Or take a page from DS2/SG2 and use opposed rolls:
Determine the number of pods that are attacking.
Determine the number of crew factors left.
Crew factors may combine to gang up on a pod.
Any one crew factor or pod may only engage in ONE fight in any given turn.
That is if a ship has 3 crew factors and they gang up on one pod, then any
additional pod man NOT make an attack this turn.
Rolls are made in the 'Turn End' phase just prior to damage control rolls.
Crew that are engaged in combat may not make repairs.
Pods and Crew roll at the same time.
Crew: # Roll to kill 1 pod or crew
1 6
2 5
3 4
Pod: 1 6
If the crew factor is lost, the corresponding hull box is also lost.
Like Leach Pods, these pods last until killed.
This also works for boarding parties. Except the boarding party may gang up on
the crew as well. Specially trained boarding parties (cost TBD) count as 2
crew factors in boarding actions.
-----
Brian Bell bkb@beol.net
http://www.ftsr.org
-----
> -----Original Message-----
> Determine the number of pods that are attacking.
The only conceptual problem I have with this is that ships, ESPECIALLY war
ships are compartmentalized. It's not an open field so the crew really can't
gang up. The difference would be if the ship were larger it would
have room for a Marine contingent which would be employed to repel borders.
Ship crew are generally poor troops when they aren't doing ship things.
Close Quarters Combat on the berthing deck is not a "ship thing"!
So give, small ships a better chance to evade the pod, and larger ships a
better chance at defeating the boarders. Anything under "Cruiser" size
kills pods on a 1. "Cruiser" and above kills on a 1-3.
Killing pods kill on a 4-6 and assimulation pods assimulate on a 5-6.
So now you have just 1 die roll:
Killing Pod vs. Non-Marine reinforced crew:
1 Pod dies
2-3 No effect this turn
4-6 Crew box eliminated.
Killing Pod vs. Non-Marine reinforced crew:
1-3 pod dies
4-6 crew box eliminated
Assimulation Pod vs. Non-Marine reinforced crew:
1 pod dies
2-4 no effect
5-6 one crew box eliminated, additional pod created
Assimulation Pod vs. Marine reinforced crew:
1-3 pod dies
4 no effect
5-6 one crew box eliminated, additional pod created
The effects of assimulation should be given treatment as well. There should be
Full (Borg like) assimulation where all functions of the ship are well known
to the assimulant. The other is Partial assimulation where the assimulant must
spend time learning the functions of the ship. So for each turn roll a D6 for
each system (Helm, each weapon, each type of fighter) and on a 6 the
assimulant brings it on line.
> Pods and Crew roll at the same time.
I like this mechanic MUCH better. It essentially puts the crew and pods on
even terms. As before, coordination of pod attacks would be essential for a
successful attack.
> On Tue, 31 Oct 2000, Bell, Brian K wrote:
> Or take a page from DS2/SG2 and use opposed rolls:
This seems ripe for abuse to me. Assuming the defenders fire first, and
they're facing several pods, it would make sense to gang EVERYONE up on one
pod. Then, by your rule, the rest of the pods stand around looking stupid,
even if nobody has attacked them.
Not cool.
I'd say borrow SG2's melee rule - one-on-one matchups until one side
runs out, then extras can gang up where desired.
Brian - yh728@victoria.tc.ca -
- http://warbard.iwarp.com/games.html -
> Rolls are made in the 'Turn End' phase just prior to
> This seems ripe for abuse to me. Assuming the defenders fire first, and
This of course assumes that there's only one pod, or that the defending ship
had a surplus of crew with which to defend.
Take the opposite instances into consideration: with many pods, or with very
few crew, the pods stand a pretty good chance.
One would think, however, that fire would be simultaneous.
---- Begin Original Message ----
From: Sean Bayan Schoonmaker <s_schoon@pacbell.net>
Sent: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 10:55:10 -0800
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: RE: New Pod armaments (Boarding Pods)
> Pods and Crew roll at the same time.
---- End Original Message ----
So you'd end up something like fighter fights. Each side rolls and adds their
n umerical bonus to their die roll. I'm not sure I like the pure 6 for the
pod, you'd think some thing specifically designed to go and kill crw would be
better then just the average crew party wh o don't get out and do hand to hand
fighting.
So far the opposed attacks sounds like the best way of limiting the damage
caus ed by the pods.
So to kill off a pod it takes:
1 CF - 6
2 CF - 5+
3 CF - 4+
To kill off a crew:
1 pod - 6
2 pod - 5+
3 pod - 4+
You can gang up units if you want or use them singly all at 6's to hit.
If you run this as assimilation if you control the ship, you can only have as
m any crew as you assimilated. Crew can abandon ship. If you haven't
assimilated any of the crew you can't take control of the vessel. This
represents that the pods don't know how to run the ship and depend on the
knowledge of the crew they're taking over to assist them.
Don't forget that PD batts will also have a good chance to blast these things
b efore they contact the ship at all...
So big ships with lots of pd's and marines, will easily handle pods...
---- Begin Original Message ----
From: Donald Hosford <Hosford.Donald@ACD.net>
Sent: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 22:00:21 -0500
To: gzg-l@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
Subject: Re: New Pod armaments (Boarding Pods)
Don't forget that PD batts will also have a good chance to blast these things
b efore they contact the ship at all...
So big ships with lots of pd's and marines, will easily handle pods...
---- End Original Message ----
PD don't get to shoot at pods. They count as torpedos which don't get shot at.
> In message <7AC8AFCF29FA4D115A650005B8CC1278@sage.beer.com> you wrote:
> ---- Begin Original Message ----
Hmm.. thinking about these things some more:
Assume normal Pod costs (1 biomass, 3 power)
Attack as a Lance Pod
Use an expanded version of the table above:
Pods and Crew roll at the same time.
Crew: # Roll to kill 1 pod or crew
1 6
2 5+
3+ 4+
Pods
Killer: 1 5+, or even 4+ (very nasty)
Control: 1 6 (controlled, not killed)
Killer pods inject a unit of killer bioconstructs that are programmed to
hunt and kill all non-SV biological entities. If they kill all the crew,
the ship is adrift.
Control pods release swarms of 'control bugs' that latch onto the crew and
take them over (yes, I nicked them from the 'Starship Troopers' TV
show, that nicked the basic concept from RH's 'Puppet Masters' :-).
You could use a similar mechanism for boarding actions, as well.
Marines and carried troops can be added to the crew factor, say, 1 extra crew
per MASS of troops carried?
On a related note, I'm looking forward to see how Sa'Vasku bioconstruct
ground troops are handled in BDS :-)
Sorry..it has been a while since this was discussed on the testlist...
I have got to get my copy of FB2...
> Jaime wrote:
> PD don't get to shoot at pods. They count as torpedos which don't get