Here are a few additional rules for the FASA Star Ship
Combat Simulator. The first three were adapted from ADB's Star Fleet Battles.
The next two are adapted from jmsteele's core ideas on the Xon website. The
last six are original ideas. The hull breech rules makes ship combat very
deadly for PCs, especially for Bridge crew as the bridge is a vulnerable target
that somehow seems to take more than its fair share of damage. It should make
PCs at least think about a posting to the emergency bridge.
In addition to the rules, here are nineteen
Reinforcing shields: All ships and bases can perform two types shield
reinforcement, general and specific. General reinforcement stops damage from
any direction at a cost of one point of reinforcement for every two points of
power assigned to this task. Specific reinforcement only protects shields
designated during the Power Allocation Phase. The cost is one point of
reinforcement per point of power.
Proximity fused photons: Any ship or base with a photon can designate them
during the Power Allocation Phase as having a proximity fuse. The photon does
one-half damage, but adds two to the basic to hit.
Sensor Lock-On Modifications: As long as a ship's sensors are undamaged, they
produce enough data to provide basic targeting for all targets within weapons
range. "Weapons-lock" grants the ability to fire weapons at any
target in range, but does not give any information about the target's status
either before or after firing. The Sensor Operator may make a skill roll on one
target during the skill rolls phase to gain a "Sensor lock-on." A
full sensor lock-on grants the ability to ask the detailed questions as stated
in the Command and Control rules. If a ship's sensors are damaged, then the
Sensor Operator must roll one D6 for each ship within sensor range to obtain a
weapons-lock. Each hit the sensors have sustained subtracts a cumulative
penalty of -1 to the weapons-lock roll. (IE two hits to sensors will require a
roll of 1-4 for each potential target within range). As per the standard rules,
once a ship has taken five hits to the sensors, they no longer function and any
form of lock-on is impossible. If the sensors have taken five hits, or if the
weapons-lock roll fails for a specific target, the firing ship may still fire
at that target, but will do so using the "blind fire" rules below.
Firing Beam Weapons in any Phase (modified from jmsteele's original idea):
During the Power Allocation Phase, energy assigned to beam weapons can be
spread out during the entire turn, thus beam weapons may fire in any phase
during which they have power remaining. Example: 6 points of power are
allocated to the two phasers in the forward bank of a Constitution-class
cruiser. Those points can be spent in any order during the turn, IE 6 points
each on phase one, 2 points each on each phase, or any other combination that
does not exceed the allocated six points. However, any power not used at the
end of the turn is lost.
Torpedo Spreads (modified from jmsteele's original idea): By the
NOTE: There is substantial risk in firing spreads in that if the launcher is
hit or the ship is destroyed while the launcher is still "hot
loaded," all torpedoes in the weapon explode normally causing automatic
internal damage that only the Structural Integrity Field can protect against.
Torpedo Fire Limit: Torpedoes, of any kind, due to the limitations of their
loading systems may only fire once per turn even if firing a spread.
Blind Fire: A ship without any lock on my still fire at a target by having the
Weapons Operator roll their skill in Starship Weapons Operation with each ten
percent that roll is made by, gives a to hit of one on a D10 rounding any
fractions down. (IE Skill of 63 and a roll of 38. 63-38=25. 25÷10=2.5, rounded
down to 2. gives the Weapons Operator a 1-2 on a D10 of a hit with that
weapon). A separate skill roll must be made for each individual weapon or bank
fired at that target.
Hull Breech: When a section of hull takes damage, ratio damage against total
original hull and that becomes the chance of a hull breech. Example: Ship
superstructure 24 and Bridge takes three phaser hits doing one, four, and four
points of damage doing the standard three points of superstructure damage.
Total the damage from that round, in this case 1 + 4 + 4 = 9 ÷ 24 = 38% that
the bridge is breeched. A section must take at least 25% of original
superstructure before there is a possibility of a breech. Percentage is
cumulative per hit, thus the 25% need not be done in one round to cause a
breech.
If the section where a PC is
located is breeched, PC must roll DEX to reach safety. A fail causes 3D10
damage with three fails resulting in fatal explosive decompression. If a PC is
rendered unconscious while trying to escape, someone else can attempt their LUC
roll once to pull them to safety before emergency bulkheads seal the breech.
Structural Integrity Field: This system is invented during the
The
Evasive Maneuvers: Can be used to make it more difficult for the enemy to hit
your ship when performed. This does not place stress on the ship like an
evasive turn, because the helmsman is not whipping the ship around to avoid
enemy fire as it is being fired upon. Instead the helmsman is concentrating
solely on not being hit for that phase, not on firing. If there is a weapons
officer or the helmsman decides to fire, there is a penalty involved, a minus 5
on the to-hit chart. It's obvious when a ship is performing evasive maneuvers,
and so it must be stated before movement occurs. To figure out the Evasive
Maneuver bonus, average the captain’s Starship Strategy and Tactics and the
helmsman’s Starship Helm Operations to get the rating and compare it to the
enemy ship's crew rating. The difference is divided by ten and rounded off, the
resulting number, if positive, is subtracted from the “to hit” roll of the
attackers. Example: A captain with Starship Strategy and Tactics of 65 and a
helmsman with Starship Helm Operations of 80 are part of a crew fighting a ship
with a crew efficiency rating of 45 and the PCs decide to use Evasive
Maneuvers. 80 + 65 = 145 / 2 = 72.5 rounded off to 73 – 45 = 28 / 10 = 2.8
rounded to 3. The PCs get a -3 bonus while conducting Evasive Maneuvers against
this ship. Now if after successfully approaching the enemy ship, the characters
choose to fire and the NPCs choose to evade, the averaged PCs skills are still
73, the NPCs skill rating is still 45, and the difference is still 28. However,
this is a -28 difference and thus the Evasive Maneuvers are not effective
against the PCs.
Evasive Maneuver versus torpedo fire: Torpedoes are easier to avoid, so if the
modified to hit roll is successful but by more than half, then a graze occurs
on the facing shield. If the roll is less than half of the number needed, then
the torpedo hits normally. If the enemy fires a torpedo spread there is a
penalty placed on the Evasive Maneuver roll, a +1 is added to the to hit roll
for each torpedo after the first one. Example the normal number to hit needed
is a 9. If the above example is used, the Evasive Maneuvers subtracts 3 to hit
for a final to hit of 6, but can not exceed the unmodified to hit number. If
the attacker rolls a 1-3, the torpedo does normal damage. If the roll is 4-6,
the torpedo does the one half damage of a graze. If the attacker fired a four
torpedo spread in the above example, the first torpedo would need a 6 or less
to hit, the second a 7 or less, the third an 8 or less, and any others a 9 or
less.
Evading missiles in the Command and Control game: The targeted ship may attempt
to evade after firing is completed. The captain must make a successful Starship
Strategy and Tactics roll or the helmsman must make a successful
**
Copyright © June 2005.