Need help understanding space combat

[Tigleth Pilisar]

Played for the first time today (as referee). Still learning the game.

Starship combat occurred. Had to make guesses on the procedures and went with it, but now I'd like to check how it is supposed to work.

Turn goes with:

1. Initiative.

Each captain can roll a task check on Tactics (naval) to adjust the initiative roll. The "Effect" is supposed to be a modifier. So I guess if a Tactics (naval) 1 guy rolled a 8(+1) = 9 then the Effect is "1"? And if he rolled a 6(+1) the Effect is "-1". Not quite sure on this effect thing. Is it just your roll + modifiers - 8?

Then you each roll initiative to see who goes first, modified by effect, the leadership effect done in the action phase last turn and +1 to the ship with higher thrust. Whoever is higher goes first.

2. Maneover.

This phase I guess you just pick how much of your total thrust you will use for motion and how much you will save for actions. So if you have 4 thrust, you can move (use) 3 for motion and save 1 for the next phase.

3. Actions.

Here's where it starts to get more confusing. It seemed that some things cost a maneover and some don't. You use a manuever if you a) board, b) aim using pilot to line up a shot or c) i forget. You don't use any manoever for firing. We played that you can fire every turret that you either have Fire Control/1 allocated to or an actual crew gunner. It costs one fire control to operate the turret and a second if you want a DM. I assume that even though there can be three different things on a turret all three of them can be used. Firing is free (doesn't cost thrust).

4. Reactions.

Dodge and firing sand cost a maneover I think, but I don't know if it is 1 dodge that then you roll a task check (pilot) and if you succeed the opponent has -2 for all attacks or just against one of them. Same with sand, I don't know if it costs a maneuver for every sand you fire or 1 to fire as many turrets as you want.

5. Ship phase.

Sensors to "lock on" - can you only do this once? +1 to DM on all shots if successful. Can't lock even more for the next phase?

Repair I didn't quite understand. Which skill for characters is used? Mechanic? Engineering? Can the machanic skill be used to fix the Jump Drive for example? What confused me more was the auto repair program. For example if you had Auto-Repair-2 then I'd assume that you could repair one thing if you got an 8+ with a +2 DM. It seems that Auto repair/2 means that you get two +1 DM cracks to fix things? What can you fix? Anything? Can you fix the hull?

I wasn't totally clear on leadership use. I thought leadership was used on a character, but here it appears you can use it for the entire ship's initiative the following phase. Please explain how effect works as well.


The final thing I was confused about was the running of programs. You can have Evade, Fire Control, and Auto Repair running for example. And I understand that the total programs that can run can't exceed the computer value. I guess Maneuver/0 allows Thrust 6 so it doesn't take computer space. But when do you declare which programs are running for the turn? At the beginning? Does the skill of computers matter and how?

On the bright side, firing weapons seems straightforward with 8+ to hit with range, evasion, dodge, sand, and skill modifiers. Damage is clear, hits and location all are understandable. Once internal damage is going, I would have thought there could be hull breaches that create a vacuum in areas struck where if you didn't have a vacc suit you'd be finished, but I guess that is not in the game.

I also didn't have a good idea as to how far a ship travelled per turn based on thrust. There is a chart showing how ships move from one range to another based on relative thrust, but that seemed quite general.

Lots of weapons and things I haven't used yet, but this thread might help me understand the mechanics better.

Thanks.

 

[Tigleth Pilisar]

Oh ya. The other thing is character health.

How much does it recover, what frequency, and how does a medikit or surgery affect it?

It says for a medikit that the user rolls and the character treated gains the "effect".

Well how often can they do that? Every minute? and then the character is full health in a few minutes? Do characters gain health daily? Can they lose health if already weak and not treated? What is the difference between using different TL of medikits besides cooler equipment?

Bottom line, how long does a character take to recover and what things can be done to assist this and how long do these assistances take?

Thanks.

 

[BP]

Good topic - though at 4 am - I'm not about to attempt detailed response (and I suck at being clear and succinct anyways...)

It won't answer all your questions - but the recent MgT 1 BCr Squadron Tournament thread shows how somebody else has done it.

As to character health and recovery - see page 75 of Core. I actually missed most of this myself till someone pointed it out to me tonight!

 

[BP]

...1. Initiative.

Looks like you got it (and Effect is defined on pg. 50).

A couple other things can affect initiative, such as:
* a Leadership check effecting next round - pg 150
* Burning (next round) initiative for bonus reactions - pg 149
* Holographic controls (DM+2) - HG pg 45 (SRD if you don't have)
* Command bridge (DM+1 to Tactics check) - HG pg 44
* Compact Bridge (DM-1 to Tactics/Leadership checks - but not directly to init as it is not a skill check) - HG pg 44

Suprise (pg 147) negates first initiative check.

Also - since Tactics is an Int based skill check - expert software can be used to increase that DM

 

[BP]

...2. Maneover.

Actually, I feel this should be called the Movement Phase since Manuevre is part of Combat Phase - but you got the idea...

Note in the skills section, on pg 54, there is mention of Engineer(M-Drive) 'overcharging a thruster plate to increase a ship's agility'. (Agility being left over from other Traveller editions...)

I'd use this for skill checks to increase thrust. I would normally combine this with Engineer(Power) check as well - unless the power plant is over rated high enough.

For myself, I have considered that 1 plus the Task Chain (Effect) DMs (-2 to +3 per page 51) of a Power check yields the number of extra power points available - whatever is available can be used upto 1 plus the Task Chain DM of the M-Drive check.

However, failure can result in damage to the drive/plant. I'd take the 1 plus Task Chain DM above as the amount of power/M-Drive capability loss(so -2 max). If rating of either becomes 0, I'd treat it as one hit, if -1 then two hits. This won't normally destroy the drive/plant unless it is already damaged...

 

[BP]

3. Actions.

Here's where it starts to get more confusing. It seemed that some things cost a maneover and some don't. You use a manuever if you a) board, b) aim using pilot to line up a shot or c) i forget. You don't use any manoever for firing. We played that you can fire every turret that you either have Fire Control/1 allocated to or an actual crew gunner. It costs one fire control to operate the turret and a second if you want a DM. I assume that even though there can be three different things on a turret all three of them can be used. Firing is free (doesn't cost thrust).

Manuevre points are not required to fire weapons (even bay weapons), only to help line up a shot (for optimal firing - DM is based on the Task Chain DMs which are based on the Effect).

The fire control software works the way you describe - but a Gunner gets DM based on Gunner(Turret) - i.e. that cost to fire only applies to software, not crew.

The third thing you forgot (item c ) is Dodge Incoming fire. You can get extra dodges with the Evade software.

The fourth thing - that the book didn't list for a manuevre action on pg 147 is to fire sand, or at least it appears so. This part is kinda confusing (address later).

 

[BP]

I won't directly address your other issues yet - to give time for others to chime in and fix what I have posted

Battlefield repair is covered on pg 150 - which requires Mechanic skill. Repair on pg 143 can be used (for Science/Engineering skilled) only if Timing acceleration is used since normal repair requires 1d6 hours and combat turns are only 6 minutes.

Jury-rigging is different than repair in that it only lasts 1d6 hours. It may also not require spare parts and it shouldn't take as long - but the book fails to explicitly state this. (My read is that it just doesn't need spare parts, but takes just as long - 1d6 hours to jury rig).

See the previous Billion Cr Tourney thread mentioned for more thoughts on repairs...

For some skill checks - timing should determine if multiple checks per combat round can be achieved - most skill checks during combat take 1d6 minutes and a combat round is 6 minutes.

 

[Tigleth Pilisar]

Thanks for all of your work here BP. I've briefly looked at your link that runs through an example. It is going to take a lot of focus to work through it as it is a very large battle. I'll also read the page references you listed.

I'm still not that sure when one does a task check, and when one looks for "effect", and if "effect" can be negative, and what tasks are chains and what are not.

I haven't looked at your page reference on health and recovery, but I hope it covers what a medikit does, at what rate, and what natural healing or degradation is.

I'll put some more work into your detailed responses over the next couple days.

Thanks again.

 

[BP]

Glad to help - keep in mind these are just my interpretations based on a lot of reading and re-reading and from listening to others on the forum, but almost no practice - so take them with a grain of salt...

As to task checks:
* Effect can be negative - its just the amount of the roll +DMs minus 8.
* The degree or level of success or failure the Effect value represents is listed in the table on pg 50. This allows the Ref to guage how well the character performed the task (or how poorly) and roleplay it. Thus there are no hard and fast rules what this means - its dependent on the task.
Note the optional marginal success/failure levels - and the idea of conditions - so the Ref doesn't have to allow success/failure to be absolute or all encompassing.
* The Task chain DMs (pg 51) basically come from the above table and go positive to negative.

So when do you apply task checks? Well, certain actions already have this spelled out for you (like Jump, and piloting in Atmo, etc.). The skill definitions themselves are great examples.

For everything else - its a judgement call for the Ref. Not everything needs to have a task check. By definition, unskilled tasks will not have a task skill check, but, may require a task characteristic check (pg 48 ).

DMs come from characteristics, skill levels, expert program assistance, level of difficulty, timing choices, multiple actions, and task chains. So certain tasks will automatically succeed with some players (like tasks that are simple with any DM+2 or higher).

In many cases the Effect is not important - you simply succeed or fail. Again, like the level of difficulty, the need for a task check, the time and skill required and characteristics affecting the check - this is the Refs call, with many already provided throughout the books.

Hmm.. I wrote a bunch more, but I think I may just confuse things - others are more succinct and experienced than me here on the forums - suggest you re-read pg 48 to 59 (all the skills) and then post specific questions (one at a time) on the board.

There are many who are more than happy to help - but, my experience with space combat threads is they get neglected. :roll: