captainjack23
Cosmic Mongoose
{Edit: Necrobumped from an old discussion}
So, I tried out a quick fix for making starship combat a bit more dependent on power last night, and it worked fairly well..caveat, itworked well with a group of very cooperative players ....YPMV.
My main rationale wasn't just to complicate design for the sake of complication (if it was, I would obviously call it "realism"
), but rather to increase the options and issues that the players faced -with minimal rules changes, also (most of them own the MGT rules, and we are trying to run this as straight as possibnle -kind of a postplaytest, really).
Also, this is likely to be dropped when HG comes out ,assuming they have an anticipated player scale combat system.
So, here is the basic version of the rules changes/additions.
Some assumptions:
First, the basic combat rules are the same, especially with regard to damage : drives fail as a whole, not gradually by letter.
A power plant also provides some power for life support, ships systems, and basic wepons use in addition to and independent of its ability to power the M drive. Thus, a ship w/. PPA and MD A can produce 2 thrust, and run Life support, ships systems and basic avionics, and basic (mainly defensive or low power) weaponry.
A powerplant now produces energy points which are used to power systems. A basic PP installation - the smallest size for a given output for that hull- produces its table rated output + 2 (Life support & Avionics).
Example: A type A power plant in a 200 ton hull produces 3 EP (1 for rating, 2 for ships sytems); in a 100 ton hull, it would produce 4.
Each ship has a demand rating for its weapons which depends on what weapons are being charged for use that turn.
NOTE: Bays are exempt from this; I assume that part of the space requirement includes a dedicated power plant.
Note: I restrict Pbeams to 1/triple turret..<-this is now official as per HG
Update:
Particle Beam turret = 5
Particle beam Barbette =3
( a barbette (5 tons internal ) is larger, and has some internal power support but still requires input from the ship's plant)
A ships demand rating on any given turn is:
((Sum of weapon ratings)/Hull rating)-1).
If the result is 0 or less, it can use the weapons in question for free. If not , EP must be allocated for each point or fraction of a point of demand.
Note: the hull rating divisor allows the demand to scale with the drives -bigger ships have bigger drives and more turrets, but an output of 1 to 6, regardless.
Thus, a basic scout could run at Thrust 2 and fire weapons which had a demand of 0 ( a double pulse turret, 1/2 x2 -1 =0), or thrust 1 and fire weapons which had a demand of 1 (a double beam turret, 1+1 -1 =1).
Alternately, life support (gravitics, temp, atm recycling,light) could be shut down to provide the point, and thrust could remain at 2.
Note: A particle beam would then require at least a size 4 ships powerplant to fire a single such weapon for free; and it would take up all the free weapon capacity to do so. This is because I really don;t want small ships lugging one around. The Gazelleprobably doesn't work with a demand of 5 - I may be being too severe - perhaps a demand of 3 would work better ?
Advanced options:
"Bigger engines equal better fun" option:
Drives can be installed that are larger than optimum: in other words, one can use a drive that is bigger than the basic drive for that hull/output combo, but less than the drive needed for the next output level.
Each extra step gives 1/2 extra EP for ships sytems: note that the max thrust is still limited by the M drive rating.
NOTE: some thought has been given to making it 1/point per step...not sure if this is too much, BUT it eliminates the pesky 1/2 EPs.
The 1/2 point/letter extra is a convenient average and causes some odd anomalies - a more purist approach would make it provide 1 point times (the number of extra steps taken/number of extra steps before the next output number).
"More Power Scotty ! " option.
The drive can be temporarily overdriven by a sucessful Engineering: powerplant check. The drives rating for purposes of the above rule may be temporarily increased by up to 1 letter for every two points of effect.
Failure has no effect. Critical failure (-6 or worse effect) counts as a hit and causes damage accordingly.
At the end of the turn, a second Engineering: power roll is required to avoid burnout: there is a penalty of -1 for each letter increase taken, and -1 for each consecutive turn of overdrive. Failure causes the power plant to take a hit; critical failure (effect -6 or worse) means it is destroyed.
"Faster, Dammit, Faster !" option.
The same rules above are applied to the M drive ; note that any extra power must be allocated before the roll, and if failed is lost.
"All weapons to Maximum !" option.
A beam or energy weapon can double fire by doubling its demand. A energy points are alocated and a then a gunnery roll is required at -2 ; failure means only normal firing is allowed, critical failure means the weapon is damaged ; success means a asecond shot may be taken.
"Silent running" option
Ships signature may be reduced by powering down the powerplant -1 to detection for each output number reduction. Avionics may be shut off for an additional -1, as may life support. a fusion plant that is shut down takes 1d6 hours to restart, modified by an engineering: power roll. (details uncertain at this time)
"Light the buggers up, Sparks !" option
An extra power point may be allocated to active sensors, doubling their effective range and giving a +2 to the sensor roll.
In play
I hand the Captain a handful of tokens (two per EP, for the half points) and he allocates them to the players involved in the various systems -and I enforce a 1 min discussion time once he has them in hand. Once they are handed out, any rolls are made for system overloads and etc, and the turn begins.
I must note that this is inspired greatly by the original playtest 3.2 rules, as well as "Battlestations " , an enormously fun board and character game.
So, I tried out a quick fix for making starship combat a bit more dependent on power last night, and it worked fairly well..caveat, itworked well with a group of very cooperative players ....YPMV.
My main rationale wasn't just to complicate design for the sake of complication (if it was, I would obviously call it "realism"
), but rather to increase the options and issues that the players faced -with minimal rules changes, also (most of them own the MGT rules, and we are trying to run this as straight as possibnle -kind of a postplaytest, really).Also, this is likely to be dropped when HG comes out ,assuming they have an anticipated player scale combat system.
So, here is the basic version of the rules changes/additions.
Some assumptions:
First, the basic combat rules are the same, especially with regard to damage : drives fail as a whole, not gradually by letter.
A power plant also provides some power for life support, ships systems, and basic wepons use in addition to and independent of its ability to power the M drive. Thus, a ship w/. PPA and MD A can produce 2 thrust, and run Life support, ships systems and basic avionics, and basic (mainly defensive or low power) weaponry.
A powerplant now produces energy points which are used to power systems. A basic PP installation - the smallest size for a given output for that hull- produces its table rated output + 2 (Life support & Avionics).
Example: A type A power plant in a 200 ton hull produces 3 EP (1 for rating, 2 for ships sytems); in a 100 ton hull, it would produce 4.
Each ship has a demand rating for its weapons which depends on what weapons are being charged for use that turn.
NOTE: Bays are exempt from this; I assume that part of the space requirement includes a dedicated power plant.
- Demand ratings:
Beam Laser=1
Pulse Laser =1/2
Particle Beam = 5
Missile =0 (but require avionics to be functioning)
Sandcaster = 0
Shields =To Be Determined.
Note: I restrict Pbeams to 1/triple turret..<-this is now official as per HG
Update:
Particle Beam turret = 5
Particle beam Barbette =3
( a barbette (5 tons internal ) is larger, and has some internal power support but still requires input from the ship's plant)
A ships demand rating on any given turn is:
((Sum of weapon ratings)/Hull rating)-1).
If the result is 0 or less, it can use the weapons in question for free. If not , EP must be allocated for each point or fraction of a point of demand.
Note: the hull rating divisor allows the demand to scale with the drives -bigger ships have bigger drives and more turrets, but an output of 1 to 6, regardless.
Thus, a basic scout could run at Thrust 2 and fire weapons which had a demand of 0 ( a double pulse turret, 1/2 x2 -1 =0), or thrust 1 and fire weapons which had a demand of 1 (a double beam turret, 1+1 -1 =1).
Alternately, life support (gravitics, temp, atm recycling,light) could be shut down to provide the point, and thrust could remain at 2.
Note: A particle beam would then require at least a size 4 ships powerplant to fire a single such weapon for free; and it would take up all the free weapon capacity to do so. This is because I really don;t want small ships lugging one around. The Gazelleprobably doesn't work with a demand of 5 - I may be being too severe - perhaps a demand of 3 would work better ?
Advanced options:
"Bigger engines equal better fun" option:
Drives can be installed that are larger than optimum: in other words, one can use a drive that is bigger than the basic drive for that hull/output combo, but less than the drive needed for the next output level.
Each extra step gives 1/2 extra EP for ships sytems: note that the max thrust is still limited by the M drive rating.
NOTE: some thought has been given to making it 1/point per step...not sure if this is too much, BUT it eliminates the pesky 1/2 EPs.
The 1/2 point/letter extra is a convenient average and causes some odd anomalies - a more purist approach would make it provide 1 point times (the number of extra steps taken/number of extra steps before the next output number).
"More Power Scotty ! " option.
The drive can be temporarily overdriven by a sucessful Engineering: powerplant check. The drives rating for purposes of the above rule may be temporarily increased by up to 1 letter for every two points of effect.
Failure has no effect. Critical failure (-6 or worse effect) counts as a hit and causes damage accordingly.
At the end of the turn, a second Engineering: power roll is required to avoid burnout: there is a penalty of -1 for each letter increase taken, and -1 for each consecutive turn of overdrive. Failure causes the power plant to take a hit; critical failure (effect -6 or worse) means it is destroyed.
"Faster, Dammit, Faster !" option.
The same rules above are applied to the M drive ; note that any extra power must be allocated before the roll, and if failed is lost.
"All weapons to Maximum !" option.
A beam or energy weapon can double fire by doubling its demand. A energy points are alocated and a then a gunnery roll is required at -2 ; failure means only normal firing is allowed, critical failure means the weapon is damaged ; success means a asecond shot may be taken.
"Silent running" option
Ships signature may be reduced by powering down the powerplant -1 to detection for each output number reduction. Avionics may be shut off for an additional -1, as may life support. a fusion plant that is shut down takes 1d6 hours to restart, modified by an engineering: power roll. (details uncertain at this time)
"Light the buggers up, Sparks !" option
An extra power point may be allocated to active sensors, doubling their effective range and giving a +2 to the sensor roll.
In play
I hand the Captain a handful of tokens (two per EP, for the half points) and he allocates them to the players involved in the various systems -and I enforce a 1 min discussion time once he has them in hand. Once they are handed out, any rolls are made for system overloads and etc, and the turn begins.
I must note that this is inspired greatly by the original playtest 3.2 rules, as well as "Battlestations " , an enormously fun board and character game.
So two .5 bumps up in engine size, & you're good. 
