Greetings Wanderers!
It is time once again for another Starfang Developer Blog Post! So, let’s dive right in and take a look at the topic we’re going to be discussing, “Dangers of Starfang.”
What is a Danger?
Like any Hydra System game, Starfang has a number of “Dangers” you will face in your time traveling the Atrius Galaxy. For more info into what a “Danger” actually is, let’s jump over to our Lore Keeper Codex to another Hydra game, Steel Horizons:
Seems like a lot out of context, huh? But, don’t fret, I can summarize it further! In essence, enemies in any Hydra game are divided into 4 main categories, Low, Moderate, High, and Extreme Dangers. Within these various levels of Dangers. Lore Keepers are able to customize and tailor encounters to their own designs. We can discuss what makes each Danger fall into each level later, as for now let’s just hammer home how Dangers (and by extension, combat) work.
During combat, Player’s take their turns in any order they wish (there is no initiative) and the only times that enemy combatants act is when Player’s make an Attack roll of “Failure with a Consequence” (1-4) or “Success with a Consequence” (5-9). In response to any Player rolling these outcomes, one Danger may act by taking either a “Soft Move” or a “Hard Move”
“Soft Move? Hard Move? What are you talking about??”
Ok…fair point, I’m throwing a lot of background terms at you…. THAT YOU WOULD KNOW IF YOU BUY SOME STEEL HORIZON GOODNESS!!! #HitUpMyItchPage
“Really? Another sales pitch in a blog post?”
Shush it, you!
Anyway… let’s chat briefly about Soft vs. Hard Moves
“Are you just going to keep posting screen grabs from Steel Horizon stuff?”
Hell yea, baby! If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
However, as shown in the image, Soft Moves simply mean either taking a normal attack as in any other game, while a Hard Move is a set up to instead take one big action the next time a Danger acts. Simple right?
So, now that we’ve given the background of what a Danger *is*, let’s apply it to a potential Danger in Starfang!
Dangers in Starfang
“Really? Surprised you didn’t call this section ‘Danger Zone.”
Dammit…. That would have been so much better…
But, when you think of enemies in science fiction, what pops into your head? Imperial Stormtrooper? Deadly Bounty Hunters? Terrifying Alien Monsters? Any of these enemies would fit wonderfully in Starfang, but for our sake, let’s choose “Bounty Hunter.”
Now we decide what threat level Bounty Hunter we wish to build. Whether a simple Bounty Hunter hireling or a notorious Hunter Boss, any type of Danger level would work! For the sake of simplicity, we’re going to go in the middle and choose Moderate Danger, perhaps a well trained Hunter on one of their first jobs.
Now that we have chosen our Danger level, we can consult our Lore Keeper Codex again!
“Great… another sales pitc-”
JUST BUY IT ALREADY!
Ahem… sorry about that. But, we can use the information within to help us build a sample Moderate Danger
Let’s take this line by line, we can start with Wounds. As a most likely younger Hunter looking for the first big score, three wounds seems appropriate for this type of Danger. For a Signature Weapon, let’s have some fun with it! This Hunter specializes in more long range, so we can give them a Laser Rifle and a Laser Carbine, a two Wound and one Wound weapon respectively. We can skip the tags for this particular post, as we will discuss tag in another upcoming Dev Blog post.
Finally, let’s think about what kind of Maneuvers this Hunter might have. As a ranged focused Hunter, an ability to slow down fleeing targets would be appropriate I think. Perhaps, “Leg Shot”, an ability to reduce a Player’s movement to zero as well dealing two Wounds. As for the last Maneuver, let’s think of something hard hitting. “Heat Round”, a shot that deals three Wounds to one Player as well as one Wound to another nearby, would work perfectly as the Hunter slams a custom round in their rifle.
Just like that, we’ve created a nice, mid level Danger! What do you think you could come up with in…. THE DANGER ZONE?!
“You just couldn't help yourself, could you?”
No… no I could not.
As always, keep wandering!
-Mike