I'm running a Pirates of Drinax campaign soon, and while reading the campaing, rereading some of the rules and during the character creation a couple of questions came foreward. I'm hoping someone can shed some light on the following:
1a. The particle barbette. Reading the rules my understanding is that it can't be used for point defence, only laser turrets can. But is there any logical reason for this (other than balance)? It seems to me that point it toward a missile should work.
1b. The particle barbette is a radiation weapon. The radiation trait says the effect extends a number of metres equal to the number of dice the weapon rolls for damage, but if it's destructive this is multiplied by ten. Should the particle barbette be considered a destructive weapon for the purpose of this trait? Compared to traveller-scale weaponry it does multiply its damage by ten, as a destructive weapon would. And it would make quite a big difference, 4 meters might not even hit anyone onboard an enemy vessel, but 40 meters is a whole different story.
2. Sticking to spacecraft weapons: the missile rack turrets. If you have a triple missile rack turret, I'm assuming you can fire 3 missiles a round, but for how long? The description of the number of missiles it can hold is a bit ambiguous. Does it hold 12 missiles per missile rack, or per turret independent of the number of missile racks it contains?
3. Last question about spacecraft weapons: the fusion barbette in highguard has the radiation trait, but the bays do not. Is either a misprint?
4. On the topic of space combat: the close combat/dogfighting rules. I'm I correct that when fighting takes place at close (or adjecent) range the travellers can still fire weapons etc. once/round, meaning they can effectively fire their weapons 60 times faster than at a longer range? And how do you actually end a dogfight you don't want to be in? Can you simply expend thrust? Seeing as the rounds are now so much shorter it seems strange that the same amount of thrust could simply put you at a longer range. Seeing as short range combat is probably coming up a lot in a piracy campaign, I thought I'd better be certain.
5. Regarding critical hits on spacecraft: I get that they are cumulative, but if a vessel immidiatly gets a crit of a severity higer than 1, do I also have to apply the lower effects? For example, say that an undamaged ship suffers a crit of severity 2 against the sensors, does that ship now have sensors that are inoperative beyond medium range AND DM-2 on any sensor checks it could still make? If the same undamaged ship suffered a severity 3 crit against its power plant instead, would it's power be down by 70% and its thrust reduced by 3, or should I simply apply the worst modifier if it's mentioned multiple times?
6. The central supply catalogue introduces special ammunitions and states that any heavy weapons that specifically mention it may use variant ammo can use it. One of those heavy weapons is the machine gun (and its cousing, the rapid fire machine gun). One of my players claims that since it's a man-portable heavy weapon that mentions it may use variant ammo, he can use any of the variant ammo suitable for the heavy weapons catagory. While technically correct, to me this seems... odd. It seems to me the machine gun was meant to use the rifle catagory of variant ammunitions, as I can't inmagine a machine gun creating the effects of say a fuel air bomb. It's probably one of those questions where it's up to the referee, but I would like to hear some opions on how others would handle it.
7. My last question is a bit more open ended: one of my players has plans off trying to start a drugs emporium for some extra cash. (what's one more criminal charge if you are already a pirate?) I do have some ideas on how to get started on the "crafting illegal recreational drugs rule", but if anyone has some tips on how to run that, I would be very grateful.
1a. The particle barbette. Reading the rules my understanding is that it can't be used for point defence, only laser turrets can. But is there any logical reason for this (other than balance)? It seems to me that point it toward a missile should work.
1b. The particle barbette is a radiation weapon. The radiation trait says the effect extends a number of metres equal to the number of dice the weapon rolls for damage, but if it's destructive this is multiplied by ten. Should the particle barbette be considered a destructive weapon for the purpose of this trait? Compared to traveller-scale weaponry it does multiply its damage by ten, as a destructive weapon would. And it would make quite a big difference, 4 meters might not even hit anyone onboard an enemy vessel, but 40 meters is a whole different story.
2. Sticking to spacecraft weapons: the missile rack turrets. If you have a triple missile rack turret, I'm assuming you can fire 3 missiles a round, but for how long? The description of the number of missiles it can hold is a bit ambiguous. Does it hold 12 missiles per missile rack, or per turret independent of the number of missile racks it contains?
3. Last question about spacecraft weapons: the fusion barbette in highguard has the radiation trait, but the bays do not. Is either a misprint?
4. On the topic of space combat: the close combat/dogfighting rules. I'm I correct that when fighting takes place at close (or adjecent) range the travellers can still fire weapons etc. once/round, meaning they can effectively fire their weapons 60 times faster than at a longer range? And how do you actually end a dogfight you don't want to be in? Can you simply expend thrust? Seeing as the rounds are now so much shorter it seems strange that the same amount of thrust could simply put you at a longer range. Seeing as short range combat is probably coming up a lot in a piracy campaign, I thought I'd better be certain.
5. Regarding critical hits on spacecraft: I get that they are cumulative, but if a vessel immidiatly gets a crit of a severity higer than 1, do I also have to apply the lower effects? For example, say that an undamaged ship suffers a crit of severity 2 against the sensors, does that ship now have sensors that are inoperative beyond medium range AND DM-2 on any sensor checks it could still make? If the same undamaged ship suffered a severity 3 crit against its power plant instead, would it's power be down by 70% and its thrust reduced by 3, or should I simply apply the worst modifier if it's mentioned multiple times?
6. The central supply catalogue introduces special ammunitions and states that any heavy weapons that specifically mention it may use variant ammo can use it. One of those heavy weapons is the machine gun (and its cousing, the rapid fire machine gun). One of my players claims that since it's a man-portable heavy weapon that mentions it may use variant ammo, he can use any of the variant ammo suitable for the heavy weapons catagory. While technically correct, to me this seems... odd. It seems to me the machine gun was meant to use the rifle catagory of variant ammunitions, as I can't inmagine a machine gun creating the effects of say a fuel air bomb. It's probably one of those questions where it's up to the referee, but I would like to hear some opions on how others would handle it.
7. My last question is a bit more open ended: one of my players has plans off trying to start a drugs emporium for some extra cash. (what's one more criminal charge if you are already a pirate?) I do have some ideas on how to get started on the "crafting illegal recreational drugs rule", but if anyone has some tips on how to run that, I would be very grateful.
