Special Characters/Unique Ships

[angelus2000]

Just outta of curiousity, why hasn't the whole special ships or characters ever been expanded much? The few that exist in SFOS seem to be worthwhile to have in large PL battles, like 5pl Battle point engagements.

I mean I can come up with a few arguements against them; unbalanced, too limited in choice, smacks of GW cheese, etc. But lets face it, B5 was always much more about the Characters and plot than involved with technobabble Star Trek.

Let's see if we the players can come with a workable system for them. SFOS already gave us a few examples to work with; G'sten, Sheridan, the centauri guy I can't remember at the moment.

I suggest the first step would be coming up with between 5 to 7 characters for each race to use. Some, like Delenn or Sheridan, could cross fleet but have different bonus attached.

EA or ISA would be easy. Since the show revolved around B5 and earthforce I believe these 5 would be reasonable. My memories not real great at the moment, haven't watched it in a good while, so I let other suggest some. Pulling from B5 related materials would be acceptable, Crusade, the Ranger Pilot, comics.

 

[lastbesthope]

There was no Centauri character in SFOS, but there were a selection of special characters in S&P 30 Wargamer, downloadable from the S&P section of the main site.

LBH

 

[Ripple]

God, I know its fluffy but lets leave special characters to scenarios. Nothing I hate more than setting up to just play a smack down and realizing I lost in the fleet selection step because I did not take the counter to character x. Invoking the GW cheesefest problem, with apologies, was the first thing that always got house ruled into oblivion.

That said (you aren't really going to not do this anyway) at least try to make most of the special abilities available to most races. Enhancing a niche ability of a race does not really help that race much if it is unlikely to come up. It may be more fluffy but does not really help. Make sure that the character really adds to the effectiveness of the ship he is on/his fleet or make him free in either pl or victory points.

Ripple

 

[lastbesthope]

Well Ripple, the only two official characters are Sheridan and G'Sten. If any Fleet Admiral is playing by SFOS rules against an opponent that could conceivably take them and doesn't at least consider it as a possibility then they get what they deserve.

As for the rest in S&P, they're stated as being unofficial, and therefore you'd only be using them if both parties agree.

LBH

 

[Shadow Queen]

Shame theres no Ivonava un less she is in Armageddon

 

[Ripple]

Ah...the old get what they deserve approach. Explains why anyone who wasn't prepared to defeat the ten sag fleet in tournaments over the last year should have seen it coming and prepared for it. It was there and you should have found a way to deal.

Somethings can be official and still be a real problem in actual game play. That has been the tradition in most games that use special characters, ignore the gaming industry precedant if you must but do not be surprised if the results are less than balanced. Me, I like to learn from history.

Ripple

 

[angelus2000]

Well, I did have some thoughts on what could be guidelines for special characters.

1. Universal abilities. +X command bonus, +X to CQ for the ship carrying the special character, +X to fleet dogfight. All character abilities will apply to either all race ships and/or fighters, or the ship the character is on only. No nonsense like "Character X cause all Raid PL ships to gain a +2 Bonus to speed" or "Charater X increase range of B arc weapons Ship X's class by 5".

2. No specific racial abilities. I'm looking at a character that would give a bonus when fighting a specific race. I believe G'sten is guilty of this when fighting centauri(check me someone)

The main thing about these abilities is that none will increase a ships stats in any way. No increase to stealth, no increase to speed, no increase to AD, etc. IN NO WAY WILL A SHIPS BASELINE STATS INCREASE.

These two guidelines should satisfy most of the concerns regarding chees characters.

Now lets set down a quick list of some possible ablities
+X to fleet command bonus
+X to fleet CQ
+X to fleet dogfight
+X to characters ship CQ
May execute SA X with a CQ check of automatic.

Essentially I like to create a pool of around 10 abilities or so. No character may have more than one ability. No fleet may have more than one character (cept scenarios).

And of course, the level of the bonus provides, the bigger the additional PL pick given for him should be. +3 fleet command bonus is most likely a Battle PL pick, possibly a War PL

Am I hot or cold with these suggestions so far

 

[Chernobyl]

medium

Personally, I like the idea in principal, but I also agree that its very tough to balance. It won't happen quick.


Chernobyl

 

[lastbesthope]

Ah...the old get what they deserve approach. Explains why anyone who wasn't prepared to defeat the ten sag fleet in tournaments over the last year should have seen it coming and prepared for it. It was there and you should have found a way to deal.

Somethings can be official and still be a real problem in actual game play. That has been the tradition in most games that use special characters, ignore the gaming industry precedant if you must but do not be surprised if the results are less than balanced. Me, I like to learn from history.

Ripple

I'm not disagreeing totally Ripple, yes some things in the rules might be broken, but everyone knows all the stats going in. I'm not saying you can always find a way to deal, but you shouldn't assume that you won't come across anything that is a viable choice.

LBH