Improvised Chases (System Neutral)

For gamers coming from a D&D background, chase scenes are often overlooked.  Many D&D players simply don't run chases, or when they do they resort to speed comparisons, or counting squares while taking potshots with ranged attacks or spells.  Many powerful control spells will outright end a chase by immobilizing one side or slowing them down.  In other words, when chases do come up they are dry and soulless affairs.

Granted, this might not be everyone's experience, but these are the solutions that make the most obvious use of the rules of the more recent editions of D&D.  I'm sure plenty of GM's ignore the square counting and go for a more skill-challenge type solution.  But skill challenges (as presented in 4E D&D) have their own set of problems, namely that the strict number of failures vs number of successes doesn't necessarily match the narrative description of the scene.  If a skill should end the challenge even if the requisite number of successes hasn't been reached, the GM will usually either fudge it and say that the players succeed, or you'll get frustrated players who don't feel like their specific actions mean anything more than "checking a box."

I know I never really had many chases in my games, but recently I've been sprinkling them in.  In general, I've been using a modified version of the Thriller Chase rules of the Gumshoe game "Night's Black Agents."  The framework works really well for virtually any system, ignoring of course the Gumshoe-specific rules.  The result is a narrative, fast-paced system for resolving chases with skill checks.

• First, create a chase track.  I like to have the PCs start at a value of 0, and track lead by going up or down on the track.  A good default is to cap the track at +/-5.  If one or more PC gets to 5, they win.  If all PCs get to -5, they lose.  This works regardless of whether they're pursuing or pursued (just inject whatever narrative description fits the scene).  
• Most importantly, describe a dynamic environment and let the PCs react to it.  Picture each round as a leg of the chase that takes place in a discrete scene.  Running through a busy city street, a pursuing NPC might make a check to convince guards/police (or upstanding citizens) to stop the PCs.  The key here is to not let the chase devolve into "I sprint," "ok, roll Athletics," etc.  That's the equivalent of fighting generic orcs in a featureless 30x30 room.  As a GM, you'll probably have to play the NPC as a proactive party, actively creating problems/opposition that the PCs are forced to react to.  
• Each "leg" or point of lead is a narrative unit; it doesn't have to equal a specific number of feet or squares.  The chase is broken up into units of "interesting scenes," and each scene should be summarized with a single skill check for all parties involved.
• As a baseline, a successful skill check will bring the PC up 1 step on the chase track.  A failure will drop them down 1 step.  Conversely, a success by the NPC (or group of NPCs) might bring all PCs down 1 step, and a failure bring all PCs up 1 step.  Depending on the narrative, multiple NPCs might only effect one or some PCs.  
• If the difficulty of a check is going to be harder than typical (i.e. the action is riskier), reward that by letting a success increase the lead by 2.  Don't get too generous with this option, and typically only use it if there is an easier alternative and the contrast between the options is noticeable.  A failure doesn't necessarily have to drop the PC down by 2, though.  Equally interesting is a penalty to their next skill check, or even a penalty to an ally's check.  Feel free to adjust the "pacing" of the track if the chase stalls or seems to look like it's going to be a back-and-forth for a long time.  
• The option of increasing/decreasing lead by multiple increments could also be used if the system has a "degrees of success" mechanic, even if it's as simple as a "crit" (natural 20) in a d20 system.  Things like succeeding with style in Fate, great/extraordinary successes in TOR, or getting a raise in Savage Worlds would apply here.
• If the system uses a resource-management mechanic (like Vancian spells), feel free to grant an auto-success for the expenditure of resources, or at least force the NPC to make a difficult skill check that can benefit the party (will increase their position), but won't set them back if the NPC succeeds.

These rules/guidelines don't necessarily have to represent an obvious chase.  In an Edge of the Empire game that I ran, I had the PCs racing to a base along a fortified ridge top so that they could grab a ship and escape the planet they were on.  Meanwhile, moving up the canyon below them was a battalion of Imperial walkers that would surely destroy the base if they got their first.  The PCs were being tracked by a large native cat-like creature, and had to contend with turrets and patrols on the way to the base (the PCs were a "third party" in this conflict; in other words, both groups were out to get them!).  Then once they were inside, they had to fight their way to the hangar as the walkers got there!  For some scenes (or "legs" of the chase) a quick combat encounter took the place of skill checks.

So give it a try next time you have to run a chase scene.  If it's completely on-the-fly, consider dropping the chase track down to +/-4, or even 3, because that will keep the number of scenes that you'll need to come up with to a minimum.  Note that a +/-3 could be resolved in as few as 2 "rounds," but if there's more back and forth it might take longer.  If you need to adjust the pace, make the next scene harder if the PCs are doing better that you anticipated, or easier if they're floundering (especially the latter!).  If it starts to get repetitive or you run out of scenes, better to end the chase in an exciting way (some sort of complication?) than slog through the chase track just for the sake of finishing it.  This isn't meant to be a hard-and-fast resolution system; it's more of a tool for the GM to ballpark their pacing.

Dicey Stunts Reference Cards

In an effort to remind my players about the option for Dicey Stunts I printed out these cards and taped them to the cardboard from an old cereal box with packing tape (improvised laminated cardstock).  Or if you've got cardstock you can of course just print it on that.  It worked!  Having a physical object on the table served as a reminder, and saved time since nobody had to dig out a sheet or pull up a screen to look up examples.

If you're familiar with the sub-system then you'll probably only need the Example Stunts cards out for the players, but in this new campaign that my group has started out we're rotating GMing duties after each 3-4 session episodic adventure.  I'm the only one who has actually GMed 13th Age before, so having the "Using Dicey Stunts" and "Risks" cards for the other GMs should make it easier for them to adjudicate stunts.

Dicey Stunts

In case you haven't checked out the latest issue of See Page XX yet, I've written an article on Dicey Stunts expanding on the "Dicey Moves" section of the 13th Age core rulebook.  Regular readers will notice a striking similarity to the Mazarbul Gamble.  It's essentially just a cleaned up version of that.  However, if you have a GM who is hesitant to incorporate homebrewed material from just anyone's blog, they might be willing to accept content from See Page XX.

Enjoy!

Making the Most out of Knowledge Checks

Knowledge checks can often fall flat in tabletop RPGs, or at least this happens a lot in my games.  Either the GM has information that they'd planned on giving out anyways, in which case calling for a Knowledge check can be a formality (and a frustrating one if it's failed), or the player requests to roll a Knowledge check and, put on the spot, the GM can't think of anything particularly interesting or impactful on the fly.  While it can be cool to play the know-it-all, sometimes you just can't help feeling that you're not getting as much bang for your buck as players who have invested in more "active" skills.

I was skimming through Dungeon World today, and one of the GM Principles stuck with me: "ask [the PCs] questions and use the answers."  Combined with one of the three bullet points on the GM's Agenda, "Play to find out what happens," a GM can make Knowledge checks a lot more interesting and engaging by soliciting player involvement.

What this means is that when a PC asks to roll a Knowledge check and you don't already have something in mind, if they succeed you can ask them to tell you what their character knows about the subject.  If it ends up taking things in a completely different direction than you'd planned, well that's a great embodiment of "play to find out what happens."  As an "explorer" type player, I like to learn details about the fictional world even when I'm GMing, and (for me at least) these types of twists make GMing a lot more enjoyable.

All of the sudden players might be scrambling to pick up some Knowledge skills for the chance to influence the narrative.  There's a real, tangible benefit from the character's knowledge instead of some half-formed "fact" that often ends up being fairly pointless, if not entirely uninteresting, when the GM is forced to come up with something on the spot.  Obviously this could potentially be abusable by certain types of players, and the GM should counter that without devaluing the skill by building off of the player's suggestion to keep it in-line power-wise, and/or varying the difficulty based on the specificity of the information.  And ultimately, a roll should only be made where it's dramatically appropriate; players should know that they can't just knowledge-spam in an attempt to power-game (most players probably wouldn't go for that anyways).

Here are a few examples:

• The party finds an ancient religious text in some old ruins.  Instead of the GM answering a successful Knowledge check with "it's a history of X deity," they ask the player "it refers to X deity, what interesting fact or legend have you heard regarding them?"  If the fact is relevant to the current adventure in some way, all the better!
• When encountering a new type of creature a PC rolls a knowledge check to learn about any possible weaknesses.  With a success, the GM says "ok, you can tell me a little-known weakness of this creature."  This should be kept narratively interesting; answers like "uhhhh, it's vulnerable to swords because I'm carrying a sword" are pretty lame.  As a GM, you can build on that by saying "oh yes, there are tales from ancient Akaras that say the beast is vulnerable to swords.  Of course, all swords from that time were made from Akaran steel, so they felt no need to specify that an 'Akaran blade' was the beast's true weakness."  Instant story hook, and now when the PCs seek out an Akaran blade they'll have a tangible mechanical advantage against this creature.

You can take this idea even further by employing a variant of the "fail forward" philosophy.  That is to say, failure is not simply a dead end, but leads to a different approach that needs to be taken or a pseudo-success but with complications.  Say a PC fails their Knowledge check (or in a system like Edge of the Empire, perhaps they even succeeded with Threat or Despair).  You can provide one fact, and then ask the player to provide an additional fact.  Alternatively, you can have another player at the table provide one of the facts.  Then you roll randomly to determine which of those facts is true, and which is false.  The player will know that one of the facts is false (just not which one), but the character will probably think that both are true.  Acting on misinformation can provide interesting (and sometimes hilarious) results, but the player can't complain too much since they got something true out of the deal, too.  

Alternatively, the complication might be that the player provides just one fact and the GM rolls randomly to determine whether it's true or false.  This works especially well if nobody at the table can think of a second fact right away, and you want to keep the game moving at a fast pace.  It's worth noting that the "is it true?" technique shouldn't be used for all failed Knowledge checks, because it has the potential to become frustrating.  You definitely don't want PCs to be afraid to attempt Knowledge checks!  What's "too much" will vary group to group, but once every few sessions might be a good baseline to start at.

When the GM rolls randomly any die roll that offers a 50/50 result should do just fine, but in some games it might be interesting to make a special type of roll.  The Force Die in Edge of the Empire springs to mind (the GM notes one of the facts, and if a dark side result is rolled it's false, with perhaps more severe consequences if it's a double dark side pip).  The "degrees of truth" idea can also be used with the feat die in The One Ring, making the d12 roll potentially more interesting than a 50/50 roll using a d6 (if the Eye of Sauron or Gandalf rune are rolled, up the stakes).  

Galactic Coordinates Reference

Time really does fly, doesn't it?  Hard to believe I haven't posted anything in a month.  Been busy with non-gaming stuff, but I've also been pecking away at a little side project that I finally finished.  It's an Excel spreadsheet that lists every system, their coordinates, and any major hyperlanes that pass through them from the galactic map on pages 328-9 of the Edge of the Empire core rulebook.  By default it's sorted alphabetically by system so that you can locate any system easily on the map.  While you can sort by hyperlane as well, it's probably easier to just look at the map to see what systems are along the route.

GMs and players alike might find it useful.  Enjoy!

Updated Reference Sheets for Edge of the Empire

I had some reference sheets floating around from the Beta, but now that my gaming group has started playing again with the core rulebook I decided I'd revise the sheets (since we went through that first session using slightly erroneous rules).

Here they are, for anyone who wants them.  There's a general reference sheet with an extremely consolidated table for spending Advantage/Threat, a list of weapon qualities, and some other misc. bits of information that I found myself wanting to have handy in-game.  Second is a starship reference sheet, which has benefitted from a more comprehensive overhaul since the beta version.  It's got the pilot and crew maneuvers/actions (though I didn't include obvious and intuitive things like making Gunnery checks), the Chase rules, Astrogation details, and notes on Sensors and repairing Hull Trauma.

These sheets may not be absolutely perfect for everyone.  Some people might prefer separate tables for Advantage and Threat, for example, but personally I like the concise table since many of the effects are mirror images of each other, and I tend to improvise a lot anyways.  I also left out some information that probably wouldn't come up too often (Bacta rules, some of the less commonly-encountered weapon qualities), and certainly didn't clutter the sheets up with basics like dice symbols, which I've got down.

That said, I'm sure there are plenty of gamers out there who think along the same lines as me, so if these look useful use them!

The Mazarbul Gamble

I recently posted my views on improvisational stunt systems in TTRPGs.  In it, I described my own version of such a system that I'd "codified" in 13th Age, as well as a similar system from the Thought Crime blog called Gamble!  Ever the tinkerer, in this post I'll combine the two systems in my quest for a fun, simple, and intuitive houserule for the game.

Due to the very nature of the fact that these are "improvisational" stunts, this set of rules is really more of a guideline.  Sometimes players will come up with stuff that doesn't necessarily fit well into this framework, but hopefully it provides a solid enough framework for GMs to build off of and adjudicate fairly.

THE BASIC IDEA

A Gamble is whatever the player would like to achieve.  The options below should cover a wide variety of possibilities, with the mechanics reflecting the intent of the action.  The intended effect can be described in whatever narrative way that the player sees fit.

Gambles are usually a quick action skill check, but some of the more impressive effects require a standard action.

Risks are consequences chosen by the GM.  If the skill check for the Gamble fails, then the Risk is triggered.

Any quick action Gamble can be used as a standard action to avoid a Risk.

The DC for skill checks will either be based on the standard difficulty for the environment, or if the action directly opposes an opponent then their PD or MD is used instead.  For simplicity, targeting PD or MD is equivalent to a Normal difficulty.  If the action would normally be a Hard difficulty, add 5 to PD/MD.

GAMBLES

Combat Maneuver (quick action): Make a skill check (usually Str or Dex) against your opponents PD (usually).  Optional - stronger effects may additionally require you to hit with your next attack this turn, or may be triggered with a natural 16+ roll on the skill check.

Examples:  

Trip - The target is Stuck until they spend a move action to stand up.  Optional stronger effect - melee attacks get a +2 bonus to hit the target.

Bull Rush - The target is pushed back a few feet, popping them free of any engagements except the bull rusher (and potentially pushing them into new engagements)  Optional - if pushing the target into dangerous terrain (a fire, off of a cliff, etc.) you have two options.  You can use PD + 5 as the DC (or a Hard DC), or you can allow the target a Normal Save to negate the effect.  I prefer increasing the DC personally, because it minimizes die rolling and speeds things along.  If the target is Large or Huge, add an additional +5 to the DC (so it's Very Hard to push a larger creature into dangerous terrain).

Grapple - The target takes a -2 penalty to disengage checks (you must have at least one hand free).

Gain the Advantage (quick action):  Make a skill check against the target's MD or PD, or use the Normal DC for the environment.  Choose 1 of the following effects (or similar), which lasts until the end of your next turn:

1. the target is Vulnerable
2. you or 1 ally gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls against the target
3. you or 1 ally gains a bonus to damage against the target equal to your level.  

Optional - double the bonus on a natural 16+.

Players that really like to gamble may want a stronger effect.  Feel free to give it to them, with a Hard DC (or adding +5 to PD/MD).  Instead, they may choose from these effects:

1. the target is Dazed
2. the target is Hampered
3. choose one of the Normal DC effects, and make it Save Ends.

Examples:  Anything that falls into the umbrella of an Agility or Smarts trick in Savage Worlds probably works here.  Taunting the opponent, throwing sand in his eyes, feinting, using footwork to improve your relative positioning, etc.

Massive Attack (standard action):  First, make a skill check (Hard DC) with an ability appropriate to the action you're describing.  If successful, you can make a basic attack against 1d3 nearby enemies in a group (whether it's a melee or ranged attack depends on how you describe the action).

Examples: Sweep attack, cutting/shooting the rope of a chandelier, throwing a table, etc.

Increase Momentum (standard action): First, describe how you're increasing the momentum of the battle and then roll a skill check with an appropriate ability (Normal DC).  Immediately raise the escalation die by 1 on a success.  This should probably be limited to 1 attempt per battle, but if you're feeling generous you should at least require a different narrative description for additional attempts (in other words, momentum gained from the same description doesn't stack).

RISKS

Reversal:  One enemy (usually the target, but a ranged leader or lurker works well too) makes an immediate basic attack against the character.  If it makes more sense that the action would endanger an ally, then an ally can suffer the reversal (this will usually only happen if the character that took the Gamble is in a fairly safe position).

Vulnerable:  Until the end of the battle, the character is Vulnerable (+2 crit range to all attacks targeting the character).

Lost Momentum:  Decrease the escalation die by 1.  This should usually be a pretty dramatic event, so you shouldn't overuse it (in other words, don't do it more than once per battle, but see Increase Momentum).

Backfired:  Something went wrong, and now the character is either Dazed or Stuck (save ends).

Laptops at the Gaming Table

I've gone back and forth with using a laptop for GMing during play.  Ultimately, while I've always found word processors useful for planning sessions because you can add onto individual notes without having everything scribbled everywhere in a haphazard fashion, connected with a complex system of arrows, etc. (as inevitably happens when making paper notes), I generally prefer keeping notes in a notebook.  Or used to, anyways.  Mostly because a large volume of notes (for a campaign, for example) is more easily searchable in a well-organized binder.  You can take multiple pages out and view them side-by-side even if they were written at different times, and are thus separated by a lot of other notes.  And so I've kept a very well-organized campaign binder, leaving the laptop at home.

Until I discovered Evernote.

Evernote is an organizational tool that isn't designed specifically for tabletop RPGs, but it works nearly perfectly for it.  You create folders, which you can organize into stacks and/or pin to a shortcuts sidebar, and in the folders you keep "notes."  A second sidebar lists all of the notes in a folder.  Each note can be given multiple tags, but a search bar can make it even easier to find specific things as it searches the body of the notes.  You can attach pretty much anything to a note (a spreadsheet, a pdf, a web page), keeping everything at your fingertips.  Because that's the real beauty of Evernote.  Everything is so accessible with a single click.

As an example, I have a stack for 13th Age.  The stack contains 3 folders - a general folder (for big-picture brainstorming that I won't need to reference at the table, and probably isn't related to the current campaign), a folder for my current campaign, and a folder for "set pieces" (generic cinematic scenes that I can adapt to many situations, which is great for on-the-fly encounters).  My campaign folder and the set pieces folder are both in the shortcuts bar, so I can switch between them with a click.  The campaign folder has a bunch of notes, each with a very specific topic, and all are listed along the side for ease of switching between them.  I've got a note with all of the PC information (icons, backgrounds, OUTs, etc.), an NPC list, a list of random names that don't have NPCs attached to them yet, the monster builder reference sheet, a player reference sheet, a GM reference sheet, a list of homebrewed potions, a damage tracker, specific notes on using the icons of my PCs, and of course an individual note for each week's session.

Everything is organized into its own category, and each note is relatively short so you're immediately looking at the exact information you need.  Try it.  It'll make your GMing life much easier.

On a related note, I decided that since I'll be using the laptop for Evernote, I might as well make a damage-tracker spreadsheet for combat.  This is great, because when I'm tracking damage on paper and I have 8 monsters to pay attention to, and multiple players shouting things at me (they're great, really), it sometimes takes me a second to mentally do the math.  More importantly, I have to devote my mental energy to doing math as opposed to coming up with cool things for the NPCs to do, or good ways to describe the action.  The spreadsheet's great because I just have a column for each monster, and I list its initiative, any conditions, and its total HP.  Under that I have a SUM cell, so when a player calls out the damage they did I just type it into the next cell down and the SUM cell spits out the total.  It's made things noticeably easier on my end.

13 Tips for GMing 13th Age

13th Age is a different beast than other d20 games, and GMing it effectively can take some getting used to.  What follows is a list of tips to help ease the transition.  I don't claim to be a spectacular 13th Age GM by any stretch; indeed, a lot of the items on this list are things that I'd like to strive for myself.


Tip 1:  Get comfortable with improvisation.  But first thing's first - accept the fact that you'll have to improvise if you take advantage of the system's strengths.

Tip 2:  Don't be afraid to lean on your players.  13th Age gives players a lot of narrative power, allowing them to shape the campaign into their own ideal playground.  You're still in charge of the details, but if you're drawing a blank your players will probably have some suggestions.

Tip 3:  Fail forward.  Sure, a lot of games embrace this philosophy, but it just so happens that it's important to 13th Age as well.  As an example from the last session I ran:  the Cleric wanted to identify these glowing lichens and glowing mushrooms in a dungeon passage.  After failing the Intelligence check, the player said "well, I guess I have no clue what they are."  To which I responded "You don't know their specific properties, but they look a lot like something you've heard in the stories of drow.  Drow avoid them."  Failure, and my on-the-spot thinking, actually generated a more interesting answer than if he'd succeeded and I simply told him what the fungi were.

Tip 4:  The Mephistophelean Bargain.  This is one of Rob Heinsoo's trademarks.  It's a variant of the "yes, and..." school of thought.  When a player suggests something, you shouldn't just say "no" because that's not very interesting.  Even if it's something outrageous, you should give them an option to go with that - but with a commensurate price!  This can either be a gambler's bargain, where the rewards for success are great, but failure offers a very severe risk, or it can simply mean accepting consequences along with what is asked for.

Tip 5:  Minis are very helpful.  Yeah, this is a gridless game and you can easily play it theater of the mind style, but minis make it extremely easily to quickly resolve any logistical questions the players might have, and everyone's on the same page in terms of where everyone is.

Tip 6:  Ask leading questions, particularly during character creation.  My players have a tendency to start out with pretty generic backgrounds.  I wish I'd pushed them more to be a bit more creative, but it's starting to get refined out in-play all the same.  The more specific your players get with their narrative mechanics (Backgrounds, One Unique Thing, Icon Relationships), the richer the game experience will be.

Tip 7:  Now that you've encouraged the players to give you a bunch of built-in hooks, use them!  The simplest and most overt example of this is using Icon rolls, but make sure you're weaving in elements from the character's backgrounds and OUTs as well.  If you're ever stuck for ideas, turn to the character details.  Players like when the plot becomes personal, so you can turn a dead end into something interesting.

Tip 8:  Be prepared to house rule.  The game's math is extremely transparent, so take advantage of that fact!  I've had players complain about their classes, and since this is a story-focused game the players need to be invested in their characters.  If there's a change that can be made to improve the experience for them, try it out!  For example, my group found the Barbarian to be too weak so I'm more than happy houseruling it.  Likewise my Cleric is getting bored with having only 1 ranged at-will spell, so I've set him to work homebrewing a new one (pending my approval, of course).  You can directly modify the class mechanics, adjust the experience with significant magic items, or even use story rewards (like 4E's grandmaster training or divine boons).

Tip 9:  Keep monsters interesting by sending them in in waves, having them play differently when staggered, or giving them abilities tied to the Escalation Die.

Tip 10:  Create interesting items for players to spend their gold on.  Ok, so not all campaigns have a big gear focus, but even though I'm one who likes to gloss over gear I still find the consumables list lacking.  Potions (2 kinds), oils, and runes will get old fast.  I've made a larger list of potions, and I'm also going to start keeping my eye open for story-based ways to make the PCs' lives easier if they're willing to shell out some cash.

Tip 11:  Keep the terrain fresh, and give players a lot of non-standard options during combat.  13th Age doesn't have a robust tactical engine in the sense that, say, D&D 4e did.  The advantages of this is that it's faster, and more flexible.  Use Talents like Swashbuckle, Terrain Stunt, and Vance's Polysyllabic Verbalizations for inspiration (but make sure these options come with a cost, so as not to make those talents obsolete!).  Players won't take the bait despite your hints?  Have the monsters pull some crazy stunts for a less subtle approach.

Tip 12:  Steal!  Steal ideas from books, movies, tv, whatever.  This is something that Chris Perkins emphasizes all the time, and it's all the more appropriate in a more narrative-centric game like 13th Age (compared with D&D).  The more engaging and rich your story is, the more satisfying all of those story-based player resources will be.  Of course disguise anything your players might be familiar with in a fresh set of clothes.  In other words, don't copy+paste, but use familiar media as a starting point that you can add to.  It can add a lot to the experience if you have a character in mind whenever you're playing an NPC (or an Icon), if nothing else than for consistency in how you portray them.

Tip 13:  Have fun!  Ok, so I started running out of worthwhile ideas, but this list just BEGS to have 13 tips, and having fun is really important (albeit obvious).

Edge of the Empire Reference Sheet

I put together this reference sheet today.  My goal for the Advantage/Triumph Table (which was the impetus for this whole sheet) was to make something that's as easy to reference at the table as possible.  The two tables as presented in the book are good for clarity, but ultimately the "wall of text" doesn't lend itself to quick reference during play.  I feel that this is the simplest form possible for the presentation of this information, since it combines threat/advantage into a single table and consolidates mechanically similar entries into single, concise entries.  For example, "immediate free maneuver" is all I need to know when trying to figure out what I can do for a given advantage/threat cost; obviously if it's threat that maneuver will benefit the opposing side.  Moreover, I don't need separate entries for each combination of a PC/NPC gaining a boost/setback die, split across two tables.  All I really need to know is that for 2 advantage or threat, someone can get a boost or a setback die.  Whether the outcome is good or bad for the attacker depends on whether you're spending advantage or threat, and since that's obvious at any moment in time I don't need the table to spell it out for me. 

Also on this table I've formatted the font based on the use of the entry.  Bold lines are things that I can see coming up most frequently, so I want them to jump out at the user.  Italics are narrative options, so they'll be both situational and dependent on the player's creativity.  If you don't have something narrative specifically in mind, the eye can gloss over the italicized text pretty easily.  Non-formatted text are things that, while useful and should certainly be included in the table, seem like they're unlikely to see quite as much use.  If a player wants to try something unusual s/he can reference the table a little more carefully, as opposed to just glancing over the bold entries (which if done as a default should speed up play).

I also felt it important to include the difficulties for personal ranged weapons and starship weapons, if for no other reason than that they operate differently, which can be potentially confusing.  They'll also most likely be the most frequently used attacks.  While most players will probably memorize at least the personal weapons table pretty quickly I still thought it was important enough to include.  Melee/Brawl attacks, on the other hand, would just clutter up the sheet since it's trivial to remember that they're always made at average difficulty. 

Invariably healing and recovery are things that I tend to have to look up regardless of what system I'm running.  Specific recovery rules never seem to "stick" in my mind; I blame it on all of the vastly different healing rules present in the different editions of D&D.  In any case I wanted all of the recovery options for wounds, critical injuries, and strain to be all in one place.  No use wasting time rolling Cool to recover Strain if the Medical check that was just performed on you already recovered it with advantages. 

In a narrative combat system it's easy to get caught up in just "going with it" and making up rulings that certain infrequently-used maneuvers get forgotten or messed up.  For example, during my solo playtest I'd forgotten that Guarded Stance also gives your own attacks a setback die, and I didn't feel like flipping open the book to confirm a rule I thought I already knew.  Mostly, having a maneuver list keeps players from thinking too hard about the possibility of a maneuver that they may have forgotten about; reference the chart if you're unsure, otherwise ignore it and go for the standbys of moving, diving for cover, and aiming.

Starship maneuvers, on the other hand, really do need to be listed for easy reference.  For one thing there's probably only 1 pilot in most groups, and why force the burden of memorizing more specific rules on just one player?  I can imagine that starship combat also happens less frequently than personal-scale combat, making specific maneuvers easier to forget.

Unfortunately I didn't have room for the starship action "Gain the Advantage," and there's a handful of other starship rules that I'd like to include on a sheet.  At some point I might make a "Starship Character Sheet," which I doubt will take up a full page.  The remaining space can be used to write down some of these more specific rules for easy reference.

Yes, there's other stuff that could be included on a reference sheet (falling damage, dangerous atmospheres, etc.), but trying to include everything would result in too much paper clutter.  I really wanted to keep this to one page, and the fact that there's some extra starship stuff doesn't worry me too much because each group will probably want a starship reference sheet anyways.  Maybe at some point I'll make a separate sheet with the more situational stuff on it, but I wouldn't print it out and hand it to players; the less people have to look over the quicker things go at the table.