5. Flashbacks
The heart of the system. Only gets 4 pages. It only /needs/ 4 pages. Essentially, a Strength is an auto-win, except you can’t Strength a Strength, and a Weakness trumps a Strength. A Weakness is an auto-loss. The book harps on this. You use a Weakness, you LOSE. Not even draw. LOSE. What are these? Well, you have some “available” slots in Strengths and Weaknesses. At any time, you can say “but wait! Because of [xyz flashback scene - about a paragraph] my character [abc]s!” and change what is about to happen. Most useful when a die roll is about to kill you.
The game doesn’t say it explicitly, but here’s a brainwave! Flashbacks can be aspects of your character, such as this: “Sgt. Angora once took one to many blows to the head. As such, he has had part of his brain removed and replaced by computer. Unfortunately, his brain/machine interface is a bit slow and has caused him to miscalculate the co-ordinates for the airstrike, taking him and a Threat Token out of the Encounter.”
The last Weakness everyone gets Available is entitled “Hatred For Home”. Page 33 ostensibly has more information about this one. In addition, realize that “Available” doesn’t mean “Used” or “Has”, just that it’s available for use.
6. Missions
Mechanics and suggestions for missions. 4 pages (1 of which is another short story). Long story short: GM gets PCs * 5 Threat Tokens, which are allocated to encounters to pace the mission. The chapter does have some suggestions of things to do other than just killing things, though makes note of the fact that the goal of the Expeditionary Forces really is to wipe everything else off the face of the universe. So, killing is first and foremost, but there might be an ancient computer with plans for an advanced vehicle from some kind of standard template that can be built out of whatever materials available, that is useful to recover.
7. Between Missions
I, and the book, have touched on what goes on between missions. Levels are gained, development rolls are made, medals are handed out, and ranks may be lost. Level is indicated as the total of FA + NFA, and has a maximum of 18. (so, 9+9 or 10+8). In addition, Flashbacks increase by one each level, up to a maximum of 5/5. (Once you’ve Used a Flashback slot, it’s gone forever, never get to use it again) [note: Hatred For Home can be used by any PC once one PC has made it available to themself]
Ranks can only be gained through development rolls if you’ve used a Strength. It’s a bit risky, as it’s an NFA test. If you fail, that Strength cannot ever gain you a Rank again. Oh well.
You can roll to gain a gun or other item. Unless it’s “Everyday Trooper Shit”, in which case you just get it.
You get to improve your gun (another spot where bionics or other kinds of traits like that can come into play) by one step at one range. Guns increase to a maximum of two steps higher per range. You can roll to improve a second gun.
It’s also possible to be demoted: if you used a Weakness in the mission, did not just get promoted, AND another PC nominates you, you may be demoted. A contested NFA roll between nominator and nominee determines this. Trooper is the lowest rank; you can’t be dishonourably discharged. (Possibly dishonourably executed next mission, though…)
8. Replacement
Replacements are easy. They’re new characters to replace the guy who just got iced. As such, it’s 1 page and 1 page of short story. You create a new guy with a Level the same as the old guy, one Strength that was used is now available again, and his rank has to be lower than the old guy. Oh, and he’s got standard issue equipment. Sucks to be him.
9. Higher Ranks
This chapter, 4 pages long, is essentially just a list of ranks. Available PC ranks are, above Sergeant: Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, Colonel, and Brigadier. (However, it notes that the current Brigadier is still alive, and there can be only one. … sucks to be him) The Brigadier’s Order 16 is quite interesting, and I’m not going to spoil the surprise for you.
a. The Game Master
GM Tips & Tricks. Has four main important things it wants to impart: 1. adversity through NPCs and aliens. 2. Players own their PCs. 3. Judge as any other player would (i.e. keep pressure high through the NPCs and aliens). 4. Re-incorporation: pay attention to things you can use again and again. After these initial two pages, it then goes into the GM Techniques sub-chapter, 6 pages of things to help everyone out. Starts on page 44 with a quick discussion of scene framing. Should be familiar to anyone who Forges out from time to time. Then, PC vs PC and PC vs NPC. PC vs NPC is the same sequence as PC vs Alien, basically, but PC vs PC is a bit different (because both PCs are “important”). The chapter has advice for using Threat, for choosing range, pacing through Alien Ability, and the missions – and focusing on missions or on the bigger picture. Also has a bit about rotating GM, something this game really screams out for.
b. Planets
I’m partway through this chapter, largely because it’s a big list of things. There’s 5 different lists of things you need to choose for a planet, each is 20 long. You get to pick each element from each list once per 20 missions (though special abilities, you get to pick 2 on the second go, 3 on the third go, and so on, or otherwise vary it up … make it harder for your Troopers if they somehow make it past mission 20!). The five lists are: Alien Ability, Planet Name, Basic Planet Description, Basic Creature Form, and Alien Special Ability. Alien Ability is just determining the AA rating of the planet (and is most often dealt with by taking one of the PC’s stats and adding or subtracting 0, 1, or 2). Planet name is just that: its designation. Description is things like “Desert World” or “Radioactive”. A bit Space Opera-ey there. Creature Form is, well, what the creatures look like. Dogs, Dinosaurs, Sentient Planet, whatever. Special Abilities are, well, things the aliens can do (powered by Threat).
Since I’m partway through that chapter, I’ll leave the lists until tomorrow.
I’ll part tonight with a further brainwave. There’s nothing that says that the AA roll for the GM’s aliens has to represent the aliens attacking. There’s precedent in that NPCs use the planet’s AA. I’m thinking, especially, things like the corrosive effect of the Radioactive planet.
And one final brainwave: this would make a brilliant aerial or space combat game, too, pretty much just with ship weapons. However, I think I would love to hack in a “systems officer” type role (NFAs to do xyzw, whatever, depending on role. Navigation Officer to maneuver, Gunnery to shoot with FA, Engineers to evasive or damage control), but that’s for a large ship. One-man fighters (a la Star Wars) can be done with the rules as written, possibly even with just re-skinning the weapons. (On the other hand, with weapons rated in a limited amount of dice, it shouldn’t be hard at all to come up with new ones).
Ok, challenge: can someone give me an X-Wing’s weapons? (the PC determines how injured he/the ship are)
Laz