Dock Work

Dock is the second spoke on the Wheel that makes up crew life, between the drudgery of Transit and the enterprise of Layover.

I'm aiming for a good clear procedure to work through here. As with the other phases of the game, there are times when this will breeze past and others when it will make up a substantial part of the session.

Orbitals and Landings
Each world lists six locations, and the first is always the starport. Generally a ship can only dock at orbital facilities called Orbitals. Landings are docks on the surface, relying on smaller craft  to ferry crew and cargo, or an orbital transfer facility.

Rewards
While reprimands are always administered during transit, rewards are given immediately upon docking.  If the specific reward is in doubt, roll d6.

1. Public Commendation - The whole crew is told what a good job you did. 
2. The Captain’s Table - An invitation to dine with the Captain at the next opportunity. 
3. Prize Goods - A material prize is carefully selected by your superior. 
4. Medal - Only to be worn on ceremonial occasions. 
5. Promotion - Rarely up to the next tier of the crew, but something to give you a little authority over your peers. 
6. Note of Pardon - Forgiveness for a previous dereliction of duty, or held for future use.

Portside News
Worlds are never static. Much like unresolved incidents, a roll is made when arriving in dock to check on the status of the world. Each world entry details a lingering threat, which should factor in the news. If returning to a known world, consider the problems that were established last time the ship visited the world when describing the result.

1: Things have reached a crisis point.
2-3: Things are getting worse.
4-5: Things are steady.
6: Things have gotten slightly better.

Crisis Point
When a world reaches Crisis point they may close off exports, cease all trade, or even close off to outsiders altogether. A crisis left unchecked leads to a radical change in the world, sometimes its complete destruction. 

Duties
Officers are expected to carry out their portside duties relating to the ship, often delegating these in part to their heads. Even if the duties are small, Officers will want to interfere in the business of their rivals, or find a way to otherwise get ahead. 

The Arch Merchant is responsible for trading  and seeking out other financial opportunities. 

The Marshal in Arms checks the security of the world, improves their own armoury, and makes sure the locals are suitably intimidated.

The Commander-at-the-Helm manages the ship’s boats going out to other locations. 

The Mate of Papers is responsible for updating all records and data relating to this world. 

The Peoples Executive is responsible for recruiting new crewmembers and ensuring those going on shore leave behave themselves. 

The Technical Prime acquires any parts and work that needs doing on the ship and may offer engineering services to the world. 

Delegation
Officers love delegating these tasks down to their heads. It’s a chance to test their capability and loyalty, and means the Officer can stay in the comfort of their quarters.  These tasks may drift beyond the head’s normal sphere of responsibility, or even beyond the Officer’s own jurisdiction.

Portside Laws
Most worlds have a border between port and the rest of the world, so that passing business can operate without friction. Generally, weapons and armour above service grade are not allowed in port, but are permitted to pass securely through the border if the visitor’s business justifies it. 

Freight
The safest but least fruitful transport work is in shipping pre-sold freight between two worlds. The number of containers available is equal to 1% of the population rating of the smallest of the current world and the destination. Each container pays 1 Frag on arrival, or a fee of 5 Frags if lost.  

For example, available freight between a world of hundred-thousands and a world of thousands would be 10 containers (1% of 1,000). 

GM Focused Playtesting

That's right. When you run a playtest it's not about those parasitic players. You're the one who should be under the microscope.

Not exclusively, and I talked about player feedback from playtests before, but I want to stress the importance of examining your own experience as the person running the game.

I'm looking out for two things:

Unfulfilled Wishes
Those mid-game GM moments when you think:

• "I wish I'd prepared X"

• "a random table of Y would be so useful right now"

• "I wish I could just roll a die whenever Z happens to see how it goes"

A lot of the random generators in Mythic came from this, and the broad guidelines for Exploration Actions, which were introduced as a replacement to a rigid set of actions (set up camp etc).

Glimmers of Gold
I like to note cool moments that happen in the game, even if I feel like they emerged from outside of the rulebook, and think "how can I make stuff like that happen more often?"

In an early version of Mythic, each player had their own set of quests, and it was fun when they lightly contradicted each other. The Oath ended up being a better way to give the knights a set of objectives that occasionally felt mutually exclusive and forced interesting choices.

The Link
The link here is that I'm often testing for content as much as I'm testing the rules. Yeah, numbers will need tweaking, mechanics can get tweaked or stripped back, but I'm just as interested in everything else that goes in the book, and how that gets used in preparation and play.

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Toolfeel

Sometimes it matters which tool we pick up.

It's 1981. The Roland TB-303 is a new bass synthesiser. It was designed to act as a substitute for a bass guitar player, much like a drum machine for a drummer. In 1984, after poor sales, it was taken out of production. The way you programmed sequences of notes was counterintuitive and arranging a proper multi-section song on this thing was a frustrating experience. More vitally, the sound was more angry toad than bass guitar, and many of knob settings could produce sounds so extreme that they wouldn't fit in any genre.

Some years after its discontinuation, people found a use for it doing this. The cybernetic meow sound was embraced. Short, hypnotic dance loops bypassed the need for long sequences of notes and even then the fiddly programming served a purpose, nudging towards simple single note sequences with a few accents or octave leaps or untamed basslines keyed in at random and taken for their imperfections. Those wild sweeping knob settings could now be tweaked gradually or impulsively, giving long form movement to those looped sequences.

I bought one of the more affordable clones of this machine last year, and when I sit down to use it I create very differently than I do with other tools.

Yes, you can plug in an external keyboard or sequencer to bypass the annoying programming. You can sculpt a wider range of sounds than you might think, especially using external effects. Hey, you can even bypass the inconvenient machinery entirely and use one of the dozens of software clones, bending the virtual device entirely to your will. Even with just the basic device, you can learn the ways of its sequencing to make complex tracks, and hone its settings to find hidden sweet spots of subtle melodic sounds.

But I generally don't. When I plug it in, I smash in a few random bars of notes, blindly apply accents, glides, and octaves, and let it loop while I twist the knobs going BAAOW WAPPA BAPPA BOWA BOOOOWAPA BA BA BA WA.

It's not a sound I would have chosen on a more flexible device, or in the creative infinity of a digital workstation, but when I have that machine in front of me I'm drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

I'm the same with RPGs. Sit me down with Traveller or 2400 and I'll run you a sci fi game, but the feel of each of those sets of tools pushes me in a slightly different direction. Of course I bring my own way of preparing and running a game, whatever the system, but the toolfeel is still there.  

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Intergalactic Skills

Oh, you thought your job on the ship would give you skills?

As if. Only life can give you skills, and that's something you don't get much choice in.

When rolling an Intergalactic character, roll d12 and d6 and consult the list of systems (the d12) and worlds (d6 in that system). This will give you three most important worlds to you.

The first is where you were born, and what sort of... being you are.

The second is where you were made. The world where you fully established yourself.

The third is where you were broken. How it all went wrong.

Each of these grants you a Skill and some extra stuff. Roll d6+d12 for each Skill to get its rating, working very must like an Electric Ability Score or a Mythic Virtue.

So let's do an example, limiting ourselves to the first few worlds because they're the most fleshed out right now.

Born [1 / 3] - Heap

You grew up in the crannies of the salvage heaps. Sometimes working, sometimes hiding.
Skill: Salvage.
You can smell and identify most non-organic materials as if they were hot food.

Made [1 / 1] - Ziggurat Works

You roved the neon jungle, managing populations of the most dangerous life.
Skill: Creatures.
Nano Rifle (2d6 erode, long), machete (d6 pierce)

Broken [1 / 2] - Wolf Pit

You did bookkeeping for a cybersurgeon before stealing their mistreated pet.
Skill: Administration.
Cyber Critter (Electronics 12, Scuttering 7, 4gd, d6 burn electo-bite)

So our character has their three skills, and we roll d6+d12 for each and of course d6 Guard, giving us:

Salvage 8, Creatures 8, Administration 17, 2gd
Can smell and identify non-organic materials.
Nano Rifle (2d6 erode, long), machete (d6 pierce)
Cyber Critter (Electronics 12, Scuttering 7, 4gd, d6 burn electro-bite)

Using Skills

Although similar to Ability Scores/Virtues in other Bastionland games, there are a few subtle differences.

• Because everyone has their own unique skills, sometimes just having a skill is enough to do the job. Got Surgery 5? You can do surgery under normal circumstances, but you'll need to roll if you're doing it under some sort of pressure. These are still called Saves, not Skill Rolls, after all.

• Skills can give you +d6 to an attack when relevant. Got Explosives 10 and you're throwing a grenade? Take an extra d6.

• Skills generally don't get reduced and restored. Injuries and other long-term harm are handled slightly differently here.

And what if you don't have a useful skill at all? Roll using the closest skill at half it's normal value. If none of them fit at all then use the lowest.

Need to fly a shuttle through an asteroid field and your skills are Dancing 12, Intimidation 14, and Burning 5? I'd be making the argument that my Dancing skill lets me focus on spatial awareness and control... rolling with a score of 6. If that doesn't feel right, I'd be halving that Burning 5 down to 2 I guess. Look, is there really nobody else who can fly this thing?

Scary, I know, and my alarm bells also start ringing, imagining the game deteriorating into debates about how applicable the Horticulture skill is when fighting a cactus beast, but I'd like to give it a try and see if I can give enough guidance to make it work.

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Fragging Out

Intergalactic work continues.

I'm constantly reminding myself that the first Mythic Bastionland playtests (then Primeval Bastionland) were based on an extremely rough document, with vastly different rules to how the game turned out, especially in terms of the structure of myths, omens, and hexcrawling the realm.

Even with such a patchy version of the game, those initial playtests were incredibly useful in working out what I wanted the game to be, and how I was going to get there.

So I'm trying to get Intergalactic to that point, knowing that anything I put in place for initial testing is ripe for the chopping block. A means to an end that may have little resemblance to these untested ideas.

Here's a grab bag of stuff that's currently in the mix.

Fragging Out
Most crew aim to cash in their record of service for a payout of Frags, enough to retire. Characters track this in as a Record score, starting at 0 and modified by the following events.

Year of Service (Hand): +1 Record
Half Year of Service (Head): +1 Record
Month of Service (Officer): +1 Record
Reward: +1 Record
Reprimand: - 1 Record
Early Payout of 10 Frags: -1 Record

20 Record is enough for a humble retirement.
50 is comfortable, or enough to captain a Boat.
100 is luxurious, or enough to captain a Frigate.

Becoming a ship captain is beyond a life’s honest work.

Incidents
For journeys of multiple days, roll d20. If this is equal or lower than the journey’s length then there is a mid-journey incident. If required, the d20 roll dictates how many days into the journey the event occurs.

Roll d6 to discover its nature.

1: Detour. The stars alter your course. If travelling between stars, roll a random world on any star. If travelling between worlds, roll a random world in that system.
2-3: Ship Incident. Consult a random world page.
4-6: Crew Incident. Consult a random world page.

Incidents may present an ongoing problem that will get worse if not managed.

At the end of a transit or cooldown period of multiple days, roll for each unresolved incident.

1: It reaches immediate crisis point, and will now be resolved one way or another.
2-3: It Gets Worse. The stakes are raised, presenting greater consequences if it cannot be resolved.
4-6: No Change. Things hold steady for now.

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Transit

Setting a Bearing
Before casting off, the ship must set its bearing to an agreed destination. This requires a meeting of the Bearing Council, which consists of the captain and their officers.

The Bearing Council acts as a microcosm of a Captain’s authority on their ship. Yes, the Captain has the power to assign, dismiss, reward, and reprimand their officers, but the ship’s destination is always subject to a vote. Even the Captain is just one vote, with ties broken by the Commander-at-the-Helm.

Captains technically have a veto, but using it is a surefire way to incur a mutiny.

Not every officer really cares where the ship is headed, so they’ll throw their support behind another in return for a promised favour.

Duties
There’s nothing worse than idle crew, so every Officers begin a transit meeting with their Heads and assigning duties, most being self-sufficient enough to continue their ongoing responsibilities. The Heads then delegate to their Hands accordingly.

Reprimands
Whether for a dereliction of duty, misbehaviour at port, or general insubordination, punishments are usually administered during transit. The most common are:

1. Night Labour - You’re given sleep suppressants and forced to work through the nights.
2. Beating - Good old fashioned violence.
3. Public Rebuke - A stern talking down in front of, and involving, your peers.
4. The Grey Cell - A sensory void, where even a few days can feel like a life sentence.
5. Demotion - There’s always a lower rank you can be bumped down to.
6. Debugging - Your mind is at the mercy of the Peoples Executive and their corrective methods.

Traditions

• Any brand new crew members are welcomed to the bridge for casting off from port.
• Officers have the first meal of a transit with their Heads.
• Stowaways are not punished the first time, but punished harshly if caught a second time.
• The Ship’s Song is sung before the first meal past the midpoint of transit.
• Those who die in transit are cast to the void.
• The Captain has the final meal of a transit with their Officers.

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This post was originally sent as a reward to all Patreon supporters, and is released freely on this site the week after its original publication.

If you want to support my blog, podcasts, and video content then head over to my Patreon.

Bastionland Podcast Series 6

That's a wrap on another series of the Bastionland Podcast! If you haven't been following for long, here's the line up who each discussed three games that are important to them:

Episode 1 - LUKE STRATTON
If you ever meet a BORG-like sceptic, point them towards everything Luke has done with Pirate Borg. Always a pleasure to hear him talk about the pirate life with such passion. 

Episode 2 - AMANDA LEE FRANCK
One of the greatest artists in the scene right now and winner of the first guest of this series to make me go out and buy one of her choices.

Episode 3 - COLE WEHRLE
Continuing my theory that you can ask just about anybody to come on your podcast, even the biggest legends of game design, and they might just say yes. 

Episode 4 - GEORGE BICKERS
Creator of the buzz-magnet Mappa Mundi, the first brave soul of this series to bring a videogame choice. 

Episode 5 - BRAD KERR
Brad requires no blurb.
Brad transcends blurbs.

Episode 6 - MARK DIAZ TRUMAN
I feel like I could fill a whole series with just Mark talking about games. I'm hesitant to dig up the questionable OSR/Storygame divide, but if you've never ventured into the latter then listen to Mark talk about his picks. 

It was also a lot of fun making a piece of music for this podcast, returning to the hobby after almost twenty years away. 

If you're inclined to hear more then I'm challenging myself to actually upload stuff on soundcloud and over here with some cutting edge turn of the millennium visuals.