[FT] Sa'Vasku Fleetbook Style and FB2

Some time ago, someone stated that they were going to try to convert Sa'Vasku
from 2nd edition rules to Fleetbook style rules. Was this
accomplished? If so, could someone provide the URL or E-mail me a copy
to the address below? Thanks in advance.

Related: Is the Fleetbook 2 out yet?

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> Brian Bell wrote:

> Related: Is the Fleetbook 2 out yet?

No, Brian, not yet.   When it does come out, the list will reflect it
in no uncertain terms. Meanwhile, we quietly wait... sharpening our
tusks...

> Some time ago, someone stated that they were going to try to convert

I've seen the said rules; they were playtested at GenCon last year. They
needed some more work at the time. The Sa'Vasku were WAY too powerfull.

The scenario, which pitted K'V vs. S'V turned into a serious schooling of the
K'V. One of the most major problems was how threshold rolls were handled. The
S'V would not loose the current turn's "allocation" no matter how damage they
took. The regular FT analogy would be if you could still get one last shot out
of a system lost to damage if your ship hadn't been activated yet.

Their power regeneration was also too high. Facing 20 odd dice of weaponry
power for two or three turns running has the tendency to take the wind out of
your sails.

Sadly, however, my copy is on paper. I'm sure it's in the archives, however.

> Sadly, however, my copy is on paper. I'm sure it's in the

This is a repost or post originally by Tom McCarthy on just these rules.

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Below are some variant Sa'vasku rules. These are inspired by Lew Stoneking's
rules. Lew ran a game at GenCon '98 pitting Sa'vasku against Kra'vak. He
subsequently sent me a copy of his rules, and here's where I'm at with them.

Currently, I consider them to be worth a touch more 10 pts per MASS or 20 pts
per damage box.

Generating fighters is not their most efficient tactic, but if the range is
great enough, they will pump out many. I've considered making them unable to
attack ships or making them suffer penalties when they attack or reducing
their combat endurance below standard. Another possibility is that the
launching ship takes a point of damage upon launch.

The graviton pulse does not translate well to vector movement; I'm considering
that each point of damage from this weapon instead gives a 1 in 6 chance of
preventing the target from using any thrust next turn. It means a second roll,
but it would set up the target for a Buzzcutter shot.

I'd like your opinions on these rules and the alternatives.

Note that Lew kept one of the key Sa'vasku traits (freely allocate energy) but
not the other (random energy per turn), making room for another alien race.
The same could be applied to the current discussions on aliens; too many good
ideas are entirely discarded because they don't fit Sa'vasku or Kra'vak. They
still might be great rules for space mugwumps, the tyrannical Wombles of
Wimbledon Nebula, or the very alien M'k'Sm'ts and Jae'Peef's'ts.
++++++++
Sa'vasku ships are each unique creatures, but they all share common features.
The ship can devote its attention and energies to different tasks each turn,
but as they are injured, their capabilities are reduced.

Each turn, the Sa'vasku ship has a pool of energy and a number of sensors or
fire controls. The energy is divided between thrust (for acceleration,
deceleration, and turns), defensive screens, anti-fighter defences
(ADAF),
spawning drones (fighters), and attacks (particle beams, graviton pulses, or
buzzcutter beams). The cost of thrust or screens is proportional to the

ship's size, while ADAF, drones, and attacks are based upon flat costs.

Each turn, consider the available energy points. Divide them between engines,
ADAF, weapons, arming and launching fighters, and screens. As damage is taken
each turn, your available energy will drop and points will disappear from the
pools. Normally, points will disappear from ADAF, then shooting, then screens.
If ADAF and shooting points have already been expended, then the next pool
will lose points.

Each ship control sheet has five pools to allocate the points to each turn.
Thrust is a pentagon. Attacks is a circle with three posts. ADAF is a
diagonally-quartered square.  Screens is a dot with two arcs above.
Drones is a cluster of 4 circles.

Ship's MASS The ship's are broken into power factor (PF) categories by
increments of 10
MASS.  Ship's of MASS 1-10, for example, are PF1.  MASSes 21-30 are PF2.

Damage Boxes, Fire Control, Damage Control and Repairs Each ship gets one
damage box for every 2 MASS, and starts with a number of fire controls and
damage control parties equal to the PF number. For every 5 damage boxes lost,
one fire control and one damage control party are automatically lost.

At the end of each turn, some power may be restored. Roll a D6 for each

damage control party. On a 4 or 5, one damage box is restored. On a 6, two are
restored. This will also restore some power, and may reactivate a fire control
or disabled damage control party.

Thrust The energy required to generate a point of thrust is based upon the
size of your ship. For every 10 MASS, it takes 1 point of energy to generate
one thrust (i.e. PF3 ships pay 3 points for 1 thrust). Because engines are
vectored in every direction, all points of thrust may be applied to turning
(a la Kra'vak).   You may generate any amount of thrust, provided you
vave sufficient energy (theoretically, the limit is 11 thrust).

Screens The energy required to screen your ship is based upon the size of your
ship.
 For every 10 MASS, it takes 1 point of energy to generate level-1
screens,
or 2 points of energy to generate level-2 screens, or 4 points of energy
to
generate level-3 screens (i.e. an PF5 ship pays 5 points for 1 screen,
10 points for 2 screens, or 20 points for 3 screens).

Arming and Launching Drones
A large Sa'vasku ship has the available bio-mass to spawn huge numbers
of drones, but rarely do. To arm and launch a drone, allocate 20 points of

energy that turn. The drone appears immediately, as a standard fighter group
with 6 turns of combat endurance (as explained in the Fleet Book).

ADAF
The potent anti-fighter defenses of a Sa'vasku can devastate a target.
ADAF fire requires 1 fire control per target, and every 2 points of energy
will generate a single die of standard ADAF fire, with a range of 12 units.

Weapons

Sa'vasku have three different weapons systems, each having advantages and
disadvantages.

Particle Beams Particle beams are similar to the standard armaments of human
ships. The Sa'vasku can generate massive particle beam pulses in any
direction. By

paying the appropriate cost in energy and concentration, they can launch

powerful attacks at any range.

Range Cost Fire control
0-12            1 energy per die        1 Fire control per target
12-24           2 energy per die        2 Fire control per target
24-36           4 energy per die        3 Fire control per target
36-48           8 energy per die        4 Fire control per target

Buzz Cutter Beams Buzz Cutter Beams are sustained pulses of plasma which must
remain focused and track the target for relatively long periods. They ignore
screens.

They also require extreme concentration, and fire only in the front arc.

They require 3 Fire controls per target and 4 energy points per shot. Each
shot that hits does D6 damage with no re-rolls.  The odds of hitting
drops with range.

Range To Hit
0-6             2+ on a D6
6-12            3+
12-18           4+
18-24           5+
24-30           6 on a D6

Graviton Pulses These energy beams don't do as much damage as Particle beams,
but they can throw an enemy ship off course or an enemy formation into
disarray. Roll the dice and calculate damage as for particle beams, but for
each point of damage, the target will change its course by one facing. Roll a
D6. On an odd result, change the target's course clockwise. For even results,
turn it
counter-clockwise.

Range Cost Fire control
0-12            2 energy per die        2 Fire control per target
12-24           4 energy per die        3 Fire control per target
24-36           8 energy per die        4 Fire control per target
Tom + Dana McCarthy

I had done up a modified Sa'vasku rule set for Fleet Book. I haven't got a URL
for it right now, and the fighter rules need work.

Many others have very different but highly playable rules.

> I had done up a modified Sa'vasku rule set for Fleet Book.

Didn't these mutate into the Forge Worlders rules?

So Tim Jones dredged up an older copy of this material.

Just to reinforce, these rules allow for the generation of too many fighter
groups to be balanced at 20 points per hit box if the engagement ranges are
greater than 40 units or the table gives room enough to exploit fighter
generation rules.

I've considered seriously limiting the fighters (incapability or endurance) or
causing a serious drawback (loss of a point of damage, can't be repaired
unless group returns at greater than 50% strength).

Also, the course changing weapon is being reconsidered to just force the
target drives offline.

Well, yes, but I wasn't going to bring that up since I'm running a Forgeworld
PBEM right now.