will need a 12 to survive, so really make it they need to take -6 to -8, so thier cash DC is 26 to 28 (need a 20 with 4 ranks of P/Prospecting and Wis 14), and thier XP bonus is 14 to 16.
By term 3 a Rush Region result brings survival DC 9, so the belter has survival DC9, so can take only a -4 to almost guarantee survival, so cash and XP bonuses are more forthcoming (DC 24 and 12 respectively).
This will make the average young belter reasopnably skilled and cautious and the older belters being very skilled, and able to take bigger risks.
Even so the survival, cash and xp difficulties are higher than any other class in the book anyway, so being a belter is still a harsh life.
However, I haven't had the chance to extensively test this stuff in actual campaign use, so if anyone tries it out could they please post the results here.
Shane
I was going to post this question in a seperate thread, but I think it's relevant to this discussion.
Q: Is it possible for the "Dumb Luck" feat to apply to prior history dice rolls? If so, how should it be applied?
My apologies if this creates a stampede of rampaging munchkins....
DGv2.0
Q: Is it possible for the "Dumb Luck" feat to apply to prior history dice rolls? If so, how should it be applied?
My apologies if this creates a stampede of rampaging munchkins....
DGv2.0
notagoodusername
SOC-13
Actually I was thinking the same thing too. Luck is alot of survival for Belters I reckon. Not sure how to apply it, though..
My initial gut reaction is allowing them to get +1 on all rolls, thought this may be too much (then again, its tough being a belter anyhow...).
Any ideas anyone?
Shane
My initial gut reaction is allowing them to get +1 on all rolls, thought this may be too much (then again, its tough being a belter anyhow...).
Any ideas anyone?
Shane
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
Actually the way I read that paragraph this applies only "If the Survival DC is rolled exactly... "
I'm thinking in MTU for a failed survival roll I'll have the PC's roll a d3 for number of years served that term before the mishap applies and award 1,000xp per year for the shortened term.
far-trader
SOC-14 10K
Or, closer to the spirit of the feat, you could just make it a single reroll allowed on any failed check, though that may be even more generous.
Tough call to allow it's use in prior history or not, but whatever works for your game is good.
Or, closer to the spirit of the feat, you could just make it a single reroll allowed on any failed check, though that may be even more generous.
Tough call to allow it's use in prior history or not, but whatever works for your game is good.</font>[/QUOTE]Yes, I've used it that way, as per the feat desription which allows one re-roll per day during normal game play. This is very helpful to classes like the Belter, where it's badly needed. But for other classes like the Academic, it's rather unbalancing. I rolled up a character who won the Zhunastu Prize three times in his career. That's just WRONG....
DGv2.0
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