Spacecraft Design
ForeSight (1986), pp. 89–101 — a best-effort cleanup of the machine-extracted original; expect residual OCR noise. Compare with the source PDF. About this restoration.
[8.0] SPRCECRR
conSTRUC 6 comB
RFT DESIGn CTIon BRT
ocecroft Construction & Recor
Other Notes Combat Related Values
Drives
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#### [8.0] Starships
Designer's Notes: Where would a Science Fiction role-playing game be without starships? I almost decided to allow users of FS to find out for themselves. This is because [i]1 feel that very little role-playing is done in Space Combat; [ii] Space Combat is too deadly; [iii] Starships are too expensive for PCs to own; [iv] any "fun" Space Combat system is incredibly unrealistic, and any realistic system is too boring.
But the people said: No, that isn't good enough. We want a Space Combat system.
Always one to satisfy a money burdened community, I have included for your use a Space Combat system, and a Starship Construction system (which is probably more fun to use). Alii can say is that this is one section of the rules I recommend you avoid using. Travel with InterWorld Spacelines, or Pan Solar; avoid Space Pirates and used starship salesman, and you'll be fine.
Your Own Starshlp So you ignored my warnings huh? Okay, this is how to build a starship in ForeSight (if I knew how to build a real one, do you think I'd waste my time typing up rules?).
Procedure: Starship design comprises a number of stages. First, one decides what one wants: how much stuff the ship will be able to haul around, how fast it will be able to accelerate, and so on. The necessary specifics are listed under Specifications. Second, one figures out how big and expensive the ship's functional components will need to be in order to fufill its specifications. The procedures necessary to do this are listed under Construction. One may discover, after all this, that the ship is too expensive, and/or that one has to start over again because the design is too ambitious, but this is pretty well the only unknown the designer must juggle.
#### [8.1] Specifications
Note: the mass of starship components is expressed in compartments (Cs) representing units of lOt (tonnes, H-l000kg). This corresponds, on average, to a volume of 50m A 3 (cubic metres). This does not mean that one can fill this much space up with lead, but simply approximates the volume taken up by one C.
The following capabilities of the starship must be specified:
S (Space): the number of unfilled Cs the starship is to contain. These may later be filled with systems of some sort or another, including cabins for passen-gers, or cargo.
A (Agility): the ability of the starship to rapidly alter its attitude. Since avoiding being hit in Space Combat involves randomly directed bursts of acceleration, this is pretty important. Two points of Agility are required for one point of Evasion in Space Combat.
V (Acceleration): the ability of the starship to alter its velocity. Two points of Acceler- ation are required for one point of Evasion in Space Combat. Each point of acceleration represents half of one "g" of acceleration, or an an acceleration of 5ms-2 .
IS (Interstellar Capability): the number of interstellar jump points the ship is to have. Only Tl7+ spacecraft can have interstellar drives.
The endurance of the acceleration and agility engines should be specified.
Armour: you should decide at this point how much armour any given C (in Space) is going to have, and how much armour the drives are going to have. Note these things down.
[8.2] Construction [i] Note the TL at which the starship is being constructed.
[ii] Each compartment in the ship has some specified amount of armour on it, and this yields a mass per compartment on the Armour Mass table. Add up these values for every single compartment on the ship, and label this value S·.
Armour Mass
Compartment Armour
TL 0 1 2 3 4 5 4r 5r
6 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.4 2.0 -
7 1.0 1.05 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.6 -
8 1.0 1.02 1.05 1.1 1.2 1.3 -
8.5 1.0 1.0 1.02 1.05 1.1 1.2 1.5 2.0
9 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.02 1.05 1.1 1.2 1.5
9.5 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.02 1.05 1.1 1.2 10 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 1.02 1.05
Note: "-" indicates armour of this quality is unavailable at that TL.
[iii] Begin a running total of Cost by adding up the costs of each compartment, given below. Costs given are in kSVU.
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Armour Cost Compartment Armour TL 0 1 2 3 4 5 4r 5r
6 40 100 250 500 1k
7 30 50 100 150 250 500 -
8 20 30 50 100 150 250 -
8.5 15 20 30 50 80 100 200 500
9 10 15 20 30 50 80 100 200
9.5 10 11 12 15 30 50 80 150
10 10 10 11 12 15 30 50 100
[iv] The minimum Control Space required to operate the ship should be calculated. This is equal to: "(S(A+V»/(TL-4)"2. The brackets are positioned correctly, ie. you take the square root, and then divide by the square. A ship must always have a control system at least as large as the minimums stated below.
The designer must decide whether or not to include redundant control space in case of combat. Decide the final size C, of the control system, which must equal or exceed the size figured previously; the cost of the system equals C times the cost given by the Control System Cost table.
Control System Cost
Cost Minimum Control Space
TL (kSVU) Manned Unmanned
6 200 1.0 0.25 7 400 0.5 0.10 8 600 0.25 0.06 9 750 0.2 0.04 10 900 0.15 0.025
The designer now decides the amount of armour protection he/she wants to put on the control compartments, adds the costs (see [iii] above) to the running total, and adds the masses (see [ii] above) together, labelling the total C'.
[v] So far the ship contains I .. S+C compartments, massing 1* - S'+C' Cs. Let the total drive capacity of the ship a- A+V+IS. Set the total mass of the ship's interior, when braced against acceleration, 1'.. I*(2+(I*-1)xO.000005Q)I2. (For most small ships this is very close to 1* anyway, so for smaller ships you can set 1'.1* if you choose.)
[vi] Determine the net thrust-to-mass ratio of your drives as follows:
TV = V x (armour mass for acc. drives)/(acc. drive thrust-to-mass ratio)
T A = A x (armour mass for agility drives)/(agility drive thrust-to-mass ratio)
These thrust-to-mass ratios derive from the endurance and TL of each drive type, and are given on the Starship Drive Thrust Table (below).
TIS = IS x (armour mass for IS drives)/(IS drive
thrust-to-mass ratio)
The interstellar drive's "thrust-to-mass" ratio is
determined by its n, and is given on the Starship
Drive Thrust Table (below) in the IS column.
The net thrust-to-mass ratio T = 1/(TV + TA + TIS).
H T:s1 then stop, and design your ship over again (or
reduce your drive specifications, and/or the armour
on your drives, and recalculate the above). Likewise,
if T is only slightly larger than one, you should
reconsider your design. (T:S1 implies that the design
cannot be achieved at the TL at which you are
operating.)
The total mass of your drives including armour
O'=I'/(T-1).
Determine mass of the individual drives, including their armour, as follows:
Let 0 = TV + T A + TIS Mass of the acceleration drives, MV' = TV/O Calculate MA' and MIS' similarly.
Divide these values by the armour mass values for the
individual drive types to derive MV, MA, and MIS, the
component masses of the actual drives (ie. without
armour). (Eg. MV = MV'/A where A is the armour
mass rating for the armour you've put on your
acceleration drives.)
Muhiply MV and MA by the cost for (conventional) drives
for that TL (to determine the cost of each drive), and
by the cost for their respective armour types (to
determine the cost of each drive's armour).
Likewise, muhiply MIS by the IS drive cost for that TL to
determine the cost of the jump drives, and by the cost
for its armour.
Add all these costs to the running total.
(H you don' have one, this step may represent a good
time for you to buy a calculator.)
[vii] Determine the total number of drive compartments
on the ship 0* - MV+MA+MIS.
Determine the total number of compartments in the ship,
N - 0*+1. Determine the minimum number of external
compartments, E ., 3(N2/3). (Three times the two-
thirds power of N.) The minimum number of external
drive compartments, E'="(D*)/2, should also be
determined (if E is lower than "(0*), set it equal to it;
then, if E is greater than N, then set it equal to N).
Determine the actual number of external
compartments of the ship (which must exceed this),
and call this number P (also known as the Profile of
the ship).
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Starshlp Drive Thrust Table
(Drive Endurance & Tech Level yield Thrust-ta-Mass Ratio)
Desired Endurance of Engines
TL 15m 1h 24h 30d 60d 6mo8 2y IS
6 12 9 6 5 4 3 2
7 18 14 9 7.5 6 4.5 3 5
8 27 20 13 11 9 7 5 10
8.5 36 27 18 15 12 9 6 15
9 48 35 23 19 15 12 8 25
9.5 60 46 31 25 20 15 10 35
10 80 60 46 32 28 22 14 50
The IS value itself determines the endurance of a ship's
jump engines; the square-root (rounded off) of a
ship's drive's unused interstellar jump capacity is
added to the EF of a jump attempted using those
drives. See the rules for Spacecraft travel, below.
Starshlp Drive Cost Table (kSVU)
TL Drive Cost IS Drive Cost
6 400
7 500 2k
8 600 2k
8.5 700 2k
9 800 2k
9.5 900 2k
10 1k 2k
Landing Can a starship land on a planet (you know, streamlining,
and stuff)? Well, any ship whose compartments are
more than one third exterior is capable of surface
landing on, and take-off from, a planet whose gravity
is less than half its V rating (each point of V
represents half a g of acceleration), if its builder so
desires. No extra cost. Why? Because its assumed
such ships are either small or fairly spread out, and
can land on their thrusters. Whether planetary
authorities permit them to do so is another matter
entirely (hint, the answer is usually no).
Designer's Note: I should like to acknowledge the
invaluable assistance of Nick Doulgeris, Brett Evil!,
and (especially) David Botinger in "improving" these
rules. It is through the efforts of these people that the
preceding rules were rendered somewhat more
realistic and vastly more tedious than originally was
the case.
Also: these rules implicitly allow for ships to be
equipped with multiple drives of different specs (eg.
"travel" drives and "combat" drives). If you can figure
out how to do it (it isn't hard) then by all means
consider your design to be legitimate.
\
#### [8.3] Starshlp Systems
Notes: systems are listed as having varying capacities and power consumptions, and as taking up a certain number of interior compartments. It there is no functional system on a ship able to supply sufficient power to the system, or the system is damaged or destroyed, then that system's capability is unavailable to the user ot the starship. (It follows that the capabilities of a system requiring no power, which is operative, are always available.)
Generators A generator provides power for other ship systems. A generator takes up one interior compartment, and provides a quantity ot power, and has a cost, dependent upon its TL.
TL Power Cost (kSVU)
6 1 200
7 1.5 200
8 2 200
8.5 4 300
9 8 400
10 10 400
These generators are selt-sustaining tusion breeder reactors (at higher TLs they may respresent anti-matter batteries), and theretore require refueling no more often than the ship (especially since, in general, a generator will be used only in combat).
I should note here that most ships are able to tap sufficient power from their main drives to quite happily cope with everyday needs (hibersleep compartments, external lights, cutting lasers, arc welders, hair dryers for woolly mammoths, etc.). These generators are used to power up huge radar sets and shipboard laser batteries.
Electronic Warfare Systems An Electronic Warfare (EW) system either generates ECM (electronic counter-measures) or ECCM (electronic counter-counter-measures). The former are designed to make a ship's radar image more confusing, less visible, or false; the latter are design-ed to allow a ship to see through such measures. An EW system occupies one external compartment. EW systems are rated on the number of ECM or ECCM points they deliver (Output), and the Power they consume; they may be fed less power for porportion-ately less output, but they may never deliver more points than stated.
Free: the number of ECCM points a ship at that TL automatically possesses if at least one of its control systems is intact.
Costs are in kSVU.
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ECM Systems ECCM Systems
TL Pow Out Cost Pow Out Cost Free
6 2 1 SOO 1 1 200 0 7 1 1 400 1 1.S 240 1 8 1 2 600 0.8 2 240 2 8.S 1.6 4 800 1.2 4 320 3 9 2.4 8 1200 1 S 300 4 9.S 2.S 10 1000 1.S 10 400 6 10 2.4 12 900 1.3 13 390 8
Spacecraft Weapons Each direct fire weapon is rated for accuracy (Acc) , base damage class (BOC), power consumption (Power), and cost (in MSVU, ie. millions of SVU). The statistics are for a weapon taking up one compartment.
Lasers TL BOC Power Cost Accuracy
(MSVU)
6 2 1 1 27 7 3 1.4 1 28 8 4 1.6 1 29 8.S S 1.8 1 30 9 6 2 1 30 9.S 7 2.1 1 30 10 8 2.2 1 30
Particle Accelerators TL BOC Power Cost Accuracy
(MSVU)
6 3 2 1 18 7 4 2.3 1 21 8 S 2.6 1 24 8.S 6 2.8 1 27 9 7 3 1 28 9.S 8 3 1 29 10 9 3.1 1 30
Meson Accelerators TL BOC Power Cost Accuracy
(MSVU)
7 3 4 2 21 8 4 4.3 2 24 8.S S 4.S 2 27 9 6 4.7 2 28 9.S 7 4.7 2 29 10 8 4.7 2 30
Heavy Weapons Heavier weapons can be constructed based on smaller ones. Given a weapon of size s one can build a weapon of size ns, costing n times as much, using n times as much power, and having the same accuracy, and (assuming the original weapon had a BOC of d) having a BOC - d + O.Sd + (0.S)1I2d + .•. + (0.S)II(n-1 )d. Any weapon so produced may be so expanded.
Warheads A Warhead has a rating ofAxB. Such a warhead inflicts
[up to] B damage A times. Either B or A may be
increased by the same method outlined in heavy
weapons (but only one is increased at a time by the
increase in size). The basic size of a warhead at any
TL is 0.1 compartments (1 tonne of explosive). A
given craft may carry only one warhead.
TL Warhead Cost Nuclear* Cost
6 8x8 SOk 100 x 22 4M 7 10 x 10 SOk 100 x 24 2M 8 20 x 16 7Sk 100 x 26 2M 9 20x20 80k 100 x 28 2M 10 2Sx20 60k 100 x 30 2M
• These normally have wider proximity fuses and gain a
+2 on interception. They are widely disliked, totally
illegal, and carefully monitored. Illegal use should
certainly result in swift and vicious retribution. I leave
EMP & radiation effects to the GM.
Designer's Notes: I cannot stress too strongly my
distaste for nuclear weapons (I'm not especially keen
on the conventional ones) either in reality. or a cam-
paign setting. I strongly recommend that any GM
using these rules assume that nuclear weapons are
carefully (and, at least in general. successfully)
monitored by responsible governments.
Launchers To launch a spacecraft of size S N and profile sPa ship
must have a launcher of size 1.1 N. with at least PI2 of
its compartments external. This costs PI2 x 7Sk SVU.
If a compartment of a launch system is damaged then
any craft inside receives the damage remaining in the
block; if there is no craft within. then treat the com-
partment as already destroyed (launch compartments
are pretty empty). so that it only absorbs one point of
damage (and is rendered inoperable in the process).
Launch/Recovery Bays To launch and recover craft of size S N and profile sPa
ship must have a bay of size 1.4N. with at least 0.7SP
of its compartments external. A bay costs 0.7SP x
100k SVU. Bays are damaged exactly as launchers.
Passenger Compartments A hibersleep compartment can keep twenty people in
suspended animation for as long as it receives the
necessary power (0.2S points). and contains
emergency power sufficient for 90 days of operation.
or 60 days plus revival. The SC for successful revival
is 99% (see AS). They are available at TL 6 + and cost
SOOkSVU.
A standard passenger compartment costs 100k SVU.
and includes a small recreational area complete with
autogalley or food storage locker (depending on TL).
It provides cramped accommodation for 20 people.
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A lUxury passenger compartment costs 200k SVU, and includes larger cabins, and a larger recreational area.
A super lUxury passenger compartment costs 500 k SVU and is designed for one very wealthy person and a spouse (or whatever), and two servants.
[8.4] Space Travel In order to travel s AUs (astronomical units; 1 AU ... 150 000000 km, or 93 000 000 miles) at an acceleration of a half gravities (ie. in a starship with V ,. a going full bore) it will take 96"'(s/8) hours, assuming turn-around and decelleration at the half-way point.
In order to make an interstellar jump you must be 25 x The Stellar Type Coefficient (see [7.0)) AUs away from the star (and at least an AU away from any planets); the destination must be located likewise. The modifier for the Jump, which is instantaneous, is -1 for any jump, -1 if the jump distance ~ 5 LY (light years), -1 if the jump distance ~ 10, -1 if the jump distance ~ 25 LY, -1 if the jump distance ~ 50LV, -1 if the jump distance ~ 1OOLV, and so on for the increments 2S0L V, SOOLV, 1OOOL Y, etc .. The jump requires a successful Starship Functions roll at the above modifier: OR 1-3 indicates a perfect jump; OR 4 indicates lifeforms on the craft suffer a LW (not one damage point, but sufficient damage to incur a LW), and computer software develops bugs (a ship will automatically recover from these problems in (S+DS)/(TL-S) minutes); OR 7 indicates that delicate machinery, including computers, suffers light damage, and lifeforms suffer a MW; OR 10 indicates a severe misjump: everything is lightly damaged, except delicate machinery suffers medium damage, and lifeforms which receive 14 damage.
(Optionally, jumps can be made from within the 2S x Coefficient radius, but at the expense of worsening the jump modifier by one per (Stellar Type Coefficient)AUs, or fraction thereof, the ship executing the jump is within the stated radius.)
Add the modifier to the Jump rating of the ship's jump drives: each jump reduces the jump drives' IS Jump rating, until it is reduced to zero, or less, or receives maintenance (costs 1% of the original cost of the jump drives). If the ship's IS Jump rating is reduced to zero or below, then its IS drives are inoperable, and must receive maintenance to be used again (the cost of the necessary parts was mentioned above, but they weigh 5% as much as the jump drives, and may be carried aboard). If it is reduced below zero then the drives are damaged, -1 indicates light, -2 medium,
-3 heavy, -4 partially destroyed, -S or lower indicates they are permanently ruined; successful repair only improves the jump rating to 0 (ie. ie. does not restore the full Jump rating).
Note that the modifier of +"'(unused Jump capacity) to jump resolution rolls does not affect the reduction of the drives' Jump rating; it only increases the likelihood of a successful jump. (Jumping from within the safe jump radius does affect this reduction.)
Standard passage on a spacecraft (including meals etc.) costs 200(-J(s)+15Iml) SVU where s is the distance covered sublight in AUs, and m is the total of the modifiers of the jumps undertaken. Luxury passage costs two and a half times as much (replace the 200 in the formula with a SOO), while super lUXUry is negotiable (usually forty times as much as standard fare for the entire suite). Costs for low traffic lines is liable to be 50-200% more expensive, while danger-ous routes are completely negotiable.
[8.5] Space Combat Space Combat is resolved on a hex-grid, each hex of which represents a volume of space almost 2000km (1250 miles) across (and, if using the three dimen-sional variant, of a similar depth); and is divided into turns, each representing the passage of ten minutes (SOO seconds, or 200 turns of ground combat -enough to resolve most boarding actions which may occur).
Each participating craft (spacecraft, missile, or what-ever) is represented at anyone time by two counters on the hexgrid. These counters are called the craft's location and its destination. A craft is considered to be in the hex occupied by its location marker, travelling towards its destination marker, at a velocity sufficient to bring it there by the next turn. The further away a craft is from its destination marker, the faster it is moving; acceleration is represented by moving the destination marker.
Each turn of Space Combat comprises a series of phases which are performed in order. When each phase has been completed, either a new turn is commenced, or the combat has been resolved (eg. all remaining craft are unable, or unwilling, to pursue hostilities), in which case normal travel ensues.
Turn Procedure
Movement Phase: [i) increase the value of any damaged, but undestroyed, type r armour by one; [ii] each craft has its spare destination counter placed so that its position relative to the current destination counter is the same as that counter's position in relation to the craft's location counter; each craft's old destination counter is then replaced with its location counter.
Initiative Phase: [i] a pursuing craft may be declared no longer pursuing; [ii] The commander of each craft must then make a Space Tactics roll. A craft has better initiative than some other craft if its commander achieved a better OR, or, these being equal, its commander had a higher Space Tactics PCS. A commander must roll for each ship he/she controls individually. The quality of a craft's initiative deter-mines when it will act in subsequent phases. Un-manned craft have Space Tactics PCS equal to double their TL.
Launch Phase: [i] any craft may launch any craft in its launchers (place the craft's location counter under
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that of the launching craft, and its destination counter under that of the launching craft); [ii] any craft may shift any craft in its hangars to empty launchers with sufficient capacity; [iii] in order of worst to best initiative each spacecraft declares if it is pursuing some target that turn, and how many points of acceleration it is using for pursuit. A ship may not declare pursuit against a craft which is already pursuing it.
Evasion Phase: in order of worst to best initiative each non-pursuing spacecraft declares how much evasion it will be performing (each point of evasion costs two points, each, of acceleration and agility).
Recovery Phase: In order of worst to best initiative, any craft may attempt to enter the launch/recovery bay of another craft (not adverse to the berthing) if: both are not evading, ii the location and destination counters of the two craft coincide, if the bay can accomodate the craft attempting to be recovered. The pilot of the craft attempting to berth must make a Starship Functions roll at -(the acceleration the recovering craft underwent in the previous turn); if successful the craft is recovered (remove both of its counters from the hexgrid), on a OR 7 recovery does not take place, and the craft attempting to berth may not accelerate during the subsequent acceleration phase, on a OR 10 recovery does not take place, the craft attempting to berth impacts (as per a pursuing ship) on the recovering craft at a relative speed of 0.5.
Acceleration: In order of worst to best initiative, each craft may alter the position of its destination counter by moving it a number of hexes up to its unused acceleration. Pursuing ships accelerate out of sequence, immediately after their targets, by moving their destination counter a number of hexes towards their target's destination counter equal to the accel-eration thus allocated in the launch phase.
Direct Fire Phase: [i) in order of worst to best initiative each craft declares which (if any) targets any of its operable weapons will fire at; [iiI in order of worst to best initiative each craft declares how much ECM and ECCM it will produce that turn, and, in the case of ECCM, against which targets it will be used; [iii] the firing of each weapon is resolved, and the results recorded; [iv] the damage to each craft is assessed.
Impact Phase: In order of best to worst initiative resolve all potential impacts of pursuing craft (ie. those which have entered the hexagon containing their target).
#### [8.6] Space Combat
Procedures
There are two important formulae for use in conjunction with the procedure outlined above: the probabilty of scoring a hit with a shipboard weapon; and the probability of a pursuing craft having entered its target's hex, impacting upon it.
Direct Fire Hit Probability Direct Fire weapon combat is resolved exactly like fire
combat, at BEF 10, using the weapon's accuracy as a
skill PCS, and the following modifiers.
Particle Accelerators & Lasers -EWF -(Target Evasion) x "(Range in Hexes) (Rounded Up)
Meson Accelerators -EWF -(Evasion of Target) x (Range in Hexes)
Notes for All Direct Fire Weapons EWF = "(ECM [of target] - "ECCM [used by firer against target] x "(Target's Profile» or 0.25, if this is greater; round this figure off if it is to be used as an EF modifier. Range (to target) is halved if the target used its engines at all during the turn.
Pursuit Impact Probability SC = (Interception Factor x 100)/(EWF x (Evasion (of target) x Range to guiding ship (or 0.5, if this is greater»2 x Relative Velocity)
Interception Factor equals the lower of the pursuing
craft's unused acceleration, and double its agility.
Relative Velocity equals the distance, in hexes,
between the missile's and the target's destination
counters.
Procedure: roll against the SC as per normal resolution
[3.0]. A OR 1 or 2 indicates a full impact, the warhead
(if any) on the pursuing craft detonates doing A x B
damage to both craft, and the smaller craft is
automatically destroyed, and completely destroys a
number of compartments on the other as it originally
comprised; a OR 3 indicates a contact explosion
without impact, the pursuing craft's warhead deton-
ates doing A x B/2 to the target, and A x B to itself; a
OR 4 indicates a proximity explosion, the pursuing
craft's warhead detonates doing A x B/4 to the target,
and A x B to itself; a OR 7 or 10 indicates that the
pursuing craft was evaded (they remain in the same
hex, assuming one or both survive, in any case).
Damage Allocation Damage is divided into blocks. The fire from one
weapon, or each of the A x B/(some number)
increments of damage inflicted by a warhead count as
one block.
Allocating damage consists of damaging or destroying a
series of compartments and piercinglbouncing-off
their armour protection. When a given compartment is
struck by some block of damage (represented by a
number) this damage is compared to its armour
protection number. If the damage equals or exceeds
this, then the armour protection number is reduced by
one, and one point of left-over damage damages the
compartment, two destroy it (even if it was already
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damaged). Any damage in excess of this is allocated to another compartment.
The first compartment to be damaged by a given block is always an external one, and is selected randomly.
Any subsequent damage done by the block is allocated to a random compartment, but once a second external compartment is damaged, any allocation of damage to an internal (ie. non-external) compartment indicates the rest of the block has no effect (has gone clean through the target, into space).
A destroyed compartment absorbs one point of damage.
Note that armour will often outlast the compartment it originally protected, and continues to absorb damage. Destroyed armour (reduced to zero) absorbs no damage, and cannot regenerate (regenerating armour improves during the Movement Phase). Note: damaged armour is armour which is undestroyed, but below its original value; ie. regenerating armour cannot exceed its original value.
Meson Accelerators work a little differently: they hit compartments randomly (ie. not exterior first); each compartment they hit is damaged individually, and they ignore the armour of the first compartment they hit (only); damage from these weapons does not go "clean through" a ship, but is allocated until used up.
Resolving Damage on Drives: the conventional (acceleration and agility) drives shoould be segregated from the stardrives (using the procedure outlined in Starship Construction to determine relative masseslvolumes), for purposes of damage (and pretty well everything else).
Conventional Drives: acceleration and agility drives are reduced in capability as their constituent compartments are damaged or destroyed. If a given drive's original rating was N, with A out of its original 9 internal compartments, and C out of its original D external compartments intact, then that drive's rating is reduced to mln{A/B,C/D}xN (round down; optionally, allow fractions greater than or equal to one half to be used every other turn, or use some other kludge of your own devising).
(mln(S) is a function delivering the smallest element of the set S. Who says that playing these games ruins your education?)
Interstellar Drives contain a good deal of redundancy, but for each 5% of a ship's initial star drive destroyed it will suffer a -1 penalty on subsequent jumps (until repaired, of course).
Resolving Damage on Control Systems: a ship with fewer remaining control systems compartments than the minimum number stipulated for a ship of its size suffers the following penalties:
(1) for each 20%, or fraction thereof, of the minimum requirement absent, any Space Tactics rolls made by characters on the starship are modified by -1; ego a
ship with 75% of the necessary control compartments
imparts a -2 penalty to Space Tactics rolls made on
it ..
(2) for each 20%, or fraction thereof, of the minimum requirement absent, the ship loses 20% (rounded up) of its agility (calculated after calculating reductions from combat).
Resolving Damage on Other Compartments: any person or object in a damaged compartment is treated as heavily wounded/damaged (as applicable) for purposes of repair, etc.. Humans in a damaged compartment not protected by vacuum suits are very likely to die (PCs should be given a chance, perhaps an IN roll, to get out in time; NPCs should become statistics).
Location (Optional) A stars hip has a chance of locating other starships (missiles, or whatever) as follows
Location Chance =(200 x -JProflle)/(EWF x Range 2 )%
Location is resolved during the Initiative phase. A ship may only fire weapons at, and order other ships (or itself) to pursue targets which were detected by it during the immediately previous Initiative phase.
Detection of spacecraft can be resolved by assuming the EWF to be 0.25, since active ECM does not reduce one's chances of being detected as such.
Three Dimensional Space Combat
(Optional)
Procedure: replace each of the counters used normally with a corresponding "shadow" counter (a two-dimensional projection of itseH).
Choose a direction on the hexgrid which will be used to represent "up" (as well as its normal two-dimensional direction) and place the (usual) location counter a number of hexes above or below the location "shadow" counter equal to its altitude (so that if a ship's location counter is five hexes "beneath" the "shadow" counter then the ship is five hexes "below" the hexgrid). The (usual) destination counter can only be placed directly "above" and "below" (or upon) the (usual) location counter, thus representing vertical velocity.
Range is determined by Pythagoras (ie. range --J«range on hex-grid)2 plus (altitude difference)2». So, for instance, during acceleration a ship's destination counters can be moved distances A and 9 such that -J(A2+ 9 2 ) s the ship's maximum acceleration.
Junk (Optional)
Since a cargo of armoured space suits would probably stop a lot more damage than a cargo of (say) Coca-
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ForeSight [B.O] Starships
Cola, there should be some rules to help people who want to protect their spacecraft from damage by having lots of cargo compartments on the outside of their ships filled with tons of ablatives, armour, steel girders, bricks, or whatever (a reasonable attitude). A compartment filled with cheap junk (bricks, toilet rolls, old Sunday newspapers, etc.) will take about 5 points of damage (each point of damage it suffers comes off this until it becomes an empty, damaged compart-ment); a compartment's worth of high-tech, room temperature superconductors, covered with ablat-ives, etc., etc., will cost about 25000 SVU , and absorb (TL-2)2 points of damage (so low tech junk is better than low-tech armour plate; oh well ... ); at quad-ruple the cost, the military could probably manage armour twice as good). This means that you can make a pretty tough spaceship by filling its [heavily armoured] outer compartments with lots of junk...
Legality (Not Optional)
Incidentally: not just anyone is allowed to build powerful armed and armoured spacecraft! Governments are liable to legislate against the private ownership of military spacraft more thoroughly than they do against that of other military hardware.
[1] The top two grades of armour at a given TL are not permitted for use on spacecraft except on control compartments (and people who fill their ships with control compartments, and strip the control banks out of them are viewed uncharitably; remember that the Federation isn't that stupid ... ).
[2] Heavy weapons, ie. those with DCs greater than the going TL, are right out, as are missiles (if you haven't worked out how to build a missile yet, then I'm not going to give you any more clues ... ); Federal authorities, however, are fairly understanding of traders, explorers, etc., with good records, who use such devices beyond, so long as they refrain from brandishing them in Federal Space. If you've got them, and the Feds are itching for an excuse to nail you, then you may well be in trouble ...
As a final note, see the article titled "I'm the Captain, so there!" in ForeScene.
Pag
DeSigner's Notes This section has undergone significant change as a
result of the little play-testing it has received, mainly
as a result of the designer's (that is my own) original
incompetence. The problems centred around the
derivation of the formula for the size of a ship's drives
given its desired performance and endurance. The old
drive mass formula was implemented with a series of
fudges which detracted from the versatility and
realism of the system without greatly simplifying it.
The new rules for determining engine size are
(unfortunately) far more tedious than those they
replaced. The improvement to the starship construct-
ion system is. I hope, considerable: spacecraft need
no longer have agility drives with the same endurance
as their main (acceleration) drives, for instance.
The only changes made to the othar parts of this section
have been a result of the new drive rules. and the
addition of nuclear warheads.
ge 808
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The Pretzllini Special, Vari
Aircar of the V
(Courtesy, Pretzilini Aircar
APPEnD
iable Geometry Aircar Vear 2517 r Company, Kadath)
DICES
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```
IlVIiscelianeous Records f'or ForeSightl
NPC Record Name of NPC
ST
1 IENIDHIRGIIN IPCIWPIEMIRPI !~~ Speed
UCDC
Skill PCS Skill PCS Skill PCS G
Charisma E
Empathy T
Fatigue Credit
Initiative Weapon
Pain Res.
Armour
Scan Wound Status
Search ~IL 1M IH 11411SIt
NPC Record (bock) Name of NPC
Demeanour ............................................................................................................................
I ncl i nat i ons ........................................................................................................................
Special Abilities .........................................................................................................
Casual Conversat ion ...............................................................................................
Relevant Knowledge ................................................................................................
Fi el ds of Knowl edge ...............................................................................................
Organism Record Organism Name
Size DT IUCDC Speed
I--
Initiative Melee PCS
- Move I - -
Travel Mode Pain Res. PCS Turn
IN I Stealth Protection 1M II IB I
Spec; al Abil it; es
.................................................................................................................................................................
Descri pt ion
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . u . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . u . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Reproduct i ve Mode
Native Habitat
```
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Appendices The following, brief articles are provided by the way of general information for players and GameMasters of ForeSight, in no particular order. The main reason that these articles are here, as opposed to within the rules sections with which each primarily deals, is that they do not constitute core rules per se, but are useful information for someone wishing to start using ForeSight cold" (ie. without ForeScene, or a science fiction campaign" of his/her own already set out).
SPECIFIC VEHICLE TYPES
If more variety is desired by way of the vehicles provid-ed in FS, then the Vehicle Modification Table (see Tables) is a quick method for GMs to provide vehicles of slightly different capability, which are fairly similar (eg. sportscars, limousines, and compacts are all cars with slightly different performances).
Note: • may have armour. Armour costs and weighs as much as that required for vehicle's DTx1 0 locations. A vehicle-mounted weapon counts as at least one (limb) location for armouring (five to twenty if turreted).
Pur, Man, Red: add these to the values for a normal vehicle of that type.
Speed, DT, Cargo, Pass, Cost: multiply the normal values for a vehicle of this type by these coefficients. (Use the Speed coefficient to modify Cruise, Max, and Ceiling).
Finally: a vehicle may be produced by using two sets of cumulative modifiers (eg. cheap sports cars). This works in the obvious way (since addition is commut-ative ... ).
Designer's Notes: the GM, of course, may design his/her own vehicles, or use as many of the above modifiers, cumulatively, as he/she thinks reasonable. I classify the Pretzilini Special, for example, as a Sporty, Sporty, Sporty, Luxury Aircar.
DAMAGE TRACKS
At various places in the rules, damage tracks, or DTs are referred to. A human character uses DT1, which corresponds to one wound/damage level equalling one wound/damage status. There are others, reflect-ing the fact that not all objects are equally easy to mangle. The Damage Track Table has wound/damage status across the top, and damage tracks running down the side. An object's wound/damage status is that directly above the left-most number which exceeds or equals its current wound/damage level, in the row corresponding to its DT. Eg . a vehicle with DT4, at damage level 8, has suffered heavy damage.
Rule of Thumb: as a rough guide, damage track is proportional to linear size (I'm talking about the numerical values, in this case). So a given piece of equipment, or creature, would have a damage track equal to its size in human body-lengths (two metres, if you like). Note that ruggedized equipment, and hardy creatures, would have a greater DT and/or inherent armour protection; while the reverse would hold for fragile equipment and frail creatures.
A1
ForeSight Appendix
FLORA AND FAUNA
Organism Record Organl sm Name Size Initiative Trevel Mode
DT
Melee PCS
IUCDC
P8i n Res. PCS
Speed
Move
Tum
I--
I-- ;r-
IN I
Stealth Protection 1M II Ie I
~ec~~~t I e~_._._._. ___ ._._.__.___.__.__._._. ______._._.___._..
_ __._- _-_ __ _-_ _ _-_ _-_ _._. Description ......... ...... .......... .......... ............. ............. ......... .... Reproductive Mode Native Habitat
These are collectively termed organisms in ForeSight. The organisms represented by this system are assumed to be non-technological. Technological organisms, or any other organisms intelligent and interesting enough, should be represented as saplenta (see below).
Organisms use normal BEFs for any tasks they should attempt, unless otherwise specified, and are assumed to possess a familiarity of 3 with their normal environment, gravity, and temperature.
An organism is rated in terms of the following:
Na me: any appelative commonly used for the organism. Players may name any previously unknown organisms their characters discover, and may even influence the official name.
Inlt: the organism's Initiative, which is used as a PCS for the organism should it attempt an Initiative, Search, or Scan task.
Melee: the organism's PCS for melee combat, which is used for all melee combat tasks (unarmed, or armed, although normally organisms may only fight unarmed), including dodging. Unless specified, organisms may not parry. H an organism has a weapon listed here, then this does not mean it fights armed, it just performs unarmed attacks using the statistics of that weapon.
Stealth: the organism's Stealth PCS (if applicable. Some organisms are not stealthy by nature, or because of their behaviour, size, smell, or whatever).
Travel Mode: the sort of vehicle the organism is (should the GM wish to resolve long distance movement for an organism, for example).
PR: the organism's Pain Resistance.
Protection: the organism's natural armour protection against various attacks.
DT: the organism's damage track.
DC: the organism's Unarmed Combat Damage Class (including claws, etc.).
Spd: the organism's Net Speed for use in combat (ie. including the +3 modifier for gravity familiarity).