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Starship Battle Damage

S

Shayde01

SOC-1
Since I know there are many smart folks here with scientific/technical/engineering backgrounds (and I'm a techno-peasant), I thought I might prevail upon them for their knowledge re: potential ideas for starship battle damage.

I'm a little tired of telling my players: "Your drives are hit. (scrambles for specifics) Um... you have a plasma fire in your port engine."

So I guess what I'm looking for is a partially detailed list of things that could explode/fail/go boom as a result of damage to a starship (combat, sabotage, etc). It doesn't have to be scientifically exact, just contextually plausible. Something like "coolant leak - could result in damage to deck and superconducting wires".

Thoughts?
 
One better I can think of a few good resources:
1. Have you seen the discovery special on Mir space station? I found it interesting because if covered the effects of age, wear, and abuse on the station.
2. Also the sites on nuclear reactors, engines, shuttle design have a number of good ideas for the structure of these vessels.
3. various SciFi movies StarTrek uses technobabble that have been discussed in other threads.
4. Various Traveller resources have been produces;
Digest Groups Starship Operations Manual vol1

to name a few;
-coolant piping,
-thruster nozzels,
-magnetic bubbles,
-power grids,
-jump coils,
- jump grid,
- various control stations for the above,

Savage
 
The environmental systems are great.
Piping
Air movers
recycling tanks
O2 storage
Gravity compensator grid power or controls
Hot water heater
Anything else to make them really dislike the other ship.
 
Thoughts?
Click to expand...
dc events

11. tool locker destroyed
12. spare parts locker destroyed
13. repair bench destroyed
14. coffee machine destroyed
15. gravitics fail
16. gravitics skew
21. gravitics become unstable

loss of control displays for
22. maneuver
23. jump
24. power plant
25. life support
26. fuel purifier

(loss of power)(excessive power) to (cables)(control panels) for
31. maneuver drive
32. jump drive
33. power plant
34. fuel purifier
35. life support
36. internal comms and sensors
41. external comms and sensors
42. weapons
43. bridge

life support
44. loss of air recirc
45. failure
46. improper operation
51. overpressurization

(imbalance)(overpressurization)(slow imminent failure) of
52. maneuver drives
53. jump drives
54. power plant

hydrogen leak resulting in
55. explosion hazard
56. flooding of the space
61. frozen equipment

62. (moderate)(high)(devastating) radiation field
63. (moderate)(high)(devastating) sonics
64. (one)(several)(many) electrical arcs between equipment
65. (jump field)(manuever field) intrusion into ship
66. fire (electrical)(grease)(hydrogen)(metallic)(high temp hot spot on the hull)(overheating machinery)

roll 2d6. you can always roll more than once.
 
You could use the Star Trek technobabble table for this, but it does require modification of the first column to more Traveller friendly terms.
 
Some fun ones I've used:

controls and computers
Data Relay conduit failure
Data Relay conduit loopback error
checsum array error: no match.
fuse fused closed (system still works, but no protection remains!)
panel reset (random customized CL/HDL panel resets to default configuration...)
Station Reset (a workstation, rather than just a single panel)
Bridge Reset (same as panel reset, except all panels on bridge!)

sensors
Sensor alignment error ( all difficulties +1 til a software maintenance)
Interferometer failure (Synthetic aperature array sensors use two sizes smaller sensor until recalibrated)
Transmitter failure (Active kit still works, but can't do active scans; can read from an ally's pulse...)

Environment
gravitic alignment error: gravity shifted by (1d6)d6 degrees from setting, in random direction.
inertial sensor disabled: IC only compensates for thrust, not atmospheric maneuvers and incoming fire.
Scrubber failure: scrubbers offline (CO2 buildup)
Scrubber Failure: Scrubbers & filters blocked by airborne debris; No LS.
Dehydrator Failure: humidity continues to climb...
Thermal regulator failure: Temperature change randomly, or too hot and stuck, or too cold and stuck, or simply stuck.
Temperature sensor jarred loose: signal intermittant, system works when contact made, assumes temp 0°K when not...
lifeform detector failure: Air Circ requires manual activiation for the affected room(s).
Solid Waste Disposal Tankage Rupture: human manure spill.
LTLS containment failure: critters escape.
 
A sadistic Ref once had our ships computer switch randomly into combat simulation mode (suddenly, our sensors picked up incoming hostiles...)
 
Ah yes. Cannot forget an alltime Traveller favorite,
Pizza oven destroyed.

We like to use other functions to command the systems after the repairs.
Ref "You've lost the HVAC Life Support control panel. Engineering has a jury rig to the closest Toilet as an on off switch and has standardized the temp. So, you cannot use that toilet."

Savage
 
Gaming Glen,

Present scientific theory suggests that magnetic bubbles "might" be required for stable fusion or antimatter containment...perhaps magnetic bubble-containment would be more accurate.


Savage
 
Originally posted by someoneelsehasmyname:
what the coffie maker was hit.... those bastards are going to pay!!!
Click to expand...
Not the coffee maker....worthless space slime...I'm manning the ventral turret...!!!
 
Great list so far. Many thanks.

If I can prevail upon the group for their collective knowledge a bit more, I was wondering about some of the more serious problems (with apologies, in advance, for my technical ignorance).

How plausible is it for electrical panels to explode etc? (is it possible that dangerous power can occur [I hope so ; )]? ; are high TL wires made of superconducting material that may or may not burn?) Is fire realistic given advanced materials? Wouldn't a fire aboard be extremely hot? How would one extinguish such a fire; vacc the area? Will spallation occur? If so, how & why? What (nasty) chemicals might exist in a starship environment and what are their effects on machines and people?

Again, explanations don't have to be factual, just semi-plausible and imaginative enough that refs could use them to send players scrambling.
 
How plausible is it for electrical panels to explode etc?

Not very.

Is fire realistic given advanced materials? Wouldn't a fire aboard be extremely hot? How would one extinguish such a fire; vacc the area?

Yes, maybe, yes.

Will spallation occur?

Unlikely.
 
(navy nuclear electrician here)

How plausible is it for electrical panels to explode etc?
Click to expand...
not really. uninterrupted overload will heat them and perhaps burn their insulation (if any) or maybe even melt them, but they won't explode. it can be really depressing trying to get power back to equipment again though if the panels are ruined.

(is it possible that dangerous power can occur [I hope so ; )]?
Click to expand...
yes. power is typically generated at high voltage, then stepped down for use by individual systems. deranged equipment can result in high voltages being applied to equipment not meant to handle it. also, large high voltage transformers when they fail can go with an impressive bang, and they are _not_ repairable. but it's not likely a typical player ship will have such transformers.


are high TL wires made of superconducting material that may or may not burn?)
Click to expand...
who knows? say what you want. I personally would say that SC stuff might be used in the drives and sensors, but not as transmission lines through a ship.


Is fire realistic given advanced materials? Wouldn't a fire aboard be extremely hot? How would one extinguish such a fire; vacc the area?
Click to expand...
fire is always realistic, especially electrical fires. and who says advanced materials are always used in civilian starship construction?

vacc-ing and variants thereof are popular choices for firefighting, with concurrent dismissal of any other method. complaints that the involved space may be occupied by people are ususally met with variations of "too bad". personally I'd hesitate to consign an entire engineering section to death ('specially if there's only one engineer), so ships ought to have various fire suppression systems (gasses, powders, whatever) that allow firefighting options short of vacc-ing.
 
Firefighting with gasses, powders, etc would probably be almost as harmful to people as vacuum.
Click to expand...
yep. psionics and jump drives and fusion power plants and artificial gravity, but no firefighting equipment.
 
A first stage for firefighting is probably cutting off gravity and air circulation. That won't actually extinguish most fires, but it will dramatically slow their burning and spread, making it a lot easier to put them out.
 
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