Sensors Operator?

For discussion of the original 1978 rules and for the revised second edition that is entering development.

Sensors Operator?

Postby Galadrin » Sat Aug 13, 2016 4:46 pm

I have detected an anomaly in the rules. The Technical classes are described as operating the ship's sensors (specifically the Communications officer seems to deal with sensors when it comes to using the teleporter, while the Navigations Officer uses sensors to detect space hazards, and the Technical Crewman does a little bit of both). This is odd, since none of these classes has the Science skill necessary to interpret Sensors. Only the Scientific Officers and Enlisted Men have the necessary skill, yet they lack the class bonuses to use sensors well.

So problem number one; You would expect there to be one single class skilled at using sensors in all situations, but what you find is different sensor uses are spread over multiple classes, none of which actually has the skill required to use sensors.

Moreover, both the Navigations Officer and the Communications officer have Contact as a secondary skill, despite the fact that this skill (at least as it is described in the book) has very little to do with the Navigation Officer's duties. Indeed, the description of the Science skill (interpreting sensor results) seems more applicable to the Navigation Officer (detecting space hazards).

The second problem is that, because the Scientific class skills are limited to the personal-scale, a Scientific character has little to nothing to do during a space battle. Their specialties are contacting alien life and treating the wounded, neither of which are a part of the battle (although they may be important before or after the battle). Where the Technical classes can busy themselves operating the sensors during the fight (something which should arguably be a Scientific class job), the Scientific characters just have to sit on their hands.

I am not sure exactly how to address these issues. I would probably recommend at least changing the Navigation Officer's second skill to Science (Contact seems useless for him). Otherwise, the Contact skill should be expanded to cover both diplomacy AND sensor operations, while the Scientific skill is narrowed to analyzing data that the computer sensors cannot interpret (so that a sensor operator would mainly be using Contact for their duties).

A bigger change might be to fold the Medical Officer and the Biology Officer into one and add the third Scientific Subclass of Physicist (with class abilities for using the Science skill to understand bizarre cosmic and physical phenomena). This might make sense, since McCoy often analyzed of alien flora and fauna, despite being just a medical officer ("Damnit, Jim!").
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Re: Sensors Operator?

Postby az_gamer » Sun Aug 14, 2016 4:19 am

Really interesting and intriguing topic

While this may prove useful for the next edition, I find a simpler way to resolve the problem by either house ruling it, adjudicating any problems with the rules as star master or through creative role playing. However, your topic has provided a lot of food for thought and some great ideas for making better use of the class system.

One point, if I read the topic correctly, if all of the classes have some degree or ability to interpret sensor data, and inquiries to the computer at their disposal as well. Is it not the job of all of the pc's to work together to get a clear picture of what the sensors are detecting based on their attributes checks, class skills, computer data, and observations of the scenario as described by the star master?
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Re: Sensors Operator?

Postby Galadrin » Sun Aug 14, 2016 2:45 pm

I read the rulebook more closely and ended up deciding that I am probably thinking of sensors too literally. The book tends to treat sensors in a very abstract way, usually as an excuse for the SM to provide some new information to the players during the adventure (or conversely to make things more mysterious). For example, on page 44 it says "the ship's computer, and its sensors, are methods of obtaining information." Other than that general function, sensors don't seem to have any explicit rules at all in the game, except for the d10 roll to detect certain space hazards.

I think I agree with you, ultimately. I think my solution would be to treat sensors just like SM fiat and use it as an excuse to give the players more clues to the adventure (like the old d20 rumours in TSR modules). There is no particular skill associated with sensor use... It's purely a plot device.

That said, something still ought to be done about Scientific crewmen in combat. I think the solution I am settling on is to change the skill for accessing the Ship's Computer from Technical to Science. This allows Scientific crewmen to at least ask the Computer questions during a battle that could be crucial for achieving victory (and it seems more in line with the pacifist ethic of the Scientific classes). It also seems to fit the skill descriptions better... After all, putting the Ship's Computer to good use is less about knowinng how to operate the interface (a Technical skill) as it is about knowing how to analyze the data the Computer gives you and ask the right questions (a Science skill).
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Re: Sensors Operator?

Postby az_gamer » Mon Aug 15, 2016 12:19 am

Good points!
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Re: Sensors Operator?

Postby Jay_NOLA » Sat Aug 20, 2016 9:36 pm

For sensor usage you can limit what a character can use the senors for and get a bonus if any if it fits in to what the character does. The comm officer is using sensor data to detect communications and make communications with others, so and is not going to be very good at using sensors to locate a party on a planet to teleport up, unless the character is trying to find a comm single.

The rules deliberately keep somethings vague so you a GM could determine if sensor usage fits with what the character is trained to do. The Sensor & Computer usage question rules are also a holdover from the 1st edition and the limited questions was to encourage logic and players think carefully.

A Medical officer is going to know more about treating the basic races of a ship and major known races and have biological knowledge for that, the Biology officer is going to be a bit better trained at studying a wider variety of types of animal but chose not to focus on medical procedures for a confederacy race, both are going to have an overlap in knowledge and could do each others jobs to a limited degree.

For space combat you can make a house rule and say a chief medical officer on a ship can attempt to reduce crew casualties by making appropriate rolls. Some other Trekish games have rules like this in the way they handle space combat.

Some Trek based space combat games let a Science officer make rolls to determine information about an enemy ship, attempt to find weakness in shields (screen) to by pass them for an attack, and maintain lock ons. So you have a couple of options for house rules.

Maybe a new set of S&S space combat rules could be developed to use stuff in S&S and in Star Explorer plus from other games.

I'll use modern Bio in a college setting as an example a medical student and a biologist initially take in school the same basic course material. It isn't until the 2nd or 3rd year do you start seeing the focus shifting to be very specialized. When I took Biology as an elective (2 semesters) it was the one you took if you were going to take if you were going to go into pre-med or just focus in another area of biology. The difference between the two in terms of what we were learning would not be apparent until you took more advanced course and you saw changes. Both are going to know things like basic cell structure, basic stuff about plant life, DNA, etc. but a Botanist is going to know a lot more specific things about plants, be familiar with various types, etc. than a medical doctor.
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