 December 22, 2018 - 11:16am | original idea was in the Warriors of White Light Re-enlisted thread http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/7826 Thought I'd develope this rather simple idea a little Taking Out the Trash "I didn't mean to say your ship should be hauling garbage. I meant to say it should be hauled away as garbage." -Korvax a Yazirian mercenary enforcer Basic autonomous junk shuttles attack the militia ship and begin tearing it apart. Plot: Liberation Front has hacked into the Space Junk Removal program and reprogrammed the junk ships to attack specific vessels as if they are junk. They may have partnered with another cadre or even pirates to accomplish this making the plot bigger than it seems. (providing a follow up encounter to deal with other parts of the plot). Stats and special rules for the Junk ship in SFman #13 (this article is only one page and does not actually provide any stats or special rules for using the junk ship its more of an adventure idea) 1. KH stats for engaging them in classic Khs action are obvious- HP, ADF, MR and the laser power torch should be reviewed and possibly what is on these ships needs to be more powerful. 2. Once it is in contact with a ships hull logically it cannot be attack by ships weapons and the crew will have to move against it in classic AD action. How will that play out? any special rules? What is the plot here? just take out one militia vessel? what does that do? Is it a serious plot to topple the governemt? is someone else using the Liberation front being used as a patsy to take the fall for someone else? Junk ship operations: one page article suggests that the junk ships fill a cargo container so one thought is that as a commercial concern a freighter with cargo containers and a dozen, 2 dozen or more junk shuttles, the frighter can visit multiple planets, gather up space junk sell it to a foundry. (use the KHs large freighter for simplicity). Should one container be a hanger for maintenance on the juck shuttles? Prequel: in WoWL module the militia crews do ship inspections- so ship inspection of the freighter junk ship and crew. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 22, 2018 - 12:03pm | Developing the plot: Liberation Front initiators or proxy? pirates operating the freighter? freighters are easy to run down and pirates are not looking to be capture so they will have another ship on hand to get out of Dodge with. Perhaps a hiest plot? Crown jewels or something valuable to the crown being moved by starship? Either the Royal yatch or an Assault scout. With Assault scout escort. (pirate activity in outer system or asteroid belt has drawn rest of militia away from Clarion). Need to think about why Clarion Station or the UPF space fortress cannot act directly. Pirates have reprogrammed the junk drones and left the freighter empty and are ready to bounce once they get what they are after. Maybe they are able to remotely control the junk drones from the fast pirate escape ship. or is it that they are stealing the royal yatch and the junk drones actually have a pirate on board that will cut into the yatch and then board it. The PCs ship (escort) gets attacked by only robotic junk drones. pirates board and overwhelm the yatch crew and make off with the yatch. this would cause the two station to hold fire on the yatch even while pirates are making off with it. Note if the pirates are making off with the yatch then they dont require another vessel in system other than the ships that are the diversion pulling all other militia assets from the inner system. alternately the PC's ship is the courier for the valuables and their escort ship is swarmed by junk drones their ship gets the drones with a pirate on board. this version plays out differently in that there wont be a chase down the escaping pirates portion. For the PCs its Victory or Valhalla. The Liberation Front's portion in this is providing the timetable and details of the valuables transfer. (agent inside the government). If pirates are using the LF they will leave incriminating evidence on the freighter that leads to a LF operative. if the LF is using the pirates as patsies then what? do they want the militia to go after the pirates or do they hope to have an ongoing relationship with the pirates? Is there any other player in this? another megacorp or cadre? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 22, 2018 - 4:25pm | junk drones and the laser power torch KHs close combat says a hull has 200+2d100 structural points and a hatch has 200+1d100 structural points according to AD a laser weapon does 5 structural points per SEU to quote IKHs, "The torch uses 30 SEU per turn. When not used as cutting metal the torch can be used as a laser rifle which causes 20d10 points of damage per turn." question: does the LPT only do 20d10 while using 30 SEU or just 20SEU because it is reset as a rifle? Note with the LPT using 30 SEU it will do 150 Structural points per turn which is the maximum strength of a hatch and the average strength of a hull. Note I would allow a star ship engineer to make a skill check to judge the best spot to cut into a hull, so with a successful skill check the spot that the engineer chooses to cut will be 200+2d100 - (1/2 ability score + 10% x the engineer's skill level). so by the book a LPT should cut through a hatch in 2 turns or a hull in 2-3 turns. so the LPT as written works for the Junk drone. however the LPT power back holds 300 SEU which is 10 "cuts" or 5 holes in a ship or piece of junk. This seems rather limited for the purpose for which it is designed. I'm leaning toward having them powered by atomic drive and siphoning power from that thus unlimited power to cut as much as they need to. The benefit of atomic drives and unmanned drone is we can give them fighter ADF and MR or better making them hellacious targets to lock up. so: HP 6, ADF 6, MR 5, DCR: 0, Weapons: Special Defenses: for their designed purpose they dont need reflective hull so what would be the result of no reflective hull? Extra damage for laser weapons? x2 damage for laser weapons. It also occurs to me that the junk drones would make really effective battering rams- 1d10 of HP for ramming. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 December 27, 2018 - 1:26pm | No reflective hull just translates to a better chance to hit (i.e. your hit didn't bounce off). It's right in the combat table for the KH ship combat rules. Also, I think the rules also state that a LPT using 30SEU can make a 1m long cut in the hull. So it takes 4 charges to cut a 1m square hole. The listed structural points are for trying to blow things up with TD-19 or weapons. Ad Astra Per Ardua! My blog - Expanding Frontier Webmaster - The Star Frontiers Network & this site Founding Editor - The Frontier Explorer Magazine Managing Editor - The Star Frontiersman Magazine |
 January 30, 2019 - 10:45pm | Potential plot twist: this starts happening Frontier wide. Cause is a computer virus being sent from system to sytem via subspace radio that infects the scrap ships' mainframes. Main target seems to be UPF Spacefleet vessels and system defense fleets. Is it Sathar? Or a new Mechannon uprising? |
January 31, 2019 - 6:34pm | I've actually created a mini game for the assault scout that is the escort assault scout. A 10 minute KHa turn is broken into 1 minute sections and ramming rules are in play. all positions have contributing dice rolls although the pilot is clearly going to be the hero or the goat in this and gunners can shine: LB fires twice but must have a minimum number of minutes between shots although engineer can skill sheik to shave a minute off of recharge time and assault rocket can fire once. 10 minutes with 5 drones arriving in separate one minute phases, advanced damage rules in play. Should be tense. Pilot better use the evasion ability of the scout for all he is worth. The courier scout ship faces a different challenge: five drones slam into it (not ramming rules) before anyone knows there is a problem. 5 different decks are being cut into by drones then bordered by heavily armed pirates. This is a hostile boarding action and AD rules. This fight should be over before the trial the escort scout ship is enduring. Game can be played with PC ship being either ship: escort or courier. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
January 31, 2019 - 6:41pm | I need to create 4 pirate stat blocks plus 2 combat robots, specify whose drone is cutting into which deck. Write up the after action and investigation- Liberation Front plans to betray the pirates and pirates plan to betray the LF. And evidence falls into Royal marine hands. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
