Aleae Iaciens

I had an odd thought about the Frontier system this weekend - what if, instead of the current system, skills and statistics were given card ranks, and used as one of the cards in each hand related to the skill?

The current system works like this: each player is dealt a certain number of cards, and adds those cards to four community cards to come up with a five-card hand.  The number of cards that each player gets in his private hand is determined by his character's relevant skill; the number of times he can discard a card and replace it from the deck is determined by the character's relevant statistic.

The new system would, I think, work like this:

• Statistics have sets of skills associated with them.
• Each statistic and skill is rated from 2 to Ace, but the skills are actually ranked as a distance above the associated statistic; so if a character had, for example, Dexterity 5 and Running +2, then his effective Running skill would be 7.
• In each hand, a fixed number of cards is dealt to each player.  The appropriate skill is added to the player's private hand; thus if the player in the example above were dealt 7♥ 7♣ in a Running contest, he would use his 7 Running to make three 7s in his hand.  If a character does not have the appropriate skill, he defaults to his statistic (since the skill is effectively +0).
• A player is not required to use his character's skill (or statistic) rating in his final hand.

I haven't decided yet whether skill and statistic rankings are wild cards or merely suitless (i.e., they can be used to complete straights and pairings - including 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, and full houses - but not flushes).

I'm not entirely sold on this idea - any comments?  One thing I have noticed is that it significantly reduces the amount that skills and statistics affect the outcome of a hand, which is something I need to consider.

Posted by Chris Anthony at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Herein lies a treatment - again, partial - of energy sources on Frontier.  This doesn't include certain sources, like a hydroelectric plant in the western reaches of the continent, but for the most part it's accurate.

A Marvel, There In Your Hand

Power Sources on Frontier

Originally, the main power source on Frontier was the hydrogen power cell. Power cells were, in fact, the primary power source throughout Federal space; they were compact, long-lasting, and durable, and could be stored for over a decade before they began losing power. Power cells came in two types: a standard power cell was about the size of a football and could power anything up to a large personal vehicle, while a micro-cell was as long and thick as a grown man's thumb, and powered personal electronic devices -- such as phones and computers -- with ease.

While some power cells survive -- they last much longer when kept in cold storage, and even in the modern era there are rumors of frozen subterranean vaults stocked with fully-charged power cells -- they are typically the domain of the very rich and the black market; a century into the Interstitium, nearly everything runs on either coal or electricity generated by coal. The vast anthracite veins in the eastern mountains supply massive power plants in each of the major cities, as well as smaller plants in many of the minor cities scattered across the continent. The central station outside Dodge City processes the coal as it is mined, and then sends it across the transcontinental network of railroads to the many cities that require it.

Since electricity is readily available -- the government controls both the coal supply and the electricity production, and charges affordable fees for power -- most buildings and vehicles run on electric power. Some homes and businesses, however -- especially those far from the cities -- run directly on coal, using it both for heat and for lighting. A few vehicles also use coal power to operate; the most notable among these are the locomotives which traverse Frontier's rail network.

Electrical batteries are available, at least in large cities; these range from tiny devices smaller than a child's thumbprint to the batteries the size of a man's torso that power personal vehicles and beyond. These batteries power a wide variety of devices - including many that have been retrofitted from power-cell use to battery use - but their utility is limited; a battery can store only a hundredth of the power of a cell, if that much. However, in an age where power cells grow scarcer by the day, the colonists of Frontier have learned to rely on batteries - especially those that can be recharged through the electric mains.

Posted by Chris Anthony at 07:03 PM | Permalink