|
|
Vessels and Space Combat rules
In general, space combat takes place at long ranges and mostly involves launching combat wasps in either offensive or defensive spreads, trying to maneuver into a position that offers some advantage, and possibly trying to outrun one's opponents until reaching a point where they can jump to a new location.
Most space combat rolls use Pilot or Space, with the Combat Wasp Wild Card Skill coming in handy to insert last-minute changes to combat wasp programs.
The pilots of both ships roll Dexterity + Pilot + d10 to determine initiative. Voidhawks can use their Mental Score as the basis of initiative instead, if wished. Actions take place in the order they are rolled, with multiple actions occurring on successive segments in a Turn.
A vessel can take one action per crew member actively dealing with the combat, per turn. The first crew member to go is always the pilot, with others taking actions after this in order of highest Dexterity to lowest (or the crew can simply agree on a set order of actions). Crew members typically cannot take multiple actions in space combat, unless the Director specifically rules otherwise. Voidhawks count as one crew member for purposes of actions, and use their Mental Score as their initiative.
Note that actions taking place inside the ship that don't involve space combat follow the normal combat mechanics. Initiative is rolled simply to keep both kinds of scenes flowing together with "jump-cuts."
Combat wasps come with a Combat Score. This score, plus any Combat Wasp skill, is added to a d10 roll to determine the effectiveness of the wasps in either assaulting or defending against attacks. Ships or stations with space-defense systems can also add the levels of these systems to the defense number. Voidhawks may choose to use their Mental Score to defend against combat wasps. Ships with neither combat wasps or SD systems don't normally have any chance to defend themselves and are known by their crews praying a lot during battles.
A combat wasp is usually launched well before combat is joined, but if they are launched during the battle, a normal wasp can travel 1.2 kilometers in the first Turn, 2.4 km in the second Turn, 4.8 km in the third Turn, and so on. An antimatter-powered wasp can travel 1.9 km in the first Turn, 3.8 km in the second Turn, 7.6 km in the third Turn and so on.
A hotshot pilot can attempt to maneuver the ship so that undamaged armor or noncritical systems will take most of the damage with a Intelligence + Pilot roll. This does not avoid the damage, it simply means the damage will be spread to areas that can take it.
Alternately, if the Director rules there are objects that can be used as cover (such as asteroids, space stations or other ships), or if circumstances warrant it (such as being near atmosphere or a ship opening a wormhole), the pilot can attempt to completely avoid an incoming attack. Most of these instances will cost a drama point, and will use Intelligence or Perception + Pilot rolls.
Success levels after the attack are added to the combat wasp's damage, the ship's armor is subtracted, and damage is inflicted.
Any time a ship suffers damage, there must be a Toughness (not doubled) roll to see if a system is damaged. Either Armor, Engine, Life Support, Maneuvering, or Sensors can be damaged -- if one of these systems was not specifically targeted, then the Director is welcome to choose (or roll d10, with 1-2 being Armor, 3-4 Engine, 5-6 Life Support, 7-8 Maneuvering, 9-10 Sensors). A damaged system loses two levels to its value, except for Armor, which loses -10 levels. If a system reaches a value of 0, it is gone until repaired. Engines that have been destroyed might take the entire ship with them (and will do so on a Toughness roll of 1).
Vessel Attributes
When designing or improving a vessel, "points" either come from the Vessel Quality, or are purchased with money at a rate of roughly $200,000 per point. The Director is encouraged to set limits on how many points a group may invest in a given ship, or even a given system, at any time.
Most vessels have the Attributes of Armor, Damage Capacity, Engines, Life Support, Maneuvering, Sensors, Toughness, and voidhawks have an additional Attribute, Mental Score.
Armor: How much damage a vessel can take. Armor values are typically meant only to deal with space debris, normal radiation, and the like. Most ships don't have much Armor for combat purposes, and even those that do can't take much of a beating for long. A ship's Armor costs 1 point per 20 levels. These Armor values apply equally to different attacks. Non-military ships rarely have more than 100 levels of Armor, and only the largest military ships have more than 200 levels of Armor.
If a vessel has no levels of Armor left, half of all damage it takes is suffered equally by those within, although the Director may state certain crew members are protected from this damage in some way (for example, by being in a zero-tau pod or on the other side of the ship).
Voidhawks have a base of 60 Armor. More armor than this can interfere with their senses, and impose penalties of -1 to their Mental Scores for every additional 20 levels of Armor.
Damage Capacity: The "Life Points" of a vessel. Many vessels are more fragile than they may appear at first, and can be destroyed with shocking ease. When a vessel has reached one-fourth of its total Damage Capacity, it suffers a -2 penalty to all rolls involving its operation. At one-fifth of its total Damage Capacity, it suffers a -4 penalty. When the vessel has no Damage Capacity left, it is destroyed (and everyone inside will likely be dead soon, if they aren't already).
A vessel has 50 points of Damage Capacity per point spent on this Attribute. Small shuttles often have only 50 Damage Capacity, small transports can have 150 Damage Capacity, while medium-sized haulers can have up to 300, and large military cruisers may have more than 500.
Voidhawks are living beings and are somewhat more hardy than Adamist ships in deep space, but are vulnerable to atmospheres (suffering double damage when traveling through an atmosphere at speed). An adult voidhawk generally has 200 Damage Capacity.
Engines: How much power the vessel can generate. This is enough for normal day-to-day purposes. Special systems such as space defense, combat wasps, lasers, and the like can put an extra drain on the Engines. The Engines determine how much acceleration a vessel can put out, and for how long. The listed Engines level is the vessel's maximum capacity -- depending on power drain of other systems, this score may be effectively reduced.
Making the vessel push its limits can sometimes require a crew member to roll Intelligence + any Wild Card Skill + the vessel's Engine levels. Failure usually means the engines lose 2 levels of effectiveness. Engines reduced to a value of 0 cannot generate power. All other systems besides Armor and Toughness lose 1 level per fifteen minutes as their backup power supply fades. If Engines at level 0 suffer damage, they explode, causing 50 Energy-type damage per level of Engine to everyone within the ship and 25 damage per level to everyone within 5 km per level of Engine.
Each level of Engines costs 1 point, although antimatter engines grant 2 levels per point. Antimatter Engines are illegal, however, and damage to them can be quite devastating (triple all damage from antimatter Engines exploding). Most commercial ships never exceed 5 levels of Engines, and military ships almost never exceed 10 levels. Engines can generate 4 gravities of constant acceleration per level in Engines, although humans take 2 x (gravities) Bashing-type damage when they exceed 4 gravities without protection. Most ships with high-acceleration couches can allow 8 gees of before damage is taken, and voidhawks allow up to 14 gees before damage is taken.
Voidhawks create spatial distortion fields through the biological energy-patterning nodes on their skin. The power for these fields is generated by massive organs deep inside their bodies. The function of these organs is the same as technological Engines. However, they do not explode when their Engines are too badly damaged, and they can counter the strain of acceleration on their crew, reducing the effective gravity by half. Voidhawks start with Engines of 6.
Life Support: The number of people a ship can support through normal activity. Special circumstances such as combat, taking on too many passengers, venting of toxic gasses or hull breaches can all force the Life Support to work harder, and may require Intelligence + Wild Card Skill + Life Support rolls from a crew member trying to deal with the crisis. 20 people can be supported per level in Life Support. Life Support costs 1 level per point. Every three levels of active Life Support reduces the effective Engines level by 1 -- if a ship is not at full crew capacity, the effective Life Support rating can be reduced as desired.
Voidhawks must have life-support rings or spheres attached to recesses in their bodies to carry crew. These can be detached from the voidhawk to allow the 'hawk to fly freely, although this sort of maneuver is rare.
Maneuvering: This is how well a vessel can maneuver, and how much acceleration can be employed at a moment's notice. A ship's Maneuvering rating can be added to an Intelligence + Pilot roll when programming normal courses through space. Once the ship is programmed, it operates at the number of Success Levels generated, or its level (whichever is lower), until something deactivates the autopilot. A vessel cannot generate more gees of acceleration in a single Turn than its Maneuvering rating (although acceleration is cumulative over Turns until the maximum allowed by Engines is reached), nor can its pilot gain more Success Levels than its Maneuvering rating for any unusual maneuvers. Full acceleration reduces a vessel's effective Engines score by 1.
A ship without any Maneuvering will float at its current velocity and course until a gravity well or other object interferes with it. Few Adamist vessels have more than 5 levels of Maneuvering, and none can exceed 10 levels. Voidhawks use spatial distortion fields to maneuver, and have an upper limit of 20 levels of Maneuvering. Each level of Maneuvering costs 1 point per level, although antimatter engines or voidhawk vessels give 2 levels per point.
Voidhawks begin with 12 levels of Maneuvering.
Sensors: How well the people inside the vessel can see what's outside the ship. Basic sensor packages include scanning from microwaves to gamma rays, although the quality of what they register is open to debate. No Perception roll from inside the ship can have more Success Levels than a vessel's Sensor rating. Ships with no Sensors are flying blind, although an Intelligence + Space roll can extrapolate data based on the last recorded readings.
Each level of Sensors costs 1 point. Most vessels never have more than 5 levels of Sensors.
Voidhawks have some optic and energy-receptive sensory organs, but collect most information through reactions to their spatial distortion fields. They are excellent at detecting masses and gravitational effects, receiving +3 to such rolls. Voidhawks start with 4 levels of Sensors.
Toughness: How rugged the vessel is, and how far beyond its design parameters it can be pushed. Toughness (not doubled) is rolled every time a ship takes damage to see if any systems have been affected. Toughness (doubled) can often be rolled if a ship's pushed to the limits of its acceleration, has to deal with intense gravity wells, or has been used to perform several high-acceleration maneuvers in a short period of time.
Each level of Toughness costs 1 point. Most Adamist ships do not exceed 8 levels, and no known vessel has exceeded 15 levels.
Voidhawks are flexible to demands placed on their systems, but are somewhat vulnerable to physical damage. They have bonuses of +1 to rolls involving exceeding their parameters, but suffer penalties of -1 to rolls involving dealing with damage. Voidhawks begin with a Toughness of 3.
Mental Score: Voidhawks are living beings and have a special attribute to reflect this. Voidhawks have a base Mental Score of 12, +1 per point spent on Mental Score. While they are, on average, capable of greater and faster calculations than humans, they tend to have the relative emotional maturity and decision making skills of young adolescents. They can fly themselves using their Mental Score, although they are not always creative nor do they always react well to crises. A pilot may make decisions for them, and choose to use either his own skills or the voidhawk's Mental Score to fly.
Special Systems
Energy-patterning Nodes: The key to interstellar travel. The nodes generate a ZTT energy field which alters gravity in the area, creating a small wormhole slightly larger than the field itself. These wormholes are perfectly spherical, which is why most space vessels are spheres, ovoids or discs.
Each jump has a maximum distance of 12 light-years for an Adamist vessel and 15 light-years for a voidhawk in a single jump. Adamist ships must be lined up on their destination before they jump, which requires an Intelligence + Space roll. Voidhawks may make this roll on behalf of the crew. Unsuccessful jump rolls can either place the vessel light-years off course, or if damage has been taken to the nodes or Engines, a roll of 1 can mean the entire vessel is destroyed by an improperly-formed wormhole.
ZTT jumps are massive drains on power. A jump of less than 4 light-years recharge in about 10 minutes. Jumps of half the maximum distance recharge in nearly 15 minutes. Maximum distance jumps often recharge in half an hour. A successful Intelligence + Engines roll allows jumps to happen more quickly, reducing the listed times by -1 minute per Success Levels + the effective Engines rating. Results less than one minute subtract 10 seconds from the time. Each rapid jump requires a Toughness roll at -1 per rapid jump, or the Engines lose one effective level. This reduced rating remains until the Engines have had double their normal recharge times to recover.
Even though energy-patterning Nodes are designed be multiply redundant, damage can reduce the chances of performing a successful jump. If a vessel loses levels to Engines due to damage, jump rolls suffer an equal penalty (so that a ship that has lost 4 levels of Engines is at -4 to Intelligence + Space rolls).
Energy-patterning Nodes cost 3 points. Redundancies can be increased for 1 point per each reduction of penalties. For example, 5 points of Nodes means that Engines that have suffered 4 levels of damage only impose penalties of -2 to Intelligence + Space rolls to jump.
Lifeboats: These are generally small pods which have up to a week's worth of air recycling, water, and minimal food supplies. They come equipped with powerful radio beacons and maneuvering thrusters which can push the boat toward the last programmed "safe port" at a relatively slow rate.
Lifeboats cost 1 point for 3 boats.
Stealth coating: A crew can attempt to avoid notice by coating their vessel in light-absorbing material and trailing extensive heat-dissipation wires. The vessel must operate at minimal power for the coating to be effective. This coating imposes a penalty of -4 to attempts to detect an Adamist vessel. Voidhawks have an advantage, since their motive power comes from spatial distortion fields and not reaction thrust. They impose a penalty of -7 to detection attempts.
Stealth coating costs 3 points.
Spaceplanes: An orbital shuttle which can enter atmospheres, meant to ferry cargo and passengers to a planet's surface. Very few space vessels are designed for atmospheric work, and so most groundlings only ever see the spaceplanes. This can lead to some confusion when people see a deep-space vessel for the first time.
Spaceplanes are generally assumed to have the Attributes of Armor, Damage Capacity, Engines, Maneuvering, Sensors and Toughness at one-third (round up) of the values of the vessel itself. These can be modified by 3 Attribute levels per point, but can never exceed half the vessel's own ratings in any Attribute.
Having a private spaceplane costs 5 points.
Zero-tau pods: Early research into the ZTT field effect uncovered a strange side-effect. A much smaller low-power field cancels all observable entropic decay and in the field effect, which is equivalent to stopping time inside the field. Theoretically speaking, the zero-tau effect is not perfectly stable, and itself will eventually allow the return of entropy -- but this destablization will not be noticeable for several millennia. Otherwise, so long as energy is pumped into the field generator, no time will pass within. Zero-tau is often employed to store vital cargo, preserve wounded individuals, or to hold passengers on multiple-leg voyages.
Every ten active zero-tau pods reduce a vessel's effective Engines level by 1. Zero-tau pods cost 1 point for ten pods.
Vessel Defenses and Weapons
Combat wasps: The primary means of attacking or defending ships. They have powerful fusion engines which allow them to reach attack speeds of 25 gees (or 40 gees for antimatter-powered wasps). Obviously, most combat wasps reach their targets before they can try to escape. A wasp comes with a base Combat Score of 10, and adds +5 per point spent on the Wasps.
There are multiple kinds of payloads which can be launched from a wasp, although most wasps will group similar warheads together. Wasps generally launch about one warhead per point in its Combat Score. When an attack succeeds, the difference between the (Combat Score + d10) - (Combat Score + d10) roll determines how many wasps remain to assault a vehicle. Vessels are armed with wasps in groups of 10 per point. Vessels can carry up to 10 combat wasps per level of Toughness. Wasps can be fired individually or in groups as desired.
The most well-known kinds of payloads are:
Antimatter -- These warheads are highly illegal and people found using them are almost guaranteed a life on the run. They cause 2,000 damage when they strike targets, but cost an additional 4 points.
Kinetic Kill -- a spear of hard metal that slams into the target at 25 gees. These cause 150 damage.
EMP -- Used primarily to disable other systems. An EMP must be resisted with a ship's Toughness (doubled), -1 per Success Level on the attack. Failure to resist means that all electronic systems in an area of about 20 kilometers (including combat wasps) are offline for one combat Turn per Success Level. Wasps in the area cannot continue to attack or defend during this time, vessels cannot maneuver, use most sensors, or perform ZTT jumps until their systems are rebooted. Wasps arriving after the EMP can act normally, as can maser and lasers reaching from outside this range.
Intelligence rolls, added to individual system ratings, at a penalty of Success Levels on the EMP attack, can reboot systems more quickly.
Explosives -- High-explosive warheads which usually wait until contact with a solid surface before exploding. They are useful for reducing a target's Armor. These cause 100 damage, but any successful strike will subtract -20 levels from the target's Armor Attribute regardless of Toughness roll.
Lasers -- Laser warheads release a short burst of intense laser beams in several directions. These lasers are rarely able to penetrate through ship hulls, but they are very effective at destroying combat wasps and blinding Sensors. They cause 80 damage, but receive +4 bonuses when defending against combat wasps, and impose a penalty of -4 to Toughness rolls for Sensors.
Nukes -- Relatively small tactical nuclear warheads, typically used only against military vessels or as a coup de grace. Nuclear weapons in space primarily cause damage through the heat and radiation of the initial reaction, since there is no atmosphere to convey a shockwave. They are very easy to identify within salvos, and so are quickly targeted by defending wasps and space-defense systems, adding +3 to such defenses. This is the reason why they are often used after these defenses are expended. Many nukes are programmed to detonate at a range of up to 10 kilometers away. They cause 1,000 damage within a kilometer of the detonation, losing 100 damage for every kilometer thereafter. Nukes function as EMPs within the blast radius. Nuclear warheads cost an additional 2 points.
Electronic Warfare: Linked satellites which transmit bursts of radio, microwave and laser light meant to disrupt communications while at the same time broadcasting viral programs which can sometimes slip into ship computers through the communications static and shut down random systems. Intelligence (doubled, or + Wild Card (Communications)) rolls are required to properly filter transmissions through the static, requiring one Success Level per level of Electronics Warfare. A failure with any system while being bombarded by Electronics Warfare represents the infiltration of viruses into the system controls, and impose a penalty of -1 per level of Electronic Warfare to future rolls with that system.
Electronic Warfare packages cost 1 point per level.
Microwave and X-Ray Lasers: Microwaves or x-rays amplified and focused into very intense beams. Masers are often used for tight-beam communications, and x-rays are often used to burn small incoming objects. Either one can be pumped with more energy for combat use, reducing Engines by an effective level of 1 for every 4 levels of combat-capable lasers. A maser causes 25 damage per level to inorganic targets, 40 damage per level to organic targets and imposes a -2 penalty to Toughness rolls for Sensors or Life-Support. X-ray lasers cause 50 damage per level but Armor is +10 levels against these lasers. It is illegal for private vessels to have more than 4 levels of lasers, although many industrious private captains have found ways around this restriction.
Lasers cost 1 point per level.
The use of lasers from orbit to targets on a planet's surface reduces the overall damage by -4 per level, but is strictly prohibited by most governments.
Space-defense systems: Linked to masers or x-ray lasers and combat wasps, this is an automated system which searches for incoming large, or high-velocity masses and destroys them. This simply provides an automatic Combat Score for defense in space combat, and is only effective against solid targets. Space-defense systems have a base Combat Score of 10, +5 for every extra point.
Space-defense systems cost 2 points.
|
The Night's Dawn Trilogy (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, and The Naked God) are all Copyright Peter F. Hamilton. Game concepts herein are based on the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game and Angel: The Roleplaying Game, Copyright Eden Studios. No use of terms from the Night's Dawn Trilogy or from any Eden Studios game is a claim of ownership over these properties. Please don't sue me. |