Post by Skyrock on May 4, 2012 17:57:28 GMT -5
First, I'd like to say that I have enjoyed every minute of reading WNMHGB. It does a great job at capturing the feel of TOS and at providing adventure building material, much better than most other tries I have seen.
That being said, I think there are still points that could be improved, and I have some suggestions of how and where improvements could be made:
Blueshirt Talents
Behavioural Analysis
I would remove the Empathy requirement - WNMHGB is generally light on requirements (only five talents require other talents), so this one stands out and just makes things more complicated. There is already a strong synergy between those two talents anyway, which could be explicitely mentioned if you'd like to highlight that.
Field Medic/He's Dead Jim
I would merge those two talents. In and of itself, Field Medic is a rather weak talent, as it just allows to do something that Action Points can already accomplish. Only with He's Dead Jim it allows to do be potentially cheaper than just using Action Points for a second wind.
Alternatively, knock down Second Wind (like regaining just [Medical] HP rather than half HP). In that case, being able to restore half the HP in one go has some serious effect that a simple Action Point hasn't.
Redshirt Talents
Red Shirt
First, it is a bit confusing to have a "class" and a talent of the same name. I would rename it to something like "Disposable".
Second, I would change it from a redshirt talent to a general talent. While redshirts are the most iconic disposable extras, we've also seen other officers of other sections treated in this way, such as the yellowshirt in "Man Trap" that gets killed by the salt vampire.
Stiff Upper Lip
I would change that to once per fight, rather than to once per episode to give it more oomph.
Alternatively, turn it into a permanent Damage Reduction of 1.
In melee, changing a high damage roll to a most likely average one makes little difference.
In the most extreme case (getting hit by someone with 2x Brawler talent for 1d8 damage), the difference between the maximum damage roll and the average roll is just 3.5. In most cases, for someone who is at least an Ensign (lvl. 4) Durable would have greater effect.
Against phasers OTOH, saving throws against stun are so hard that the potential damage reduction matters little.
Against phasers on disintegration, it is a bit stronger, but from Lvl. 7 on Durable has the same effect statistically.
Yellowshirt Talents
Defensive Roll
I would remove the Agile requirement for the same reason as for Behavioural Analysis. It is one of only five places where talents have other talents as requirement.
Equipment
Disruptors/Phasers
For more consistency with vanilla Microlite20 and to make it more accessible for folks who use minis and plans (such as me ), it would be nice to add weapon ranges. (Those who don't use minis and plans can plainly ignore them.)
In vanilla M20, ranged weapons have range increments, suffer -2 per increment past the first, and can shoot a maximum of 5 increments (at -10 penalty).
Working off that and off the ranges in the FASA Star Trek RPG, the range increments would look like this:
Disintegration Setting
I don't think 2-4d8 damage do justice to the way energy weapons on kill setting were presented in TOS. Kill beams were a very, very serious escalation, and one that brought the risk of instant death even to the likes of Kirk.
I would rather work with a saving throw mechanic similar to stun phasers, with a successful save indicating a successful last-minute dodge. Heroic characters would still have a notable advantage with their Physical ability and their access to Action Points.
That being said, I think there are still points that could be improved, and I have some suggestions of how and where improvements could be made:
Blueshirt Talents
Behavioural Analysis
I would remove the Empathy requirement - WNMHGB is generally light on requirements (only five talents require other talents), so this one stands out and just makes things more complicated. There is already a strong synergy between those two talents anyway, which could be explicitely mentioned if you'd like to highlight that.
Field Medic/He's Dead Jim
I would merge those two talents. In and of itself, Field Medic is a rather weak talent, as it just allows to do something that Action Points can already accomplish. Only with He's Dead Jim it allows to do be potentially cheaper than just using Action Points for a second wind.
Alternatively, knock down Second Wind (like regaining just [Medical] HP rather than half HP). In that case, being able to restore half the HP in one go has some serious effect that a simple Action Point hasn't.
Redshirt Talents
Red Shirt
First, it is a bit confusing to have a "class" and a talent of the same name. I would rename it to something like "Disposable".
Second, I would change it from a redshirt talent to a general talent. While redshirts are the most iconic disposable extras, we've also seen other officers of other sections treated in this way, such as the yellowshirt in "Man Trap" that gets killed by the salt vampire.
Stiff Upper Lip
I would change that to once per fight, rather than to once per episode to give it more oomph.
Alternatively, turn it into a permanent Damage Reduction of 1.
In melee, changing a high damage roll to a most likely average one makes little difference.
In the most extreme case (getting hit by someone with 2x Brawler talent for 1d8 damage), the difference between the maximum damage roll and the average roll is just 3.5. In most cases, for someone who is at least an Ensign (lvl. 4) Durable would have greater effect.
Against phasers OTOH, saving throws against stun are so hard that the potential damage reduction matters little.
Against phasers on disintegration, it is a bit stronger, but from Lvl. 7 on Durable has the same effect statistically.
Yellowshirt Talents
Defensive Roll
I would remove the Agile requirement for the same reason as for Behavioural Analysis. It is one of only five places where talents have other talents as requirement.
Equipment
Disruptors/Phasers
For more consistency with vanilla Microlite20 and to make it more accessible for folks who use minis and plans (such as me ), it would be nice to add weapon ranges. (Those who don't use minis and plans can plainly ignore them.)
In vanilla M20, ranged weapons have range increments, suffer -2 per increment past the first, and can shoot a maximum of 5 increments (at -10 penalty).
Working off that and off the ranges in the FASA Star Trek RPG, the range increments would look like this:
- Phaser I: 20'
- Phaser II/Disruptor: 40'
- Phaser Rifle: 60'
Disintegration Setting
I don't think 2-4d8 damage do justice to the way energy weapons on kill setting were presented in TOS. Kill beams were a very, very serious escalation, and one that brought the risk of instant death even to the likes of Kirk.
I would rather work with a saving throw mechanic similar to stun phasers, with a successful save indicating a successful last-minute dodge. Heroic characters would still have a notable advantage with their Physical ability and their access to Action Points.