SHADOW SHIP Rules

Brief background: the Shadows themselves are not much into fighting out in the open; they prefer to work behind the scenes, using Dark Servants and Minions to do their dirty work. Shadows rarely pilot Shadow Vessels of the sort depicted here.

• Shadow Ships
• Shadow Fighters

Shadow Ships are organic partially aware vessels that resemble hideously evil black spiders or crabs. And they are rather huge. Where they come from, how they are grown, is pure speculation, but some believe they 'grow up' from being shadow fighters (see below).

Shadow Ships, while they are made of organic tech and highly intelligent in their own right, they cannot function alone. They need to merge with a sentient [being/creature] in order to be active. Otherwise they lie dormant. The sentient must be 'properly prepared', otherwise the Shadow Ship (and unprepared sentient) go insane (and generally go off on a rampage of death and destruction, including against their own kind).

The sentient being need not necessarily be a telepath, but it helps. On a roll of 1 or 2 (1d6) a given Shadow Vessel is commanded by a telepathic creature. The 'skill' level of the creature in question is determined by rolling 1d6 and adding 4. If a non-telepathic sentient is put in a Shadow Vessel, they automatically get a (defensive) telepathic level of '4' (0+4=....4!). See also Telepaths and Combat for additional details (Shadow Vessels may not engage in offensive telepathic attacks).

In essence, with the Shadow Ships being organic tech and self-aware, they can be treated to some degree like the Sa'Vasku from Full Thrust. With some exceptions/differences...

Full Thrust Stats for Shadow Ships:

• Shadow Ships come in various sizes, ranging from Cruiser-sized (mass=22) to dreadought-sized (mass=80). The mass depends on the 'age' of the Shadow Vessel (most will be between Mass 20 - 40; very few will be heavier!).
• Shadow Vessels have a Power Factor just as the Sa'Vasku, and generate Power Points from there in order to charge weapons and maneuver. A Shadow Ship Power Factor (PF) is equal to 1/5 of it's mass, rounded down. They roll 1d6 per PF per turn to determine the number of Power Points available in a given turn. Shadow Ships can store/carry over a limited number of Power Points in biocapacitors/batteries, the maximum points being equal to twice the PF of the ship per turn. Thus a Shadow Ship with a PF of 5 can carry a maximum of 10 power points over consecutive turns.
• Shadows be nimble, Shadows be quick. Shadow ships can use up to 1/2 of their current Power Points for thrust, rounded up, at a 1:1 ratio, for every 1" of velocity or single course point change. Similar to Sa'Vasku They can, if they want, apply as much of the thrust to course changes as desired, just like the Kra'Vak. Thus, say, a Shadow Vessel has 19 power points generated in a given turn. Up to 10 of these could be used for thrust, to either change course, accelerate/decelerate, or both.
• Shadow Ships have limited tracking capability, and may only engage 1 target (ship) per turn. Fighters count as 1 ship per squadron.
• Shadow Vessels have an ugly and highly accurate 'cutting beam'. This beam is able to switch modes to track/target either ships or fighters/missiles. However, it is restricted only to the Forward arc for fire, and is a 'get-down-and-dirty' weapon: it doesn't have great range, but if it hits, it'll smack you silly. The number of dice rolled for damage is identical to how the Sa'Vasku do theirs - 1 power point per die at Close Range, 2 power points per die at Medium Range, 3 power points per die at Long Range. However, the damage done by each die that is rolled is read directly off of the die, face value. The range factor for the Shadow cutting beam is:
  • Short Range = 0" - 10". Hit on a 2-6 (d6 roll)
  • Medium Range = 10" - 20". Hit on a 3-6 (d6 roll)
  • Long Range = 20" - 30" (damage is -1 per 1" beyond 20). Hit on a 4-6 (d6 roll)
  PDAF/ADAF anti-fire/intercept mode cannot stop any of this. The Shadow beam has a chance to miss its target. The myth is that Shadow vessels 'never miss', when actually they prolly only miss 5% of the time at close range; since this is not easily depicted in a single d6 system, Shadows here will miss a little more often than in the show. But that's okay; they'll still eat you for breakfast...
• Shadow Vessels can opt to use their slice-and-dice beam to attempt to disable a craft instead of destroying it. This gets a little tricky for the Shadow Vessel, as it was really designed for destruction, not disabling. For all intents and purposes use the Needle Beam rules from FT, except the target may not be at a greater range than 10", and the Shadow Vessel must spend 2 pts of power to fire the beam. If the attack is successful the system in question is knocked out - but the target ship also suffers 2d6 pts of damage from the beam! Good luck trying to capture a small ship...
• Shadow Vessels are tough mothers. All Shadow Vessels have the equivalent of Level-3 armor (extrapolate from the Kra'Vak armor rules) until they are first damaged (ie, take their first damage point). Thereafter they have the equivalent of Level-2 armor. For most all FT weapons, the armor acts as it is described. For all weapons not described in the Kra'Vak armor rules, simply subtract the current armor level from the damage die or damage points being applied to the Shadow Vessel.
• However, being as tough as they are to hurt, when they are hurt, they take serious damage. Instead of getting 1 damage box per 2 Mass, they get 1 damage box per 4 Mass - round up. Thus, damage to a Shadow ship can be pretty severe. This is the price they pay for the complex organic construction of the ships. And for the regenerating capability. In addition...
  • Shadow Vessel damage boxes come in rows of 4.
  • Shadow Vessels lose 1 PF at each threshold check automatically.
  • Shadow Vessels, for some odd reason, stop moving for one turn if they are nailed by an HBW (or equivalent). No one knows why this happens, but it does. And when a Shadow vessel stops moving, any weapons targetting it get a +1 to the die roll when rolling 'to hit', whatever the weapon (easier to hit an immobile target than one moving faster than your tracking equipment). This is a Bad Thing for Shadow vessels.
  • If a Shadow Vessel is immobilized by an HBW or equivalent, it may perform no actions whatsoever on the turn immediately following when it took damage from said source. It may not move, may not engage in combat, may not regenerate, may not create fighters. It may defend itself from telepathic attack. It may store up Power Points for later use (up to the maximum allowed).
• Shadow ships, being of an organic tech far beyond most anything known or comprehensible by most races, can regenerate damage done to them slowly over the course of a few turns. At the end of any turn in which a Shadow Ship has taken damage, or still has outstanding damage, roll 1d6. On a 1-3, nothing happens. On a 4-5, 1 pt of damage is 'healed' (regenerated). On a 6, 2 pts are regenerated. After a while, the Shadow Ship is as good as new again. It takes a Shadow Vessel 10 power points to engage regeneration each turn. A Shadow ship that is regenerating may not engage its weapon systems, nor can it be involved in telepathic combat. It may move if desired. It may use this regeneration ability only once per turn (ie, can't spend more than 10 points in regenerating for a given turn).
• Shadow Ships may not 'rengerate' ship systems damaged from Threshold Checks during the course of a scenario. Shadow Ships have no Damage Control.
• Shadow Ships have a weapon which will collapse a forming jumppoint, a destabilization mine. For the time being it acts in most respects as an Energy Mine does. However, it does no damage to ships; it merely collapses jump points that are open. It costs 20 Power Points to create one of these things, and each Shadow Vessel may only create 1 per turn. They may not hold them. If they are not used, they are lost.
• Shadow Ships have a 'built-in' jumpdrive (Shadow Fighters seem to, also, but that's a whole 'nuther kettle of fish). It requires 4 times the PF of the ship to engage the jumpdrive and enter hyperspace. This is not the same thing as opening up a jump point. Shadow ships can 'slip' into hyperspace in this fashion. Use the Full Thrust FTL rules for functionality, except the 6" danger zone does not apply.

Shadow Fighters are small 'baby' variants of their parent/mothership. They are apparently 'grown' inside the mothership and then ejected with other shadow fighters in a ball, which 'explodes' at a distance from the mothership, releasing the fighters.

Shadow Fighters are autonomous things. They generally do not have a sentient counterpart, and are considered expendable drones in this case (endurance should be 3 turns). If a Shadow Fighter is given a sentient being as its cpu, then its endurance becomes unlimited. Sentient beings inside Shadow Fighters are by scenario design only. Newly-born fighters should be considered 3-turn expendable drones, as given in the Sa'Vasku rules.

Full Thrust Stats for Shadow Fighters:

• Shadow Fighters are 'grown' inside a Shadow Ship, in a manner very similar to how the Sa'Vasku grow their drones. However, because Shadow Fighters are so tough, and have unlimited endurance, there must be some sort of restrictions on producing them en mass. It costs a Shadow Ship 8(?) pts to generate 1 Shadow Fighter. These can be generated ahead of time and held inside a mothership until it is ready to release its brood.
• It costs 1 (2? 3??) point(s) to hold/retain a Shadow fighter inside a Shadow ship. Obviously, larger Shadow ships can retain more fighters than smaller Shadow ships.
• It costs a Shadow ship 1 point per fighter to launch its brood of fighters. It may only launch them in groups of 3 minimum. This payment must be made at the start of the turn. If a Shadow ship has insufficient power to retain fighters, it loses any fighters it cannot pay for immediately.
• They have unlimited endurance (this presupposes they eventually mature to become shadow ships)
• Shadow Fighters are pretty quick, but not all superfast. Speed = 14.
• Shadow Fighters are hard to hit, and when they are hit, tough to kill (part of the beneficial side-effects of organic tech: they have limited regenerative powers). To reflect this, it takes 3 pts to kill a Shadow Fighter (they are in essence tougher than 'normal' heavy fighters). This may or may not change as new information is made available.
• Shadow Fighters have but a single weapon: a pulsed plasma discharge device This will pretty much waste any other fighter that it hits, but can only target one fighter at a time. In combat with opponent fighters, Shadow Fighters will only kill one other fighter per turn (unlike the potential for 'normal' fighters to be able to kill 2 enemy fighters per turn). The opponent fighter has a chance, although not a great one (unlike the parent ships, which 'never miss', Shadow Fighters have been known to miss on occassion). On a '1-3' the Shadow Fighter misses it's target. On a '4' it does one point of damage (enough to kill most fighters). On a '5' it does two points damage (enough to kill even heavy fighters). And on a '6' it does 3 pts damage (enough to kill another Shadow Fighter, or maybe even a Vorlon Fighter (who's stats still need to be determined)).
• They are generally not used against ships, but mainly for anti-fighter work, which they are very good at. To reflect this the Shadow Tactical Doctrine states Shadows will not pit fighters against ships in general, preferring to take on ships with their own main vessels, unless as a last resort. But if they are sent against ships, they (for the time being) do 'normal' anti-ship damage (as per normal fighters). Non-Shadow ships need a '6' to destroy a Shadow Fighter with anti-fighter defenses.

kochte @ stsci.edu