Vehicle Additional Rules

[Manah]

STARSHIPS CREWMEN ROLES

So. Maybe you're not a pilot. And yet, there you are, on a starship during a starship battle. Or, hey, maybe you are a pilot. So... what can you do to help? Truth is, you actually have several options other than just, say, being on board.

• Pilot (The pilot controls the vehicle's movement. He can increase or decrease speed, maneuver the ship, position it to better attack the enemy, perform evasive maneuvers to avoid getting shot down, etcetera. A pilot can also use a single front-facing weapon on the same panel as they pilot.)
• Copilot (A copilot can either perform another action the pilot could, beat the piloting difficulty to provide the main pilot a +1 bonus on his Vehicle operations action, or replace the pilot while they are occupied for some reason.)
• Gunner (On larger ships, or ships with turrets or secondary weapon systems, a person can act as a gunner to take control of a given weapon system, which they can fire using their own Vehicle Operations stones to assist in a fight.)
• Commander (A commander is, simply put, a leader for the crew. The commander analyzes the battle, looks for possible weaknesses in the enemy's strategy, and coordinates the crew's efforts. Naturally, the Leadership action comes in handy here.)
• System Operator (A systems operator can manage the vehicle's shields, sensors, and/or communications. Alternately, on larger ships, one person may be assigned to each system. A systems operator assigned to shields, for example, is able to try to redirect power from a system to power up shields temporarily, allowing a ship to survive longer.)
• Engineer (An engineer can perform repairs on a ship, attempt to bring disabled systems back online, and generally help keep the ship from blowing up. Technology is an important action here. One may also act as Chief Engineer, and direct the efforts of other engineers' repairs efforts.)
• Other Crew (Any of the many other duties one can perform on a starship; coordinating troops or starfighters maintenance, performing medical care, guarding sensitive areas, general maintenance, etcetera.)
• Passengers (Anyone else who has no specific role on a starship. May still perform actions if appropriate, or replace other crewmembers when necessary.)

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VEHICLE COMBAT

NOTE: As I have yet to extensively test out the vehicle combat rules, I will not make major house rules on them or anything just yet, except for one change, listed below:

COLLISION: During a collision between two vehicles, the attacking Vehicle's Speed stones normally get fully added to the attack. However, in this game, this will only fully apply to larger ships: any Frigate or Capital ship will add its full speed to the collision.

However, smaller ships, like starfighters, shuttles, space transports and freighters will only add half their Speed, rounded up, when in space. The reason for that being that smaller ships will deal significantly less damage upon ramming another ship due to their much smaller mass - essentially the same as throwing a rock on a concrete wall really hard. The same will apply for smaller ships crashing into smaller ships; as they are usually much faster, this is usually enough to deal quite a bit of damage already. Smaller ships within atmosphere will use their full speed, however, since it is limited anyway.

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VEHICLES VS PEOPLE

A vehicle's AP rank is considered one level higher for the purpose of defeating a defender's No AP rank if the defender is on foot. So a laser cannon shot from a TIE Fighter at a human on foot would count as AP 2.

Of course, logic will be taken into consideration. A Phrik armor would not be destroyed even by a barrage of turbolaser from a capital ship, as it can survive the friggin' explosion of a planet by the Death Star's blast. But the blast will still be considered to have gotten 'through' it due to an armor not being a solid block of metal; it has openings, and a vehicle weapon is quite large.

[Manah]

HYPERDRIVE SPEEDS

Notes: So, I know, the so-called 'lightspeed' in Star Wars makes no sense, as in, if they were only traveling at actual lightspeed, it would take years to reach even the closest systems. And I know the Star Wars writers have been very vague and inconsistent about the actual speeds an hyperdrive is capable of reaching. So I have checked left and right, consulted various sources and so on... and found basically nothing both solid and official. I did find something solid, though, and I like it, so I will use it. So, long story short, that guy I read the article of went through a lot of research and calculations based on the lore, the trips the Millenium Falcon makes, how long it roughly takes given the shown hints, the size of the Star Wars Galaxy, etc, etc, etc. And he basically reaches the conclusion that the Falcon travels at about 1041.66 light years/hour. Which seems to work with the Galaxy being 120,000 light years wide, as the Falcon - one of the fastest ships in the Galaxy - would make the jump from one corner of the Galaxy to its opposite end in about 4.8 days, which seems to be consistent with the lore. So is it 100% accurate? Hell if I know. But it's the closest thing I have to a working system, so I'll use it.

HYPERDRIVE CLASS	LIGHT YEARS/HOUR
3.0	173.61
2.0	260.42
1.0	520.83
0.5	1041.66

[Manah]

DEFLECTOR SHIELDS

So how do Deflector Shields function?

Simply put, they act like Force Field with doubled defensive stones (and which can't be used for other purposes than defense), but each hit it takes lowers its value, by 1 for regular Turbolasers and other energy beams, and by 1 AN per white stone of damage blocked - or that gets through - in the case of missiles.

Attack Stones are opposed against the various defenses in the following order: Vehicle Operations - Maneuver Modifier - Deflector Shields - Defense Modifier. If the stones can't beat the former two, it means the defender has dodged the shot. If the stones can't beat the shield's defense, it means the shields stopped the hit there, although the shield will take damage. If the stones can't beat the hull's Defense Modifier, it means the damage was superficial and did not affect the ship, although the shields will take damage. If the attacks gets through all four, it actually does damage to both the shield and the ship itself.

For example, let's say your ship you have Vehicle Operations 3, with a Maneuver Modifier 3, Defense modifier 4 ship with Deflector Shields of 3, and you shift everything you can into defense.

Let's say an enemy ship attacks you during you in your brand new ship. As mentioned above, you have a total defense of 16, but keep in mind 6 come from your piloting skills and the maneuverability of your ship, 6 are from your Shields, and 4 is from your Hull's Defenses (for the sake of our example, let's pretend that it can even tank Concussion missiles. Just remember that normally, it can't. XD). Let's examine various possible scenarios.

1) The enemy shoots you with a 6 stones turbolaser attack. It's below your ability to dodge, so your Shield doesn't even have to deal with it. You simply evaded the shot, and the enemy will have to do better than that.

2) You get hit by a turbolaser attack of 15. It's lower than your total defense, so you take no damage... but your shield is lowered by 1 AN due to being necessary to stop the attack, and your ship got its first combat scar as the blast leaves a harmless burn mark on its hull.

3) You get hit by a turbolaser of 20. 4 stones get through, and the turbolasers are 2x damage, so you take 8 damage. Your shield is also lowered by 1, even though you technically took 2w stones of damage before the multiplier, because it's a simple energy bolt.

3) You get hit by a 16 stones concussion missile. Luckily, the shield and your hull's Defense modifier save you from taking any damage - but since your shield blocked 2w of damage, the shield is lowered by 2 ANs, as the attack was a missile.

4) You get hit by a 19 stones concussion missile. 3 stones get through, and the attack is 2x damage, so the ship takes 6 damage. However, the ship blocked 2w, and failed to block another... so its AN is lowered by 3, and the shields are down! The next hit could be the last...


So shields can save your butt, yet they don't protect forever.

How to restore shields? ...They return at a rate of 1 AN per hour without damage, or can be restored by a crewman with Technology, or even by diverting power from other systems into the shields with a Vehicle operations check. There are various possibilities.

[Manah]

DAMAGED SYSTEMS

Every time a ship suffers at least 50%, rounded up, of its full Vehicle Damage limit/its last increment, there is a risk the ship might suffer some sort of damage to one of its systems. For example, a TIE Fighter has 10 Vehicle damage. If it takes 5, a system might suffer a failure. After that, if it takes another 3, it risks suffering another. Then again after 1 more damage. I'd say so on, but the TIE will be destroyed for sure after that, IF it was lucky enough to make it that far. XD

The risk is simply a percentile die (D100) equal to the percentage of damage taken so far, with half-chances of minor or major mishap. If a major mishap occurs, there is then a 10% chance of it turning into a critical mishap, which can have dire consequences.

For example, a TIE Fighter has 10 Vehicle Damage. If it takes 8 damage, which is over its 50% of Vehicle Damage, it has a 80% risk (as it took 80% of damage than what it can sustain in total) of suffering a failure. If it does, there is a half-and-half chance of it being minor, or major. So 50% chance of one, and 50% of the other. If the latter, a last die roll is made; if 10 or below, the damage to the system is critical, sometimes with dire consequences... though the GM can certainly fudge the rolls when it comes to the PCs if only to make the story more interesting than 'Oh, sorry. Your reactor blew up, you're all dead.' NPCs, however, are all fair game.

%	System Hit
1-9	Hyperdrive
10-18	Controls Response
19-27	Stabilizer
28-36	Ion Engines
37-45	Sensors
46-54	NavCom
55-63	Targeting Systems
64-72	Escape Pod
73-81	Deflector Shields
81-90	Reactor
91-100	Weapons

SYSTEM HIT	MINOR	MAJOR	CRITICAL
Hyperdrive	Shutdown (Can't perform an Hyperspace jump for 10 panels unless repaired)	Damaged (Can't perform an Hyperspace jump at all unless repaired)	Destroyed beyond repair, can't perform Hyperspace jumps at all; must be replaced
Controls Response	+10%, rounded up, to Resistance to operate until repaired (min 1)	+20%, rounded up, to Resistance to operate until repaired (min 2)	+40% to Resistance, rounded up to operate until repaired (min 4), and -2 to effective use, until repaired
Stabilizer	-1 to Maneuver Modifier until repaired (min 0)	-3 to Maneuver modifer until repaired (min 0)	Stabilizers destroyed; -5 to Maneuver modifier, no min; must be replaced
Ion Engines	Speed is lowered by -1 (min 1) until repaired	Speed is lowered by -3 (min 1), and maneuver modifier by -1 (min 0) until repaired	Ion Engines explode; causing 20% of the ship's max Vehicle Damage, and dropping Speed and Maneuver Modifier to 0, Disabling the ship until replaced (Hyperspace jumps are still possible, just no sublight speed movement)
Sensors	-1 to Sensors until replaced	-2 to Sensors until replaced	Sensors destroyed, dropped to 0; must be replaced
NavCom	-2 ANs until repaired	-4 ANs until repaired	NavCom destroyed, dropped to 0; must be replaced
Targeting Systems	-1 until repaired (min 0)	-2 until repaired (min 0)	Targeting system destroyed, dropped to 0; must be replaced
Escape Pod	Engines damaged; can eject, but can't move further than that until repaired	Pod disabled, can't eject until repaired	Pod destroyed; must be replaced
Deflector Shields	-20%, rounded up, until repaired (minimum -2)	-40%, rounded up, until repaired (minimum -4)	Shield Generator destroyed; Shields down to 0 until replaced
Reactor	-1 to Maneuver Modifier (min 0), -1 to Speed (min 1), -10% to Shields, rounded up (min -1); until repaired	-2 to Maneuver modifier (min 0), -3 to Speed (min 1), -30% to Shields, rounded up (min -3); until repaired	Reactor destroyed; the ship explodes and is instantly destroyed
Weapons	One weapon system is disabled until repaired	Two weapons systems are disabled until repaired	Two weapon systems are disabled until repaired; one is destroyed and must be replaced

[Manah]

MODIFICATIONS

What are Modifications? Simply put, they are improved systems that can be installed on starships and vehicles to enhance their performances beyond normal expectations. Modifying starships requires some serious funds, and someone with considerable technical know-how, and naturally, modifications performed without the approval of the Empire are highly illegal, as they are usually the handiwork of, or benefitting, rebels and criminals... and also because the Empire does not wish to allow superior systems in the hands of their enemies.

Unless noted otherwise, a given system can be improved three times, at which point it will be as good as it possibly could be. A minor upgrade to a single system will cost 25% of the original ship's value (New), 50% for a major, and 75% for an optimal upgrade. For example, if a TIE Fighter, which is worth 60,000 Credits, is equipped with a new weapon upgrade, it will cost 15,000 Credits to install it. Adding a second one will cost a total of 30,000 Credits, and finally, adding a third one will cost 45,000 Credits, for an armed-to-the-teeth TIE Fighter with a final value of 105,000 Credits. If the same TIE Fighter's owner wanted to also have better Ion Engines, it would once more cost 15,000 for a minor upgrade, 30,000 for a major upgrade, and 45,000 for an optimal one. And so on.

System Upgrade	Minor	Major	Optimal
Hyperdrive	-1 Class rank	-2 Class rank	-3 Class rank
Controls Complexity	+1/-1 to Difficulty to operate (1 min)	+2/-2 to Difficulty to operate (1 min)	+3/-3 to Difficulty to operate (1 min)
Controls Response	+10%/-10% to Resistance to operate (min 1)	+20%/-20% to Resistance to operate (min 2)	+30%/-30% to Resistance to operate (minimum Resistance of 1, minimum Increase/Decrease per modification of 1)
Hull Reinforcement	+2 to Defense Modifier, +10%, rounded up (min 5), to Vehicle Damage	+4 to Defense Modifier, +20%, rounded up (min 10) to Vehicle Damage	+6 to Defense Modifier, No AP 2, +30%, rounded up (min 15) to Vehicle Damage, -1 to Speed
Maneuverability	+1 to Maneuver Modifier	+2 to Maneuver Modifier	+3 to Maneuver Modifier
Ion Engines	+1 to Speed	+2 to Speed	+3 to Speed, -1 Maneuver Modifier
Sensors	+1 to Sensors	+2 to Sensors	+3 to Sensors
NavCom	+2 to Navigation Computer*	+4 to Navigation Computer*	+6 to Navigation Computer*
Targeting System	+1 to Targeting Systems (5 max)	+2 to Targeting Systems (5 max)	+3 to Targeting Systems (5 max)
Escape Pod	For each 50 ton of reduced Cargo Capacity, can add 1 Escape pod. Can be taken multiple times, not only three.	N/A	N/A
Deflector Shields	+10%, rounded up (min 1) to Deflector Shields**	+20%, rounded up (min 2) to Deflector Shields**	+30%, rounded up (min 3) to Deflector Shields**
Weapons	+1 New Weapon System/+10%, rounded up of an existing Weapon system (min 1)/Improvement of an Existing Weapon System***	+2 New Weapon Systems/+20%, rounded up of an existing Weapon system (min 2)/Improvement of an Existing Weapon System***	+3 New Weapon Systems/+30%, rounded up of an existing Weapon system (min 3)/Improvement of an Existing Weapon System***

*Alternately, adds a NavCom of AN 6 to ships which have none, then improve it by +2 for the two remaining upgrades

**Alternately, adds base Deflector Shields to ships which have none (1 for Starfighters/Shuttles, 3 for Space Transports, 5 for Freighters, 10 for Frigates, 15 for Capital Ships, 25 for Capital Ships+ like Super Star Destroyers, then improve it by +10%, rounded up (min 1) and +20%, rounded up (min 2) for the two remaining upgrades

***What aspects of a Weapon System can be increased, as well as how much, is left to the GM's call, as certain things simply cannot be improved. For example, a Proton torpedo launcher might be improved in various ways, but not its weapon modifier: no matter how well you craft the launcher, the proton torpedo will still deal the same damage. However, it could be equipped with homing technology, Phrik head casings for additional armor penetration, etc.