New way of playing B5

[Target]

We have been playing round with B5, had a few games with this modification, seems to have promise.
The Dreadfleet rule seems to be helping big ships.
We are also trying to simply the weapons.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Get rid of the Crew Score, swap them with ships like the Explorer
Ships fired upon get Half AD from that arc back (Dread fleet rule but should give big ships a chance)
Weapons hit on 4+,5+ over half range, Secondary Targets -1 to hit
Boresight is the normal arc,
All Normal weapons have range 20
Mini Beam 24
Beams 30, hits get rerolled for more hits
Missiles/Torpedoes 30 (No Long range)
E mines, Treat as missiles that effect all within that area

Light Fighters 24" 2AD 2" Range 2+Dodge
Medium Fighters 20" 3AD 4" Range 3+Dodge
Heavy Fighters 18" 4AD 6" Range 4+Dodge
Super Heavy Fighters 16" 6AD 8"Range 5+Dodge

Fighters auto hit at point blank, Fire fighters in groups of 4
No Dogfight so just fire as normal
Give Int/AF 6 if escorting, die 1 d6
If a friendly fighter is fired through can try to intercept on 6 like escort if it likes, dies on a 1

Ignoring SAP,AP,Twinlink traits at the moment
Precise gives +1 to hit
Hull 6 ships are armoured, Bulkhead hits are 1-2, 3-5 normal 6 crit
Stealth is rolled per dice
AntiFighter & Interceptors, intercept /AF hit on a 6 (AF 4" range)
Advanced AF/Int 3 + on a 5+ (AF 5" range)

Slowly adding more SA's
Intensify defensive firepower - auto, Gives intercept & anti fighter on a 6 or +1 to the roll Half AD
Concertrate Firepower, CQ 8 +1 to hit, Secondary targets additonal -1
All Hands to deck, CQ7 Roll to fix all crits (usually repaired on CQ 8 test)
Come about CQ7

Crit chart
1-2 WEAPONS

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


3 REACTOR CRITICALS

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


4 WEAPON CRITICALS

1 TARGETING SYSTEM DAMAGED +1 ALL WEAPONS LOSE 1AD
2 POWER DISRUPTED +1 ALL WEAPONS AT -1 PENALTY TO HIT
3 WEAPONS OFFLINE +2 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 AMMUNITION EXPLOSION +3 NO WEAPONS MAY FIRE


5 CREW CRITICALS

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


6 VITAL SYSTEMS CRITICALS

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

 

[Target]

We have moved stealth from being a save to roll the stealth roll &
Stealth 4 or less gives -1 to hit & Stealth 5 upwards -2
debating whether to get rid of the stealth roll & just have the to hit modifier

To hit a score of 7 you need a 6 then 2, 8 =6,3 & so on

AF kills a fighter, no dodge roll. Can get quite hairy for an attacking fighter if it's an Omega (5+) on Intensify Defensive Firepower (4+) with Fighter Escorts (3+) Escort (2+) but it's only 1 roll per fighter. A 1 kills defending fighter if it's escorting. Pays to destroy the escort ship first

Missiles and e-mines don't get retaliatory strike (Dreadfleet rule)
If a squadron fires at a ship/ships they only get 1 roll as treated as 1 attack

Forgot the All power to engines SA
Move 2 or less Opposition get +1 to hit
Stationary +2
Come about is an extra 90 turn during a turn
Scout gives +1 to hit or -1 to hit from enemy (Jam) CQ 8
Escort gives +1 to ships int/AF rating within 8", CQ7, can roll multiple times -1 per roll beyond the first one
Intensify Defensive firepower CQ7
Thinking about
Evasive manuevers SA CQ 8 -1 to hit, must move more than 8
Full power to ECM CQ9 -1 to hit
Elite crews get +1 to hit, if sustain a CQ modifier then reverts to normal
Maybe move an fire
Escort SA- allows a ship without escort go give one ship +1 Int/AF rating CQ9

 

[zap123]

I'm waiting for the first points system to play B5 vs SF.

 

[Da Boss]

Difficult as the systems are not really that close - had a play with conversions and its a bit more involved than I thought.

 

[shiba-tenchi]

We envisaged ships would stay true to their own rule system, and then you just need to point the B5 stuff so it is comparable in effectiveness. Once you get that first really good match things should get easier.

You would need a set of translation rules (phasers=beam, missiles=drones etc) and the boarding mechanic and how stealth works would need tweaks but off the top of my head I can't think of a lot else that'd need doing.

 

[AdrianH]

We envisaged ships would stay true to their own rule system, and then you just need to point the B5 stuff so it is comparable in effectiveness. Once you get that first really good match things should get easier.

You would need a set of translation rules (phasers=beam, missiles=drones etc) and the boarding mechanic and how stealth works would need tweaks but off the top of my head I can't think of a lot else that'd need doing.

You might not even need that. Regard the ship and weapon traits as being fleet special rules. Each ship uses the rules from its version of ACTA to move, cause damage, defend against attacks, etc. Phasers are effectively mini-beams (hit on 4+, don't re-roll for extra hits, can't be stopped by interceptors). A SF ship firing at a B5 stealth ship rolls once to try to break the stealth; a SF cloaked ship being attacked by a B5 ship rolls against its own stealth for each hit.

 

[shiba-tenchi]

Hmmm, good point. Even easier.

Now, just need to work out how many points a Hyperion is worth

 

[Da Boss]

Few things I thought of:

Are you going to keep the crew score in or ignore when playing with SF ships?
Does the B5 hull score matter for non phaser weapons?
Also need to decide what the interceptors can work against - I assumed just Drones
Can tractor beams/phasers use defensive fire against missles or even nromal non beam/mini-beam weapons - probably yes.

 

[AdrianH]

Crew scores: good point, especially if boarding happens. If a SF ship sends marines onto a B5 ship, I'd say treat it as a breaching pod attack - defending troops can engage the boarders but can't be in place ready for them. If a B5 ship sends troops onto a SF ship (which can only happen after the shields have been knocked down), they will fight the SF ship's marines, after which there needs to be some sort of crew score unless you rule that the SF ship automatically surrenders when its marines are wiped out. (A later Trek Klingon crew wouldn't give up that easily, but then SF's Klingons aren't the warriors of later Trek. ) Basic hits usually knock off
damage and crew points at about the same rate, so a quick fix might be to start the crew at equal to the ship's remaining damage points, then let the boarding troops work their way through that.

Hull score: I'd say that yes, anything other than phasers needs to roll against hull score. If there are other SF weapons which can reasonably be assumed to be beams or mini-beams, treat them as such.

Interceptors: I'd say good against anything except phasers. They're certainly good against disruptors - B5 has disruptors, specifically Minbari molecular disruptors, and interceptors work against those. I don't know exactly what photon torpedoes are in SF - later Trek showed actual projectiles, TOS just showed light balls. But those light balls were seen to move, meaning they're slower than light, they're not beams. They can be intercepted. Plasma torpedoes can also be intercepted; this is similar in principle, though different in mechanism, to using defensive phasers.

Phasers are effectively point defence, similar to B5's interceptors but using SF's rules. Apply them to anything which can be stopped by interceptors. Tractor beams should probably only work against solid weapons, e.g. anything which has the word "missile" or "torpedo" in its name.