Seasons Greetings all;
With the impending release of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Editions (US
release dates of 1/31 for SW, 2/21 for TESB, and 3/7 for RotJ) it is
time
to dust-off the FT-Star Wars conversions.
One of the weapons often mentioned in this universe is the Ion Cannon. I have
not seen a FT conversion of an Ion Cannon that fits my vision of this weapon
that damages systems but not structure, so I created the my own.
-Ion Cannon-
Mass Cost Dice Rolls 0"-10" 10"-20" 20"-30"
Light 2 5+2/arc 2d6 1d6
Heavy 3 8+3/arc 3d6 2d6 1d6
Firing is handled the same as beam batteries. Hits are calculated the
same as beams (1-3 no hits, 4-5 1 hit, 6 2 hits). Armor and screens do
not reduce hits. Hits calculated do not mark off damage boxes but instead are
the potential number of systems destroyed by threshold rolls
caused by the Ion Cannon hit. A threshold roll of 5-6 indicates the
system was destroyed. Once the number of systems destroyed equals the total
number of hits rolled, no more threshold rolls are made. The order in which
systems have threshold rolls is up to the target ship's player. Each system
can only be rolled for only once due to hits from a single ship's fire. There
is the potential that no systems will be destroyed if hits are made. If a
second ship hits the target ship with Ion Cannon fire, a new set threshold
rolls would commence.
Bio-ships and similar ships without internal systems would take damage
equal to the hits rolled (shock damage).
Comments? Questions? Nasty remarks? Should screens reduce hits like beams?
This version of Ion Cannons is kinda like an EMP missile and close to an
alternate weapon for the Sa'Vasku that I saw in this list's archives (I
had already worked most of this out before I saw the Sa'Vasku weapon).
More playtesting of Ion Cannons would help so I hope that some of you equip
your fleets of Star Destroyers with these Ion Cannons.
> dgundberg@bcbsnd.com wrote:
And a Happy New Year to you, Sir.
> With the impending release of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Editions
Good thinking. After my B5 Wars playtesting I'm going to be
Babylon-ed
out until the new episodes come out next month. (I'm especially looking
forward to "Into the Fire." I hear it's going to be a CGI blowout.) I could
use a short vacation from Shadows, Minbari and Narns (Oh my!) and
go back to Jedi-land.
> Comments? Questions? Nasty remarks? Should screens reduce hits like
Well according to the ST RPG, shields can't stop a ion cannon blast. So I
think your safe.
> This version of Ion Cannons is kinda like an EMP missile and close to
DOH!
I was thinking of some Ion cannon rules that mimicked a beam version of the
EMP missile. I not to fond of the needle beam version of the ion cannon
because it lacks the punch that we see in the movies (Remember the Hoth Ion
Cannon Vs. the Star Destoyer?) It looks like you beat me to the punch. Oh
well, I like `em anyway. I'll try them out ASAP.
Later,
> Each system can only be rolled for only once due to hits from a single
> ship's fire. There is the potential that no systems will be destroyed
> equal to the hits rolled (shock damage).
No nasty remarks but I think it would benefit from two things: 1. Force some
kind of order (start with systems "on the side" hit
from/or
systems that can fire into side hit from)
2. Disruption of fire control/manuevering or something. The ion cannon
fired from Hoth sure affected the Star Destroyer. I think maybe for each hit
scored, one firecon is disrupted for 1 turn?
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> On Mon, 30 Dec 1996 dgundberg@bcbsnd.com wrote:
> Seasons Greetings all;
What about needle beams?? They are short ranged, only effect systems and are
not effected by shields or armor. They aren't perfect matches for ion cannon
since you can target a specific system but they don't required fiddling with
either, you can use them as is.
--Binhan
> With the impending release of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Editions
I
> have not seen a FT conversion of an Ion Cannon that fits my vision of
> same as beams (1-3 no hits, 4-5 1 hit, 6 2 hits). Armor and screens
> total number of hits rolled, no more threshold rolls are made. The
> ship's fire. There is the potential that no systems will be destroyed
I agree, an order is required. Since we are talking destroyed (as needle
gun) as opposed to damaged (and repairable as threshold roll), I would also
suggest other limitations:
- 1 arc of fire only.
- limit firing rate when mounted on ships (similar to the wave gun).
> Brian Bell wrote:
> No nasty remarks but I think it would benefit from two things:
> I agree, an order is required. Since we are talking destroyed (as
When I was working on these stats for the Ion Cannon, my goal was an
beam-like weapon that damaged systems instead of damage points. The SW
RPG seems to treat them that way. Needle Beams are a much more specialized
type of weapon than I wanted Ion Cannons to be.
I thought about the scene in Empire where the Hoth Ion Cannon hits the Star
Destroyer rationalizing that this planetary based weapon was much larger than
any ship mounted weapon. The when hit, the SD veered off course and did not
fire. Was that a typical effect of Ion Cannon damage or only one of many
possible effects? I did not want to limit its effects to only fire cons and
movement so threshold type rolls could have the same results as seen in the
movie but could have many other possibilities. I first thought about changing
the threshhold roll needed to damage systems but I did not want all systems on
a ship marked off due to to a light hit, so I set a general threshold roll
level but limited the number of systems damaged to how may 'hits' were
obtained. I did not want to force an order in which systems roll, either by
type or by facing as this is not done anywhere else in FT and as I remember
it, the lightning effects covered
the whole SD when hit in the movie. I tried to counteract the high potential
damage by allowing the damaged ship's player to try and force
the damage to specific systems (low priority systems with weaker surge
protectors), but the final call on what is damaged is still up to the dice. I
thought about having fire cons and screens being more susceptible to damage
but to keep it simple, I decided to keep all systems equal.
Damaged, not destroyed. I also stated it incorrectly that systems were
destroyed. I should have
said systems marked off due to Ion Cannon fire are damaged but should be
repairable (new fuses, reset circutbreakers, reroute power, etc).
Thats my background to why I set them up as I did,
Dean writes,
> > Comments? Questions? Nasty remarks?
An excellent system! I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Eric responds:
> 1. Force some kind of order (start with systems "on the side" hit
Agreed. I don't like letting the target player choose the order either. So a
ship that was hit on the port side would roll by category:
1) All systems that fire/ act on the port arc
2) any systems not on any specific side (ie -- sensors, FTL, fighter
bays
3) any system that cannot fire/ act to port
Within those categories, the targetted player chooses the order for specific
systems. I'd say thrust engines count as Aft-arc, so in the above
example they'd be rolled for in category 3. OTOH *DAFs can fire 360, so they
would always be rolled in cat 1.
> 2. Disruption of fire control/manuevering or something. The ion
And the ship loses 1 thrust per hit -- also for 1 turn only? Wow. Sounds
like
we need to up the point cost for this bad-boy! My SW trivia isn't that
great
-- can ion cannons be ship-mounted, or are they land-based only like in
ESB?
> Dean Gundberg wrote:
I
> have not seen a FT conversion of an Ion Cannon that fits my vision of
The needle beam seems to do a good job of representing this. Paul Neher has
used three needle beams, each covering one arc (fore, port, starboard) on his
Star Destroyers. The design works well, but it is represented by three systems
versus one and only damages one system per ship as per normal needle beam
rules.
:
> Firing is handled the same as beam batteries. Hits are calculated the
> same as beams (1-3 no hits, 4-5 1 hit, 6 2 hits). Armor and screens
> total number of hits rolled, no more threshold rolls are made.
Seems like it would be easier to just roll as per the EMP missile rule with
one threshold roll.
> Mike Miserendino wrote:
> Dean Gundberg wrote:
> The needle beam seems to do a good job of representing this. Paul
The problems I have with needle beams representing Ion Cannons are that they
can only destroy one system with a hit and you have to specify what system you
are firing at. I was trying for random damage to multiple systems.
> :
> instead are the potential number of systems destroyed by threshold
> Seems like it would be easier to just roll as per the EMP missile rule
But then there would be no difference between a light hit from a single
ion cannon and hard hits from multiple cannons. I wanted to vary the maximum
number of systems damaged by the intensity of the hit or hits from the same
ship. I don't want a single roll of 4 for 1 hit of damage on an undamaged
capital ship to cause threshold rolls that gut the ship.
> Dean Gundberg wrote:
Try using a 5 or 6 instead to limit the chance. Maybe use a different minimum
threshold per Ion cannon type.
Example:
Level-1 : Rolling threshold on a 6 damages system.
Level-2 : Rolling threshold on 5 or 6 damages system.
Level-3 : Rolling threshold on 4, 5, or 6 damages system.
Star Wars Ion Cannons definitely behave more like EMP missiles (widespread
random damage) than needle beams. One source of additional information on
the beams is the X-wing/Tie Fighter games (Lucas approved). The ion
cannons in these games were affected by shields, but were able to toast
shields rather quickly, then proceeded to damage systems, eventually disabling
the target. They were shorter ranged than normal laser cannons. Based on these
effects and on the movies, I'd write ion cannons up as a variant of the
standard beam weapons. Ion cannons are available in the same battery sizes as
standard cannons and roll the same dice, but each range band is only
8".
Ion cannons are affected by screens exactly as normal beam batteries. When ion
cannons hit a target, they do no actual damage, but rather accululate a
separate total of "ion hits" at each multiple of "ion hits", the target makes
a threshold check starting at 6+ and getting one worse with each
multiple. Screens are especially susceptible and roll threshold checks at one
less than normal. The multiple used for the threshold check could be static
(say
4 or so) or a function of ship size (say 1/2 size of largest damage row,
rounded up). The "ion hits" are cumulative for the duration of a given turn,
allowing several ships to overwhelm a target, but are reset to zero at the end
of each turn. I'd allow ion cannon induced threshold checks to go lower
than the normal 4+. Some fighters in the Star Wars universe could be
equipped with ion cannons (say attack fighters) allowing them to make a one
die each ion attack instead of a normal attack. Using this system, the giant
ion cannon on Hoth might be represented as a huge 12d or 18d ion pulse,
rapidly producing huge numbers of threshold checks and quickly incapacitating
the target.
Another approach (more in line with the games than the Hoth sequence) would be
to say that functioning screens actually completely prevent ion damage to a
ships systems. However, screens hit by ion cannons may be overloaded. They
take full (unreduces by screen level) beam damage from ion cannons and make
separate threshold checks every three "ion hits" until they are eliminated.
Once the screens are eliminated, further ion hits damage the ship exactly as
above.
Just my 3 cents (inflation strikes again).
Later
Brian