Towards SF Knave, or, Belta

I ran this game once, using the system Offworlders. It ran for a couple sessions, and I never felt comfortable with it. I do get Storygames, it was the longest pet peev of mine that I didn't grok them. Until I did - just do what it says on the box.

Anyway.

I want my own SF hack. I checked out SWN (too much), Impulse Drive (Storygame), White Star (your classic OD&D clone), Any Planet is Earth (haven't really played it yet, but it feels a bit vague to me.)

I want my own, and I used Knave because it's a toolkit and "HACK ME" is written all over.

Main idea - make it simple, and something which can be used quickly. A pick-up-and-play affair which sticks to the basic mechanics in Knave to make something newer, and broadly compatible with SWN and other OSR products. Allow for customization, but keep that simple, and up to rulings and Group-Rulebook interplay.

I had several ideas, like adding back classes and item-class-slot customization, but I eventually threw them away, might add them as supplemental.  The biggest "issue" that struck me was essentially that the Knave inventory system is barely suited to SciFi gaming unless you are playing a survival game. Buuut, the slot system is still neat, and I thought I'd still use it - only it'd become a central feature of your characters background and abilities, and not just a way to track weight.

Call this my SciFi Hearthacker

Belta

Your Character

Read Knave, just sorta add this to it.

Roll in order. Your Slots are your Con Defense+highest Bonus. Health is d8+Con Bonus.

You get a weapon, an object (healing patch, armour, drone, universal communicator etc) and 3d6x200 credits. Put these in your slots (not credits). Then from the bottom you build your Roll or choose Periods/Augments/Psionics. These reflect things you have done in your life, and/or just pick and choose. They each take up a certain amount of slots. Psionics can be chosen only once on initial creation, and you should choose your Psionic Discipline. Check the pic below for more.

I came up with three basic things. SF staples. A history (in the vein of Traveller), which I call Periods, Augments, as for Cyberpunk, and Psionics with the Disciplines ported from SWN. I gave the d12 some lovin' and made essentially these things.

Psionics rules: All Psion Slots = uses. Level 1 Bio = 5 uses. Level 1 Bio/Telepath = 5 uses split between the two. Recharge after hella good rest, whatever that is - Intense mediation, exercise, watching movies. Nothing which messes with your chemistry because oh boy. You can forcibly use the next level of your ability, but you would need to spend a month recuperating or suffer -d6 to all rolls.

Ships/Combat

Ship combat can be boring, I wanted to make it not. So I guess involve everyone on some level.

Three Stats: Pilot/Hull/Weapons. 3 open Slots for Augments or Cargo or whatever else.

Put in stats, 1/1/2. Pilot and Weapons point equals a d6. Your first hull point is 6, the next ones add 3.

When it comes to combat each player says where they want to be in the ship. The Pilot, Weapons, Otherwise indisposed (On an augment for example.)

Each player adds a d6 to the "Stat", relevant skills get ADVd6. Example: Ship has a stat of 2, adds 2d6. Pete and Wam each add 1d6, for a total of 4d6. If Wam has ADVd6 one d6 would be rolled twice, using the highest roll.

When you attack, the players in Weaponry add a d6 for a stat point, and a d6 or ADVd6 for participation, to beat the combined Pilot Roll+Hull points of the opposition. If the weaponry beats the oppositions Pilot+Hull, the difference is damage. The same thing is done when being attacked. A 1 on a dice leaves progressive dice being rolled at a DisADV. Exampe The Weapons:1 fires. Two PCs man it. the rolls are then 3, 4, 1. A DisADV is imposed, starting on the Stat point. Next Roll: (2,5), 3, 4 = 9 Next Roll: (3,4), 1, 3 = 7. Another DisADV is imposed. Next Roll, (2,3), (1,5), 4 = 7. Any ADVs are cancelled first.

Not so sure about the HP of the ship. It is possibly a good idea to abstract it into Hull = HP. I'm just not sure how or how much. For now, I'll multiply it by 3.

Roll group initiative each round. Movement is something like 20 units for an average ship. Jumps into Hyper/Sub Space as an action. Stunts can be attempted as per what seems reasonable - assume hacking is against a 6.

Travel is essentially 1 trip :1 fuel per impulse trip in a system. Per Hex luxspeed trip with working, living crew 1 trip: 2 Fuel per person + engine. Per hex luxspeed with sleeping crew 1 hex: 1 fuel per person + engine. Ship augments increase the fuel cost by 1 per upgrade. Sleeping on your trip means you could get lost, or captured en route. For now, fuel is equal to the (Pilot Stat+Captain/s)x6.

Mechanics

Essentially like Knave, with stunts and all. I dunno if I should have floating modifiers (+2) for the customization system or just straight advantage. Throwing 2 dice is always fun. A System Strain is basically just a -d4, -d6, -d8 for all healing and all Checks. System Strain is received using Drugs, Health Packs or Psionic Healing. 

Items

Ugh - I want basics. Treat as per Knave for now. Bow and Crossbow are Gun and Laser-pistol respectively. Laser pistols have 8 shots, Guns have 6. Simple. Armour is Ascending as per normal. All prices on the Knave items multiply by 10.

Critiques

More powerful = less carry even when they should be able to carry more. Weird but eh.

Space combat could be boring - fair.