1. Does the Shuttle functionally add 5 Cargo Capacity to your ship? (I assume so, as 10 Creds + 1 Upkeep seems a bit steep for just another egress point but I wanted to check.) That's of course with you dropping 5 Load worth of cargo explicitly in the Shuttle and putting the rest in your main Airlock: I doubt you can magically drop 5 over your normal Capacity in your main Airlock and have it sort itself out later on.
2. Does the Shuttle count as an Airlock for positives, as well as negatives? I assume I have to roll Airlock to drop off cargo in it, but can I also, ah, borrow parts out of it with the Slicer's Cannibalize? How about hitting the Spares Bank? (I could see both working, only Cannibalize working, or neither working, honestly.)
Good questions. Let's see if I can't make this clear as mud, how 'bout?
1. Shuttle's a convenience item, Belter. That 5-load cargo bay in the shuttle is in addition to you main scrapper's bay, but they are indeed separate. You'll sort the prizes when you get back to station, but on the job? 5 in the shuttle and however much your bird carries in two neat stacks.
2. I'd say that, as a canny and practiced Belter, you've probably got the same ability to pull parts and have Bits waiting for you in a Shuttle. Preparation is key, right? Anything you can do in your main Airlock's is meant to be accessible through the Shuttle. Shuttle is, essentially, another Airlock with all of the drawbacks and advantages that entails. It's how the two-person salvage operations manage to operate, and it'd proper suck to be the partner gasping while the other's camped out next to the recharge port. Chalk it up to being fair and equitable in a Belt that...well, ain't.
One, if I'm ready to move up in the world with a shiny new bird am I taking on all the additional debt? Or is the debt only for putting into beltin' in the first place.
Second, you lookin' for any mission write ups? Cuz I can swap stories with the best of 'em if there's an audience.
When you're ready to take the con of a new Bird, you're going to want to sell your previous ride and--now here, I'm speaking in generalities, because I'm sure you can find other uses for some ready cred--put that sum toward paying down the debt on the new one. Because yeah, short answer, you're taking on the shiny new bird's debt.
As to the second, I don't have a particular place where write-ups are supposed to go. I hear tell that some enterprising Belter put together a Reddit where they'd probably be at home. I've been retweeting after-action reports on Twitter, and showing love to the YouTube plays. Hell, I've heard some good ones on our Patreon Discord as well. But just like Belters, we're all scattered to the wind. Makes every one I stumble across a treasure, y'understand.
Chariot I'm itchin for some more tales, podcatcher ran dry real fast. I been swappin my own stories with a few other belters but what became of Milo Griggs is keepin me awake at night.
I gotcha, Belter, and I'm dreadful sorry about the lag in comms. Turns out between writing out new goodies for the game and the various steps of production that have to happen before fulfillment, there's precious little time to drawl into a microphone for y'all. That and there for a solid three months I couldn't go a sentence without breaking into a fit of coughing. Got the chrome-lung something fierce. But I'm on the mend, and I swear by all the turning dark that I'm working on it.
Manuscript's so dern long that I think I owe you a double episode.
Then we'll try and settle back into the easy rhythm of one wave per cycle. Appreciate you carin', Belter. That there brings a smile to old Chariot's heart and no mistake.
1. Regarding Payday options and taking the opposite of the ones you don't choose; I can follow that for most of the choices, but I'm unsure how to apply that to the last choice. Is it "It is/isn't" worth more then you first imagined (so it's +2 Load and Cred or +0 Load and Cred) or It's worth more/less then you first imagined (+2 Load/Cred or -2 Load/Cred)? The former seems "nicer", but I'm not sure how I would play the latter; -2 Load/Cred on a Tier 1 ship would literally not be worth hauling back, which seems off.
2. The rules say you can carry Grit/Gear/Gas over capacity in your Load slots on runs; can you carry over such resources between Birds in a similar way?
(Bonus clarification: I am assuming you cannot use the between Birds part of the Slicer's Cannibalize Special Feature to, say, dump all or most of your Gear into Spares Bay slots and then "refill" yourself to Gear capacity for 1 Cred? That seems a bit too friendly even for a class Special Feature.)
Let's see if we can't clear the haze a bit and get you back to scrappin' with maximal efficiency, shall we?
1. The intended opposite of "It's worth more than I first imagined" is "It's not worth more than I first imagined." Plenty of things that can make that Payday worth less in the Oracles and Threats and even based on where you put your airlock, but the Payday move isn't out to hurt you like that. It's either +2 or +0.
2. So long as you've got somewhere to stick those goodies when you get back to your airlock, you can carry over resources. If you've got Grit/Gear/Gas in your Hold and you need some when you call it quits? Hell yeah, top up. If you got a Spares Bank, so much the better. But if you've got more than you can use or store in your Spares Bank, best just to sell them for the quick cred and buy Bits later.
Bonus Round: You assume correct. People start asking uncomfortable questions and the dockside techs stop wanting to work on your deathtrap if you start cutting on the poor bird in port. That's a tactic of desperation and improvisational genius, not a standard operating procedure. Usable only during the Bird phase like the most of the Special Features.
Hope that's a little clearer for you, Belter. Thanks for the wave. We'll see you out there on the float.
Re: 1 - thank you! The italics formatting of “Add 2 Load/Cred” was making us second-guess, since the italics were reserved for the bad outcomes on the other options.
It's rough out here. Regardless, I appreciate you.
re: the payday... if I roll a 1-3... Oracles say "the Payday you came for is junked. Reminder: The oppposite of every choice you don’t take happens". Core says I could "spend Grit to salvage the payday by using it as normal"... what's normal out here? sounds like on a 1-3 I can spend a Grit to salvage, or not, and the opposite of every pick list item happens either way.
ok, per Core, if i don't salvage then i ignore the pick list. so that stuff just doesn't happen. so my question really is, if i do salvage, does the opposite of every pick list item happen? (including spending another Grit)
Chariot copies all Lima-Charlie, Belter. Let's have a walk through the Payday move right quick and see if we can't get you back to scrappin' and salvagin' without any undue brain-frizz.
So when you roll for a Payday, like rolling for any other prompt or move in the game, you will roll a d6 (unless you decide to spend some Gear before you roll, in which case you'll be rolling 2d6). On a 1-3, as usual, the worst happens--you've come all this way for a stripped or busted payday. But you're a Belter with luck and grit. Just like any other bit of bad news, you can spend Grit after the fact to boost your failure into a mixed success, the 4-5 result on this prompt. IE, you choose two of the bulleted options on the Payday move picklist which are true, and the others are false. So if you don't spend one of your choices on "You don't need to spend Grit to remove it," you do indeed need to spend a Grit to remove it, in addition to the Grit you've already spent to boost your 1-3 to a 4-5.
Hopefully that scrubs the signal and makes it a little clearer for you, Belter. But if it's all still broken/unreadable for you, send another wave and we'll hook and jab our way through a payday together step by step and see if we can't make the weird make some sense, square?
Gonna loiter on this station a while, Belter. Pulse the crackle and hum button if'n you need. Chariot, out.
Hey Drakes! I'm really enjoying the game but I'm unclear about Spacewalk move. It says what happens when I draw only red cards, or two black cards, or one black and one red. What if I got a mixed success, drew only one card and it's black? Does this mean "no success, but also no resources spent"? That's what made sense to me, but it's unclear in the rules. Help?
Also, unless I'm misreading things, there's a bit of a loophole with Spares Bank? Once I have it installed, I can buy Spare Bits for 1 cred and it makes no sense to buy any Grit or Gear for 2 cred. I can just enter the Airlock on a new Bird and take the stuff I bought for cheap from the Bank. Is this on purpose? Or am I misunderstanding how Gear and Grit work?
Having to walk back to the airlock for your spares is a hassle. Expanding your "On You" Grit, Gear, and Glow means cutting down on trips and minimizing the risk of a bad run of gas-checks cutting your trip (or career) short.
Sure, but I'm starting in the Airlock. So if I have no Gear left after previous run, I can just spend 3 cred, put 3 Gear in my Spares Bank, and as soon as I get to the new Bird, I load that 3 Gear into my pack and start exploring?
Or does Gear, Grit and Glow actually reset before each run, and paying full price permanently increases the reset value?
The 2 cred upgrades increase the max grit or gear you can carry. After each run, you'll need to refill both your personal inventory and your spares bank with "Spare Bits." Whichever track you fill--bay, carryall, both, or neither-- the price is the same. 1 cred for three bits. Mix and match.
Wow, I completely misunderstood the way this works then! Thank you so much for explaining. I guess I need to make a new Belter now and play it the right way, hopefully I'll have better luck.
I completely missed the Kickstarter, but I’d love to pick up a physical copy. Is there a mailing list I should be on to get notified when they become available?
Hey Drakes, wonderful game! Question: In the Albatross description it says it can accommodate a 7 slot spare bank upgrade... should it say 8 slot? And just to be clear, spare bank upgrade is the same as spare bank expansion, right?
Howdy, Belter! Glad to hear you're getting on well enough to have questions about the biggest Beltin' Bird going. The Albatross can mount the largest Spares Bank available on the Belt, the 7-Slot Spares Bank (available at all reputable and less than reputable refit stations for 7 Cred).
Looking at the sheet, I'm seeing the confusion though. Each upgrade is indeed a mark on the Spare Bank Expansion category on the sheet. And we are looking at a weird number of bubbles on the bank itself. We'll get that sorted and polished once we're clear of space-plague. Play it as it lies for now, and we'll get it all ironed out.
Thanks for the extra eyes, Belter. This is why we're lucky to have y'all out there.
Thanks, good to know. Another point of confusion is that under goods and services the spares bank expansion 2 provides 8 slots for gear, grit and gas for 8 cred. I'll just go with 7 for now! Again, super cool game.
Hi Drakes. A question about the void rat. Does the vent rat ability still work if the ship is breaking up? Should you re-roll if the destination threat area is on the other side of the break?
Yeah, Belter, turns out that Void Rat doesnt mean you get to walk in space for free. If the ships come apart and your rolled destination is drifting into the great beyond, you're not getting there without a spacewalk. Feel free to give the dice another shake and see where you end up otherwise.
Sorry to hear we missed you for the campaign! As it stands we'll be taking care of printing and distribution for the Kickstarter. When that process is done and settled, we'll most likely be left with an overage of the physical zines to cover shipping mishaps and suchlike. Any of those leftover copies of the physical edition will be posted up here on Itch as available. Short answer is currently "no." But come fulfillment time, 'round May 2023? Resounding Yes.
Good to know! Just finally got to really get into the game and I absolutely adore it. Haven’t had solo rpg experiences this tense since Ironsworn was in early access! Will be keeping an eye out to snag one of the physical copies :D
Still waiting on the email from Itch.io Admin, unfortunately. Glaring at our inbox like it owes us something is so far proving ineffective. I'm holding out hope that it's going to be rectified before too much longer, but on the off chance that there's no word, shoot us an email at ACoupleofDrakes (at) Outlook and we'll at least get you the ashcan version to tide you over.
Because this is frankly ridiculous, and y'all have been patient enough.
← Return to game
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
Two questions on the Shuttle:
1. Does the Shuttle functionally add 5 Cargo Capacity to your ship? (I assume so, as 10 Creds + 1 Upkeep seems a bit steep for just another egress point but I wanted to check.) That's of course with you dropping 5 Load worth of cargo explicitly in the Shuttle and putting the rest in your main Airlock: I doubt you can magically drop 5 over your normal Capacity in your main Airlock and have it sort itself out later on.
2. Does the Shuttle count as an Airlock for positives, as well as negatives? I assume I have to roll Airlock to drop off cargo in it, but can I also, ah, borrow parts out of it with the Slicer's Cannibalize? How about hitting the Spares Bank? (I could see both working, only Cannibalize working, or neither working, honestly.)
Howdy Belter,
Good questions. Let's see if I can't make this clear as mud, how 'bout?
1. Shuttle's a convenience item, Belter. That 5-load cargo bay in the shuttle is in addition to you main scrapper's bay, but they are indeed separate. You'll sort the prizes when you get back to station, but on the job? 5 in the shuttle and however much your bird carries in two neat stacks.
2. I'd say that, as a canny and practiced Belter, you've probably got the same ability to pull parts and have Bits waiting for you in a Shuttle. Preparation is key, right? Anything you can do in your main Airlock's is meant to be accessible through the Shuttle. Shuttle is, essentially, another Airlock with all of the drawbacks and advantages that entails. It's how the two-person salvage operations manage to operate, and it'd proper suck to be the partner gasping while the other's camped out next to the recharge port. Chalk it up to being fair and equitable in a Belt that...well, ain't.
Hope that helps.
Chariot, out.
Two incoming for you Chariot.
One, if I'm ready to move up in the world with a shiny new bird am I taking on all the additional debt? Or is the debt only for putting into beltin' in the first place.
Second, you lookin' for any mission write ups? Cuz I can swap stories with the best of 'em if there's an audience.
Howdy Belter,
When you're ready to take the con of a new Bird, you're going to want to sell your previous ride and--now here, I'm speaking in generalities, because I'm sure you can find other uses for some ready cred--put that sum toward paying down the debt on the new one. Because yeah, short answer, you're taking on the shiny new bird's debt.
As to the second, I don't have a particular place where write-ups are supposed to go. I hear tell that some enterprising Belter put together a Reddit where they'd probably be at home. I've been retweeting after-action reports on Twitter, and showing love to the YouTube plays. Hell, I've heard some good ones on our Patreon Discord as well. But just like Belters, we're all scattered to the wind. Makes every one I stumble across a treasure, y'understand.
Y'all be good or good at it, out there.
Chariot out.
https://www.reddit.com/r/deadbelt/
Carved out a place for belters to palaver, see ya'll there.
Chariot I'm itchin for some more tales, podcatcher ran dry real fast. I been swappin my own stories with a few other belters but what became of Milo Griggs is keepin me awake at night.
I gotcha, Belter, and I'm dreadful sorry about the lag in comms. Turns out between writing out new goodies for the game and the various steps of production that have to happen before fulfillment, there's precious little time to drawl into a microphone for y'all. That and there for a solid three months I couldn't go a sentence without breaking into a fit of coughing. Got the chrome-lung something fierce. But I'm on the mend, and I swear by all the turning dark that I'm working on it.
Manuscript's so dern long that I think I owe you a double episode.
Then we'll try and settle back into the easy rhythm of one wave per cycle. Appreciate you carin', Belter. That there brings a smile to old Chariot's heart and no mistake.
Stay tuned, y'hear? Chariot out.
good copy chariot and thanks for the sitrep, keep em comin.
standing by
Two rules questions:
1. Regarding Payday options and taking the opposite of the ones you don't choose; I can follow that for most of the choices, but I'm unsure how to apply that to the last choice. Is it "It is/isn't" worth more then you first imagined (so it's +2 Load and Cred or +0 Load and Cred) or It's worth more/less then you first imagined (+2 Load/Cred or -2 Load/Cred)? The former seems "nicer", but I'm not sure how I would play the latter; -2 Load/Cred on a Tier 1 ship would literally not be worth hauling back, which seems off.
2. The rules say you can carry Grit/Gear/Gas over capacity in your Load slots on runs; can you carry over such resources between Birds in a similar way?
(Bonus clarification: I am assuming you cannot use the between Birds part of the Slicer's Cannibalize Special Feature to, say, dump all or most of your Gear into Spares Bay slots and then "refill" yourself to Gear capacity for 1 Cred? That seems a bit too friendly even for a class Special Feature.)
Howdy Belter,
Let's see if we can't clear the haze a bit and get you back to scrappin' with maximal efficiency, shall we?
1. The intended opposite of "It's worth more than I first imagined" is "It's not worth more than I first imagined." Plenty of things that can make that Payday worth less in the Oracles and Threats and even based on where you put your airlock, but the Payday move isn't out to hurt you like that. It's either +2 or +0.
2. So long as you've got somewhere to stick those goodies when you get back to your airlock, you can carry over resources. If you've got Grit/Gear/Gas in your Hold and you need some when you call it quits? Hell yeah, top up. If you got a Spares Bank, so much the better. But if you've got more than you can use or store in your Spares Bank, best just to sell them for the quick cred and buy Bits later.
Bonus Round: You assume correct. People start asking uncomfortable questions and the dockside techs stop wanting to work on your deathtrap if you start cutting on the poor bird in port. That's a tactic of desperation and improvisational genius, not a standard operating procedure. Usable only during the Bird phase like the most of the Special Features.
Hope that's a little clearer for you, Belter. Thanks for the wave. We'll see you out there on the float.
Chariot out.
Re: 1 - thank you! The italics formatting of “Add 2 Load/Cred” was making us second-guess, since the italics were reserved for the bad outcomes on the other options.
Solid copy on that. Style guide deviations are noted to be a bad thing.
You read me, Chariot?
It's rough out here. Regardless, I appreciate you.
re: the payday... if I roll a 1-3... Oracles say "the Payday you came for is junked. Reminder: The oppposite of every choice you don’t take happens". Core says I could "spend Grit to salvage the payday by using it as normal"... what's normal out here? sounds like on a 1-3 I can spend a Grit to salvage, or not, and the opposite of every pick list item happens either way.
Reality check me... Over...
ok, per Core, if i don't salvage then i ignore the pick list. so that stuff just doesn't happen. so my question really is, if i do salvage, does the opposite of every pick list item happen? (including spending another Grit)
Chariot copies all Lima-Charlie, Belter. Let's have a walk through the Payday move right quick and see if we can't get you back to scrappin' and salvagin' without any undue brain-frizz.
So when you roll for a Payday, like rolling for any other prompt or move in the game, you will roll a d6 (unless you decide to spend some Gear before you roll, in which case you'll be rolling 2d6). On a 1-3, as usual, the worst happens--you've come all this way for a stripped or busted payday. But you're a Belter with luck and grit. Just like any other bit of bad news, you can spend Grit after the fact to boost your failure into a mixed success, the 4-5 result on this prompt. IE, you choose two of the bulleted options on the Payday move picklist which are true, and the others are false. So if you don't spend one of your choices on "You don't need to spend Grit to remove it," you do indeed need to spend a Grit to remove it, in addition to the Grit you've already spent to boost your 1-3 to a 4-5.
Hopefully that scrubs the signal and makes it a little clearer for you, Belter. But if it's all still broken/unreadable for you, send another wave and we'll hook and jab our way through a payday together step by step and see if we can't make the weird make some sense, square?
Gonna loiter on this station a while, Belter. Pulse the crackle and hum button if'n you need. Chariot, out.
roger that, Chariot... those dots got connected and i'm all straightened out.
Thanks y'all. Loving the game. Been giving Roll20 a ride, too, works pretty nice.
out... for now...
Hey Drakes! I'm really enjoying the game but I'm unclear about Spacewalk move. It says what happens when I draw only red cards, or two black cards, or one black and one red. What if I got a mixed success, drew only one card and it's black? Does this mean "no success, but also no resources spent"? That's what made sense to me, but it's unclear in the rules. Help?
You've got it exact, Belter. If you get a Black card as your only draw, you're going to need to roll and draw again.
Also, unless I'm misreading things, there's a bit of a loophole with Spares Bank? Once I have it installed, I can buy Spare Bits for 1 cred and it makes no sense to buy any Grit or Gear for 2 cred. I can just enter the Airlock on a new Bird and take the stuff I bought for cheap from the Bank. Is this on purpose? Or am I misunderstanding how Gear and Grit work?
Having to walk back to the airlock for your spares is a hassle. Expanding your "On You" Grit, Gear, and Glow means cutting down on trips and minimizing the risk of a bad run of gas-checks cutting your trip (or career) short.
Sure, but I'm starting in the Airlock. So if I have no Gear left after previous run, I can just spend 3 cred, put 3 Gear in my Spares Bank, and as soon as I get to the new Bird, I load that 3 Gear into my pack and start exploring?
Or does Gear, Grit and Glow actually reset before each run, and paying full price permanently increases the reset value?
The 2 cred upgrades increase the max grit or gear you can carry. After each run, you'll need to refill both your personal inventory and your spares bank with "Spare Bits." Whichever track you fill--bay, carryall, both, or neither-- the price is the same. 1 cred for three bits. Mix and match.
Wow, I completely misunderstood the way this works then! Thank you so much for explaining. I guess I need to make a new Belter now and play it the right way, hopefully I'll have better luck.
that ain't workin', that's the way you do it...
follow up question - does the cost to increase your max Grit/Gear/Glow/Load also include any bits?
example:
as i write it out (and as i re-read page 10), i'm thinking i stay at 3. but it'd be nice if i didn't...
money for nothin', and your grit for free...
I completely missed the Kickstarter, but I’d love to pick up a physical copy. Is there a mailing list I should be on to get notified when they become available?
Absolutely! You can sign up for our mailing list here: https://acoupleofdrakes.com/join-the-mailing-list
It's also a great idea to follow the Knave of Cups game store; we send official retail copies of our games to them before anywhere else: https://knaveofcups.com
Hey Drakes, wonderful game! Question: In the Albatross description it says it can accommodate a 7 slot spare bank upgrade... should it say 8 slot? And just to be clear, spare bank upgrade is the same as spare bank expansion, right?
Howdy, Belter! Glad to hear you're getting on well enough to have questions about the biggest Beltin' Bird going. The Albatross can mount the largest Spares Bank available on the Belt, the 7-Slot Spares Bank (available at all reputable and less than reputable refit stations for 7 Cred).
Looking at the sheet, I'm seeing the confusion though. Each upgrade is indeed a mark on the Spare Bank Expansion category on the sheet. And we are looking at a weird number of bubbles on the bank itself. We'll get that sorted and polished once we're clear of space-plague. Play it as it lies for now, and we'll get it all ironed out.
Thanks for the extra eyes, Belter. This is why we're lucky to have y'all out there.
Thanks, good to know. Another point of confusion is that under goods and services the spares bank expansion 2 provides 8 slots for gear, grit and gas for 8 cred. I'll just go with 7 for now! Again, super cool game.
Hi Drakes.
A question about the void rat. Does the vent rat ability still work if the ship is breaking up? Should you re-roll if the destination threat area is on the other side of the break?
Yeah, Belter, turns out that Void Rat doesnt mean you get to walk in space for free. If the ships come apart and your rolled destination is drifting into the great beyond, you're not getting there without a spacewalk. Feel free to give the dice another shake and see where you end up otherwise.
Hello Chariot!
Will there also be a way for those of us who accidentally misread the closing date of KS to order a physical copy similar to the kick starter?
I'm interested in this as well.
I'm interested too.
Howdy Fox,
Sorry to hear we missed you for the campaign! As it stands we'll be taking care of printing and distribution for the Kickstarter. When that process is done and settled, we'll most likely be left with an overage of the physical zines to cover shipping mishaps and suchlike. Any of those leftover copies of the physical edition will be posted up here on Itch as available. Short answer is currently "no." But come fulfillment time, 'round May 2023? Resounding Yes.
Thanks Chariot!
Good to know! Just finally got to really get into the game and I absolutely adore it. Haven’t had solo rpg experiences this tense since Ironsworn was in early access! Will be keeping an eye out to snag one of the physical copies :D
We'll be loud and proud when they're available, Belter. Glad to hear you're enjoying your time on the Gasping Frontier!
How do those of us who backed the KS access this?
Our email with all of the Kickstarter keys is awaiting admin approval through Itch.io. Hang tight. It's on its way.
Any updates on the email issue? Hoping to play for the first time this weekend (fingers crossed) :)
So much so that I was looking around to buy the older version which I see is no longer available.
Still waiting on the email from Itch.io Admin, unfortunately. Glaring at our inbox like it owes us something is so far proving ineffective. I'm holding out hope that it's going to be rectified before too much longer, but on the off chance that there's no word, shoot us an email at ACoupleofDrakes (at) Outlook and we'll at least get you the ashcan version to tide you over.
Because this is frankly ridiculous, and y'all have been patient enough.