Hey Folks. I've started a Google Doc with the intent to compile an ongoing compendium of different locations, environmental conditions and generic set pieces. The goal is to codify a bunch of circumstances which can be mixed and matched to build game encounters without having to necessarily build everything from the ground up, as well as to set a kind of objective benchmark for myself when determining how different dice pools are constructed for different checks.

I've only just started, and it will be a progressive project, but I'm interested in seeing what other folks think of this. I'll probably be jiggering the layout a bit, and I'm open to any suggestions for content. Here's the link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gjSb8E0B5LSUl4DY-LTdDziegeDt5Ui6hk1jfBcVNVw/edit?usp=sharing

Looks pretty good, I just have a small issue with fluff-text. Starships have inertial compensators, so (unless I'm mistaken) it wouldn't be too difficult to navigate the corridors of a small starship during a dogfight, and almost certainly not Daunting. (I couldn't think of an alternative though)

Other than that, looks great!

That one line was kind of informed by that scene in The Force Awakens when BB-8 has to basically anchor himself to the walls of the Falcon while Rey and Finn are outrunning the First Order TIEs. But yeah, canon can be a little inconsistent with these technical details. Maybe I'll swap something different in after another watch of the movies; maybe 'the roof of a speeding conveyex'.

58 minutes ago, gtgauvin said:

maybe 'the roof of a speeding conveyex'.

That's pretty good.

(Part of it probably has to do with being in atmosphere vs. in space)

Go listen to thenorder 66 episode on the gm holocron it will give you a lot of tips

If you look up old posts, I've always wished someone would do something like this. There HAVE been others who have done something similar. A long list of ideas on spending dice results, special affects, etc. for various environments was very helpful in the original NDS system of Warhammer.

22 hours ago, Daeglan said:

Go listen to thenorder 66 episode on the gm holocron it will give you a lot of tips

I think the Order 66 Podcast was what gave me the idea. I remember one bit where they were talking about having a variety of set pieces pre-written that you could whip out when you needed something on the fly.

12 hours ago, Sturn said:

If you look up old posts, I've always wished someone would do something like this.

I hope you check back in once in a while and maybe find something you can use. I'd love to get this off the ground to a point where it becomes a collaborative project with multiple contributors. I think having various categories of challenges and conditions which can be overlaid on one another can be very helpful for GMs. I'm especially interested in enumerating factors that can be used to reward Talents and Abilities which remove Setback Dice. After all, it kind of undercuts the utility of your Twi'lek scout's Desert Dweller ability when you don't penalize the rest of the party for navigating the Dune Sea at high noon.

There is on the d20 radio boards a pdf of some environmental set pieces you might fing useful

I don't know if it exists, but a list of the environmental Warhammer cards and their effects might easily be converted to scifi?

Edit: Almost forgot, I did this . Glancing through them not sure if any translate well into scifi.

3 hours ago, Sturn said:

Edit: Almost forgot, I did this . Glancing through them not sure if any translate well into scifi.

I think some of those entries can definitely be modified to suit my purposes. It's already given me the idea of a whole subset dedicated to different types of locales and what kinds of effects that might have on social checks.

Just wanted to give you some more support! Looks really good, glad to see it coming along. Looking forward to the section on cold/heat, that's something that's been bugging me for a while. I particularly like your section on "the high ground." I've never been particularly good on environmental effects, so this is/will be quite helpful.

If you want a suggestion for a 2 Setback option on "Ocean Shore" try "occupied beach!"

https://kainrath.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/environmental-set-pieces-redux/

This is good.

On 11/23/2019 at 2:56 PM, gtgauvin said:

That one line was kind of informed by that scene in The Force Awakens when BB-8 has to basically anchor himself to the walls of the Falcon while Rey and Finn are outrunning the First Order TIEs. But yeah, canon can be a little inconsistent with these technical details. Maybe I'll swap something different in after another watch of the movies; maybe 'the roof of a speeding conveyex'.

Yeah but in Empire Strikes Back, most of the people are running around the Falcon while in combat, with minimal difficulty. Occasionally being bumped against a bulkhead, but for the most part, not really having problems with mobility. So yeah, the franchise is inconsistent.

53 minutes ago, KungFuFerret said:

Yeah but in Empire Strikes Back, most of the people are running around the Falcon while in combat, with minimal difficulty. Occasionally being bumped against a bulkhead, but for the most part, not really having problems with mobility. So yeah, the franchise is inconsistent.

Probably in-atmosphere vs. out-of-atmosphere.

14 minutes ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Probably in-atmosphere vs. out-of-atmosphere.

....yeah...Star Wars has never had a very....accurate relationship with atmosphere, and how it impacts vehicle movement I wouldn't put much weight in that.

5 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

Yeah but in Empire Strikes Back, most of the people are running around the Falcon while in combat, with minimal difficulty. Occasionally being bumped against a bulkhead, but for the most part, not really having problems with mobility. So yeah, the franchise is inconsistent.

5 hours ago, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Probably in-atmosphere vs. out-of-atmosphere.

4 hours ago, KungFuFerret said:

....yeah...Star Wars has never had a very....accurate relationship with atmosphere, and how it impacts vehicle movement I wouldn't put much weight in that.

I would. TFA is the first time we see a starship battle take place in atmosphere/gravity well. In every other movie the starship battles took place in space, where the ships' artificial gravity and inertial dampeners would be at their most effective, and not be overruled by a planet's gravity.

27 minutes ago, Tramp Graphics said:

I would. TFA is the first time we see a starship battle take place in atmosphere/gravity well. In every other movie the starship battles took place in space, where the ships' artificial gravity and inertial dampeners would be at their most effective, and not be overruled by a planet's gravity.

Dude, Star Wars has starships bank in space and make roaring engine noises in same space vacuum. It has NEVER paid any attention to actual space physics when it comes to things like velocity, trajectory and other movement based mechanics. The reason TFA had it be a tumble dryer scene was for 2 things, 1. To establish Rey's fairly hectic and unpolished flying abilities, and 2. Allow for a comical scene with a spherical droid where orientation is easy to change at any second. That's it. It's the same reason that we see people running around in Empire during a similar shaky situation, because the comedy was for everyone to be running around, while 3PO was stumbling in place, turning in circles in confusion, before finally falling over. It was a sight gag, nothing more.

Just now, KungFuFerret said:

Dude, Star Wars has starships bank in space and make roaring engine noises in same space vacuum. It has NEVER paid any attention to actual space physics when it comes to things like velocity, trajectory and other movement based mechanics. The reason TFA had it be a tumble dryer scene was for 2 things, 1. To establish Rey's fairly hectic and unpolished flying abilities, and 2. Allow for a comical scene with a spherical droid where orientation is easy to change at any second. That's it. It's the same reason that we see people running around in Empire during a similar shaky situation, because the comedy was for everyone to be running around, while 3PO was stumbling in place, turning in circles in confusion, before finally falling over. It was a sight gag, nothing more.

Yes, and ? It still doesn't change anything I said above.

Okay. Let's save it for somewhere else, we are woefully off topic.

On 12/19/2019 at 7:47 AM, P-47 Thunderbolt said:

Probably in-atmosphere vs. out-of-atmosphere.

Also, the Falcon had been sitting in the desert for years, then got jump-started by an unfamiliar pilot. Obviously she rolled some Threat due to all the setback dice GM JJ threw at her, and he said, "Okay, you get it started, but the inertial compensators aren't calibrated, so blah blah blah."

On 12/26/2019 at 12:14 AM, The Grand Falloon said:

Also, the Falcon had been sitting in the desert for years, then got jump-started by an unfamiliar pilot. Obviously she rolled some Threat due to all the setback dice GM JJ threw at her, and he said, "Okay, you get it started, but the inertial compensators aren't calibrated, so blah blah blah."

I love this!