Debriefing (part 2)

The team of UG agents made sure to cover the two exits of the warehouse—the side door was covered by the team's Human, while the gelatinous Omul trained their squad car's rotary canon upon the garage door in the front of the warehouse. Meanwhile, the team's stealthy Krissethi had climbed to the roof and managed to creep into the air exchange ductwork, allowing the rest of the team to have some eyes on the inside. There were five gang members working out a gun deal, selling powerful, military-grade firearms enhanced with stabilization technology. The agents knew that they had to prevent these weapons from getting out on the street. When everyone on the team was ready, the Krissethi tossed a tear-gas grenade from the air duct towards the gang below. At the same moment, the Human agent burst through the side door of the warehouse and opened fire. The gang members were temporarily blinded by the tear gas and their wild gunfire missed the agents. The Human seized the opportunity and tackled a gang member, cuffing him quickly before exchanging gunfire with another. The Krissethi managed to have a clear shot at one of the blinded gang members, and put him down with his sniper rifle.

Debriefing (part 1)

This debriefing is for the benefit of other aspiring agents that may be entering the field soon. On Saturday, February 8^th, a team of Union Guard agents was called to action. The agents were on patrol when they were alerted by headquarters about a lead on a gun-running gang. Through a tracking device, it was determined that the gang was meeting at a warehouse near the Vega Starport. The UG agents approached carefully, and discovered the presence of a robotic security drone outside the warehouse. They managed to destroy the drone quickly but were thankfully not surprised by a second drone emerging from a nearby shipping container (they had earlier determined with their rad-scanner that the container had an unusually high radiation signature.) Fortunately, both drones were unsuccessful in sounding the alarm or inflicting harm because of the agents' quick thinking, a few EMP grenades, and the rotary cannon mounted on the team's squad car.

Solar Echoes: Five Games in One! (part 5)

The core system in Solar Echoes is the squad combat system, and players will be spending a lot of their time in battle. This system is the only one of our combat systems that requires the use of a battle-mat: a grid of 1-inch squares for keeping track of character movements. We found that it was necessary to measure movement distances in squad combat because it otherwise became too chaotic and unfair for players. The fast-paced system works well, and players will quickly find themselves working as a team to survive and succeed at their goals. Combat moves more quickly than other RPG's, and keeps all players involved throughout every phase of combat. Characters may be customized and designed with talents and skill investments as well as a variety of weapon and armor choices. Our first mission, which can be found in the Starter Kit called "Gun Runners," has been beta tested countless times, and each time, we've seen players making entirely different choices with their character design and combat style. The bottom line is that, if you've seen it in an action movie, it's almost certainly possible that your character will be able to do the same things in Solar Echoes.

Solar Echoes: Five Games in One! (part 4)

Starship battles are another aspect of the Solar Echoes experience, ranging from intense, one-on-one dogfights to the clash of entire starship armadas. We made sure that the core elements of our car chase rules carried over to starship battles so that players won't have to learn an entirely new system, and only a few additional details are necessary to learn. The system is abstract, so measuring distances and movement is entirely absent from the experience, which keeps the action moving fast. All players will need to work together to manage different aspects of the starship during battle, affording various bonuses that often mean the difference between success and defeat. Imagine the entire group of players managing one character--the starship--working together to maximize its potential in battle. There is an important role for every player, and the teamwork we've seen in beta tests is often more impressive than what we see in squad combat.

Solar Echoes: Five Games in One! (part 3)

Dialogue in Solar Echoes is another mini-game that was developed to quantify things for players when conversing with a non-player character (NPC.) Often, in other RPG's, conversational ability is represented in the game through a single die roll indicating success or failure. Sometimes this approach degenerates into a form of "mind control," where players with high ranks in the ability will be able to convince an NPC to do whatever they want. In Solar Echoes, we have designed the system to incorporate a few more angles. An NPC will have a target "Posture" players must achieve with their persuasive abilities, with risk and rewards attached to each type of persuasive attempt (diplomacy, bluff, or intimidate each raise or lower NPC Posture different amounts.) All players on the team may participate as well, instead of waiting around for the one character with high ranks in persuasion to do all the talking--other players can use their skills to determine possible conversational advantages that can be gained. For instance, an NPC may have an unusual, customized pistol and a character with high ranks in the firearms skill may have a chance to notice this--admiring it and making a successful firearms check will allow the player to say something about the gun that will impress and raise the NPC's posture an additional point. A failed check might cause the comment to come off the wrong way--the NPC might misinterpret the comment as covetous or as mocking.

Solar Echoes: Five Games in One! (part 2)

Hacking in Solar Echoes is essentially a quick mini-game intended to be used to access important, plot-related data or to enter a secure location. Unlike other RPG's that require all players to wait around while the "thief" makes rolls to unlock a door and/or disarm a trap, hacking involves all players and each player can use his best skills to help bring down the security system. Hacking is not necessary in Solar Echoes for every locked door or secured piece of information--it is intended for more important instances in the game so that players will feel they had to go the extra mile and take a risk by hacking a security system. Sometimes, clever players may come up with an idea the MC didn't expect--in one beta test, a player decided he wanted to have his team hack the star-port's passenger manifest to locate a target. The MC decided that an endeavor like this would require a hacking challenge, and when the players barely succeeded, they felt they'd earned the information. If the MC had simply said "ok," and given out the information they sought, it is likely players would have been a little frustrated and questioned the game world itself--what kind of star-port would have such information so easily and freely accessible?

Solar Echoes: Five Games in One! (part 1)

There are a variety of gameplay modes in Solar Echoes because we wanted players to be able to experience the different types of action we'd seen in our favorite shows and movies. Car chases are almost an essential ingredient in action movies these days, and some movies, like the Fast and Furious series, are based upon over-the-top vehicle action and stunts. We have a streamlined set of rules for exciting car chases in Solar Echoes, with pre-scripted scenarios as well as the tools for the MC to design his own exciting action sequences. We worked to keep the rules as simple and as related to our basic combat rules as possible so that players would not have to learn an entirely new system. From our beta tests, players assimilated to the car chase system within a few minutes and were immediately engaged in the excitement of trying to chase down or escape enemy vehicles, guns blazing.