Damage Control

[CRMcNeill]

In the films, its obvious that ships do perform damage control during combat, sometimes within the space of a round or so. R2D2 kept Luke's damaged X-Wing running during the Death Star run and Anakin ran repairs on his own pod racer during the race. However, all the repair skills give a time to use of 15 minutes, with the notation "may be customized to circumstances." I've never once had a combat run fifteen minutes in-universe; by that time, the battle is usually long done.

What rules do you use to allow ships to engage backup systems, reroute power, shut down leaking fuel lines or power cables, etc, to repair a ship's damaged systems in mid-combat?
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"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

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[Ral_Brelt]

Both those instances I would treat as patch repair. They work for the short term, but require double the time to properly repair later. First to take apart and undo any patch work, then to do the repair properly.

I could also see jury rigging being used to repair quickly.

[atgxtg]

I allow characters to do jury-rigged repairs to try and get something working again on a temporary basis, until they get the chance to do full repairs.

My rule is that if a character attempts a makeshift repair, the difficulty is the same as a normal repair. This counts as an action. Compare the repair against the difficulty to see how long the makeshift repair holds up on the table below. Note that the times are approximate.

Beat difficulty by/Duration
0 = An Action
1-5 = A Round
6-10 = A Minute
11-15 = An Hour
16-20 = A Day
21-25 = A Week
26-30 = A Month
31+ = Heck! It's fixed!


A system can be jury-rigged multiple times, but each attempt increases the difficulty of the repair by a level. So if you don;t get it right quickly, or if you keep trying to fix the same system over and over it will shortly be beyond the ability to patch together, and will have to be repaired normally.

[CRMcNeill]

I like the jury-rigging idea, but based on the description of the X-Wing in the Star Wars Sourcebook, it seems that the ship is specifically designed to perform repairs in mid-flight. When a ship is specifically designed for that function, that seems to be beyond the scope of jury-rigging.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[atgxtg]

Sure, but when doing normal repairs in flight just use the normal repair rules.

I was thinking of your mention of ships doing repairs during combat, like how R2 kept fixing that broken stabilizer.

But you might make some ships easier or more difficult to repair. Ships with lots of access hatches could have lower difficulties, while ones that cram the navicomp behind the power core, might be more difficult.

[CRMcNeill]

[atgxtg]

[garhkal]

Not sure where i saw it, but i could have sworn repair rolls went on an increasing bases off of a #2.. First roll 2 rounds, 2nd roll 2 minutes. 3rd roll 2 hours. 4th roll 2 days.. and so on.
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[Lane Arroway]

If you look at the repairs skills, the time taken lists: 15 minutes, then one hour, then one day, then two days. May be customized by circumstances.
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[jmanski]

Increase repair difficulty for quicker use would be the easiest way. Introduce another step (2 rounds to 15 minutes, +1 Level of Difficulty).

I like the idea earlier about a quick repair not being permanent.
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Blasted rules. Why can't they just be perfect?

[griff]

I think tile title of this thread says it all DAMAGE CONTROL. I think I see a new technical skill or specializarltion of a repair skill. Damage Control is best used to circumvent damaged systems, not repair damaged systems. And a Damage Control skill roll is the way I would go durning combat. This would be the in universe effect of rerouting power to get the shields back up as your trying to run a Trade Federation blockade escsping Naboo.
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"EXECUTE ORDER 67. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like order 67..... No, wait. Yes, yes it does. EXECUTE ORDER 68" Palpatine's last moments - robot chicken.

[atgxtg]

[CRMcNeill]

[griff]

While I agree that s specialization is a good way to go, who would it look.

Starfighter Repair: X-wing
Starfighter Repair: Damage Control

or

Starfighter Repair: X-wing-Damage Control

I think I would go with Starfighter Repair: Damage Control. Like internal combustion engines are mostly alike (like a three cylinder '79 Honda civic and a 12 cylinder CAT generator that is that size of the civic) I would think that the basic Damage Control specialization would work in most situations and on most ships. Of course there would be Capital Starship Repair: Damage Control, and Space Transport Repair: Damage Control.
_________________
"EXECUTE ORDER 67. Wait a minute, that doesn't sound like order 67..... No, wait. Yes, yes it does. EXECUTE ORDER 68" Palpatine's last moments - robot chicken.

[CRMcNeill]

I'm thinking Starfighter Repair: Damage Control would be a better choice, as it would allow the character to perform damage control on any starfighter, not just X-Wings.
_________________
"No set of rules can cover every situation. It's expected that you will make up new rules to suit the needs of your game." - The Star Wars Roleplaying Game, 2R&E, pg. 69, WEG, 1996.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index