Spiraller
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Posts: 280
Joined: Mon 01 Oct 2018, 09:47

Working on ark projects

Mon 22 Oct 2018, 01:32

I just played an MYZ session where the players and GM were stumped by the rules regarding work on ark projects, specifically in regards to realism and plausibility. Questions:
  1. When does rolling for work upon the project happen? Upon embarkation of the project, or after a specified time has passed (refer to question 2)? My personal stance is the latter.
  2. How does one determine how long it takes to complete a project? If, for example, successful rolls took place upon embarkation of the project (as in question 1), and the Work Points were reduced to zero, would the project magically complete that very instant? Or would it take a certain number of hours/days? My personal interpretation, based on the gaining of XPs rules on page 25, would be that one day of work was done.
  3. In your play experience, is it normal to go through multiple sessions without having worked on the ark? E.g. when PCs go venturing in the zone for a couple of sessions. I'm concerned about the loss of opportunities to increase DEV levels and also XP. Or would artifacts found in the Zone more than make up for the lack of work on projects (and also gaining "zone exploration" xp in place of "work on the ark" xp)?
  4. If players complete an ark project via successful rolls, does the project contribute to development levels before or after the roll for Session Body Count? E.g. If, as per question 1, players roll at the embarkation of the project, and we decided that a project could not magically appear, is it okay for the project to still increase DEV levels before the roll for Session Body Count at the end of the session takes place? Or would DEV levels only increase at the start of the next session? My personal opinion is that there can be a fast forwarding of game time to account for the completion of the project within the same session.
  5. This next question is in regards to the Zone Fever threat. How would the GM decide how many People in the Ark die per day? Or does "dying" as stated in the text mean that the people are in critical stages but technically not dead yet? And what does "If nothing is done – quickly – the People will perish" mean? What does quickly here mean in terms of game time?
Thanks in advance for any clarifications!
Last edited by Spiraller on Sat 16 Mar 2019, 21:09, edited 1 time in total.
 
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Fenhorn
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Joined: Thu 24 Apr 2014, 15:03
Location: Sweden

Re: Working on ark projects

Mon 22 Oct 2018, 04:49

1) Most skill rolls are made when you start the action. The reason for that is that the time to perform a skill roll can be different depending on if you succeed of fail with the skill roll.
2) How long it take is one of those GM discretion tings. I my campaign I mark off (I have a calendar) x number of days if the players are working on a project. How many depends on what it is but usually anything from a couple of days to a week.

I should say that we have our assembly meetings at the end of a session and I draw a threat card also at the end of a session. This way I have more time to come up with events that can happen when the players are working on projects and I have more time to prepare a better story for the threat card.

3) If there is no assembly or no one in the ark to work on a project, the GM can start a project and also can deduct WP equal to the number of players for a project of his choice (p 103). So this means that there is progress for the ark even though there are no players there. It is in the hands of the GM. A perfect opportunity for the GM to stir things up in the ark.

In one campaign, my players where gone for several sessions (7 I think it was) from the ark (there where on an expedition to investigate a possible bunker). There was a conflict in the ark when the players left so during those sessions where the players where gone and I as a GM controlled the assembly. I played on this conflict. So when the players finally got back, they found that the ark had finished a militia, tribunal, torture chamber, surveillance and the project autocrazy was started but not finished. The reason that I picked those project was that the ark had been attacked with the help from people from the ark so the people wanted protection. The players found themselves with a new problem. A boss that hated them was in her way to become a dictator.

4) The body count is done in the end of a session so whatever has happen in the session counts towards this.

5) When I ran this event I decided where the cure was to be found and I calculated how long it would take to get there and back. It would take two days so I decided to have an additional d6 body count deduction at the end of each session for each game day that has passed. It took the players three days to get the cure so 3d6 mutants was lost due to the fever. I also decided when this threat started that if the players didn't find any cure after one week, a group of NPCs will find a cure instead (i though that loosing an addition 7d6 mutants was harsh enough).
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borusa100
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Joined: Mon 14 Jan 2019, 11:12

Re: Working on ark projects

Mon 11 Feb 2019, 10:09

I have only run three sessions and we did a project on the first.
The players all rolled well and the project was completed in one round-I figured it took about a day of game time to complete.
In the second and third session we were doing a Special zone Sector so , in effect, those two sessions amounted to one expedition into the zone.
I am going to use the sandbox aspects of the game-generating the contents of a sector and running with that alongside the Special zones and see how that goes.
I am instantly very fond of this game and the system.

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