[nWoD Mirrors: Infinite Macabre] Mage in Space: The Spaceship Merit

 Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage in Space!
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition & new World of Darkness - Mirrors: Infinite Macabre
Storytellers: Jerad Sayler, Korri Smith & Mathew Hagan

Mage in Space: Making a Better Spaceship Merit

If you are going to have a Cabal traveling the stars you need to represent it somehow.  The following is an amalgam of rules from MtA 2e, nWoD: Mirrors - Infinite Macabre, and rules adapted from Star Wars: Age of Rebellion.

Merit: Spaceship (• to •••••) - As written in the Mirrors: Infinite Macabre sourcebook

In the Infinite Macabre, there are two type of people – settlers and travelers. For the ones who find a stable home and defend it, the Safe Place merit works fine. But for travelers and adventures who feel the call of deep space and long for the freedom of the skies, there is another option.

Your character either owns or crews a spaceship capable of traveling beyond a planet’s atmosphere. Dots in this merit reflect the quality of the spaceship, and provide points for upgrades and modules such as weapons and armor. Each dot grants 5 points in upgrades that can be spent how the player wishes. See Spaceship Mechanics later in this chapter.

Unlike most Merits, multiple characters can contribute dots to a single Spaceship, combining their points into something greater. A Spaceship gives an Initiative bonus equal to the Merit dots to combat set inside the Spaceship. This only applies to a character with dots invested in the Spaceship.

The Spaceship merit can replace the Safe Place merit as a prerequisite for any other merits.

The Spaceship merit provides two things: a rating of Security for the ship itself (from -1 to -5) includes insurance and protects against break-ins, theft, and hacking.  It also provides 5 points per dot to be allocated in a Spaceship's traits:

1.     Ship Silhouette – the base Chassis/scale for the spacecraft, determines size and targeting bonuses or penalties. It also determines the value that must be exceeded before ship-wide Tilts and conditions can be applied.  More on Silhouette later!

2.     Ship Handling – takes the base mod from Silhouette and is modified by points expending improving handling with automation, gyroscopes, dampeners, compensators, guided systems and impulse thrusters.  Is applied as a modifier to Piloting checks.

3.     Ship Armor – Hull reinforcements, back-up systems, and plates of advanced materials, reduce damage taken by 1 point per dot per attack.

4.     Ship Defenses – Shields, drones, point-defense systems and countermeasures from attacks.  Allocated to zones and add to a defense rating.

5.     Ship Weapons – Determines the base damage and range of basic weapon systems on the ship.  Base weapons all have Short range.

6.     Ship Hardpoints – Any modifications that add special rules to systems and require allocated points of the Energy pool to use at a given moment.  Common modifications include:

a.     Navicomputers

b.    Tractor Beams

c.     Cyberwarfare modules

d.    Stealth drives

e.     Faster-Than-Light (FTL) Systems

f.      Enigma Devices

g.    Special weapons (that may have shorter or longer range, limited ammo, or drain or bypass shields, etc)  Examples include:

                                          i.    Slow-Firing – need cast time or cooldown time

                                        ii.    Limited Ammo

                                       iii.    Armor Piercing

                                       iv.    Shield Piercing

                                         v.    Ion – Energy draining

                                       vi.    Blast – have an explosive radius

                                      vii.    Guided – such as missiles

                                     viii.    Automated – do automatic damage

                                       ix.    Situational dice tricks

                                         x.    Can augment or be independent of base weapon systems

7.     Ship Thrust – Combination of power, acceleration, and speed of sub-light propulsion systems.  Operates on Planetary or Atmospheric parameters.  Notated on a 1-5 scale based on how many range intervals (Extreme, Long, Medium, Short, Close) can be crossed in a single turn.  Extreme represents the outermost of conventional sensors.

a.     See Speed rating.. its more complicated than that... more in the near future.

Derived Traits:

1.     Hull Integrity – A ships health boxes.  The number of boxes is determined by combining the Silhouette + Armor + Hardpoints of the ship.  Functions the same as structure.  And yes, wound penalties do apply…

2.     Energy – An analogue to Willpower Dots and determined by the combination of Defenses + Thrust + Weapons.  This pool determines how much energy is allocated and can power Hardpoints, Shields, Thrust and Weapons.  The most that can be allocated to one area is capped by the rating of the system (or in the case of Defenses, a defensive zone).  Some specialized hardpoints expend points from the Energy pool until the next Scene.

       Thoughts?