Spaceship Zero - Reporter archetype perk suggestions?

[Toren]

So we're wracking our brains trying to come up with a nifty perk for a reporter archetype for Spaceship Zero. Any suggestions? The term 'plucky' comes to mind, but I don't want a perk that just gives him a better Backbone score - that would be boring and it can be done with skill points.

Here's my definition of a good perk:

1. It's something the player controls
2. It bends the rules in a way that no other archetype can
3. It fits in with the archetype's motif (obviously)
4. It doesn't require a lot of interpretation
5. It doesn't take away from roleplaying opportunities

it's a bonus if the perk can be used in various situations (combat and non-combat)

Good examples of perks that follow these guidelines are the Doctor's Back from the Brink , the gladiator's Grit , the Pilot's Hot Dog Maneuver , and the Stowaway's Fate Smiles (probably my favourite perk)

Anyone have any thoughts?

[Fallen_Icarus]

Well although it doesn't exactly fit with your first criteria, the first thing that came to mind was Right place at the right time.  Its kindof a luck thing but it might work.

EVH

[deadpanbob]

How about in the know, or nosey or well connected  - as in able to dig up information better than anbody else.

Cheers,



Jason

[Blake Hutchins]

I like Right Place at Right Time.  How about Ears to the Ground or Sources and Rumors?

Best,

Blake

[Jay Turner]

As a "reporter" in real life (okay, video game journalism doesn't really count), I'd support anything having to do with connections or getting people to talk about things they don't want to talk about. A model for that could be the Pooka Birthright in White Wolf's Changeling, which gives the pooka the ability to "charm" someone into answering a question truthfully to the best of their ability.

Something playing on the ability to have people believe what they write would be good, too. Right Place, Right Time works, but in my experience, it's been more based on knowing the people and facts you need to know to position yourself in the right place at the right time to begin with. Less a "fate" thing and more a "connections/social/investigation" thing.

[Toren]

Reporter is a really tough nut to crack, perks-wise.

Right Place at the Right Time is a great perk, (I'd call it Johnny-on-the-Spot personally) but I'm having difficulty placing it in as a rules mechanic. It also seems the kind of perk that a ZM would control rather than the player.

In-The-Know, or Nosey or Well Connected - able to dig up info.

- If you mean able to dig up info as in research:
That's good - but how to use it rules-wise? Reminds me of the "Library Use" skill in Call of Cthulhu. In Spaceship Zero that skill could be replaced by Technical Know-How (if the info is on a computer - which is more often than not), Administration, or if you're feeling daffy Language & Lore: Dewey Decimal System.

- If you mean able to dig up info on people or the situation at hand, that would probably entail the Psychology skill, the Streetwise skill, or something as simple as See and Listen, or again, Persuade: Charm, depending on the situation.

Ears to the Ground and Sources & Rumours - how to implement?

Social connections I see as being totally roleplaying rather than a game mechanic, don't you? Plus in Universe 2 of Spaceship Zero - there are no contacts! Everything you knew in the past is gone. This kind of perk could work fine in the world of pre-BTL Drive use.

Getting people to talk about things they don't want to talk about - that's something we've been toying with a lot. There are two skills that could reflect that: Persuade: Bluff and Persuade: Charm. How would this perk (maybe called Get to the Bottom of This?) operate differently from the character simply having really high skill scores for these two skills?

Other ideas tossed about:

Objective - providing that he's not being threatening, when a fight breaks out he might have a special ability to avoid being targeted by the bad guys - basically immune to random targeting by the ZM. But this breaks perk rule number 1 (something the player controls)

Objective Part 2 - providing that he's not being threatening, when a fight breaks out the reporter can apply his Dodge penalty to others who are targeting him, without having to apply it to the penalty to his own actions while he's dodging.

Laying it on Twice as Thick
Normally, when you fail a Persuade skill check, you usually can't try again on the same person. The reporter can retry immediately after failing.
i.e.
"Hey! You're boss told me you're relieved" make bluff skill check - failed.
"No he didn't, who are you?"
"Okay you're right, good call -you passed the test. Is that your blue chevy outside with the four flat tires?" bluff check do-over!

And here's another that I just came up with

What a Scoop! or Scooped!
Instead of 1d10 plus his Initiative Bonus, the reporter gets 2d10 plus his Initiative Bonus.
This is akin to Right Place at the Right Time.

Favourites? Comments?

[DP]

Hi Toren,

Welcome to the Forge!

I understand that you rock (a friend saw the Thickets in Regina, and Rob Baxter and I are buds). Spaceship Zero sounds like a very cool game.

If you've the will to let yourself drop, you've really fallen through a rabbit hole by entering the Forge. The major clue I can offer about how to implement the best ideas of a Reporter perk of getting people to open up or to find heretofore-undefined connections is to look at ideas here of shared narration and Author stance.

SZ sounds very Simulationist, but nobody would lose bodily fluid if you slipped a little Narrativism in through the back door. (You have read Ron's article on Matters of GNS, haven't you?)

[Mike Holmes]

To be quite technical, Dave, what you're referring to isn't neccessarily Narrativist, but definitely involves director stance.

What I think Dave is saying, Toren, is that a Perk like On the Spot would work something like this: Once per session, the player can choose to have his character arrive on the scene of whatever's happening.

Now, if you want to maintain some ideal of continutity, the player should be required to explain how he arrived.

Let's say that Bob's character Jimmy Z is a reporter, and another PC, Janet Zoom has been captured by the evil Dr. Planetus. Bib can say, "As soon as Dr. P leaves the room, Jimmy appears." If pressed for an explanation he coud say, "I checked with some sources at the spaceport who saw the Dr. loading the case with Janet in it on the ship that brought them here. So I stowed away before it could take off, and now, here I am!"

The game Adventure! has mechanics called Dramatic Editing that allow just this sort of thing. It's very metagame, but also a lot of fun. Assuming that this won't break the rest of your design. Unfortunately I've not been able to see your game yet, so I can't be sure.

But it does meet all your criteria.

BTW, also a fan of the Thickets. :-)

Mike

[Fallen_Icarus]

I'd just like to say that its a blast watching everybody brainstorm this.  This kind if stuff is my favorite part of game design.

In addition to, or rather as an offshoot of the "Source" perks, how about  Nose for Great Stories or somthing like it.  This could be a player controled perk and allow for a lot of great investigative stuff.

EVH

[Gilbetron]

I think a variant of Taunt that makes an NPC give up a vital piece of information to the Reporter would fit the bill - its something controllable by the player, that isn't covered under normal skills, and creates some great role-playing opportunities.  Call it, um, "Taking the Bait" or somesuch.  After this, I like the idea previously given about preventing the Reporter from being the target of random attacks - it would explain how they can be so annoying yet still survive.  However, as the poster pointed out, its not controllable by the player...

Great game, by the way!

  Ron (not that Ron)

[Emmett]

We've played reporters even though they wern't archtypes in games. It's a bit of a limiting character considering the following.

1. A reporter does not want to be involved in a firefight, but would want to be around for one.
2. A reporter doesn't do anything other than film and have conversations.

However we set up some mechanics that made a reporter more interesting. We assigned points to actions that would be newsworthy. The more points the reporter covered, the more famous they became along with anyone they regularly filmed. (Battlelords did something like this I think.) We had a sci-fi pirate character running around causing havok and the reporter tagged along. The pirate was a meglomaniac (it wasn't how the player was written, just how the player played) and ate up the fame he was getting. It made for a reward system for the reporter, but he was still a bit booring because all he would do is run to a spot to cover a firefight and stay undercover. Later on however when the heat was off, the reporter made for a bit of hilarity as the characters tried to look their best for the cameras.

Reporters can be fun, but they can make the player feel left out of the action. The best way we played reporters, was to make them very charming and could con their way around. This gave the reporter an active role that was realistic. Another thing that cam make a reporter more flexable in a sci-fi story is to allow for mini-cams that people don't readily see. This gives the reporter free hands and more flexibility.