Team Speed value is estimated from the average Speed skill of its members. Note that it may be changed later to use the minimal Speed instead.This is an old revision of the document!
Note: this section is a draft which can be updated at any time.
This section uses rules related to the Dice Pool system. You can explore this section to know more about it.
Away Teams: Progression
Away Teams follow a Survival and Progression system instead of the Rest and Contribute system of Colony Teams.
During the Progression phase, the team will make progress on its objectives.
(1) The team first moves forward until it reaches its destination. While moving, it has the “Moving” activity but may also fulfill additional activities if these were set up.
(2) Once destination is reached the team is no longer Moving; it will now try to complete its mission objective.
(3) Once mission is complete, the team will begin its travel back to the colony. It is now Moving again but with +1d6 in Team Speed as it now knows its path better.
Moving
During the first phase of testing, initial distance to target sector is calculated with 4d6; we take the sum of the roll as total distance. You will cover this distance with your Speed which is 2d6 or 3d6 for instance. With an average distance of 14, teams will usually need two days to reach their destination, or more if they do other activities.
The team will move using its Team Speed attribute.1)2)
The resulting value will be divided by the number of activities performed while moving.3)
So if you are just Moving, with no additional activity, you can count your full Team Speed as movement!
But if you are Moving but also Gathering food and ingredients, you will progress only at half speed, and will be Gathering food and ingredients with some difficulty.
Moving counts as one activity, and any additional activity (collecting resources, researching, etc) counts as one additional activity.
If during movement the team has reached its destination it will wait for next day to start completing its objective.
Note that Moving exposes to several event tables related to travel.
Gathering
First the Team Gathering attribute is rolled as a total score 4). This determines the maximum number of units which will be gathered in this phase.5) We call this value your Gathering Limit.
Then a rarity roll is made to check if some ingredients or materials are present.6)7)
Then for each ingredient a Team Detection test is made against its Stealth.8) 9). With one success you find one unit, with two successes you will find half units (rounded up) and with three successes you find all units.
Then for every unit found, you test your Team Gathering this time against the ingredient difficulty to be collected. Results on this test can impact your Gathering Limit and events. 10) You can only try to gather a unit once.
Gathering is complete once all detected units have been attempted, or your Gathering Limit reaches 0, whichever will come first.
1)
2)
Team Speed is tested as a total score ; so if you have 3d6 in Team Speed all dice will be rolled and we will use the sum as your progression.3)
Note that this is different than the Supply Runs performed during the Survival Phase. During Survival Phase we consider Supply Runs to be done while other team members may be resting instead during the travel, or making other team activities required for traveling.4)
For every activity in addition to Gathering you receive a +1 to all difficulties mentioned and a division to all total scores. If your team is Gathering but also Moving you receive a +1 to all difficulties and also see your total gathering score halved.5)
Team Gathering value is estimated from the average Manual and Speed skill of its members. But any member with the Gatherer class counts three times more than others for this calculation! This means that if you focus on the performance of the one picked as Gatherer, you can greatly influence your Team Gathering attribute.6)
Planet has a planetary food reserve, separately for all ingredients and materials, distributed across all its Regions. Region has half of its starting reserve (called the Region Reserves) distributed in all its Sectors as fixed reserves, and the other half available for gathering during movement. If you are at destination, you use the Sector Reserves, and if you are moving to destination, you use the Movement Reserves instead.7)
The size of the reserves determines chances and number of units to be available. This determines an Abundance value which increases ot decreases number of units, difficulty to detect it (ingredient stealth) or to collect (ingredient fragility when collecting). Abundance is also reduced if reserves are lessened. Initially on a planet you may have an easier time gathering some food evenif its stealthy or hard to gather, as you may receive -1 or even -2 to the difficulty of taking it in some Regions and Sectors, thanks to Abundance. Later on as reserves become more limited, availability will be scarce and you will receive an added difficulty to it.8)
Suppose you have 3d6 in Team Detection and ingredient has 450 Stealth, then you every 4+ means you have one success.9)
When testing an ingredient value, we use a 220 step in value for a +1. We consider 2+ to be the base difficulty 0-219, 3+ if 220-439, 4+ if 440-659, 5+ if 660-879, 6+ if 880-1000.10)
If you have three successes on your Team Gathering test, you can collect the ingredient without hitting on your total Gathering Limit. If you have two successes, you collect the unit normally and lose 1 Gathering Limit. If you have one success, you collect the unit but add one possible minor negative event to the Gathering Event Table. If you do not have any success, you do not take this unit, you add a chance for an average negative event and lose 2 Gathering Limit.