NEWS

The Future of Missions

  • 27 Replies
  • 12504 Views

Hibiki54

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 390
« Reply #15 on: <09-22-19/0252:31> »
From a missions writing standpoint, I'm excited to leave 5e behind.  Without having to presume 1+ hours per fight, the plot structure for a 4 hour mission gets more options.
How much faster do you expect fights to get resolved in 6e? The number of rolls to do stuff is the same. You don’t calculate modifiers, but that’s only a few seconds saved. PCs have to evaluate a longish list of Edge options every action. Magic is roughly the same time to resolve. You only roll initiative once, but you only rolled it 2-3 times in 5e. Where’s the time saving coming from?

There isn't any time saving. While modifiers are a thing of the past, figuring out who gains edge and if you will use an edge action actually adds more time.

While I voted for 5E, I will still play Missions when they move to 6th. I will just bring a plethora of mundane street sam character sheets and prepare to die whenever I get shot at because street sams are now paper thin.

Michael Chandra

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Prime Runner
  • ***
  • Posts: 9918
  • Question-slicing ninja
« Reply #16 on: <09-22-19/0510:24> »
From a missions writing standpoint, I'm excited to leave 5e behind.  Without having to presume 1+ hours per fight, the plot structure for a 4 hour mission gets more options.
I decided to write down a bunch of points where we save and lose time in combat compared to 5e:

+ You no longer are considering which of the 30+ Called Shots* to use
+ You don't have to subtract 10 each Initiative Pass, nor process the -5 for every interrupt action, making initiative-tracking much easier
+ Environmental circumstances being far less complex to process means we can actually write scenarios that involve those, since it's not massive math anymore
+ You don't math out whether to pre-Edge or post-Edge with your limit in mind, since that's a big expense now**
+ A GM no longer has to roll every grunt in a group individually, so if you're facing 8 Humanis grunts they can just throw 2 group attacks instead of having to work out 8 individual attacks based on positions and their negative modifiers
+ You no longer have to keep track of how often you were attacked for the negative defense modifiers on your defense pool
+ Dice modifiers are far less now, so far less math involved, plus you can just keep your default attack and defense pools at hand
+ Soak pools are far smaller, so no more '24~36 dice rolled, let me count the hits...'
+ You don't have to bother with checking AP to see how many soak dice are rolled and whether the damage is physical and stun
+ You don't have to track your recoil anymore
+ You don't have to track how much you moved so far this Combat Turn
+ Ranged isn't per-weapon anymore, so you can memorise the simple 3/50/+ numbers instead of the 5/10/15/20 of Tasers, 5/20/40/60 of Heavy Pistols, 25/+ of ARs, 15/30/45/60 of Fletchette Shotguns, 10/40/+ of Shotguns, 50/+ of Sniper Rifles, 25/+ of LMGs, 40/+ of MMGs/HMGs, 50/+ of Assault Cannons...

- You have to track your Majors/Minors to see if you still have an defensive action available
- You have to track how much Edge you earned this turn, due to the cap of 2
- People with a flair for the dramatic need to weigh a couple of Edge Actions they would like to initiate the fight with
- People can actually defend while surprised, so that's an extra roll
- You need to remember your DR and AR, so that in the first round of combat everyone can figure out whether they're capable of earning Edge (in my experience after the first round people remember)
- Effects with a duration measured in Combat turns actually start being relevant, so their duration needs to be kept in mind
- Toxins actually have impact now because the fight doesn't end before they go into effect, so they're going to become more popular
- Status effects are more explicit and common now, so they need tracking
- People will actually bother with taking cover now, so you have to keep your cover-level in mind for the extra dice

~ Rather than tracking how many enemies went down to see if they flee, instead you can roll composure once their damage exceeds their PR

So all in all, I think that especially the whole 'being attacked by 4 enemies and having to keep track of the -0/-1/-2/-3 defense modifiers...' being gone now, due to no more accumulating penalties and grunt groups, will definitely matter. Adding to that the simplication of environmental modifiers, soak pools being smaller, no more initiative-modifications of interrupt actions, and no more having to count AP into the soak pool but having a fixed number so no math involved in your soak roll, will all greatly speed up combat since there's far less math involved. Plus you're not mathing out Edge use since for small expenses 'make the enemy reroll' is always the best statistical option, and no more recoil tracking, and... Compared to the added paperwork, I think the amount saved is by far superior. And I really like not having to memorise half a dozen weapon-types their range categories for my players now.

All in all, so far I really like being able to do 2 fights during my Open Events now, without each fight lasting over an hour when it should be a simple one. Even complete rpg-newbies quickly picked things up.



* 8 in core, 6 vehicle-locations or 16 metahuman-locations, 24 ammo-specific called shots of which at most 6 per ammo type and runners often carry 2 kinds of ammo so need to pick between, so that's an easy 8+16+6+2=32 options when comparing Ex-Ex with APDS.

** Instead of deciding on intended Edge use before their action, in my experience risk-seeking people will default to 'If I fail by a small margin, I'll spend X Edge to make my opponent reroll X dice and hope the enemy doesn't reroll too well' and risk-averse people will go 'If I fail by a small margin, I'll spend Y*2 Edge to up Y 4s to 5s', while only the big rolls that will basically end the encounter will be 'I'm passing you Edge' 'Thanks, now I'll spend 4 Edge for a massive reroll'
How am I not part of the forum?? O_O I am both active and angry!

Operator214

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 2
« Reply #17 on: <09-24-19/0943:37> »
SR6 for missions: Oh boi. Please. Don´t. Not now. Not without massive Errata

Well, since the Missions Lead is also on the Errata team, I'm sure that Errata will be "fleshed out" before the 6We Missions can be done. I say "fleshed out" because what the writers go off of may not be the final errata that gets released to the public. But, considering how long it takes to publish a Mission (outside of Agent briefings), I'm sure that the writer(s) will have plenty of time for re-writes when the errata is finalized.

Michael Chandra

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Prime Runner
  • ***
  • Posts: 9918
  • Question-slicing ninja
« Reply #18 on: <09-24-19/0950:39> »
We still have... *counts* >8.5 months before GenCon, so >7.5 months before we really want to have an SR6 Missions FAQ out the doors. And a lot of the things we need errata for, won't be much of a problem for SRM writers fortunately. So I have faith. 8)
How am I not part of the forum?? O_O I am both active and angry!

Banshee

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Ace Runner
  • ***
  • Posts: 1095
« Reply #19 on: <09-24-19/0959:56> »
We still have... *counts* >8.5 months before GenCon, so >7.5 months before we really want to have an SR6 Missions FAQ out the doors. And a lot of the things we need errata for, won't be much of a problem for SRM writers fortunately. So I have faith. 8)

Sort of ... Origins is the debut for the new seasons which is June.
Target for the new FAQ/Missions Guide April/May at the latest but maybe sooner
Robert "Banshee" Volbrecht
Freelancer & FAQ Committee member
Former RPG Lead Agent
Catalyst Demo Team

Michael Chandra

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Prime Runner
  • ***
  • Posts: 9918
  • Question-slicing ninja
« Reply #20 on: <09-24-19/1007:01> »
I said GenCon but used Origins date actually. :P
How am I not part of the forum?? O_O I am both active and angry!

mbisber

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 82
« Reply #21 on: <09-24-19/1458:23> »
I wonder how many persons posting on this site now remember Origins 2013 and the confusion at those Missions with the change to 5e. I played an SR game at that Con in every slot, and remember chaos.

Not only did few of the players understand the new Rules, but few had a copy of the soft cover Rulebook that went on sale (and sold out early) at that time. In addition to this, few of the GMs at any of my tables knew much of those new Rules either.

I was not on this site in the months leading up to that Con. So, I do not know how many persons then knew how little everyone else understood 5e.

But, I remember that many GMs and players still did not understand many of the Rules at Gen Con 2013, and still many (myself among them) still did not understand many things by Origins 2014.

So are things better now with 6e? I still so not have a core book for 6e, and have refrained from commenting on it on this site.

Banshee

  • *
  • Catalyst Demo Team
  • Ace Runner
  • ***
  • Posts: 1095
« Reply #22 on: <09-24-19/1550:55> »
I wonder how many persons posting on this site now remember Origins 2013 and the confusion at those Missions with the change to 5e. I played an SR game at that Con in every slot, and remember chaos.

Not only did few of the players understand the new Rules, but few had a copy of the soft cover Rulebook that went on sale (and sold out early) at that time. In addition to this, few of the GMs at any of my tables knew much of those new Rules either.

I was not on this site in the months leading up to that Con. So, I do not know how many persons then knew how little everyone else understood 5e.

But, I remember that many GMs and players still did not understand many of the Rules at Gen Con 2013, and still many (myself among them) still did not understand many things by Origins 2014.

So are things better now with 6e? I still so not have a core book for 6e, and have refrained from commenting on it on this site.

Yeah, that year was horrible.. we literally only got the rules a few days before Origins. Probably the biggest reason why we stuck to 5E for this years Missions even though we knew 6E was coming out.
Robert "Banshee" Volbrecht
Freelancer & FAQ Committee member
Former RPG Lead Agent
Catalyst Demo Team

prophet42

  • *
  • Newb
  • *
  • Posts: 54
  • Financial Prognosticator
« Reply #23 on: <10-16-19/1627:33> »
Any update on the Missions FAQ?
If its not fun, then why are you doing it?

ZeroSum

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 401
« Reply #24 on: <10-16-19/1743:20> »
Slightly off-topic: Is there any way we can get the Demo Team application package uploaded to the forum?

I don't have a Facebook account, and have no intention of making one. If that's a dealbreaker, that's a shame.

FastJack

  • *
  • Administrator
  • Prime Runner
  • *****
  • Posts: 6364
  • Kids these days...
« Reply #25 on: <10-16-19/2010:18> »
Slightly off-topic: Is there any way we can get the Demo Team application package uploaded to the forum?

I don't have a Facebook account, and have no intention of making one. If that's a dealbreaker, that's a shame.
Here you go!

ZeroSum

  • *
  • Omae
  • ***
  • Posts: 401
« Reply #26 on: <10-16-19/2136:47> »

0B

  • *
  • Guest
« Reply #27 on: <10-16-19/2148:23> »
I think the one big selling point that 6w has, is that it isn't 5e.

In all seriousness, as much as I'd like to see "retro" missions for 1e or 2e, 6w is preferred if it's that or 5e.