Qualifications and Specialties
about 3 years ago – Fri, Mar 17, 2023 at 02:21:47 PM

Happy Friday, Pilots. Hopefully, most of you are looking at the end of the workweek and will soon be able to unwind. As the team at 3301 readies to leave for PAX East and hit the road, we want to build off of the last Update and continue to talk about some of the fun mechanics for SALVAGE: Deep Space.

Qualifications and Specialties

A few weeks ago we previewed Event Decks - one of the major mechanics for involving your crew of Exo-mech pilots in the evolving environment. As a part of that breakdown we teased Qualifications and how these pilot-specific attributes will be used in narrative moments to determine situational outcomes.

Qualifications

In SALVAGE: Deep Space Qualifications are one of the most defining customization decisions you make when crafting your crew of Mech Pilots and are meant to highlight a particular individual’s skill-set as part of your larger crew. Throughout the campaign you will be faced with impactful narrative moments that test the breadth and depth of your crew’s competencies. Successfully navigating these moments will lead to favorable results including forgotten technology, exotic cybernetics, hidden storylines and more. Failure may result in lost resources, missed opportunities, pilot injury… or worse.

Whenever your player group creates a Pilot (including the 6 at the start of the campaign), you will assign one Qualification to each character. These are not literal, in-fiction qualifications, but a term used to identify what skills this particular pilot brings to the table. When you open the box there are 12 unique qualifications:

Piloting - Competencies in helming a ship.
Navigation - Competencies in aircraft positioning and charting flight paths.
Engineering - Competencies in ship design and maintenance.
Communications - Competencies in the operation and maintenance of telecommunication
Presence - Competencies in leadership, persuasion, and manipulation.
Enforcer - Competencies surrounding martial prowess, survival, and protection.
Underground - Competencies in underground knowledge, resourcefulness and skullduggery.
Acquisitions - Competencies in procurement, trade, and collection.
Medical - Competencies in providing medical treatment in support of deployment operations.
Knowledge - Competencies in a wide array of specific academic scholarships including history, politics, and language.
Science - Competencies in a wide range of scientific foci including Astro Physics, Xeno Biology, and Geology.
Computer Science - Competencies in the operation of computer equipment including threat identification, decision-making algorithms, and systems programming.

As your crew works through the campaign, there will be opportunities for current Pilots to add additional Qualifications or strengthen existing ones. As you add new pilots, how you choose to build out your collective Qualifications pool can be a strategic decision. Will you seek pilots with skills that are not yet accounted for amongst existing crew members or will you double down on your strengths? Which skills will you value most as you navigate Sol System?

But wait… there's more.

Specialties

Specialties are a subset of Qualifications and further define who a particular Pilot is and can often be used to bolster Qualification scores in narrative moments - like Events. During Pilot Creation when a Qualification is selected, one of the three Specialties associated with that Qualification is also selected and added to the Pilot Card. If at any point during the campaign, a Pilot accrues a third ‘rank’ of a Qualification, they may select a second Specialty.

Piloting
Combat - the ability to pilot during an action between military forces.
Evasion - the ability to perform fast and effective maneuvering to avoid a threat.
Environment - the ability to master environmental considerations.
Navigation
Course Charting - the study of navigation mapping and maneuvering boards.
Hazard Detection - the study of safety systems for hazard detection and avoidance.
Surveillance - the study of integrated sensor solutions for target detection and tracking.
Engineering
Power and Energy- the study of electrical and fusion systems.
Mechanical - the study of aerospace, ship architecture, and control systems.
Biomedical - the study of kinetics, biomechanics, and cybernetics.
Communications
Transmission - the study of radio transmitters and receivers.
Encryption - the study of encrypting and decrypting secret message traffic.
Tactical - the study of effective, operational communications amongst crew units.
Presence
Leadership - the ability to direct the actions of others in a manner of loyal cooperation.
Persuasion - the ability through charisma to convince others to do or believe something.
Manipulation - the ability to exercise harmful influence over others.
Enforcer
Close Combat - the ability to excel in short-range and melee combat situations.
Ranged Combat - the ability to engage targets in distances greater than physical reach.
Intimidation - the ability to cause fear or compel others through the threat of force.
Underground
Skullduggery - the ability to perform underhanded or unscrupulous behavior.
Fence - the ability to effectively purchase and resell stolen property.
Hacking - the ability to perform non-permissioned computer research.
Acquisitions
Logistics - the ability to manage the procurement of materials and maintain inventory.
Trade - the ability to analyze the system’s economy.
Exotics - the ability to identify rare or unusual items and their potential purposes.
Medical
Nutrition - the study of crew readiness including fatigue exposure and general health.
Surgery - the study of the evaluation and treatment of conditions that require surgery.
Pathology - the study of the causes and effects of disease.
Knowledge
History - the study of collecting and evaluating information concerning historical events.
Language - the study and knowledge of several human languages.
Politics - the study and knowledge of contemporary governance.
Science
Astrophysics - the study of the physics and properties of celestial objects.
Xenobiology - the study of strange or alien forms of life.
Astrogeology - the study of geology of the solid bodies in the system.
Computer Science
Systems Programming - The study of construction of systems, chips, and components.
Security - The study of threat detection, virus engineering, pentesting.
Artificial Intelligence - The study of intelligent agents and decision-making algorithms.

During an Event, at the Qualification Check step, the presence of a relevant Speciality will automatically improve the Result, leading to more favorable outcomes.

For example: Your crew has some type of unexpected viral outbreak that is seriously impacting the ship’s performance. Not only do you have a Pilot with a Medical Qualification, but as it turns out, they specialize in Pathology. The Qualification Check will have made it clear that ‘Pathology’ applies in this specific circumstance and the subsequent result will be one that reflects a crew that had someone fully capable to deal with the outbreak.

Have questions about how Qualifications and Specialties work? Feel free to reach out - we love talking about it!

PAX East Game Convention

PAX East - just one week away! As a reminder, the event runs from March 23rd to March 26th. We will be showcasing Salvage and all its newest components at Booth 12098 in the Main Expo Hall.

In addition to showcasing SALVAGE: Deep Space, we will have some goodies on-hand including 70mm statuettes, Pilot Pins, and PAX East exclusive 28mm Xenomartians. If your pledge or add-on included the selection of one or more of these and you are going to be at the convention, feel free to swing by and pick them up! If you are interested in a Statuette but have yet to pull the trigger, please visit the pre-order store in Backerkit or stop by the booth to take a look.

In addition to these Backer Updates, we typically preview and display our progress a couple times each week across our various social media platforms. If you are interested in digesting our new visual assets as soon as they roll out, please consider following us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter - plus TikTok for any video content.

We hope to see some of you next week!

Matt, Ben, and Sean, 3301 Games

The Event Deck and An Exciting Announcement
about 3 years ago – Fri, Mar 03, 2023 at 03:27:03 PM

Good afternoon, Pilots. As 3301 welcomes the first Friday of March, we want to take a moment to wish you all an enjoyable day in what is hopefully the start of a relaxing weekend. As we turn the page on February, it feels like the perfect opportunity to peel back the curtain a bit with some exciting announcements as well as continue to update you with SALVAGE’s progress.

The Team Grows

First and foremost, we would like to make an announcement that we are incredibly excited for - the official addition of Ben Danforth to the 3301 team.

A student of physics and art, Ben has always enjoyed merging the logical and the creative. Games have long been a part of his life, from growing up with video games and AOL text RP Chats, to years working in a board game store, to years of running and playing in TTRPG's.

The collaborative nature and emergent storytelling places cooperative games and TTRPG's amongst his favorites. An avid collector of rulesets he loves to dissect elegant systems that support interesting storytelling. Recently, Ben has worked professionally as a data scientist but looks forward to pointing his analytical wizardry towards more creative endeavors.

Ben will be joining co-founders Matt and Sean as part of the ownership group. You can expect to see him working the booth at all of our Cons this year, so feel free to walk up to him and give him a high-five! Yay Ben!

The Event Decks

At its core SALVAGE: Deep Space is a co-operative, tactical skirmish game. The Missions your crew of Exo-Suit Pilots embark on will drive many aspects of the playthrough. However, as we have often said, that is only part of this tabletop game. An inseparable part of the full experience will be what your crew chooses to do in-between the tactical scenarios, causing the environment to adapt around you.

With that we’d like to shine light on one of the game mechanics that speaks directly to that practice - The Event Decks. Event Decks will be one of the most consistent devices for your crew to interact with the environment in a highly narrative way. There is a lot of nuance to how these Decks are accessed and their ebb and flow throughout the campaign, but for now we will stick to their basic function - to provide moments where the Pilots are able to impact the story, specifically when they are not at the helm of their powerful Salvage Suits.

When you unbox the game there will be 6 different Event Decks - each clearly categorized and tied to a specific area of Sol System. The system is a big place, but even in its fragmented state there is no shortage of perils. When you and your crew travel it will necessitate the drawing from one (or more) of these decks with the number of cards drawn being related to the distance traveled. When multiple cards are drawn they are fully resolved in the order they were pulled.

In order to more fully understand what that means, let’s break down the mechanical components of one example.

All Event Cards regardless of deck-type will have one side of narrative text. This side always begins with The Prompt. The Prompt is the initial narrative hook of the Event Card and is usually some sort of call-to-action for the crew which directly leads to the next component - The Response. The Response is displayed as 3 options at the bottom of the Event Card, meant to represent the different decisions your crew could make.

After the players collectively agree on the crew’s Response, they are guided to a specific section of the Narrative Book. It is here that multiple Pilot-customization mechanics become relevant, the most notable being Qualifications. Qualifications are one of the most defining customization decisions you make when crafting a Pilot and are meant to highlight a particular individual skill-set as part of your larger crew. We will go into Qualifications in detail in the near-future, but for now it is enough to know that it is at this step in the Event sequence that they become relevant due to what is known as a Qualification Check.

A Qualification Check is completely dependent on the Response your crew agreed upon and seeks to test your crew’s ability to deal with the moment at hand. While the Response choices will always be leading, what particular Qualification will be tested is not revealed until after the crew’s decision has been made and the players have turned to the appropriate section of the Narrative Book. During the check the crew adds the total amount of the relevant Qualification that is present amongst the entire crew. Using our example from above, you could expect something similar to play out as:

Check 1: Engineering

0 - Disastrous Result (Pg. 38C)
1 - Substandard Result (Pg. 43A)
2 - Neutral Result (Pg. 109K)
3 - Favorable Result (Pg. 222B)
4 - Masterful Result (Pg. 86A)

In this version of our example your crew opted to get out of the way of your engineers and hope they can solve the issue. The subsequent Engineering Check would’ve added up all the Engineering Qualifications spread throughout the crew.

Depending on the success of the Check, the players are prompted once more to turn to another section of the Narrative Book. This (most often) will be the final component of the Event, known as The Result. The Result will scale proportionally to the seriousness of The Event, the significance of The Response, and the success of the Qualifications Check. While the Result will almost always provide closure to the Event, it is possible for specific sequences, as dictated by your decisions, will lead to additional Prompts, Responses, and Checks.

Events will vary dramatically in severity and scale. Some Event Cards will simply highlight the vastness of space with no needed Response. However, let us be clear - the decisions your crew makes matter. Depending on the Prompt, these moments can be impactful in ways that reach outside of the Event sequence. Considering blowing through that Martian blockade, and engaging with all hostile interlopers? You have the tools to do so, but be cautioned - the world will not forget.

PAX East Game Convention

PAX East - just 3 weeks away! As a reminder, the event runs from March 23rd to March 26th. We will be showcasing Salvage and all its newest components at Booth 12098 in the Main Expo Hall.

In addition to showcasing SALVAGE: Deep Space, we will have a trove of 70mm Statuettes on-hand. If your pledge or add-on included the selection of one or more of these hero-scale miniatures and you are going to be at the convention, feel free to swing by and pick them up! If you are interested in a Statuette but have yet to pull the trigger, please visit the pre-order store in Backerkit or stop by the booth to take a look.

With sincerity and respect,

Matt, Ben, and Sean, 3301 Games

Cybernetics and Additional PAX East Info
about 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 02:33:38 PM

Greetings Pilots - Happy Friday!

We sincerely hope you crushed it this week and are heading into the weekend with a positive head of steam. Today’s update will focus on a particular mechanic in SALVAGE that we are excited to share as well as some additional details surrounding PAX East!

A rendering of the in-development Cybernetic Cards

Cybernetics

In the world of SALVAGE: Deep Space, cybernetics have become a common occurrence and are found across all walks of life. Due to widespread environmental and societal degradation, those with sufficient means have turned to cybernetic enhancements as a means of survival or simply to improve their quality of life. From basic implants for improved physical capabilities, to complex neural augmentations for enhanced cognitive function, cybernetics have become an integral part of daily life. In the generations since The Event, the line between human and machine has become more blurred, as many individuals seek to fully integrate cybernetic components into their bodies. However, with the increasing prevalence of these enhancements comes a host of societal implications, as individuals grapple with questions of what it means to be human in a hostile and unforgiving world.

As Salvage Pilots each of you will start out with your own selection of Cybernetics. As the story progresses your crew will accrue wealth allowing individuals to upgrade or install new enhancements. While on-mission, these enhancements will afford the Pilots impactful abilities that can be used in tandem with their other Suit Systems.

Serum Injector

With its sleek and compact design, the Serum Injector delivers precise doses of various medical serums directly into a host's bloodstream and uses advanced algorithms to monitor the patient's health and adjust the serum delivery accordingly.

While completing an Action during the Action Phase, the Pilot may Execute this cybernetic to remove one Negative Status from their own Suit.

Subdermal Armor

Requiring prolonged and highly-complex surgical procedures, this armor plating implant not only provides enhanced protection, but having been integrated with the host's nervous system is optimized for seamless movement and control.

During the Action Phase the Pilot may Execute this cybernetic to reduce all damage values against them to zero for the remainder of the Round.

Targeting Optics

Embedded with advanced motion sensors and cameras, the optical targeting system enables the host to quickly and accurately identify its target, making it an indispensable tool for various military, surveillance, and search and rescue applications.

(Reaction) After rolling the Pilot’s D10 to determine the attack value of a ranged system, the Pilot may Execute this cybernetic to reroll.

PAX East Game Convention

With PAX East just five weeks away, 3301 is looking forward to being able to connect in-person with so many of you. As a reminder, the event runs from March 23rd to March 26th. We will be showcasing Salvage and all its newest components at Booth 12098 in the Main Expo Hall.

In addition to showcasing SALVAGE: Deep Space, we will have a trove of 70mm Statuettes on-hand. If your pledge or add-on included the selection of one or more of these hero-scale miniatures and you are going to be at the convention, feel free to swing by and pick them up! If you are interested in a Statuette but have yet to pull the trigger, please visit the pre-order store in Backerkit or stop by the booth to take a look.

That concludes this week’s update, Pilots. Stay tuned for another mechanical spotlight in our next update - Event Cards!

With respect,

Matt and Sean, 3301 Games

Reminders, Exciting Announcements & Progress
about 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 03, 2023 at 03:34:46 PM

Happy Friday, Pilots! We at 3301 hope all of you are staying warm and the beginning of February finds you prosperous. Today’s update will touch on a few reminders, exciting announcements and detail a couple ways in which SALVAGE continues to progress towards fulfillment.

PAX East Game Convention

As announced in our last update - 3301 is ecstatic to have been given the opportunity to exhibit at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts from March 23rd to March 26th. We are very much looking forward to another event where we can not only showcase SALVAGE to a large audience, but also connect with fans, supporters and backers like you.

As the project marches forward, we will be hard at work updating our booth assets, including rolling out several never-before-seen goodies.

Statuette Production

Some of this effort has been dedicated to setting up, streamlining, and perfecting our 3D Asset production capabilities. After many rounds of iterative design, aesthetic tweaking, and quality testing, we are deep into production of the 70mm Suit Statuettes! This is imminently relevant for a few reasons. Most relevant for many of you is that the statuettes will be readily available well before our original fulfillment targets. For those of you that backed or pre-ordered these collectibles, you can expect correspondence in the upcoming weeks over the timing of when you’d like to receive your Suit(s)!

Additionally, for those of you that have backed/supported the project in other ways, there is still time to order your own 70mm and receive them before we begin selling them retail. Please visit the pre-order store in Backerkit and/or reach out with any questions.

Every statuette is produced with love, care, and a borderline obsessive attention to detail.

Narrative Updates

Things are truly in full-swing as the writing team continues to fine-tune the various mechanisms that the game will use to maximize player agency throughout the interactive story. Remember, SALVAGE is very intentionally a meld between a tactical-skirmish board game and a highly-narrative RPG. It is critical to us that the story of Sol System that unfolds before your crew of pilots is not only compelling, but that the devices that help inform your decision-making are immersive and mechanically elegant. You can expect more specific details on some of these mechanics later this month.

Art Updates

We have a lot of new art to share. Seriously.

In tandem with our narrative team, our art department has been hard at work bringing the world of SALVAGE to life. In addition to a new Space Map (game board), Pilot Portraits, Cybernetics, and Adversaries, there has been significant development in the visual art that will populate the Rulebook, Narrative Book, and other game assets.

In addition to these Backer Updates, we will continue to preview and display our progress a couple times each week across our various social media platforms. If you are interested in digesting our new visual assets as soon as they roll out, please consider following us @3301Games on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter - plus TikTok for any video content.

Newest version of the Space Map, although without the playable wings for Crew and Ship Systems.

That's it for now, Pilots. We hope that the enthusiasm and dedication towards this project is evident. We cannot wait to get SALVAGE: Deep Space into your hands.

As we continue game development, asset production, and Pax East preparation, please know that we always value hearing from you. We love talking shop and equally enjoy giving interested parties peaks behind the curtain. Please, never hesitate to contact us.

With gratitude,

Matt and Sean, 3301 Games

Salvage Types and First Con Announcement of the Year!
about 3 years ago – Fri, Jan 20, 2023 at 11:38:07 AM

Pilots,

Today’s update contains an exciting announcement for 3301 as well as a closer look at one of SALVAGE’s core components.

First and foremost - we are excited to announce that 3301 has been accepted to exhibit at PAX East in Boston, Massachusetts from March 23rd to March 26th. This is another great opportunity for us to showcase SALVAGE to a wider audience and continue to connect with other industry professionals. We look forward to meeting up with any of you that can attend as well as introducing new players to our brand. Mark your calendars and feel free to reach out with any questions!

Salvage Tokens

As all of you know, playing SALVAGE necessitates the creation and curation of a small, elite crew of Exo-Suit Pilots who are trying to carve out their place in Sol System. While your party will quickly become involved in a dramatic and customizable plotline, your core, in-fiction medium for generating wealth will always be the same - the discovery and accrual of.. well.. salvage.

Salvaging useful material most often takes the form of an in-mission mechanic that allows your pilots to pick up and store Salvage Tokens. At the end of each mission, the total amount of looted tokens is added to the ship’s storage and earmarked for sale/exchange. Once the crew gets back to station the profit from the salvage sale is split up amongst the crew members or added to the ship’s general fund.

Salvage can take many forms in Sol System. The type of salvage, its abundance, and what stands between you and its recovery will vary depending on the mission. As a member of a salvaging crew, if everything goes well, you can expect to come across the following:

Tech

Reclaiming lost, abandoned, (and sometimes) forgotten technology is a common job for a crew of Salvage pilots. Robotics, Med-tech, O.T., and various forms of NBI are just some of the types of technology that your crew will be asked to seek out and claim. As is often the case, the rarer the find - the larger the reward.

Munitions

As inner-system politics return to Sol, there is a premium placed on the recovery of various munitions. Competition for these armaments is fierce, with Salvage crews competing with sanctioned Munitions Retrieval Units (MRU) that operate out of most major stations. Rockets, power cells, cartridges, and depleted uranium are some of the caches Salvage pilots will be expected to accrue, store, and sell.

Geological

It takes a particularly experienced group of Salvage pilots to be able to properly identify and then extract valuable geological assets that permeate Sol System. While geological salvage often has a less dramatic pay-out as other reclaimed resources, its abundance can provide a steady stream of income for those that know where to look and possess the proper tools.

Chitin

Chitin, a complex carbohydrate found in the exoskeletons of Xenomartians, is a highly valuable resource with a wide range of industrial and medical applications. A Salvage crew may use advanced spacecraft and cutting-edge technologies to locate and extract chitin from asteroids, planets, and other space objects.

Valuables

Some forms of salvage are so rare and so valuable that they are worth pursuing in almost any circumstance. Always in search of ‘that one big job’ most pilots jump at the opportunity to chase down hard to produce chemicals or scarce materials. Rarer still are pre-event artifacts such as art, trinkets, and other luxury items that can result in major payouts from the right bidder.

BackerKit Surveys

If you haven't yet, please fill out your BackerKit Survey. It's a huge help to us, and it's going to make it easier for us to project the more nuanced portions of our development process. We've got some exciting things we're trying to make a reality (beyond the bits you see on the surface) and the sooner we hear from the everyone the sooner we can share what we're cooking up!

With gratitude,

Sean and Matt, 3301 Games

SALVAGE: Deep Space

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