Decompression and Self-sealing Hulls

[Jak Nazryth]

Somebody secondededed the proposal so it is officially official.

I want to keep "hull breach rules" simple and fun in the context of RPG.

I agree with "yellow alert" keep emergency vacc suits near by at your action stations, and "Red alert" slip into your emergency vacc suit except for gloves and head gear. Headgear and gloves can be slipped on quickly and easily in case of a massive hull breach.

 

[far-trader]

Until I find a better solution or official rule, how about this.
Each Hull hit looses 1d6 tons of air per turn...

Just curious how you're going to figure the ship's total air tonnage?

I think Hull hits would be a good one to apply atmo integrity loss to.

I'm thinking self-sealing hulls getting an automatic battlefield repair (pg 150) as a Mechanic-0 with TechLevel in place of Edu for the modifier. Able to make one check per hit per turn. Total permitted checks equal to 100x the Hull points and full repair rules to replace used self-sealing actions.

I'd go with a simple rule that until the ship looses total atmo integrity (Hull points reduced to zero or cumulative unrepaired Hull hits reduce atmo per below) no one has to be in Vacc-Suits or other self contained life support.

If battlefield repairs are forgone or failed I'd add one additional Hull hit effect (not actual Hull points) per hit not repaired for continued loss of air.

An example would serve well but I'm pressed for time to create a good one. Quick and dirty might do:

Scout Ship with TL-9 Self-Sealing hull and 2 Hull points.

Turn 1 - Hull hit. Hull points 1/2 and potential loss of Atmo. Self-Sealing repair success +0 makes battlefield repair of 1 hit. Hull points 2/2 (temporarily restored) and Atmo 2/2 (loss prevented).

Turn 2 - Hull hit. Hull points 1/2 and potential loss of Atmo. Self-Sealing repair fails. Hull points 1/2 (no restoration) and Atmo 1/2 (loss and continued loss potential of 1 per turn)

Turn 3 - No hit. Hull points 1/2 and potential loss of Atmo from previous unrepaired hit. Self-Sealing repair fails again. Hull points 1/2 (no restoration) and Atmo 0/2 (total loss, Vacc-Suit time).

Turn 4 - No hit. Hull points 1/2 and no Atmo to worry about. Self-Sealing repair success +1 makes battlefield repair of 2 hits (1 redundant). Hull points 2/2 (restored) but Atmo is still 0/2.

Turn 5 - Combat ends. Temporary Hull hits (2) must be fully repaired and Atmo must be replenished (2)* The Self-Sealing feature has used 4 of 200 checks.

* possibly from another ship with points to spare, salvaged even from a defeated ship that is disabled but still has atmo, AFTER the hull is properly repaired or it will just be lost again

Hope that is as clear as it seems to me It might have a bug or two of course if I've forgotten some rule nuance, and HG might have something I haven't spotted yet, this is just Core rules. And it might be better explained.

Yep, I'd agree, if Hull points equal zero then no battlefield repairs (self-sealing or otherwise) will keep air in the ship. Only full repairs will restore atmo integrity. And until then the only life support will be suits and such.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

For simple stupid calculations I would count total air tonnage as this...
"If a player can stand in a space, that counts as air-tonnage"
Basically take the ship tonnage - fuel tonnage = air tonnage. (and sure you can subtract the 1 or 2 tons of avionics etc...
I know engines take up 80% or more of engineering sections, but just to keep it simple yet simi-realistic.
And if you know were the hull was breached, say a 40 cargo bay, you can seal the rest of the ship off an only loose 40 tons of air at most.
I'm already working on an expanded 2d6 hit location chart to give a better spread... like Hull/cargo, Hull/crew, Hull/passenger, Hull/engineering, Primary weapon (bay), turret, main airlock, etc... things like that. It might give a better chance of allowing the players to seal off particular sections of the ship until the hull breach is repaired. It could be the hull surrounding crew compartments, or passenger sections, or cargo area, etc...

I think that your example might be more complicated than I personally want to be, but it is still very logical. Remember, I want to make my game simi-realistic yet fast and fun.
Here is how I will experiment...
If you spend the money on self sealing hulls, then it automatically works on the very first hull hit. After that, I like the idea you have a "skill roll" on the self sealing "goo" or what ever it is. You could use a quick roll and have penalties for each hull strike after the first... say -2 per hull hit?

Don' know.. I'm just making this up as I go along

Hey, where can I post ship designs and deck plans? I only signed up last night and haven't had a chance to check everything out.
I also would like to give a brief description of each game night and allow for comments and advice.
My game will run like a cross between Firefly and Babylon 5.
My players have already decided to go into the exploration mode after the first introduction game. Currently and (technically) my players are still in their character generation phase. I am running them through an introductory adventure which counts as the last mission of the final term. When the adventure is over, then they muster out and begin "the real game". This will allow all of them to get used to the rules and they get to all know each other to boot. The game got interrupted the other night because of storms and tornado's in the Dallas area. They got in one quick space fight, just to let them test the rules.
My players are all members of the Crew aboard "The Leviathan".
The get to swoop down and rescue a corporate type that the Leviathan is under contract with.
The will get to fly small craft, have one fight using vehicles, use stealth and other technical skills, then get in a gun fight and get off world and back to the ship.
I want it to be fast paced and quick so they can muster out, decide on a ship of their own, and then introduce them to 3 or 4 plot hooks, all in the first night.

 

[far-trader]

For simple stupid calculations I would count total air tonnage as this...
"If a player can stand in a space, that counts as air-tonnage"
Basically take the ship tonnage - fuel tonnage = air tonnage.

That was my expectation on the simplest method. Probably a good way to go

If you spend the money on self sealing hulls, then it automatically works on the very first hull hit. After that, I like the idea you have a "skill roll" on the self sealing "goo" or what ever it is. You could use a quick roll and have penalties for each hull strike after the first... say -2 per hull hit?

The thing is the self-sealing option is very pricey. I was originally thinking of limiting it to repairs equal Hull points. But that would be a cost of some Cr500,000 per Hull point temporarily repaired. Not worth it. Even 10x the repairs is pricey. So I settled on 100x but only because infinite repairs is too munchkin

So I really think it has to do more than just one repair, even more than one without penalty (remember we're talking an Effect roll so there is already a DM-8 to apply to the roll). I suppose you could go with something like Mechanic skill equal Hull points, lose one per repair attempt. Maybe always at least Mechanic-0? The x100 just felt right for replacement cost/value at Cr5,000 per repair attempt.

Don' know.. I'm just making this up as I go along

It's the best way when rules are lacking

Hey, where can I post ship designs and deck plans?

Just anywhere There's no sub-forums as such here. If it is Traveller it goes here as far as I know. You'll need an image host site to add graphics if you want to include them. I use Photobucket.com (it's free).

Play with the "Code" function in the menu above to preserve formatting for cleaner presentation of data blocks. Compose off-site with a mono-space font and only use spaces, not tabs or indents, then just cut-and-paste into the the "Code" tags.

 

[Jak Nazryth]

Yeah, you are probably right on the cost factor. If you spend that much money, then it should work until the hull reaches zero