ACTA: Noble Armada

[Raxonika]

Clarification of 'Escalation' (End phase, page 17)

I take this to mean that if there was an escalate result on a critical during the preceding turn, that, for each location (Engines, Reactor etc) where this occurred, you roll a d6 and on a 4+ all future Criticals against that location get a +1 mod to the critical hit dice rolls.

I do not understand the next paragraph. I understand that the escalation can continue to happen on previous turns, but could you explain this please - an example would be really helpful.

Also - will there be a downloadable version of ACTA:starfleet ? I am not a great fan of the hardback books and would rather print my own on good paper and keep in a ring binder ( I know several people that have this preference).

 

[Halaxi]

Regarding 'Escalation', this is what the rules say:

Check for Escalation
Any critical Hit Location that is subject to the Escalate rule must
be rolled for right at the end of the End Phase. For each such
location, simply roll one dice. On a 4 or more, its Critical Score
will increase by +1. Remember to keep rolling for Escalation,
until and unless the Critical Score drops below the point at which
Escalate appears.

What this means is, for each location that has reached the 'Escalate' state, you roll a dice at the end phase (note, this happens even if it was this turn that the critical state occured).

If you get a 4+, the critical level increases by one, and you suffer the additional effects of the new level.

You keep rolling the dice for each location affected. Once the track is maxed out, you keep rolling, taking the extra damage (if you rolled a 4+), exactly as if you had taken another critical hit there.

However, what you can do to stop your ship falling into tiny little pieces around you, is to repair the crit location, following the rules for Damage Control (found on Page 17). As soon as you manage to drop the critical rating below the level at which Escalation occurs, you stop rolling for Escalation for that system (until some nasty person gets a critical against that location of course).

To address this comment from you:

I take this to mean that if there was an escalate result on a critical during the preceding turn, that, for each location (Engines, Reactor etc) where this occurred, you roll a d6 and on a 4+ all future Criticals against that location get a +1 mod to the critical hit dice rolls.

The text in bold is incorrect. As mentioned above, the Escalate roll raises the critical rating of that location (if you roll a 4+), and does not apply a modifier to the roll.

If you've played the Babylon 5 Call to Arms game this may be where the slight confusion is coming from, as the rules regarding criticals are different between that and Noble Armada.

Hope this helps!

Hal.