PC scale High Guard combat

[mike wightman]

Here are a few ideas for making High Guard combat work better at the PC scale of things.

Movement - use Mayday or Starter Edition range bands.
Within 5 hexes/range bands is short range, 5 to 15 hexes/range bands is long range, beyond 15 is out of range.

Combat - use the HG tables but with some additional DMs to hit:
+ gunnery skill
- piloting skill

Here are the damage tables reduced to the LBB2 2d system, with bits borrowed from HG version 1:
2d6 Surface Radiation Internal
roll explosion damage explosion
2 fuel weapon crew
3 weapon weapon power plant
4 fuel screen jump
5 weapon crew power plant
6 fuel computer screen
7 weapon weapon computer
8 maneuver computer jump
9 maneuver computer screen
10 misc. screen critical
11 interior crew critical
12 interior crew critical</pre>[/QUOTE]DMs for surface explosion & radiation damage:
+ weapon factor
-4 if weapon factor 9 or less.
- armour rating
- meson screen rating for meson guns on the radiation damage table
+1 pulse laser (not on the radiation damage table)
+4 bay weapon/spinal mount
+4 nuclear missile

 

[The Oz]

Looks interesting, Sigg.

 

[mike wightman]

On a miscellaneous surface explosion result roll one die:
1-2 hanger/cargo bay doors disabled
3-4 streamlining disrupted
5-6 computer (represents sensor damage)

On a critical hit use the High Guard table, but with fuel tanks shattered in place of the crew hit.

 

[mike wightman]

DMs for internal explosion table for meson guns only:
+ weapon factor
- meson screen rating

General note.

For damage purposes all spinal mounts should be considered as having a weapon damage factor of 10.

 

[mike wightman]

Originally posted by The Oz:
Looks interesting, Sigg.

Thanks Oz.

Any suggestions/what have I missed?

 

[The Oz]

If negative DMs result in a damage roll of less than 2, is the result "No Effect"?

Could the "hangar doors disabled" result be edited to say "hangar doors/cargo bay doors disabled" to allow for hits on merchant ships?

Since you say this system uses the HG rules, does that include the extra hits for spinal weapons, and the automatic critical hits for weapon factors larger than the target size code? And if the auto critical hits rule is still in effect, do meson screens act as armor and reduce the extra critical hits?

I have been thinking that the Radiation Damage table should have some "Screens" results on it; I can understand why the drives are not on that table (drives would be hardened against radiation as a matter of course) but if all weapons and (non-fib) computers can be harmed by radiation, why can't screens?

Perhaps the "4" and "8" results on the Radiation Damage table could be replaced with "screens"?

As a tactical note, if screens can be hit on the Radiation Damage table nuclear missiles become a wonderful "Double-team" weapon with meson guns, since salvos of nuke missiles can damage the meson screens and then the meson guns can blow up the ship!

 

[mike wightman]

Should a result of less than 2 be no effect? Yes.

Other suggested changes edited in above too.

And yes, the spinals should grant extra hits, and the weapon factor vs taget size criticals should stay too - but by adding weapon factor into the damage charts above it may be worth considering getting rid of this rule or convert it to extra normal hits.

 

[mike wightman]

Something else I just remembered, according to the K'kree module one hit reduces a drive factor by 0.2 - drive rating is then rounded down.

 

[Whipsnade]

Sigg,

Don't forget the PC skills other than piloting!

Engineers - Beyond the usual damage control stuff; which is very useful in keeping players interested(1), how about an agility fiddle? Something like:

A) Increase agility for the current combat turn
Difficult, instant, +1/2 Eng skill rounded up, unskilled forbidden

Computer operators - One clunky part of CT/HG2 is how sensors, comms, ECM, and others are all crammed together into one computer number. HOw about a couple of computer fiddles too? Something like:

A) Improve sensor data for the current combat round:
Difficult, instant, +1/2 Comp skill rounded up,
unskilled forbidden

B) Spoof enemy sensor data for the current combat round: (same task as above)

Success on improvement can give you EITHER +1 to hit on the combat roll OR +1 hex to your range; short goes to 6 and long to 16. Success on spoofing can give you EITHER a -1 to hit on all of a single enemy's attacks OR -1 hex to a single enemy's range.

You could also have comm fiddles. Computer operators on two or more ships all successfully rolling in order to time their vessels' missile salvos arrival at a single target; i.e. add up all the turrets and use the HG2 tables to create a big battery code for the combat round.

Another successfull comm roll, again with both ships, could have one vessel gain the ship tactic's bonus from a player on another ship. I used this fiddle in my campaigns with a few provisos. IIRC, the PC had to have both the ship and fleet tactics skills, he couldn't pass along a ship tactic bonus greater than his fleet tactic bonus.


Have fun,
Bill

1 - DC parties are great way to keep players busy during 'boring' ship combat turns. Put together parties with all sorts of skills; eng, grav, mech, elec, comp, etc. and let them roll for repairs to equipment. Your medics should be busy too. Filch that crew casulty rule from LBB:2 but don't make every hit a KIA, let your medics have a crack at them first.

 

[mike wightman]

All good ideas Bill, thanks.

For crew hits I would go with the 4d hits to a random crew member method from the missiles special supplement.

Giving each PC something to do during ship combat is vital to player enjoyment IMHO.

Sensor/computer operator giving a boost to computer rating for the turn, engineer giving the chance to double fire or to increase agility, medic assisting with crew and passenger casualties, damage control parties etc. are all good ideas.

 

[Golan2072]

Originally posted by The Oz:
If negative DMs result in a damage roll of less than 2, is the result "No Effect"?

Same goes for modified results above 12... Will they be automatic criticals?

 

[mike wightman]

Yes, IMHO if it goes beyond 12 it counts as the entry for 12.

 

[The Oz]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:

And yes, the spinals should grant extra hits, and the weapon factor vs taget size criticals should stay too - but by adding weapon factor into the damage charts above it may be worth considering getting rid of this rule or convert it to extra normal hits.

I would suggest that the automatic critical hits (for weapon size exceeding target size) should stay, but that meson screens should act as "armor" and reduce the number of such critical hits from meson weapons.

You could also allow a PC computer operator to use the old "ECM" computer program rule from LBB2 and give them a chance to stop incoming missile salvos.

Maybe the modifiers for Pilot and Gunnery skills should not be automatically added onto the combat rolls. Have those PCs attempt a skill roll, and if they succeed then give a +/-1 DM as appropriate (with perhaps a larger DM resulting from exceptional success at the skill roll). This way those players are not just sitting there while their characters add DMs to the battle, but the players get/have to make skill rolls just like everyone else.

If engineers and computer operators and damage control parties do not automatically succeed at their tasks, gunners and pilots should not automatically succeed at theirs.

 

[mike wightman]

I like the suggestion of characters having to roll in order to get the bonuses.

For NPCs and large battles you can just revert back to the "subtract one from your skill, halve what's left and round down" modifier that HG uses for skills.

This equates nicely to crew quality:
</font><blockquote>code:</font><hr /><pre style="font-size:x-small; font-family: monospace;">DM average skill level crew quality
-2 0 green
-1 1 poor
0 2 regular
+1 3-4 veteran
+2 5-6 elite </pre>[/QUOTE]For added fun on a PC large ship, different sections could have different crew qualities.

 

[The Oz]

What would be the negative DM for an "unskilled" crew? At least -2, I'd think, and maybe more.

I'd rate a skill level-1 crew as "poor" and use "green" for an unskilled (skill level-0) crew (also known as 'cannon fodder').

 

[mike wightman]

Originally posted by The Oz:
What would be the negative DM for an "unskilled" crew? At least -2, I'd think, and maybe more.

I'd rate a skill level-1 crew as "poor" and use "green" for an unskilled (skill level-0) crew (also known as 'cannon fodder').

Sounds good, I'll edit the above.

 

[mike wightman]

Should there be a "hold" hit on the internal damage table I wonder?

 

[Whipsnade]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
All good ideas Bill, thanks.


Sigg,

Glad you liked them. I could barely remember the old DGP/MT tasks we used so they will definitely need tweaking.

For anyone who wants to try them; IIRC I jiggered the task rolls so that a players with a skill level of 2 would fail 1/3rd of the time with their combat bonus rolls. My rationale was that the players were normally aboard civilain ships and they're trying to coax mil-spec performance out of civvie-spec gear by applying a few tricks they learned somewhere. Paramilitary and military ships would and should be able to shoot/fly rings around the civvies. Should, that is!

... engineer giving the chance to double fire...

Good one! I forgot double fire! Along with a roll by the gunner in question to prevent a turret reset; i.e. double fire one turn and must stay off-line the next.


Have fun,
Bill

 

[The Oz]

Originally posted by Sigg Oddra:
Should there be a "hold" hit on the internal damage table I wonder?

I've always considered that warships are vessels that carry a "cargo" of weapons and defenses. Maybe most of the "weapon" and "screen" hits should be "weapon/cargo hold" and "screen/cargo hold" hits, with ships taking whichever hit they have the most of.

 

[Cymew]

Very interesting ideas guys! I had totally given up hope of finding anything interesting at all in HG, but now I'm about to change my mind.

Any plans on a nice writeup and publishing it all on the web when finished?