Deionization

[CRMcNeill]

I’ve been playing around with a lot of ideas for starships (and vehicles, to a slightly lesser extent) that allow various ship systems to get increased performance out of good skill rolls. While considering the effects of Ionization, I remembered this particular bit of tech (mentioned in The Far Orbit Project, on pg. 28), which is described thusly:

These vanes are used to bleed off any dangerous energy build-ups in the engines. They are not necessary for daily operation, only under certain conditions, such as combat or ion storms*. If somehow lost, the engines might wind up building dangerous amounts of energy, causing a reactor melt-down (assuming the fuel system doesn't explode first).

*emphasis mine.

The Static Discharge Vanes pair with an optional rule (Shielding In Combat, on pg. 31 of Far Orbit) that reads as follows:

If Shield Dice are lost due to a Shields Blown result on the Starship Damage Table, the shields may overload; the shield operators in the deflector module must compensate or risk further damage. Roll 1D per shield lost to determine how difficult it is to shunt the shield overload into the static power buffer (the attempt uses the Capital Ship Shields skill).

If successful, the energy is transferred to the static buffer and discharged, resulting in nothing more serious than ionization of controls (unless the discharge vanes have been destroyed, in which case engineering has a problem). The Controls Ionized result is serious but recoverable.

If unsuccessful, or if the discharge vanes are not operational, the shields overload; roll the number of shield dice lost against the ship's hull dice. The result is taken as normal damage as the energy shoots through the connected systems. If a critical failure occurs (a 1 on the Wild Die) or if the starship damage table result indicates Shields Lost, the shield module itself explodes.

Now, I’m not a big fan of this Optional Rule, as it honestly just seems to invent a problem that requires use of the Static Discharge Vanes to solve. However, the idea does lend itself to other possibilities, specifically w/r/t ionization.

What I’m thinking is for Static Discharge Vanes be fitted in one form or another to all ships, and be the method by which ships dissipate ionization, whether from normal operations, ion storms or weaponry effects. Under normal operation, any ionization is dissipated at a rate of 1D per round; what I’m proposing is letting the ship’s pilot / flight engineer to roll either the Piloting/Operations or their Repair Skill dice in order to dissipate ionization even faster. Say, at Difficult Difficulty, a ship dissipates an extra 1D of Ionization, plus an additional 1D for every ten points of Success. This can be rolled as either a Standard Action or as a Reaction.

Of course, the penalty could be that, on a Failed Roll, the ship retains the ionization the engineer was trying to dump…

Anyway, just wanted to get that out there for discussion before I go back to work.
_________________
"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

[Whill]

[CRMcNeill]

Alternate Theory: the system uses static electricity deliberately generated across the ship’s hull to discharge internal ionization. Say the ship has multiple small vanes sticking out all over the ship. When it needs to disperse ionization, the engineer manipulates the polarity in the vane network, using the particle shielding as a conduit. Then the shields do what they do and dissipate the static electricity. This appears as blue lightning arcs playing across the hull, so what we take as a visible sign of ionization damage is actually the ship’s own systems trying to get rid of it.

That way, we only have to depend on one mystery system (shields).
_________________
"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

[Whill]

So you are saying that the external projections are manipulated to shift polarities and "herd" the energy out of the ship into the particle shields, which then expel it as static electricity? I see two issues with that. One is the problem you raised in the other thread: Electricity can't be discharged into a vacuum. You could discharge it on the ground, in an atmosphere, or gas cloud in space, but not in a vacuum. (Curtis Saxton knew this so invented a way to discharge the energy in space.) And not all ships have multiple small projections that could be said to constitute a "vane network."

I addressed both of those problems in my post above. Neutrinos can be discharged anywhere including into empty space, and neutrinos pass in between atoms of matter without any interaction, so neutrinos radiators could be completely internal and thus not depend on a network of external projections that does not exist on most ships.

In canon, the "static discharge vanes" were a special feature of just one specific ship to address a problem created by the author in the first place. As you pointed out in the other thread, neutrino radiators are already a canon aspect of shield technology to discharge excess energy absorbed by shields. Considering them for this concept was actually your suggestion – I just ran with it.

If it helps, defector shields are generated by shield projectors so all ships with shields must have projectors, but in most cases these do not take the form of visible projections on the ship's hull. In my SWU there is a projector for each arc as my damage system includes damaging a ship's ability to protect that arc to better reflect the films ("Sir, we've just lost the main rear defector shield.") If you must have technobabble representing what the engineer is specifically doing to discharge the ion energy, you could say that they are adjusting the polarity of the shield projectors to more efficiently herd the ion energy into the shield system that already converts excess energy to neutrinos and releases them (according to Curtis Saxton).

This doesn't do anything to make it any less miraculous, but if folding the process into shield tech helps anyone who likes this concept, great. But since most non-space vehicles don't have shields but do have controls ionized damaged results on the damage chart, you'd have to add to the premise that there is no way to lessen controls ionized results early for vehicles, and that they expire as the rules indicate due to the discharge just happening on its own into the ground, water, or surrounding atmosphere.
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[CRMcNeill]

Yes, normally electricity would not be able to be discharged in a vacuum. The wild card in the deck, though, is shields. All we know is that shields protect against attacks, and nothing about the mechanism they use to do so. It’d be an easy step to just say the dispersion is part of whatever effect shields already have.

Whichever way you prefer, here’s a revised version of the rule:

If a ship/vehicle takes Ionization Damage, the crew may attempt to disperse it at a higher rate than the normal 1D per round. However, this can backfire, as improper use of the {insert technobabble} system can have the opposite effect, retaining ionization that would normally be dispersed.

In game terms, the pilot / engineer rolls their Operations or Repair skill against Difficult Difficulty, applying the result to the following table:
Result = Effect
Success by 0-10 = Immediately reduce Ionization Penalty by 1D (in addition to the normal reduction of 1D/round)
Success by 10+ = Immediately reduce Ionization Penalty by 2D, plus an additional 1D for every 10 points of success.
Failure by 1-10 = Ionization Penalty unaffected, reduces at normal rate.
Failure by 11+ = Ionization Penalty unaffected, does not reduce by 1D on the next round only.
This is normally declared as a Standard Action, but can be used as a Reaction at +5 Difficulty, subject to declared Actions and MAPs.

_________________
"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]

Giving this a bump with a new thought: perhaps all ships are equipped with a Static Discharge Array (most of which are not readily apparent to the eye), but some ships (like the Nebulon B) are augmented with Static Discharge Vanes that provide a bonus to Deionization rolls.
_________________
"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]

Here is the above concept redesigned so that all ships have the capacity to bleed off ionization effects more quickly.

Optional Rule: Deionization

All starships are equipped with automated systems that disperse accumulated ionization over time (1D of ionization per round). However, it is possible for a skilled pilot or flight engineer to utilize the system to disperse ionization more quickly, which can be the difference between life and death under certain circumstances. This is not without its own risks, as any mistakes have the potential to either impede or even retain ionization, extending its effects longer than normal. Some ships are equipped with specialized Static Discharge Vanes that increase the effectiveness of deionization attempts, and aftermarket discharge vane systems are available.

Game Use:
Attempting to increase the rate of deionization requires a Difficult Piloting / Operations or Repair roll for the vehicle in question (subject to any Ionization penalties). Compare the result to the following table:

Result = Effect
Success by 0-5 = Immediately reduce Ionization Penalty by 1D (in addition to the normal reduction of 1D/round)
Success by 5+ = Immediately reduce Ionization Penalty by 2D, plus an additional 1D for every 10 additional points of success.
Failure by 1-5 = Ionization Penalty unaffected, reduces at normal rate.
Failure by 6-10 = Ionization Penalty unaffected, does not reduce by 1D on the next round only.
Failure by 10+ = Ionization Penalty increases by 1D.

This is normally declared as a Standard Action, but can be used as a Reaction at +5 Difficulty, subject to declared Actions and MAPs.

Special Equipment: Static Discharge Vanes
+2D to all Deionization rolls, but if the ship’s engines take Damage, roll an additional 1D. On a result of 1, the Vanes are damaged at the same level as the engines.
_________________
"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]

Does that impact being struck by ion weaponry?
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

I’m also still considering doing ejectable ion sinks that can “sop up” ionization and then be ejected overboard (taking ionization penalties with them), but haven’t quite figured out how I want to write this them up.
_________________
"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]

Could you rundown a example combat with that rule?

IE my Soupped up Mx-br pacifier with all 3 of his turrets being twin medium ions (making a 6d damage if all fire linked), hits a standard tie bomber (3d hull), getting heavy damage (11 damage over soak).

How does it 'bleed off' one D of ion a round? Do you re-roll damage/soak?
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

Well, that example would be a little complicated (TIE Bomber with 1 crew would be dealing with MAPs on top of everything else), so how about instead, your MRX-BR took an ion cannon blast from an ISD and is currently running with a -3D ionization penalty. Now, normally, you'd have to wait three rounds for that -3D penalty to roll off (at a rate of 1D per round). With this rule, however, a crewmember can attempt to disperse the ionization ("deionize") faster.

So, the pilot or the flight engineer can roll their appropriate skill (subject to the -3D ionization penalty). If they succeed against a Difficult Difficulty, say by 8 points, then the Ionization penalty immediately drops from -3D to -2D. This is in addition to the normal penalty roll-off at the beginning of the next round.
_________________
"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]

That is what i am not understanding. WHere are you getting the "they are suffering from -2d or -3d ionization" from? Is it a facet of how much damage they took?? "STUN" is -1d, light is -2d, heavy is -3d???
_________________
Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

The closest i see is