Torpedo Sphere Re-Write

[CRMcNeill]

So, pursuant to another topic, I went off on something of a mini-rant about the Torpedo Sphere being a very expensive one-trick pony, even though it could conceivably have been much more. Pursuant to that (and since I am sitting around with nothing to do), I thought I'd take a stab at my own version.

TYRANT-CLASS STAR MONITOR

Craft: Loronar Tyrant-Class Star Monitor
Type: Dedicated Siege Platform
Scale: Capital
Length: 1,900 meters
Skill: Capital Ship Piloting: Tyrant-Class
Crew: 61,245 (Skeleton: 20,415 @ +15) & 2,150 Gunners
Crew Skill:
Astrogation 3D+2
Capital Ship Gunnery 4D+2
Capital Ship Piloting 3D+2
Capital Ship Shields 4D
Sensors 4D+1
Passengers: 8,540 (troops)
Cargo Capacity: 2 million metric tons
Consumables: 4 years
Hyperdrive Multiplier: x3
Hyperdrive Backup: x18
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 0D
Speed: 2
Hull: 9D+2
Shields: 2D
Fire Control Jamming: -2D to FC for Capital-Scale weapons when targeting the Tyrant.
Sensors:
Passive: 50/1D
Scan: 75/3D
Search: 150/4D
Focus: 5/4D+2
Weapon Systems:
40 Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc: 10 front, 10 left, 10 right, 10 rear
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 1D
Space Range: 3-15/35/75
Atmosphere Range: 6-30/70/150 km
Damage: 7D
20 Heavy Turbolaser Batteries
Fire Arc: 10 front, 5 left, 5 right
Crew: 2
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 0D
Space Range: 5-20/40/60
Atmosphere Range: 10-20/80/120 km
Damage: 10D
10 Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 3
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 0D
SpaceRange: 1-10/25/50
Atmosphere Range: 2-20/50/100 km
Damage: 8D (ionization)
500 Proton Torpedo Tubes
Fire Arc: Front
Crew: 4
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D
Space Range: 2-12/30/60
Atmosphere Range: 4-24/60/120 km
Damage: 9D
Special Rules:
-Fire-Linking: Due to the nature of the proton torpedo guidance systems, no more than 50 tubes at a time may be fire-linked on a target. The only exception is when the ship is making a Shield Attack, at which point all 500 tubes are fire-linked together.
-Shield-Buster Torpedoes: When firing in Planetary Shield Attack mode, the Proton Torpedo Launchers utilize special proximity detonated torpedoes that are designed to overload shields rather than simply penetrate them. These torpedoes inflict normal damage when attacking shields, but only 4D Capital Scale when fired against other targets.
Special Rules:
Planetary Shield Attack
Procedure:
1) Scan for Location of Planetary Shield Projector by observing power fluctuations in shield. Time taken is 1D minutes, with a Base Difficulty of Moderate
2) Focus on section of shield directly between the Tyrant and the shield projector on the planet's surface. Roll 1D per round; on a 6, a Disruption will occur the next round, and is Difficult to detect. For every 5 points by which the Focus roll beats the Difficulty, add +1 to Fire Control for the Torpedo Barrage
3) Attacking the Disruption with a Proton Torpedoes Barrage uses regular rules, but the difficulty of the timing involved increases the difficulty of the shot by 2D. Combine damage for the Torpedo Strike as per normal rules, rolling against the Shield Strength (usually 10D-15D Capital Scale, see specific models types in the Dark Empire Sourcebook and Hideouts & Strongholds). For every 5 points by which the Proton Torpedo's damage roll beat the Shield's soak roll, reduce the subsequent difficulty of the cannon shot by 1.
4) Firing turbolaser or ion cannon shots through the shield disruption uses normal rules, but the timing of firing through the temporary disruption in the planetary shield increases the Difficulty of the shot by 2D. On a successful strike, roll damage against the shield generator's Body (typically 3D Capital Scale, although some shield projectors are also equipped with local shields as well).
Notes:
-This process requires the Tyrant to essentially hold place in low orbit (no more than Cautious Movement, and can not Dodge any attacks, or else the process is disrupted and must start over). While holding position, the Tyrant is also a sitting duck for any anti-orbital turbolasers or ion cannon.
Two-Wave Grav Shock Device / "Planetbuster"
The Two-Wave Grav Shock Device manipulates a planet's gravity field to cause earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters (such as volcanic eruptions). While the Tyrant lacks the power to cause such disruption on a planet-wide scale, localized effects can be truly horrific. While any game rule would involve rolling Death Star-Scale damage against a planet, even a Lightly Damaged result would be catastrophic to a planet's population, with casualties in the millions or billions, cities destroyed, super-storms, climate disruption, etc. As such, this device is primarily a story-telling technique. For gaming purposes, assume that the device has the ability to inflict Light Damage to a large continent, Heavy Damage to a small continent or region, and Severe Damage to a City or other similarly sized complex. The description and effects of such damage will be left up to the GM, but the Imperial Sourcebook describes buildings collapsing on themselves, cities shaken to pieces, waterways changing their courses, and so on and so forth. In game terms, the Planetbuster requires a minimum of 1 hour to use, must be within 100km of the surface, and does not come without peril for the Tyrant itself. Use of the device increases the Terrain Difficulty of the Piloting roll by 2D, and the ship's pilot must re-roll once per minute, as the gravity fluctuations caused by the device also affect the ship in orbit.
Small Craft:
6 starfighter squadrons (commonly 1 Naval Assault Wing of 3 Bomber Squadrons, 2 Fighter Squadrons and 1 Fire Control Squadron composed of TIE/fc models)
Assorted Dropships, Assault Shuttles, Landing Barges and other support craft.
Capsule: The limited production run of the Torpedo Sphere was only ever intended by the Loronar Corporation as a proof-of-concept, with the ultimate goal being the production of something better. The Tyrant-Class Star Monitor is the realization of that concept. Deriving its type name from a pre-Clone Wars class of cruisers specifically designed for low orbital combat with planetary defenses, the Tyrant is a fearsome planetary assault weapon, far surpassing both the Torpedo Sphere and the older Tector-Class Bombard Star Destroyer in that role.

The Tyrant is slow and unresponsive, but planets can't run away, and it is equipped with a mix of weapons and other systems that combine the best features of both the Tector and the Torpedo Sphere. The Tyrant now includes heavy and regular turbolaser batteries that allow it to both defend itself and engage targets of opportunity on unshielded planets. In addition, the ship has been upgraded with ion cannon batteries that can be utilized on Shield Attack operations to temporarily disable planetary shield generators rather than destroying them outright. This allows for the capture of planetary defenses intact so that they may be immediately reused for defense of the newly captured planet in the name of the Empire. Because Shield Attack operations take some time, the Tyrant is often the target of sustained attacks from anti-orbital turbolasers and ion cannon. To provide some defense against those attacks, Tyrants are equipped with a powerful Fire Control jamming array which renders the ship much more difficult to target.

The Tyrant retains the Torpedo Sphere's massive arrays of proton torpedo launchers, but now combines them with the Tector's mixed warhead arsenals on a vastly larger scale, with hundreds of thousands of warheads, with types ranging from standard Proton or Concussion warheads to Plasma Incendiary, Electro-Magnetic Pulse, Sterilization Pulse, Anti-Matter, Nerve Gas or Virus delivery, and a variety of other specialized ordnance. Guided warheads can be deployed against planetary targets by sensor guidance, or by guidance from the ship's TIE/fc fighters (a TIE/fc can even be used to guide missiles onto targets that are on the opposite side of the planet from the Tyrant's orbit). The Tyrant also has the capability to deploy cluster bombs from its launch bays, and it carries a full Orbital Lightcloak satellite array.

Also concealed within its massive shell is the Two-Wave Gravshock Device, or "Planetbuster", which uses gravity manipulation technology to cause earthquakes and other natural disasters on a planet's surface. This device causes damage on a massive scale and is only used when the Empire is more interested in making a point than in capturing a planet with its resources intact.

The Tyrant's formidable weapons are backed by a wing of TIE starfighters organized around TIE Bombers rather than the ubiquitous fighters, as well as a full legion of stormtroopers complete with heavy weaponry, ground assault vehicles and combat shuttles and dropships (functionally identical to the Stormtrooper detachments on Imperial Star Destroyers). These units are commonly employed to exploit and follow up on successful Shield Attack missions by seizing targets of opportunity and holding them until Assault Fleet units can deploy more standard Army units.

The Tyrant went into standard production just after the Battle of Hoth, and over 100 were produced before the Battle of Endor. While more common than the Torpedo Sphere, they are still a rare sight. However, their effectiveness against recalcitrant planets cannot be denied, and the Empire has been sure to graphically publicize the results of this ship's potent attacks. As such, once they detect a Tyrant coming out of hyperspace in their system, many planets under siege often choose surrender over the alternative .
_________________
"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

[CRMcNeill]

The Tyrant-Class and the Sector Group Order of Battle:
The inclusion of the Torpedo Sphere and the subsequent Tyrant into the Imperial Sector Group is an interesting tale of bureaucratic miscommunication. The original Order of Battle was a mish-mash of averages, nominal unit strengths and projected force estimates that was distributed on a galaxy-wide basis, either accidentally or as purposeful misinformation. The inclusion of the Torpedo Sphere in the regular OB is a graphic example of the confusion generated.

The original design specifications for the Torpedo Sphere were for a much smaller vessel. However, as Loronar's design progressed, the company found that the required technology and weaponry could not be fit into the smaller platform, so a greatly enlarged version was introduced. Projected inclusion of the Torpedo Sphere was two ships to a line, with each ship being slightly longer than a Victory-Class Star Destroyer and equipped with sufficient weaponry to act in their own defense. At the time, Bombard Lines were composed of either two Victory I-Class Star Destroyers or a single Tector-Class Star Destroyer, and the Torpedo Spheres were expected to replace both ship types. It was this initial projection that was included in the distributed OB, even though the projection had already ceased to be a possibility.

Once the Navy was informed that the vessel they were getting was vastly different from the vessel they were expecting, they called an immediate halt to the project. After heated negotiations, the Navy agreed to purchase a limited run of Torpedo Spheres purely as proof of concept, with only the Anti-Shield weapons and the Two-Wave Gravshock device installed, along with basic troop transport capacity. These new Torpedo Spheres were quite good at what they did, but lacked the capacity to defend themselves, so the few dozen Torpedo Spheres that saw action were generally deployed singly, with two Strike Cruiser escorts comprising a Torpedo Line.

Once the Navy had observed the Torpedo Sphere in practice, they came around to Loronar's way of thinking, and allowed the modified construction program to continue. By the time the first units reached operational status, Naval High Command had come to the decision that a Tyrant-Class Star Monitor would be counted as a Line-equivalent unit, much like the Imperator and Tector classes.

The Navy's intent was to replace all Victory, Tector and Torpedo Sphere slots in the Bombard Fleet OB, but the Battle of Endor brought the production run to a halt at just over 100 units. As such, Bombard Fleets continue to soldier on with a mix of varying ship types serving as bombard platforms. In addition, all the Torpedo Lines have been reclassified as Bombard Lines to simplify organization. Bombard Command's ideal configuration is Tector's backed by Tyrants at a 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 ratio, but this ideal is rarely ever realized.

OB Bombard Line
-1 Tyrant-Class
-1 Tector-Class
-1 Torpedo Sphere & 2 Strike Cruisers
-2 Victory I-Class
_________________
"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

[CRMcNeill]

Differences between the Torpedo Sphere and the Tyrant
-Torpedo Sphere does not have the Turbolaser Batteries, the Port & Starboard Heavy Turbolaser Batteries or the Heavy Ion Cannon Batteries. Also, its Proton Torpedo Launchers are configured only to fire Shield-Buster Torpedoes
-No Fire Control Jamming

EDIT: Edited to allow the Torpedo Sphere to retain capacity for 6 starfighter squadrons.
_________________
"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]

I like this. Especially the planet shaker!
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

A while back i made my own 'grav shock' like missiles using a special gem as their warhead.. Shatter the gem and it sends out a funky Low freq pulse that 'activates' any nearby tectonic plate/volcano, causing a 5.7 or so rated earthquake..
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

SF scale i would say would be cricket ball through US football size, Freighters would be basket ball size, while cap would be watermelon or medicine ball size..

For note, here was the write up i used..

GRAVAMETRIC BOMBS
These bombs are nothing more than Geltiric gems (native to the Nistanni home planet) housed in a shell. When they are exploded or hit their target, they release a low-field EM burst, which causes the activation of any fault line in the area. If used against ships, it will do nothing other than shake it up.
System: while there are 3 scales of bombs, they all will only do a set 3D damage against ANY starship that DOES NOT HAVE AN ACTIVE gravity well projector. If the ship does have an active GWP, the damage is 10D, and this is usually sufficient to cause the projector to implode.
If used on a planet (or within the atmosphere of an asteroid), it causes an earthquake of the following intensity/size; star fighter scale - 4.8 Richter rated/3 miles, freighter scale - 5.2 Richter rated/4.5 miles, and capital scale - 6 Richter rated/6 miles. These do exponentially increase with one another as well as with ANY EXISTING FAULT LINE!!
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

Interesting. Kinda reminds me of the temblor bomb in Wing Commander 3...
_________________
"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]

Thanks. I felt it (and the Empwave bombs) were in fitting for being based on gems from that species home planet (which is where they get their personal Energy disruption field from)..
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[RexMundiAbu]

Really like this ship

[CRMcNeill]

[Fallon Kell]

[CRMcNeill]

This has been on my mind recently. I had originally named my version of the Torpedo Sphere the Tyrant-Class, simply because it sounded appropriate and wasn’t taken by anything else. However, a couple things have made me reconsider. The first is the unofficial Tyrant-Class Missile Cruiser that has appeared in at least one video game, and which I am considering writing D6 stats for. The second is the introduction of the Onager-Class Star Monitor, which establishes at least some official precedent for naming planetary bombard vessels after ancient siege weaponry. Seeing as “onager” is the Roman name for a type of catapult, I looked into names for other Roman siege weapons, and found that their name for a battering ram was an “aries”. Seeing as how the Torpedo Sphere is designed to get in close and batter a hole through a planet’s shield “wall”, it seems apropos to me to change the name of this ship from the Tyrant-Class Star Monitor to the Aries-Class Siege Barge.

Another thought that occurred to me is that, while the Two-Wave Grav Shock Device is useful in general for planetary attack, it's almost certainly quite useful for attacking a planet’s shield generator by causing an earthquake under the generator itself, as shields don’t appear to protect against gravitic effects. Not that I think this will ever need to be RP’d out, but as an intellectual exercise, how would you handle earthquake damage to a ground facility, and what factors might be taken advantage of to mitigate it. For one thing, a Civil Engineering or Base Engineering roll might be used to select a construction site with stable geology, which is thus more resistant to earthquakes (thus lower damage from the “Planetbuster”).

Discuss.
_________________
"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]

A while back, i created a new missile, that causes gravity waves, in the crust of a planet, creating a minor earth quake. The more missiles that hit, the BIGGER of an earth quake you can create... Sounds like we're thinking of the same thing.
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!