Creative Solutions and Research
Not every task needs a suitable item in order to get resolved.
Our goal with designing items and tasks is that there are multiple ways to solve problems, including inventive methods players come up with. If you’re unsure whether your inventive solution should work, ask a referee.
Example.
Your friend is injured, and has a TRAUMA card with the symptom Severe Bleeding. Their condition will get worse if left untreated. You’re a fighter not a medic, but you know that blood is pouring out of somewhere it shouldn’t, and want to help.
- You can roleplay staunching the wound with pressure. This can stop the bleeding while you’re roleplaying, but it instantly starts again if you let go.
- You can use Medical Patches which have the “Stop Bleeding” effect to fully counter that symptom.
- Someone with an Injector can use a Serum with an effect relating to stopping bleeding.
- You have a Blaster – you shoot it in the air to make the muzzle red hot, then cauterize the wound. This is excruciatingly painful for your injured friend, but the Bleeding has stopped! Unfortunately, they now have a massive burn injury that they need to tell a doctor about when they get back to base, in addition to needing the underlying cause of the Bleeding fixing.
- You don’t have time to help your friend, and realise they need to get back to base for surgery ASAP. You tell them you can’t help, and they should get out of here. They agree, and put their fist to their chest to activate the Emergency Teleporter. They instantly leave the mission, take 1HP damage for using the teleporter, and reappear at the base’s teleportation pad. Doctors are nearby and rush them to the medbay for surgery.
Researching new items
It is not possible to invent new technology independently: it must be in response to plot.
Samples can be experimented with to gain access to new resources, items, or information. Once a sample has been fully documented, it will unlock new plot intel or item upgrades.
Traders on each planet may have access to new technology and items. You can trade for it independently, or the ship can broker a longer-term trade agreement to gain permanent access to these items, adding it to the list of items you can buy from the ship’s shop.
If you would like the Ardent to start stocking specific new items, or are interested in obtaining an item that isn’t listed in Character Creation, you can also put a Requisitions Request in at the Command Hub. If it can be obtained on the current planet, you will get a response that event. If not, you will receive a response at the next event.