Daryl's Optional Core Systems Rules for Full Thrust
The following are non-catastrophic critical hits. They are "hit" like
any other system during a threshold check (unlike the catstrophic hits which
are checked at -1 on the die rolls). They cannot be targetted by needle
weapons.
- Computer [symbol: icon of computer terminal & keyboard inside a circle]
-- you must plot your movement one turn in advance (e.g. if I take the computer
hit in turn 5, when writing turn 6 orders I also write for turn 7. In turn 7
I'll write for turn 8...). Should your computer get fixed you can erase what
you had previously written down for the turn and write new orders. Should you
take engine hits or repair engine damage, you still need to follow the orders
you had written but may change the thrust levels involved (e.g. MD4 becomes MD2
orTS2 becomes TS3; but you cannot change TS to PS -- the "letters"
must stay intact and thrusts cannot be reduced to zero). You do not have to
plot missile firing or fighter launching in advance -- only movement.
- Communications [symbol: icon of a typical phone handset inside a circle] -- ships with communications damage fire after all
ships with intact communications have finished. (In a PBEM game, this hit
might also have an effect on your ability to communicate with your buddies.)
- Sensors [symbol: icon of sensor dish inside a circle] -- when firing, for weapons with multiple range
categories, the target is treated as if it were one range category further
away. For weapons with only one range category, the target is treated as if it
were twice as far away (i.e. a Class-1 battery has an effective range of 6).
We used them in our playtest last night and I really liked them -- they add
flavor without turning the battle. We also used the catastrophic criticals,
on which I'm ambivalent -- we seemed to get them too often for my taste.
Maybe for catastrophic hits if you only made one threshold roll for the set
of three (the "catastrophic hit check") and if positive, roll to see which
one. That'll change the odds:
Chance of one or more catastrophic hits (cumulative chance in parens):
Current system 1-check method
1st row dies none none
2nd row dies 42% (42%) 17% (17%)
3rd row dies 70% (83%) 33% (44%)
That's more to my liking. In fact, I'll probably do that for
non-catastrophic criticals too:
Chance of one or more non-catastrophic hits (cumulative chance in parens):
Current system 1-check method
1st row dies 42% (42%) 17% (17%)
2nd row dies 70% (83%) 33% (44%)
3rd row dies 88% (98%) 50% (72%)
I'll send lots more mail on the battle and various observations later.
Daryl
poe@fokker.fc.hp.com