Re-entry DC's

[Bruce]

I am writing an adventure where I foresee the players having to do an unpowered re-entry onto a small worldlette so their sensor masking would make them seem like a meteorite or some other falling body that would not be thought of as a small ship.

The ship is a Ship's boat, 30 tons. What I'm curious about for anyone out there who might have a thought on this.

1: What is the DC for figuring the ballistic course to enter the planets atmosphere at the right angle so as to not burn up on re-entry.

2: Suggestions on what the DC's might be for writing a computer program to control the ship on this re-entry.

3: Suggestions on piloting DC's once the PC's shipis in atmosphere and has to repower up the ship and take control of the descent the rest of the way.

4: Suggestions on DC's to mask the ships unpowered signature on Sensors. And if there are any cannon references to this.

Thanks for you aid.

Bruce
The Man Behind the Curtain

 

[Spyder_GS]

Re-entry is typically a fairly easy maneuver, it requires a specific angle of deflection for the ship. DC would probably be around 12. I would temper that with a higher DC to make certain that you can get the ship where you want it in regards to powering up for the rest of the descent. So maybe between 15-18.

Sensor masking (jamming) should be listed in the T/Sensor skill description. Personnally, if there is a sensor net in the area, I think it should be a constested roll, the T/Sensor skill, and computer model (modified by the drive system rating for the powered portion of the descent)against the scanning computer model and that system's operator's T/Sensor skill...

 

[Bruce]

I was thinking a contested roll for the T/sensors also. And 15-18 for the re-entry sounds good.

Thanks for the input spyder.

Bruce
The Man Behind the Curtain

 

[gardclan]

Originally posted by Bruce:
1: What is the DC for figuring the ballistic course to enter the planets atmosphere at the right angle so as to not burn up on re-entry.

Any half decent astrogator should be able to pull this one off. If I were refereeing this off the cuff, I'd give it a flat DC=15 for figured on the fly with computer support, and let them take 10 if they have time to figure it out properly.

2: Suggestions on what the DC's might be for writing a computer program to control the ship on this re-entry.

Writing the program would require T/Computer and T/Astrogation skills concurrently. Probably DC=15.

3: Suggestions on piloting DC's once the PC's ship is in atmosphere and has to repower up the ship and take control of the descent the rest of the way.

Thats not so easy. Assuming that the reactor never went off line (hot standby), probably a staged success. DC=15 to repower the drives and retain control of the ship. DC=20 to do it at the right time so as not to be noticed on sensors. I'd do it on one roll and see where the numbers end up.

4: Suggestions on DC's to mask the ships unpowered signature on Sensors. And if there are any cannon references to this.

Serious "wing-it" technobabble follows:

I don't know about cannon references to this, unless you count EMM from TNE. T/Sensors skill (with EW Specialist allowed), DC=20 would be appropriate... there are very few things that you can do to alter a vehicle's signature without making physical changes... this sensor tech would have to be fairly good at active countermeasures. The trick here is to disguise the ship as something else by transmitting on selected frequencies. This won't hold up under scrutiny, but might just work if the other guy doesn't look too hard.

The contested roll suggested by Spyder might not be a bad idea either.