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