From: Marshall Grover <mgrover@m...>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 14:26:21 -0500
Subject: new B5 Rules
I just joined the list about a week ago, and thought It would be a good place to post the B5 rules. I Tried to keep these as simple as possible. I've also Included all the ships from the EA. We are still trying to get the other races just right. Let me know what you think! Marshall ================================================== Babylon 5 Rules for Full Thrust Technology Levels Stellar Age (level 0) Galactic Age (level 1) Gravitic Age (level 2) Organic Age (level 3) Ultratech (level 4) Ascendant (level 5) For each tech level: (round all bonuses down) +10% internal space to use for systems. Weapons roll an extra 1/2 D6 to hit and add +1 to the damage roll on attack Enemy weapons roll -1/2 D6 fewer to hit and subtract -1 to damage roll when they attack. + 1/2 a thrust point built in on their ship designs. Fighters have the same bonuses, except for internal volume. -1/2 pip on the threshold damage roll -2" for weapons range +1 Thrust point available for turning For game balance, Ships are priced out at +50% per tech level. example: Mimbari cruisers (level 2) have +20% mass for weapons use. +1D6 to hit, +2 to damage on offense. -1D6 to hit, -2 to damage on defense. They also have an extra 1 thrust point available for turning. and -1 on all threshold damage rolls. Their weapons subtract 4" from the range when firing. They can use an extra 2 thrust points for maneuvering. For game balance their ships cost +100% points. example2: Centauri Cruisers (level 1) have +10% mass for weapons use. +1 to damage on offense. -1 to damage on defense. Their weapons subtract 2" from the range when firing. they can use an extra thrust point for maneuvering. For game balance their ships cost +50% points. Jump Drive technology Jump Points Jump Points are a 3" circle, specified at the time of opening. Points take 2 turns to form and last for 4 turns. In order to open a jump point the ship needs a working jump drive and Firecon. If the drive or all the firecons are damaged while the point is forming, the point is ruined. The jumping ship cannot create another jump point while the first one is active. Jump drive Mass 5 Cost = (Mass of ship*drive rating)/3 To open a jump point the player specifies a point within 20" of the jumping ship and announces a jump point is forming. If any ship passes within 6" of this point while the point is forming, it is ruined, and the jump drive must be recharged. Jump drives have a rating between 1 and 6, to recharge the drive the player needs to roll under that rating on a 1D6. Each failed threshold check on a jump drive causes this number to go down by 2, once it reaches 0 the jump drive is no longer functional. Jump gate Jump gates can only be opened to enter hyperspace by the race that owned them, but can be used by anybody to enter realspace. Jump gates are made up of at least 3 pylons, each with a mass of 60, 1 firecon and 1 jump drive. Multiple drive firecons and pylons can be added for redundancy. Jump gates are a terrain feature 6" long and 3" apart If a jump drive or firecon on the pylon is destroyed the point will still form, only when all drives are destroyed will the gate fail. NEW WEAPONS Telepath Mass: 0 Cost: rating*rating Telapaths are rated between 2 and 12, they are only useful against shadow ships. They attack as follows: Range: Modifier: 4xrating +3 to hit 3xrating +2 to hit 2xrating +1 to hit 1xrating normal Roll 2D6 and add the modifier, if that number is less than the rating the Telepath hits. Roll 1D6 on the following chart. 1-3 No Effect 4-6 Shadow ship will not move or fire for the next 1D6 turns. The shadow ship loses all defensive to hit bonuses, but keeps damage reduction bonuses. Energy Mine Launcher Mass: 5 Cost: 10 Energy mine launchers are a heavy weapon fitted to large ships. Each energy mine launcher has a small 60 degree fire arc (11 o'clock to 1 o'clock) and requires a separate fire control to fire. It Targets one enemy vessel within 24" of the firing vessel. When fired the attacker rolls 2 dice, and declares which one is thew drift die and which one is the range. If the die roll is doubles the mine hits the target. Otherwise multiply the drift die by 2 and move the mine the range dice in inches away from the target in the direction of the drift die. The mine scores 3d6 hits against the target, and every ship within 6" of the target, the damage being reduced by 1D6 per 2" away from the point of impact. EX: a Narn DN fires an energy mine against a centauri Task Force. The Narn rolls 2 dice and gets double 3's, hitting the cruiser aimed at. A centauri DD 4" away gets 1D6 hits. A Centauri DN 2" away gets 2D6 hits. EX2: The same Narn DN fires again, this time rolling a 3 and 2. The mine explodes 3" away from the target bearing 4 o'clock. The Centauri cruiser still gets 2D6 hits. The other ships may or may not get hit depending on the position relative to the explosion. Armor Cost:.5 ship mass per level Each level of armor adds 1 row of damage boxes to the ship, these boxes must be destroyed before the normal boxes and don't count for threshold checks. Each level of armor reduces the speed of the ship by one. Fighters/Anti-fighter All fighters are considered agile. Both fighters and anti-fighter weapons do NOT get the range bonuses. Turreted Weapons Up to 4 weapons of the same type can be placed in a turret. Each additional weapon adds 50% to the weight of the turret. Turrets count as 1 threshold hit. Weapons from 1 turret can fire at 1 target only. Up to 2 A, 3B or 4C can be placed in a turret. Mines Mines are not effected by the to hit adjustments, and only have 50% of the damage adjustment. Shadow ships Shadow ships are classed 1 and up,For each class add 1 360' AA Megabattery, 1 PDAF and 1 fighter group. Each battery can target a single ship or fighter group. Shadow ships have a speed of 8 and can use it all for maneuver. All the classes have class 3 armor, 3 fire controls. Shadow ships can enter and leave hyperspace at will. All shadow ships are equipped with a jump point destabilizer. This device has a range of 40", it automatically hits and destroys the jump point it is aimed at. Shadow ships have 12 Mass an 10 damage points per class. They are rated at 300 points per class. They can launch 1/2 a fighter group per class per turn, round fractions up. Example: A class 5 shadow ship has 5 360' AA megabatteries, 5 PDAFs and 5 Fighter groups. level 3 armor and 3 fire controls. It can launch 3 Fighter groups per turn. The mass is 60 and it has 50 damage points. It is +2D6 to hit, +4 to damage on offense. -2D6 to hit, -4 to damage on defense. They also have an extra 2 thrust point built in on their ship designs. They are -2 on all threshold damage rolls. They subtract 8" from the range when firing. They can use an extra 4 thrust points for maneuvering. Changes from the original rules The AA megabetteries do NOT overload. There are no shields. Ships can fire into the aft arc. Railgun shots may be intercepted by PDAF and ADAF systems. Ships of the Earth Alliance Starfleet Omega Class Destroyer The big stick of the Earth Alliance fleet. Hull: 13, 13, 13, 13 Armor: 13,13 (level 2) Drive: 6 (Speed 4) Jumpdrive rating: 3 Firecon: 3 WEAPONS: 4x Fighter 2x2 turreted A Btty P/F/S 2x AA Megabtty F/A 2x2 turreted B Btty F/P/A 2x2 turreted B Btty F/S/A 4xPDAF 2xADAF MASS: 104 DP: 52 COST: 1310pts Tech Level: 0 Saratoga Class BattleCruiser The workhorse of the fleet, not as provacative, or as expensive as an Omega class, Hull: 8,8,8,8 Armor: 8,8 (level 2) Drive: 6 (Speed 4) Jumpdrive rating: 3 Firecon: 3 WEAPONS: 2x2 turreted B Btty P/F/S 2x AA Megabtty F/A 1x fighter 1xADAF 2xPDAF MASS: 64 DP: 32 COST: 742 Tech Level: 0 Sun-Tsu Class Heavy Escort Hull: 4,4,5,5 Armor: 4 (Level 1) Drive: 5 (Speed 4) Jumpdrive rating: 3 Firecon: 3 WEAPONS: 1xFighter 1x2 turreted B Btty P/F/S 2x A Btty F/A 2xPDAF MASS: 44 DP: 22 COST: 438 Tech Level: 0 Nelson Class Escort This ship is used as an ESCORT only, it has no Integral jump drive of it's own, and is only seen with convoys or a larger ship. It is heavily optimized for anti fighter warfare, and must stay very close to the capital ship, or it will be vaporized before it can come into range. Hull: 4, 5, 5, 5 Armor: 4 (Level 1) Drive: 5 (Speed 4) Jumpdrive rating: NONE Firecon: 3 WEAPONS: 2x2 Turreted C Btty P/F/S 2xB Btty F/A 3xADAF 2xPDAF MASS: 36 DP: 18 COST: 461 Tech Level: 0 Iriquois Class Scout Hull: 4,4,5 Armor: 4 (Level 1) Drive: 5 (Speed 4) Jumpdrive rating: 3 Firecon: 2 WEAPONS: 2x2 turreted C Btty P/F/S 2xB Btty F/A 1 PDAF MASS: 26 DP: 13 COST: 240 Tech Level: 0 Leipzig Class Frigate Hull: 4,4,5 Armor: 4 (Level 1) Drive: 5 (Speed 4) Jumpdrive rating: None Firecon: 2 WEAPONS: 2x2 turreted C Btty P/F/S 2xB Btty F/A 1 PDAF MASS: 16 DP: 8 COST: 157 Tech Level: 0 Designers Notes/credits: For the full tech level text check out Voltayre's ENCYCLOPEDIA XENOBIOLOGICA (the best babylon 5 site on the web!!!) http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~atropos/Voltayre/ex1.html The tech level descriptions are very neat and detailed. I've tried to keep the rules very simple, and have most of the work done in the designing of the ships. different tech levels can be used in the same ship. The white star (still in playtesting) has mimbari weapon bonuses, but Vorlon thrust and defensive bonuses. If you have any comments or questions please send them to