Author: Adrian Thoen

The December revision is available. If you’re pumped for Mass Effect Andromeda and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2, Impulse Drive can play both of those settings pretty well!

Originally shared by Adrian Thoen

An updated version of this title is now available.

Here are the changes for the December update:

29/11/2016:

Modified Heart of Glass to add an extra Storm, and create more useful options.

Modified downtime to include the option of healing 1 Stress when you spend time with another Crew Member.

Fixed Mystic Weapon gear description to correctly reference Mystic Weapon Master.

Added date to versions for greater clarity.

Changed the 7-9 option for Mercantile to be a roll on Lucrative Exports.

Added an option on Connected that give the ability to spend a choice on Payday to improve Disposition with a Group or NPC.

30/11/2016

Revised the following moves for clarity: Foresight, Navigatrix, Prestidigital Interface.

Revised the description of the following Tags: Rare, N Uses, Stun.

References to Hooks removed from Convincing Argument.

02/12/2016:

Reorganized and streamlined Tags for Gear, Vehicles, Upgrades, and NPC Ships.

Renamed Bombardment Range tag to Cannonading, to avoid confusion with Broadside.

Added an index to the back of the book. The index is still raw and unedited.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/190933/Impulse-Drive-Preview

Originally shared by Adrian Thoen

Impulse Drive has been updated with more balancing and streamlining.

If you’re excited about all the Mass Effect Andromeda or Guardians of the galaxy 2 trailers coming out and want to play a game that feels like those things, check out Impulse Drive Preview for free on DrivethruRPG for free.

Changelog:

*16/11/2016: *

○Modified Cargo tags for vehicles and NPC ships to reflect current Cargo rules.

○Rewrote Lucrative Exports and Mercantile to be more clear, and eliminate nested rolls.

○Rewrote Hey Big Spender to be more concise and clear.

○Rewrote The Crew is Back In Town to better reflect new rules.

○Removed Downtime from methods to heal the Knocked Out Harm, since it was redundant.

○Rewrote the Downtime Move.

○Added text and rewrote minor parts to clarify Foibles, and explicitly state that Hooks are used to create Foibles.

*23/11/2016: *

○Readjusted Fuel, Debt, Debt Fuse, Damage for some weapons and Hits for Ships.

○Changed Drive to not require a stat. FTL Moves now roll Helm. Scanning rolls Tactical.

○Listless in Space is a new move for when Adrift has been marked on Ship Damage.

○Adjusted how some Moves interact with Burn on Strains.

○Removed Burn from Modifications and Ship Upgrades.

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/190933/Impulse-Drive-Preview

Version 3.0 of Impulse Drive has a lot of changes throughout that should reinforce the style of play it’s designed for.

Originally shared by Adrian Thoen

Version 2.5 of Impulse Drive was finished and stable last week, but I’m not going to release it, because 3.0 is coming soon, and it’s a huge revision.

Version 2.5 had some significant changes for tracking time, one of the underpinning resources in Impulse Drive. The Space Master used Scenes, Episodes, and Seasons to frame events, which is more in line with the space opera TV shows the game is designed to emulate. The Principles of the game tell the SM and the Players alike to think cinematically, and I figured the game should follow it’s own rules.

But the changes didn’t carry over to the player side of the table in 2.5, so I decided to do just that. At the same time I took a look at the other underpinning resource of the game.

Money.

A big motivator for the Crew is their Debt hanging over their head. It’s why they take contracts for dangerous jobs. Like so many other RPGs, money was handled literally, and that had a few issues. The most prominent was that it allowed and encouraged hoarding. Balancing payments so that the Crew didn’t get too much money, or nowhere near enough was a nightmare for someone who is terrible at math such as myself.

To ensure predictability and security, players hoarded money for tighter times. Which entirely rational and understandable, not to mention fiscally responsible.

But the Crew in Impulse Drive are not fiscally responsible. They’re flashy, impulsive, volatile. They might pay the bills and expenses to keep their ship running. They might splurge on some new toys. But anything left over? They blow it living the high life for a few days, or a week. and then they’re broke, and payments are due in another week or two.

While implementing the changes to time and money (which have so many cascading changes echoing through the system.) I’ve also renamed Jobs to Contracts, and I’m reworking them from the ground up with the changes to time and money in mind.

I’m considering abstracting money to a couple of moves instead of a trackable resource in my spaceships and misfits PBTA hack. This will ensure the players have to always keep chasing scores instead of just getting rich and coasting.

Basing the roll off an NPC’s Disposition with the crew (a modifier between -2 and +2) will encourage the players to cultivate relationships with specific NPC groups and individuals, to ensure better chances of getting paid or fining what they want.

This is going to take a lot of restructuring, since the previous model for money was very literal. (Complete a job, get paid X monies. pay the cost of thing to gain it.)

Originally shared by Adrian Thoen

Payday

When you successfully complete a job or sell goods equal to one slot of Cargo, or information, or services of significant value, and collect your pay, roll+Disposition with your client or customer.

On a 12+, you make out like bandits, choose 4.

On a 10-11, you get a great deal, choose 3.

On a 7-9, you get the standard deal, choose 2.

On a 6-, it’s a set up or raw deal. You may either walk away without getting paid, or choose 1 and deal with an enemy that’s found you and wants to settle things now.

You keep the wolves at bay, reduce Debt by 1 and reset the Debt Fuse.

You pay the bills, you pay the maintenance costs for your ship, crew, and gangs and reset the Maintenance Fuse.

You get the Ship patched up. Remove all Damage from the Ship.

You spend big and live the high life, each Crew Member gets to heal all Harm and resets their Stress track to zero.

You grease the right palms and make some friends. Increase the Disposition of an important group or individual by 1.

The Ship gets an upgrade. Gain 1 upgrade for you ship.

You go shopping. Each Crew member may gain 1 piece of Basic Gear, or rolls Retail Therapy for Rare, Expensive, or Illegal Gear.

Purchase 1 Cargo slot of basic goods at a good price, or roll Retail Therapy to find rare, expensive, or illegal cargo. Cargo you buy in one system must be shipped to another system to sell.

Make 1 purchase from the Basic Vehicles list, or roll Retail Therapy to purchase an expensive, rare, or illegal vehicle.

After you’ve made your selections, you’re broke again and need to find another way to make some cash.

Working on the Impulse Drive 2.5 update…

Originally shared by Adrian Thoen

Impulse Drive update:

Working on the SM Rules and I’m confident with Strains as a framing tool encouraging everyone to play cinematically. Also working on ways to more clearly track ranges in complex combat situations without turning it into a miniatures game.

I’m furiously scribbling notes on making Strains – the Impulse Drive version of Fronts or Threats from Apocalypse World. This is the hardest part for me to write since I usually prep very little for my own games and improvise everything from the boiling stew of my brain.

I’m calling them Strains to imply the strain they put on the Crew and their surroundings, but also as Strains of DNA for your games ongoing narrative.

Since ID is designed to emulate the fiction of shows like Firefly, Andromeda, Farscape, Killjoys, and Dark Matter, I’m theming the types of Strains based on their immediacy; scene, episode, and season strains.

Instead of clocks or countdowns, Strains use Fuses. The different types of Strain fuses burn down at different speeds. Fuses can have 3, 4, 5, or 6 burn. These numbers are independent of the types of strain, and their length depends on the speed or complexity of the events the strain describes. I chose fuse and burn for their evocative feel, and for the following line:

“Fuses: what a lovely way to burn”

Scene Strains are for situations that are likely to hit a climax right here and right now. A battle or an argument, or sneaking into a facility. When a scene strain climaxes, you get your crescendo, and the scene resolves now or very soon. A scene fuse burns down per an action. 1 burn for a situation ignored or opportunity missed by the crew, and 2 burn if escalated or exacerbated by the crew.

Episode strains are for stuff that will happen this session. Jobs or missions, or relationship focuses would fit well into an Episode strain. 1 burn for a scene where a complication or problem ignored or opportunity missed by the crew, and 2 burn if a scene has the situation escalated or exacerbated by the crew.

Season strains are for overarching situations or issues the crew can’t deal with in an episode, or is burning away in the background. Season Fuses take 1 burn for an episode where the crew don’t interact with them, or 2 burn when the crew accelerate or escalate them.