 September 23, 2014 - 1:23pm | I just noticed that KH has no initative. My players are being escorted by a non-friendly fighter to land on planet. The PCs plan on attacking the escort so they can land at an alternate location. My PCs are firing first. Does that make them start as the moving or non-moving ship. They hope to use thier MPO assault rockets on the fighter so should I make them the moving ship because of that. That would mean a nearby orbiting ship will get to shoot at them first right? ----------------------------------------------- |
 September 23, 2014 - 1:51pm | Yeah...I always rolled d10 for initiative as spelled out in the original boxed set (with MR being a modifier). Going by the sequence of events after that, the non-moving side shoots first at any targets that become applicable. That being the case, if they shoot first they can not use MPO weapons as they would be the "non moving" side. |
 September 23, 2014 - 6:06pm | You could abstract the combat focusing on individual actions of the players and thus use Initiative. Though if the fighter was flying along in formation with the PC's ship the PCs may manage to firing without warning thus giving them a surprise round. However if its a battery weapon then the fighter pilot should get a chance to notice it tracking to lock on to him. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 23, 2014 - 11:14pm | The fighter is leading them to thier entry window to hit planet controlled landing zone, where they can expect a security detail waiting them. He's not friendly. Basically this planet has a passenger liner converted into a luxery yaht. The yaht has a laser battery on it but otherwise is a civilian ship. The fighter is leading the PC's past the liner so itr can watch the PC's (but the liner is basically just in orbit) I'm planning I think on just giving them the initaitive but not really a surprize.... I'm going to roll on the pilot's skill (1/2 RS + 10% per level) and if he makes it I'm gonna let him do evasive manuevers. I know the book says you can only do evasive against slow torpedoes... I'm probably planning on letting you do evasive against other attacks.... like I will probably let the PCs even try evasive manuevers when they are back in the Frigate against lasers... I like the idea of crew having things to do. However... the "to hit" penalty against stuff faster than torpedoes is going to be less... like 3%. Perhaps that makes it pointless..... I'd like to get the pilot's skill in there also. I've almost two weeks to mull it over. The gunner is already asking about targetting and shooting down incoming missles with the laser battery. I told him I would let him try... but it will probably be at a big penalty. Now that I look at it... forgetting that "To-Hit" is determined by the combat chart... I have to decide a base to-hit chance for hitting a small fast moving target like a rocket. Maybe just say 10% + Gunnery skill... or 0% plus skill. Part of me wants that to be possible so I don't want to make it an impossible roll... cause that would be bad ass and cinematic. I think I will go with 10% plus gunnery skill. I believe he only has lvl 2 gunnery. All in all, i plan on having them work together to get give each other bonuses... engineering to give a boost to piloting, piloting to boost even non-FF weapons, captain rolling leadership checks to give a morale bonus to do the things he orders.... even the medic somehow. I'm talking small bonuses in general +5 or +10 to help your crewmate do the thing they are doing. ----------------------------------------------- |
 September 24, 2014 - 3:46am | I think the reason the rules allow dodging of torpedos and assault rockets but not energy weapon fire is the speed of the weapon. For the rocket weapons, there is a measurable time and you can see the rockets coming. For energy weapons, the time from firing to arrival of the beam is effectively instantaneous. It only takes 0.3 seconds (300 milliseconds) for a beam weapons shot to travel 9 KH hexes. And that scales directly with distance. Covering 1 hex only takes 0.033 seconds (33 milliseconds). And at any reasonable distance you have no way to see the weapon start tracking you. In the case of a very close escort (say under 2 km), you would have that chance to see the weapon track and so may get a chance to avoid surprise but otherwise there would realistically be little or no warning. That's not to say you can't allow it, as I agree that it is more cinematic that way but it's not really realistic. It's up to you and your style of play. But I agree the chances should be low. 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 |
September 24, 2014 - 5:17am | Well, yeah I go more for a cinematic style in gaming. But to your point about the speed of the laser.... the same thing can be said about bullets... nobody dodges the projectile flying through the air, you dodge the guy's ability to lay his sights on you. Same thing would be true for a fighter dodging lasers, your dodging the other guy's ability to put his crosshairs on you. Maybe letting the frigate dodge would be silly, but I maybe could let them "dodge" to put the damage where the frigate wants it as I'm doing a thing i posted about before with breaches and various sections of the ship having to note damage seperately to indicate a breach after 15 hull points. ----------------------------------------------- |
September 24, 2014 - 11:17am | Don't forget about planetary defenses. They're quite lethal, albeit short ranged. What kind of ship are the players flying? Evasion, according to the rules, is applicable to fighters and scouts...to which I interpret a max HS of 3 but would consider up to 4 since they are capable of the same maneuver ratings. |
September 24, 2014 - 12:21pm | They are currently in an assault scout with extra chemical booster rockets bolted to the atomic engines (above and below each atomic). The planet is not big enough to have planetary defenses, population 14k all in one city/town with surrounding farms. The royals who settled the planet decided they didn't need to pay the UPF anymore and succeeded, my UPF crew is there to try and covertly deliver arms and a special forces trainer to a rebel uprising that is loyal to the UPF... so they have a different landing zone in mind than the city's tiny space port. They are currenly claiming to be Merchants who are against the UPF but the Princess they spoke with via video coms doesn't believe them. Failed Rolls by the player, Successful Roll but the Princess. ----------------------------------------------- |
September 24, 2014 - 12:22pm | The Chem boosters are because I'm treating atomic engines like they spew radiation. ----------------------------------------------- |
