This seems like a minor innovation but I've found it speeds up threshold
checks by a factor of two or more.
When you have a ship to check for threshold damage, take your pen/pencil
in the right hand and a d6 in the left hand. (Or swap if you're
left-handed, of course). Move the pen to point at each system in turn,
roll the die as you get to a new system, and cross through it if the roll
indicates damage.
In my experience most players start off by rolling the die, picking up the
pen, crossing off the system, putting down the pencil, picking up the die
again... which takes a lot longer.
R
On Mon, October 31, 2005 9:37, Roger Burton West said:
> This seems like a minor innovation but I've found it speeds up
That seems a slow way of doing it... If you have 4 PDS, roll 4d6 in one go,
etc.
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 09:49:54AM -0000, Samuel Penn wrote:
> That seems a slow way of doing it... If you have 4 PDS, roll
Depends on the players - we've found that stopping to decide "are these
three beam batteries really identical or do they have different arcs" takes
longer than just rolling the dice.
R
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 09:49:54AM -0000, Samuel Penn wrote:
Yes - but for systems that are ALWAYS identical, like Firecons,
Screens, PDS etc, there is nothing to stop you rolling several dice together,
which I assume is what Sam was getting at
OK, this is just a wild, off-the-cuff thought - is most definitely is
NOT a proposal for doing FT3 this way, but just something to throw out to all
of you for discussion! It is completely untested, mostly
un-thought-through and quite possibly daft - but it just popped into
my head while I was reading some of the recent posts on this topic:
[I should probably be posting this to the Test list rather than the
main one, but what the heck - it's not a serious "OFFICIAL"
suggestion (well, not unless everyone likes it...), so let everyone have a
comment!!]
Count the number of systems on a given ship, and distribute that number of "C"
(Critical) boxes evenly throughout the hull box track.
Now, every time that damage reaches or passes a "C" box, roll 1 die -
if the score is 1 or 2, there is no effect; if it is 3 or 4, then the TARGET
ship's player gets to pick one system to be knocked out; on a 5 or 6, the
FIRER gets to choose!
[Alternative - every "C" box hit results in a system being
automatically KO'd - a die is still rolled, if ODD then it is FIRER'S
choice, if EVEN it is TARGET'S...]
Yes, the Target player will always sacrifice a relatively low value
system, and the Firer will always go for something important - but
maybe (especially with repairs being allowed) it will even out over a
whole game - or then again, maybe it won't! ;-)
On Mon, October 31, 2005 13:06, Ground Zero Games said:
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 09:49:54AM -0000, Samuel Penn wrote:
Possibly :-) I haven't played much FT since FT2, where all beam
batteries had 3 arcs[1], so it was simpler for us :-)
We also did things like used different coloured dice - red's are
FireCons blues are PDFs, then roll the lot together, or if there are two
different weapons, the die that lands to the left is the system on the port
side, the die that lands on the right is on the starboard side.
We trusted everyone to do their own threshold checks though, which makes snap
decisions such as this easy. If you've got to explain what you're about to
roll to someone else, and have them agree the method, then it's quicker to
roll independently.
If you really want speed, and you have a lot of ships, another option might
just be to have a fixed number of failures at each threshold level, and let
the ship owner decide what is lost. It won't give the same results but in a
big battle, whether No.4 superdreadnaught has lost its main weapon isn't as
important as in a small battle, where you have only one SDN.
[1] For the nitpickers, all ships ended up being designed to
have 3 arc beam batteries, not that the rules only allowed 3 arc weapons.
We do one at a time, or a group, pointing at each system on the SS.
I think it can be more fun doing it one at time, or in small groups, fun for
the player inflicting the damage as his opponent relises he has just lost X
system. However if multiple checks are required, 2 or more differently
coloured dice are used, and each dice is given the target number for the level
of the threshold check it is responsible for.
On Mon, October 31, 2005 13:25, Ground Zero Games said:
> OK, this is just a wild, off-the-cuff thought - is most definitely is
The problem is that the firer then always chooses the reactor or something
equally critical (can't remember what the effects of the 3 core systems were).
If you only have one FC, then that could be a 50% chance of loosing the FC on
the first threshold check (if loss of FC means taking the ship out of battle,
then the firer is going to choose that).
If you just have a set number, and set it based on ship size, even with the
ship owner choosing, they're going to end up loosing useful systems after the
2nd check (assuming they used the first threshold to get rid of all the least
useful systems).
> On Mon, October 31, 2005 13:25, Ground Zero Games said:
Well, as an added wrinkle to letting the target player choose each time, how
about still rolling on a simple table like:
1-2 = no effect, 3 = lose one DEFENSIVE system (Screen, PDS etc) of
choice, 4 = lose one OFFENSIVE (weapon) system of choice, 5 = lose one
Firecon, FTL or damage Main Drive (choice), 6 = one core system hit (choice).
If there is no valid system available (eg: a 3 rolled and all defences already
gone), move UP the numbers until something is valid.
Actually, from memory (as I don't have a copy handy) I think this is something
like the way Starmada handles it?
Jon (GZG)
> --
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 02:35:11PM +0000, Ground Zero Games wrote:
> Actually, from memory (as I don't have a copy handy) I think this is
Starmada distributes the individual systems on the ship onto a d6-based
damage chart; mostly this is hull, engines and weapons, but special equipment
is also listed. So a roll of 1 might mean "take one engine hit and one hit to
the first weapon battery". If you run out of things to affect, affect what's
still available; if that box on the chart is completely destroyed, take a hull
hit instead.
R
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 02:53:29PM +0000, Ground Zero Games wrote:
> From memory, most Starmada ships have far fewer hull boxes than their
Yes - single digits of hull boxes are quite usual.
R
> On Mon, Oct 31, 2005 at 02:35:11PM +0000, Ground Zero Games wrote:
From memory, most Starmada ships have far fewer hull boxes than their
FT class equivalents, and most weapons inflict single-box hits
only... yes?
Silent Death did this with w (target chooses weapon lost), W (firer
shooses weapon lost), -X (lose X thrust), t (target chooses
torpedo/expendable ordnance lost), T (firer chooses expendable ordnance
lost), and * (roll for critical hit). It was highly playable, but demanded
larger boxes in the damage track.
> Silent Death did this with w (target chooses weapon lost), W (firer
Yes, it's quite a nice system, the only thing I don't like about it is that
you know that at a certain fixed point on a given ship's damage track you ARE
going to take a specific type of critical damage (eg: to the drives).... which
is why I suggested a roll to see what group of systems you hit each time you
reach a "C" box. You know that SOMETHING is likely to go "phut" at that point,
but not what.
If it's to be 'crits' in the damage track, then I prefer a system to randomize
the ship's systems hit rather than either player choosing.
Maybe 6 or 12 C's and all systems have to be placed somewhere in a table
of 6-12 entries. (No, the table of twelve wouldn't be 2D6, though a 2D6
system would let you put core systems at 2,3,11 and 12)
> -----Original Message-----