B5 crit table - updated to NA system

[Burger]

Well I've given it a go, see what you think?

First issue is that unlike B5, the crits in NA are cumulative, ie. speed -1, speed -1, speed -1 and speed -2 equals speed -5. So I have downgraded some of them accordingly. -4 speed after -2 and 2x -1 would be -8 in total which would make many ships stopped!

Second issue is that in B5, some of the higher-up crits are actually not as bad as the lower down ones. For example power fluctiations is generally worse than weapons offline (depending on the ship). So I have switched the order of some.

Thirdly I have added in some new ones and borrowed them from NA, to make 6 different crits in each section.

Fourthly I don't think double, triple and quad damage should move you 2, 3 and 4 up the crit table, like Devastating does in NA! That would be too... devastating, since double and triple damage are reasonably common in B5. Instead I would say just increase the crit level by 1 and double, triple or quadruple the damage and crew reductions - as normal in B5.

So, on with my table...

1-2 WEAPONS

1    POWER RELAYS DESTROYED              -    -   -1 SPEED
2    FUEL SYSTEM RUPTURED               +1   +1   -1 SPEED
3    MULTIPLE FIRES                     +1   +2   -1 SPEED
4    THRUSTERS DAMAGED                  +2   +1   -2 SPEED
5    FUEL SYSTEM RUPTURED              +D6  +D6   REACTOR CRITICAL +1
6    ENGINES DISABLED                  +D6  +D6   SHIP ADRIFT


3 REACTOR CRITICALS

1    CAPACITORS DAMAGED                 +1    -   LOSE 1 RANDOM TRAIT
2    REACTOR GAS LEAK                    -   +2   NO SPECIAL ACTIONS
3    POWER FEEDBACK                     +2   +1   -2 SPEED
4    REACTOR OVERLOAD                   +1   +2   WEAPONS CRITICAL +1
5    REACTOR BREACH                    +D6   +2   SHIP ADRIFT
6    REACTOR EXPLOSION                 +D6  +D6   NO SPECIAL ACTIONS, LOSE 1 RANDOM TRAIT


4 WEAPON CRITICALS

1    TARGETING SYSTEM DAMAGED            -   +1   ALL WEAPONS LOSE 1AD
2    POWER DISRUPTED                    +1   +1   ALL WEAPONS AT -1 PENALTY TO HIT
3    WEAPONS OFFLINE                    +2   +1   1 RANDOM WEAPON SYSTEM CANNOT FIRE
4    WEAPONS CONTROL                    +1    -   ALL WEAPONS IN 1 RANDOM ARC CANNOT FIRE
5    POWER FLUCTUATIONS                  -    -   EACH WEAPON NEEDS 4+ TO FIRE
6    CATASTROPHIC AMMUNITION EXPLOSION  +3   +4   NO WEAPONS MAY FIRE


5 CREW CRITICALS

1    FIRE                                -   +1   TROOPS -1
2    MULTIPLE FIRES                      -   +2   TROOPS -2
3    SECONDARY EXPLOSIONS               +1   +3   DAMAGE CONTROL AND CQ CHECKS AT -1 PENALTY
4    LOCALIZED DECOMPRESSION            +1   +3   -1 TROOPS, NO SPECIAL ACTIONS
5    CREW SHAKEN                         -  +D6   MUST ROLL 4+ BEFORE FIRING EACH WEAPON
6    HULL BREACH                       +D6  +D6   -2 TROOPS, NO DAMAGE CONTROL, NO SPECIAL ACTIONS


6 VITAL SYSTEMS CRITICALS

1    BRIDGE HIT                          -   +1   NO SPECIAL ACTIONS
2    SECONDARY EXPLOSIONS              +D6  +D6   DAMAGE CONTROL AND CQ CHECKS AT -1 PENALTY
3    WEAPONS CONTROL                     3    4   WEAPONS CRITICAL +1
4    ENGINEERING                         4    3   CREW CRITICAL +1
5    REACTOR IMPLOSION                +2D6 +4D6   LOSE 1 RANDOM TRAIT
6    CATASTROPHIC EXPLOSION           +4D6 +2D6   LOSE 2 RANDOM TRAITS

 

[Da Boss]

Excellent start - I had a go a while back and yours is better

Few thoughts -

1-2 should be engines rather than weapons

agree re the speeds - although you could just say they are not cumlative.....

Weapon criticals - the -1 to hit - how do you think this should work with beams - hit only on 4+ and re-roll 6's only?

Agree re double damage

Are you thinking the critical repairs works same as NA as well with ships able t repair smae turn they took a critical?

anyway thanks

 

[AdrianH]

As I understand it, NA criticals don't roll for which critical in a section applies; instead, the first critical in a section is number 1, the next one if that is not repaired is number 2, etc. And apparently you can repair a critical the same turn it was inflicted.

Shadows and Vorlons are either going to become significantly stronger (auto-repair all criticals in one go :twisted or significantly weaker (if that ability is stripped from them when using this system). For the Shadows, this could be balanced to some extent by having a Shields critical section similar to Noble Armada, replacing the Crew section since Shadows don't have Crew. I'm not sure what you'd do to balance the Vorlons - maybe re-roll if you get a 5, keep re-rolling until you get a critical which actually applies.

I also agree about double damage etc. continuing to work as normal in B5.

For beams, replace "-1 to hit" with "-1AD". Otherwise the exact effect of that critical will depend on which beam system you're using.

 

[Burger]

1-2 should be engines rather than weapons

Oh yeah typo

agree re the speeds - although you could just say they are not cumlative.....

Could be. I guess I was just trying to get past the frustration I have with B5, when you keep on geting -1 and -2 speed crits and it does NOTHING! But I guess the new system eliminates that anyway.

Weapon criticals - the -1 to hit - how do you think this should work with beams - hit only on 4+ and re-roll 6's only?

Hmm, well SAP -> AP, AP -> normal, normal -> Weak, weak -> "extra weak"... but beams and mini-beams, that could be awkward! -1 to all rolls would be a bit devastating especially since it's only a level 2 crit. Can't really think of anything simple. Hopefully someone can come up with a solution

Are you thinking the critical repairs works same as NA as well with ships able t repair smae turn they took a critical?

Oh hmm didn't know that was different! Well yeah I guess why not, it does reduce book-keeping after all, no need to keep track of which crits happened this turn. But I would say keep it at 9+ to repair, and only reduce the level by 1 if you pass. Then All Hands On Deck means you can repair multiple areas, and also you reduce the level by the number you score above 7.

EDIT: Bah yeah pesky ancients! OK lets keep it as you can't repair a crit that happened this turn. That keeps shadoes and vorlons special abilities the same.

 

[Da Boss]

As I understand it, NA criticals don't roll for which critical in a section applies; instead, the first critical in a section is number 1, the next one if that is not repaired is number 2, etc. And apparently you can repair a critical the same turn it was inflicted.

thats correct

Shadows and Vorlons are either going to become significantly stronger (auto-repair all criticals in one go :twisted or significantly weaker (if that ability is stripped from them when using this system). For the Shadows, this could be balanced to some extent by having a Shields critical section similar to Noble Armada, replacing the Crew section since Shadows don't have Crew. I'm not sure what you'd do to balance the Vorlons - maybe re-roll if you get a 5, keep re-rolling until you get a critical which actually applies.

You could link it to self repair so that a Shadow or Vorlon ship with self repair fixes a number of critical levels (of the players choice) up to their S/R rating each round:

So Shadow Scout = 1 per round,
Stalker 1D6
etc

a Shadow Scout with a level 2 engines crit and a level 1 weapons crit could repair one level of either, whilst a Stalker on a good roll gets rid of them all. May still be a bit good but if everyone is getting to repair those pesky crits quickly may not be that bad?

 

[basaint]

Interesting...

So on the ones that say "Reactor Crit +1", "Weapons Crit +1", etc. those you go to that chart, roll again and then add a 1?
Guess I'm kinda lost on that...

 

[Stormrider]

You could link it to self repair so that a Shadow or Vorlon ship with self repair fixes a number of critical levels (of the players choice) up to their S/R rating each round:

So Shadow Scout = 1 per round,
Stalker 1D6
etc

a Shadow Scout with a level 2 engines crit and a level 1 weapons crit could repair one level of either, whilst a Stalker on a good roll gets rid of them all. May still be a bit good but if everyone is getting to repair those pesky crits quickly may not be that bad?

Sounds about right to me.

 

[Target]

Interesting...

So on the ones that say "Reactor Crit +1", "Weapons Crit +1", etc. those you go to that chart, roll again and then add a 1?
Guess I'm kinda lost on that...

It's a progression thing. No 6-6 ships with one lucky crit.

One crit just advances you up 1 on the chart, DD & above does 2.
The only rolling is done to see where you hit & where it say d6 dam etc.

It is possible to get multiple crits by getting enough crits in the engines to get +1 reactor which also has taken several hits to up it to the +1 weapon on the weapon crits.

 

[basaint]

You've officially made it worse, Target

I guess not being familiar with NA rules doesn't help. Give me an example-

 

[Target]

Thought i might of
Lets say you get three crits with single dam weapon,
you roll d6 for the location, 1,2,5
This means you go do (1-2)-1 crit, (1-2)-2 crit & 5-1 crit.
A Double dam crit does 2 on the chart
It's just a matter of going up & down the chart as crits are done & repaired
Probably clear as mud

 

[basaint]

I guess I shouldn't have said anything

Since this is really NA and not B5, I'll just read quietly...but I do like the new chart though
Maybe add some flavor to my B5 and maybe do what I thought it meant in the first place:
Get a crit that has "Weapon crit +1", Roll again under Weapon Crits, then +1 to the actual damage roll (the 2nd roll).

 

[Greg Smith]

It looks pretty good. What we found with NA was that crits don't quite get to the higher numbers quickly enough.

So there is an escalate effect, where in the end phase you roll a d6, on 4+ your crit score in that area goes up. Might be worth adding one or two of those.

 

[Rick]

I guess I shouldn't have said anything

Since this is really NA and not B5, I'll just read quietly...but I do like the new chart though
Maybe add some flavor to my B5 and maybe do what I thought it meant in the first place:
Get a crit that has "Weapon crit +1", Roll again under Weapon Crits, then +1 to the actual damage roll (the 2nd roll).

Imagine it's the same as for the old crit table, but you only roll for location. Once you know where the crit is, you start off at level one - if you get another crit in the same location, it goes up to a level 2 and so on. Better?

 

[Burger]

So there is an escalate effect, where in the end phase you roll a d6, on 4+ your crit score in that area goes up. Might be worth adding one or two of those.

Hmm, I saw that and thought it looked a bit too good for B5. Since crits stack it keeps on escalating every turn right? So if "Escalate" is placed on the level 2 crit, you would roll 4+ at the end of the turn to see if it goes up to 3... and even if it does, you'd still roll at the end of the next turn, to see if it goes up to level 5, etc etc? So if you get a level 3 crit with escalate, you've got a 1 in 8 chance of reaching level 6, even if no extra damage is done?

I guess the crits do take a long time to get up to high levels with NA, because the AD's are so much lower. I'm guessing they would stack up rather faster in B5. This is another reason I've removed the "double damage moves you up 2 levels" rule.

 

[Burger]

OKAY since there is so much confusion due to people not knowing the NA crit rules, I shall outline my proposal. It's not quite the same as EITHER of them so first, forget everything you know about B5 and NA crit systems!

When you score a critical hit, you roll 1D6 on the systems table. 1-2 = Engines, 3 = Reactor, 4 = Weapons, 5 = Crew, 6 = Vital systems. Whichever area you roll, raise the level of that area by 1. So on your first critical hit on each area, you would raise it to level 1 (and take the damage, crew and effects of that level). Another critical hit to that area would raise the level to 2, etc. But another crit to a different area would raise the level in that area to 1.

Double/triple/quad damage do NOT raise it by multiple levels, but they do double/triple/quad the damage and crew reductions.

Multiple critical hits to the same area will do all of those criticals. For example if you roll 3 criticals and they all come out as Reactor, you would take the damage, crew and effects from levels 1, 2 and 3 critical hits.

Some of the effects raise the crit levels in other areas, for example if you reach level 5 in the Engines area, you raise the Reactor level by 1 also. You would take the damage, crew and effect of the reactor critical as normal.

Critical effects stack. So speed -1, speed -1, speed -1, speed -2 means you're at speed -5.

Criticals cannot be repaired in the same turn that they are inflicted. They can be repaired on the next turn, with a successful CQ check of 9 or higher. You can only attempt to repair crits in one area each turn, and when you successfully repair it you reduce the level in that area by 1. The critical effects are cancelled, but you do not get back the damage/crew loss. All Hands On Deck allows you to attempt repairs in multiple areas, you roll 1 D6 per area, and reduce that area's critical level by CQ + D6 - 6 (if positive!). Shadows and Vorlons repair all crits automatically in the turn after they are inflicted.


So for an example. A Hyperion is shooting at a Demos. Its beam scores 5 hits, 2 of which are criticals. The areas for those crits are rolled as 1 and 3. So you raise the crit level in Engines and Reactor both to 1, and the Demos takes 2 extra damage (because it's double damage), -1 speed and loses a random trait. The Hyperion then fires its plasma cannon and scores 3 hits, amazingly it gets 3 criticals. The areas are rolled as 3, 3, 5. The 2 reactor crits raise the reactor crit level to 3, and the crew crit level to 1. It takes 2 extra damage, 4 extra crew, -1 troops, no special actions and -2 speed. Then it fires its medium pulse cannon and gets 4 hits, 3 of which are crits (this guy's dice rolling is on form!). They are rolled as 3, 3, 5 again. 2 more reactor hits raises reactor crit level to 5 and crew to 2. It takes 1+D6 damage, 6 crew, -2 troops, is adrift and raises the weapons crit level by 1. Because there's been no weapons cirts yet, the level is raised to 1, so it suffers an extra crew loss and -1 AD to all weapons. The Demos is pretty messed up - that'll teach it to be a cheesy ship

 

[Da Boss]

That looks pretty good to me - I 'll see if we can get some games in to test it

Of course the Demos would have intercepted many of those shots - its Centauri and therefore superior

Whats you thoughts on the Shadows / Vorlons?

I think one of the reasons for the esculate was that crit repair was quicker, althouhg it is true the NA ships tended to die before thecrits ammassed - won't be the same problem with the Narn!

 

[Burger]

Oh yeah, edited to include repairs and ancients.

 

[Rick]

And it's very important to remember that damage control works slightly differently as well - if you roll well, you can remove more than 1 level of crit in an area!

 

[Burger]

And it's very important to remember that damage control works slightly differently as well - if you roll well, you can remove more than 1 level of crit in an area!

I've modified that in the last post on page 1 of this thread. It's more similar to B5 than NA.

I think repairing multiple levels in 1 turn is too good for B5. Unless you do All Hands On Deck

 

[Iain McGhee]

Nice work on the chart Burger, thanks for posting it up.