Shields (Not Quite Official)

[CRMcNeill]

So, IMO, my latest Shield concept (which is a slight variation from the RAW, even while using RAW concepts applied differently) needs to be compiled and given its own topic (so as to no longer hijack Whill's topic in the Official Rules section).

1). Ships may still use their Shields to cover multiple Fire Arcs, but rather than treating Shields as a Dice Pool, the ship's Shield Dice are penalized when trying to cover more than one arc per round:
Fire Arcs Covered = Shields Skill Difficulty (Shield Dice Penalty)
One Arc = Easy (-0D)
Two Arcs = Moderate (-1D)
Three Arcs = Difficult (-2D)
Four Arcs = Very Difficult (-3D)

2). Shields may be activated normally, or may be used as a reaction skill in order to reposition the shields to cover the Fire Arcs that are under attack.

3). Ships with Auxiliary Power dice available may transfer a maximum of 1D to Shields, even if the ship has more than 1D of Auxiliary Power available.

4). Options for Shield Operators:
Angling: Shield operators may "angle" the shields in order to provide a better defense against incoming attacks, but this can backfire, as a mistake can actually create exploitable openings in the shield coverage. In game terms, using the Base Difficulty (see #1) as a benchmark, the Shield's dice result is increased or decreased by 1 point for every 3 points by which the Shield Operator beat or missed the Difficulty number. In order to receive the Angling Bonus, the Shield Operator must re-roll Shields as a reaction to declared attacks every round.

Stabilizing:
Shield operators may redirect all shield energy to a single arc, then lock specific settings and segmenting field overlaps into place to bolster the deflector shield. This takes 1 additional round to perform, but adds +1D to the Shield Dice (Preparation rule). However, disengaging from Stabilized mode also requires one round, during which the shields cannot be repositioned or angled. As such, this mode is generally used only in situations where the shielded ship expects to come under sustained attack from a single fire arc, such as extended pursuits or when a fighter or transport is operating in an area that provides natural cover to the other arcs.

4). Shields may be treated normally, with the dice simply stacking with the ship's Hull dice in the appropriate Fire Arc, or as an alternative, Shields may be treated as Cover providing Protection only (not Concealment), which must be overcome separately in order to modify the damage roll (see the Cover and Protection rules in the rulebook).

5). Finally, Shield Generation systems may also be assigned a Shield Control Dice value. This works similarly to Fire Control, but applies to Shield skill rolls. Shield Control will generally run in the 0D-4D range, with the following as basic guidelines:
0D-1D = Most merchant and civilian ships.
1D-2D = Basic, mass produced military vessels (including most starfighters).
2D-3D = Warships with larger, more complex shield systems
3D-4D = Warships known for having extremely capable and versatile shield systems (such as Mon Cal Cruisers)

If anyone has some suggestions for what Shield Control values should be assigned to specific ships, feel free to chime in.
_________________
"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]

[Totally Not An ISB Agent]

Some interesting stuff here.

I always thought it was weird that the default for shields was for them to only be active in one arc. To my mind, it would make sense for the shields to cover the entire ship by default, and redirecting them to fewer arcs requiring a roll. I came up with this system quite some time ago. It does make shields more powerful when redirected to fewer arcs. I never got around to playtesting it, so I don't know if it makes shields overpowered or not.

[CRMcNeill]

Interesting! Very interesting, indeed! I don't think I've ever considered it from that perspective before. The main issue that comes to mind is that shields will eventually become almost impossible to overcome if they're applied traditionally (stacked with the ship's Hull). For example, an X-Wing with all of its shields in the Rear Arc will have an effective Hull of 8D, which renders it practically immune to all but the most lucky of shots from TIE Fighters.

However, it does dovetail nicely with #4 in the OP, where Shields are treated as Cover, with attackers rolling Damage against just the Shields to see how much will get through.

This requires some thought...
_________________
"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

[Totally Not An ISB Agent]

[CRMcNeill]

I've considered this in the past, but ultimately discarded it because shield recharge rates are, IMO, not important enough to be worth the time needed to track over the course of combat, on top of everything else.

What I ended up doing was changing the "Shields Blown" part of the "Shields Blown / Controls Ionized" part of the Starship Damage Chart to the following:

Shields Drained. (replaces Shields Blown). The ship's Shields are reduced to 0D for the remainder of this round. The ship suffers no permanent damage, and the Shields are recharged to full strength by the beginning of the next round. If the ship has no shields to begin with, it suffers the Ionization result instead.

Basically, it factors in shield recharge rates without the need to track it. The way I figure, a higher-rated Shield is going to be constantly feeding energy into maintaining itself over the course of a round, so a 3D Shield will be drawing enough energy to charge back up to 3D in a single round, while a 1D will do the same, but just to 1D.

So, rather than having to track Shield Recharge Rates for all the ships involved in a given battle, just assume that the Shield is constantly replenishing itself up to the point where enough Damage is inflicted to actually affect the ship generating the Shields, which is when you start getting into Shields Drained / Shields Blown territory.
_________________
"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]

An Optional Rule that tends to get lost in the shuffle is Shielding in Combat, found on pg. 31 of The Far Orbit Project. It reads as follows:

Shield operators are not generally paid much attention in the existing rules. The following rules may make this critical position more interesting.

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 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, this rule seems a little shaky to me, and it feels as if someone wrote up an Optional Rule for Shields simply to have an Optional Rule for Shields without stopping to think whether it would be useful or fun.

However, the fact that Static Discharge Vanes exist, and are an extant piece of equipment on starships gets me wondering if there might be other uses. In particular, could static discharge vanes be used to bleed off excess ion energy as a method of soaking ion damage (either under the RAW or my optional ion vs. shield rules)? I'll need to put some thought into this...
_________________
"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

[Darklighter79]

[CRMcNeill]

Okay, here's what I'm thinking insofar as using treating Shields as Protection.

1). Roll Gunnery + Fire Control to hit as normal.

2). On a Hit, roll Damage against the target's Shield Dice, then compare the result to the following table:
Damage > Shields by = Target Hull Modifier
0-3 = +4D
4-7 = +3D
8-11 = +2D
12-15 = +1D
16+ = +0D

3). Add the Modifier to the Target's Hull Dice and roll against the Attacker's Damage roll (see #2), then apply the result to the Starship Damage Chart.

This way, it only adds one additional step to the combat round, using the same Damage result to resolve separate effects against the Shields and then the Hull.

Example: A B-Wing with a Hull of 3D and 2D of Shields takes a hit in its Rear Arc from a TIE Fighter's 5D Laser Cannon, for a Damage result of 25 against the B-Wing's Shield result of 10. A difference of 15 returns a Hull modifier of +1D, added to the B-Wing's 3D Hull (4D total) for a result of 23. The B-Wing's Shields are Drained, providing no protection against any further attacks from that Arc for that Round.

For Ion Cannon, it's slightly different, as under my rules, Ion Cannon have a disruptive effect on Shields. It would use the same procedure as above, but with the following chart:

Ion Roll > Shields by = Ionization = Target Hull Ionization Modifier
0-3 = Shields -1D = +4D
4-7 = Shields -2D = +3D
8-11 = Shields -3D = +2D
12-15 = Shields -4D = +1D
16+ = Shields -5D = +0D

Basically, not only do Ion Cannon have a degrading effect on Shields, but there is a chance that enough Ion Energy will bleed through to still have an effect on the ship.
_________________
"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 on account of something I found on the Squadrons Auxiliary Component page that pertains to the idea posted here.

The particular component in question is called Assault Shields, which have the following effect:

A modification that can temporarily divert all shield energy to the front of a starfighter, creating a powerful shield, but leaving the rear unprotected. The starfighter takes no damage from the front for a duration. Great for attacking capital ships.

W/r/t the above rule, I'm thinking an Assault Shield module would reduce the Difficulty for focusing all the Shields into the Front Arc by either -10 or -15. Technically, this should also be usable in the Rear Arc, as well, to defend against enemy fighters, but I digress...
_________________
"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