IRe: More ideas on B5 (spoiler alert!)

How about using a Telepath to Make all Shadow vessels within 4" x the P rating
of the Telepath go last in the Fire Order? Simple, and DAMNED effective....

Just in case..There is a spoiler for Walkabout in this message..
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Considering that we now know that the shadows can be stopped (briefly) by
telepaths, I was wondering how do we incorporate telepaths into FT for B5?

Should we consider a telepath on board a ship, part of the ships systems for
the sake of practicality? Or is the telepath only affected by mental overload
from the shadows themselves. Entailing a separate mental attack phase?

Or should they be susceptible to the physical damage taken by the ship
(although if this was a shadow attack, damage would seem likely to be total).

One thing that seems certain is that the telepath system should only have a
single arc of 'fire'. This is because the shadow ship must be in line of sight
for the telepaths abilities to work.

One question to ponder is would the use of telepaths completely unbalance a B5
battle involving the shadows?

> From: ngilsena@indigo.ie

I'd say treat them in a similar way to repair crews: A ship can carry up to
its size class (1 2 or 3) telepaths, a telepath takes up no mass, but costs X
points, or possibly Y points per "level", telepaths can be killed during a
threshold check. Unlike repair crews, ships do not get telepaths for free!

> One thing that seems certain is that the telepath system should only

Also, maximum range (for a P5 anyway) seems to be about the same as the max
range of the Shadow and Mimbari beam weapons.

> One question to ponder is would the use of telepaths completely

Only if you can get at least as many telepaths as there are shadow ships, and
that none of them get behind you...

> On 22 Aug 96 at 11:10, ngilsena@indigo.ie wrote:

> Just in case..There is a spoiler for Walkabout in this message..
You could have them under the same section as crew hits. Or you could do them
as a system, both work. I think you need to consider them as
a pre-movement pahse atatck, because one of the effects is the ships
stop. In fact, they don't even seem to keep going under inertia..

> One thing that seems certain is that the telepath system should only
Given the design of most B5 ships, I would say forward arc only. Minbari seem
to be an exception, but then they always are..

> One question to ponder is would the use of telepaths completely
Frankly? yes. All this does is tip the balance the same degree over to the
other side. Before, a Shadow ship was virtually unbeatable. Now, once you lock
a telepath onto them, they're BREW fodder.

Given that telepaths can apparently only hold them for so long, some system
were a dice roll has to be made each round to maintain the 'lock' might be an
evener..

                         TTFN
                                     Jon

> Just in case..There is a spoiler for Walkabout in this message..

I haven't seen Walkabout yet, but someone (at work) already 'ruined' this for
me, so...

You could 'buy' a Telepath unit for a ship for some inordinate cost, then let
them be represented on the ship systems display by an encircled 'T' (much like
how the Damage Control parties are represented with an encircled wrench).

You also might want to place a limit on the number of Telepaths that could
even be remotely available for a given scenario.

> Should we consider a telepath on board a ship, part of the ships

I think you should include them in with the ship systems. This way they
are susceptible (sp?) to being injured/killed in a basic combat
situation.

But if you get hit with a Shadow ship weapon, the point might be moot.
;-)

> One thing that seems certain is that the telepath system should only

*nod*
Seems reasonable

> One question to ponder is would the use of telepaths completely

I dunno. Consider a battle involving Shadows w/out a Telepath...  ;-)

Mk

> On 22 Aug 96 at 11:10, ngilsena@indigo.ie wrote:

A successfull disabling Telepathic attack reduces speed of Shadow to 0? Cool.

> One question to ponder is would the use of telepaths completely

How 'bout....something similar to charging a Wave Gun? After an initial
disabling Telepathic attack on a Shadow ship, roll a die at the beginning of
each turn. Keep a track of the numbers rolled. Once you reach '10' or greater
(using '10' as an arbitrary number, since I haven't actually *seen* Walkabout
yet, so don't know anything about the duration mentioned above) the Shadow
vessel has successfully beat off the Telepathic attack and can
once again resume normal activities - that turn.

Mk