Vertical Damage - Radiation

From: <agoodall@canada.com>

> I've been following the vertical damage discussion. The problem I have

I agree. But see below....

> If you REALLY want to simulate weapons that punch deep holes without
What is it, and what does it do? Is it a B5 Shadow-style huge cutting
beam? Is it a big rock fired at hyper velocity? Is it a big pulse of energy
fired from a HUGE spinal mount weapon? Consider what it's supposed to be, and
what the damage is supposed to do. Small hole that goes all the way through
the ship? BIG hole that goes all the way through the ship? What does it do to
the hull and what does it do to the systems in front of it?

Again, agreement. But given that "simple is best", I feel the options are: a)
A beam that does Xd6 damage b) A beam that does Xd6 damage to a particular
row:
1: 1st row of armour/hull
2: 2nd row 3: 3rd row etc

For example, roll 1 D6, getting a 3. On a non-phalon ship, this will
either hit the 2nd row of hull boxes (if armoured) or a 3rd row of hull (if
not).
Then roll again for the amount of damage.

> But personally, I think "vertical damage" goes against the design of

I don't, but you need the right PSB for it. It's basically an anti-crew
weapon, you see. It screws up the damage control parties, and also means
that multiple thresholds become easier - though the next threshold isn't
affected (much)

A good, simple mechanic is that it does 1 box of damage to every row -
armour, hull, whatever. If there's nothing left on that row, you can either a)
ignore it or b) carry over. I prefer a) myself. Call it a slow Neutron beam,
that causes radiation casualties and little structure. It weakens armour,
especially organic armour a la Phalons, by damaging its limited
self-repair capability. Average damage on a non-armoured ship will be 4,
on
an armoured ship 5, so should be sorta kinda similar in price/effect to
a 1D6 hit (Av 3.5). I'd keep it at about that price because it only does 1 pt
against the next row. It's certainly less effective than a 2D6 hit. Really
nasty against Phalons though.

You could even have this as a standard rule for taking Rad damage, from a
Pulsar ( the stellar object that is), Humungous Great Nuke, or whatever.

> > I've been following the vertical damage discussion. The

Nope. I was thinking of it as a way to represent my Machine People boarding
units.