 September 18, 2017 - 3:49pm | question came up how much TD 19 to use to guarrentee a hole in the hull of a star ship? KHs says to blow a hole in a starship hull 200+ 2d100 structural points so your character is attempting to blow a hole in a hull and doesn't want to mess around, he needs to get the hole in one go so how much TD-19? TD19 of 50 grams does 5d10 damage. The problem is that randomness of the Gods of the dice referee could roll high for structural points and the player could roll low for damage and your breach just turned into a cluster screw up- not good. so I'm proposing that if a demolitions expert makes a skill check and passes he has successfully made a shaped charge. A shaped charge simply does max damage to the area applied to. If he failed the skill check the damage is rolled for. In this case the demo expert know that star ship hulls can take upto 400 structural points and thus he will allocate 800 grams of TD-19 to do the job. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
September 18, 2017 - 3:50pm | If you were rolling for the damage I suppose just use 4 kilos of TD-19 and that should do it too. Assuming an average roll of 5. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 18, 2017 - 7:22pm | Sounds reasonable to me. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
 September 18, 2017 - 8:39pm | IIRC the rules state TD-19 causes 5d10 STA damage for the first 50g charge and an additional 25 STA damage per additional 50g added into the mix. IIRC the rules also state a structure point is the equivalent of 2 STA points. So, without consulting the rules to see if my memory is spot on or not...if that much holds true then you need a sufficient amount of TD-19 to cause 800STA maximum damage (re: 400 max strructure points for a man-sized hole) or 1+31 charges assuming average damage for that initial charge dice roll or 33 X 50g (1.65kg) for a guaranteed hole in the hull. |
September 19, 2017 - 8:51am | @ Shadow: I just saw 50= 5d10, that's not quite as bad. And that doesn't make a shaped charge rule all that necessary. Thanks Shadow. I also thought I remembered a formula for structural points but could not find it. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 September 19, 2017 - 11:02am | I defnintely remember the +25 for each additional 50g from my recent reread of all the rule books (in the last couple of months) but I don't remember the 2-to-1 ratio from anywhere. That doesn't mean I didn't miss it but it's not sticking out in my mind. IIRC, the rules were 5d10 structure points for the first 50g and 25 SP per 50g thereafter. It just means you don't need as much. 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 19, 2017 - 1:21pm | There is also TD20 which does considerable damage IIRC it's in Zebs. "Never fire a laser at a mirror." |
September 20, 2017 - 9:19am | Yep, the TD20 is basically just TD19 already into a shaped charge and does double damage against structures. 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 20, 2017 - 6:01pm | but I don't remember the 2-to-1 ratio from anywhere. IIRC (again) there was no hard rule, it was a basic ratio that was derived from what few examples were given for weapons vs structure points (again, IIRC they only listed something like four or five basic hand weapon damages thus leaving a lot of unexplained/unknown damage, including D-19) IIRC, the rules were 5d10 structure points for the first 50g and 25 SP per 50g thereafter. It just means you don't need as much.
Well dammit someone is going to have to source the rules before we're done here LOL...I believe the 5d10 +25/additional 50g damage is STA damage as it was listed in the weapons section where everything else was listed as STA damage. disregarding all the IIRC action thus far one thing is for certain: the structure point rules are vague at best. As far as the D-20 goes, that's a Zeb thing and with their maximum damage divieded by cobalt/shift-to-shit-hole-X rules I really have no idea how it compares to "1e" SF canon D-19.  |
