Working on a sci-fi game makes me think of scale. A starship is bigger than a person. A capital ship is bigger than a starship.
I have 2 big influences in dealing with scale: Star Wars (esp. the Fantasy Flight Games version) and Blades in the Dark.
The Star Wars games have always handled scale well. I've enjoyed the mechanics from both West End Games and Fantasy Flight Games versions.
Blades in the Dark has a great system for understanding position and effect. As a system, it understands the difference between throwing a dagger at a person and at a brick wall, which is important and impressive for a system.
This sounds like an unusual concept, but saying a system 'understands' scale is important to me. Some things like D&D have very abstract concepts of damage and resistance. Other games, like Fate, have a basic way of dealing with Armor or adding Aspects that reflect the toughness of a substance.
The idea of a starship being disabled by a handheld weapon is really all about scale. Even if two things are made of similar materials, the larger one will have greater throughput, more redundancy, or generally more able to function while damaged because its systems are spread out.
So how do we deal with scale in Open Legend?
Initial Thoughts:
The Guard and Toughness of an advanced capital ship will still likely be high. As durable objects intended to withstand punishment, they should have high numbers to reflect their capacity for damage. In this way, even powerful weapons of equivalent scale will have their damage mitigated.
Attacks from smaller attackers on larger targets will be Disadvantaged. This reflects that the smaller attacker's weapons just can't damage the target effectively, because of scale. A larger attacker with more powerful weapons will be able to easily damage a smaller target and will gain Advantage. This might be prevented by a smaller target being faster and more maneuverable, removing the Advantage.
Finally, if a person in a space suit takes a shot at a capital ship with their handheld blaster, there's no roll, because there's no possibility of damage - unless maybe there's a Legend Point involved and a compelling plot reason!
Issues of scale and possible scenarios
Damage: Larger > Smaller
Speed: Smaller > Larger
Durability: Larger > Smaller
Stealth: Smaller > Larger
I have 2 big influences in dealing with scale: Star Wars (esp. the Fantasy Flight Games version) and Blades in the Dark.
The Star Wars games have always handled scale well. I've enjoyed the mechanics from both West End Games and Fantasy Flight Games versions.
Blades in the Dark has a great system for understanding position and effect. As a system, it understands the difference between throwing a dagger at a person and at a brick wall, which is important and impressive for a system.
This sounds like an unusual concept, but saying a system 'understands' scale is important to me. Some things like D&D have very abstract concepts of damage and resistance. Other games, like Fate, have a basic way of dealing with Armor or adding Aspects that reflect the toughness of a substance.
The idea of a starship being disabled by a handheld weapon is really all about scale. Even if two things are made of similar materials, the larger one will have greater throughput, more redundancy, or generally more able to function while damaged because its systems are spread out.
So how do we deal with scale in Open Legend?
Initial Thoughts:
- Increased Defenses, especially Guard. This would reflect Armor making things hard to hit.
- Use Advantage and Disadvantage to reflect scale. Larger things are easier to hit but would also received less damage. The attack roll could be Advantaged/Disadvantaged to reflect the possibility of an attack affecting a smaller/larger target. This is a lot like the FFG Star Wars system, which adds Difficulty dice to rolls based on concerns of scale.
- Use the guiding principle of 'Every Roll Matters'. Don't have players roll to attack on targets that have no consequence. Similarly, don't have them roll for attacks that definitely destroy their target.
The Guard and Toughness of an advanced capital ship will still likely be high. As durable objects intended to withstand punishment, they should have high numbers to reflect their capacity for damage. In this way, even powerful weapons of equivalent scale will have their damage mitigated.
Attacks from smaller attackers on larger targets will be Disadvantaged. This reflects that the smaller attacker's weapons just can't damage the target effectively, because of scale. A larger attacker with more powerful weapons will be able to easily damage a smaller target and will gain Advantage. This might be prevented by a smaller target being faster and more maneuverable, removing the Advantage.
Finally, if a person in a space suit takes a shot at a capital ship with their handheld blaster, there's no roll, because there's no possibility of damage - unless maybe there's a Legend Point involved and a compelling plot reason!
Issues of scale and possible scenarios
Damage: Larger > Smaller
Speed: Smaller > Larger
Durability: Larger > Smaller
Stealth: Smaller > Larger
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