Full dodge on multi-crew ships?

[Jollyone]

Pilot in transport declares full dodge. You stack the roll on difficulty for new number enemy needs to roll to hit the ship. What about rest of crew? Full use of skills? Shoot? Shields? Sensor? On a capital ship? pilot does same? is this even possible in capital ship? Been reading a lot of posts and may of been covered, new to site.

[garhkal]

For ME, yes i assign the same mods to those in the ship shooting back out of it, as well as the enemy SHOOTING teh ship for freighters/fighters. Caps imo are too large though. For sensors/shields, no there shouldn't be a mod from going full dodge..
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[Jollyone]

Thank you!! Seems like a good call with shooting out of ship.

[Naaman]

Generally speaking, I don't even allow capitol ships to "dodge." Not even against each other. It's just not how capitol ships are portrayed in the films, which is the basis for the rules in the first place. The capitol ship piloting skill is almost useless, IMO, since the ship is designed to just show up and shoot stuff and remain relatively still compared to the rest of the battle going on (the capitol ships basically become the "terrain" of the battle field).

If the pilot declares a full dodge, it makes sense to me that the gunners (at least) aren't able to effectively engage any threats since the maneuver is (presumably) wild and/or desperate enough that it dramatically affects the relative positioning of the pursuing ships. On the other hand, I could see in some cases allowing the gunner to shoot but without the benefit of fire control (and possibly having a penalty on top of that).

[Whill]

[Jollyone]

Interesting, I look at it as more like WWII for all of Star Wars. The Starfighter scale are planes, transports are big cargo planes or very small boats thinking PT 109 size, capital are ships. I would think most ships did an anti-torpedo dance and they did frequent changes of direction while using main guns on other ships. Maybe to much time on History channel type gun cameras and old footage.

I have not done a capital engagement for my boys, other than they ran/jumped away. Have done some as a player in a short-lived Far Star type campaign but I think he was using new FFG rules? I have done some theory hammer stuff for few decades, the reason I am here to share those thoughts, just wish I had found this site earlier.

[Naaman]

So are you saying that capitol ships ought to be able to maneuver during combat? By my estimation, this would further amplify the relative lack of speed and agility of a capitol ship:

For every change of direction that a capitol ship makes, a starfighter (or enemy capitol ship gunner) can re-orient and "lock on" 5 or 10 or 20 times (or more, in my guess).

Since RPGs are all about relative ability (that is, it makes little difference in the end whether a roll gets a -2 penalty or the difficulty is increased by +2, for example), and capitol ships are the lumbering giants that appear to be sitting still when looking at the "big picture" of the battle, it feels awkward to have a ship that requires multiple crew members to pilot it being able to "dodge" a shot from a ship that can literally fly circles around it all day long.

Now, on the other hand, if range is a consideration (such as in the recent film), then it makes sense that the ships should be able to relocate relative to each other, effectively changing the "map" of the battle. In such cases, I still probably wouldn't require a roll unless one capitol ship needed to maneuver around another one or some such (everyone else better get out of the way or else...). Also, if one capitol ship is ramming another, that would be a good scenario for piloting checks, but, I'm still not seeing much need for an opposed capitol ship piloting roll. If a ram attempt is detected early enough by the targeted pilot, he may get a chance to reorient to minimize damage, but I generally see it as "brace for impact!!!!" while the pilot attempts to protect the more crucial parts of the ship with a maneuver.

What kind of combat scenario do you envision a capitol ship needing (or getting) to make an opposed piloting roll?

Also, garhkal may have some insight on this, so you may want to pick his brain.

[Bren]

[Jollyone]

[CRMcNeill]

One possibility is that it isn't just crew coordination, but rather a matter of power and system allocation. For example, a ship flying at All-Out may need to divert power from other systems to the engines to achieve that level of thrust. A ship executing a full dodge may need to divert power from weapons to the lateral controls to be able to maneuver rapidly, and so on and so forth.

Battlefleet Gothic does just this for larger ships by using Special Orders. A ship captain may make a Command roll to maximize his ship's ability to perform specific tasks, at the expense of others.
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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.

The CRMcNeill Stat/Rule Index

[Jollyone]

[CRMcNeill]

I'm not too familiar with the Armada system, although Battlefleet Gothic did publish a supplement called Armada, detailing the navies of the various alien races of the WH40K universe.

As far as special orders, the six official ones are All Ahead Full, Come to New Heading, Burn Retros, Lock On, Brace for Impact and Reload Ordnance.

Reload Ordnance was mainly for capital ships equipped with fighter wings or torpedoes (which were the size of starfighters), but the others are pretty self explanatory. The BIG rules don't translate well into D6, but the concept is there.
_________________
"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

[garhkal]

[Jollyone]

Had a thought on the scale part that might help. The +10 Frigate can benefit from dodge? +12 Destroyer cannot?

[Naaman]