Episode 4 tonight of The Perseus Expansion. One of my players requested a Hot shot piloting skill as part of their starfarer career. I didn’t see any problem in adding in new skills as campaign customisations so had a shot at one. I had a quick peak at Inverse World and created something Move like.
Let me know what you think?
Ace Pilot
When you perform a daring feat of piloting skill, roll +Mettle. On a 10+, choose three. On a 7-9, choose two:
You end up where you wanted and with considerable style
You evade a pursuer, getting out of their sights
You trick a pursuer into hitting something, or ram into something in your way – deal their own highest starship weapon damage on themselves
Your lighting manoeuvres act as a ‘Get involved’ to reduce incoming damage by one level
Your precision piloting acts as a ‘Get involved’ assist to a Navigation skill
Hmm, I’m not really a fan myself, it feels a bit messy. These choices are all potential effect of other moves, the advantage being that they can get multiple effects in one roll. I feel like there’s a neater and more flexible way to handle it. Here’s my version:
Ace Pilot
When you launch into a furball, hold 2, then roll + mettle. On a 10+, the GM holds 0. On a 7-9, the GM holds 1. On a miss, the GM holds 2.
You may spend 1 hold before any roll involving piloting to automatically succeed with considerable style, as if you rolled a 10+. The GM may spend their hold before any such roll to make you automatically fail as if you had rolled a 6-.
Honestly, I tooled around with a good number of “Piloting” skills when designing starfarer. As you noticed, many piloting abilities are very narrow in application by themselves. The skills invariably ended up a bit messy, with many mini-abilities to choose from.
The one that stuck was Navigation, because that applied to all forms of travel. Even then, while I like the skill it could be cleaner.
Calibrations and Recklessness both started as piloting skills, but were then expanded to be more useful to multiple careers/archetypes.
One skill that I saw from another game (can’t remember the name, sadly) that I wish I had come up with is “Walk Away – You are never harmed by a crash or vehicle collision.” So elegant.