Converting Consumables to Endurance Dice

[CRMcNeill]

As some of you may be aware, I have gripes with the way WEG set up their starship stat system. It works well enough for providing information, but is light on how to use that information to drive a story, leaving the GM holding the bag when he already has a lot on his plate.

In this instance, my complaint is that the Consumables stat on starships does just what I described above; it provides basic information (Your ship has three months of Consumables), but doesn't provide you with a guide to how that can drive a story. So here is my solution:

1). All Starships' Consumables Stat Converts To A Dice Value. This value, called Endurance is a general representation of how long the ship can operate on its own without requiring refueling or repair. A ship's Endurance rating is not a direct port-over of its Consumables value (although I did use that as a base factor), and the numbers I have selected are not fixed in stone.

2). The Endurance Dice Are Only Rolled At The END Of A Gaming Session. The idea here is that result of the dice roll is to generate a scenario for beginning the next session. At the end of the game, the GM tallies up points for what the ship did during the course of the session and rolls the ship's Endurance dice against that total. A success means the ship is functioning normally as of the beginning of the next session; a failure means it is running low on fuel or suffering some sort of minor malfunction that can server as the opening to a new adventure.

3). The Difficulty For The Endurance Dice Is Cumulative, And Can Only Be Zeroed Out By Refitting And Re-Stocking, As Described In Tramp Freighters.


Example Endurance Values for Existing Starships

Super Star Destroyer = 18D
Imperial Star Destroyer = 18D
Victory Star Destroyer = 12D
Torpedo Sphere = 12D
MC80 = 10D

Dreadnought = 10D
Assault Frigate = 8D
Interdictor = 8D+2
Carrack = 8D
Escort Carrier = 7D
Bulk Cruiser = 8D+1
Nebulon B = 10D
Lancer = 3D
Star Galleon = 6D
Strike Cruiser = 10D
Corellian Gunship = 7D
Corellian Corvette = 8D
System Patrol Craft = 6D
YT-1300 = 6D
A-Wing = 3D
B-Wing = 3D
Y-Wing = 3D
X-Wing = 3D
All TIEs = 1D*

*Presumed to need refueling and maintenance after every flight

Suggested Modifiers to Endurance Difficulty:

Flying...
-In Realspace = +1
-In Hyperspace = +1
-In Atmosphere = +1
-Fly at All-Out = +2
Engaged in Combat = +2
Took Light Damage = +2
Took Heavy Damage = +4
Overloaded (Cargo or Passengers) = +1
Badly Overloaded = +3
Characters Spend Time Between Missions Performing Routine Maintenance = -1 (costs 1 CP per point)

How It Works:
When a ship has just completed maintenance and refueling, its Endurance Difficulty is 0. As the ship performs more and more activities, this number increases based on the modifiers listed above. So, if a ship freshly fueled and maintained flew in atmosphere (+1), space (+1), made a jump to hyperspace (+1) and engaged in combat (+2), the Endurance Difficulty increases from 0 to 5.

At the end of the gaming session, the GM tallies up the Endurance modifiers and rolls the ship's Endurance Dice against that number. On a Success result, nothing happens and the ship functions normally at the beginning of the next session. However, on a Failure result, re-roll the Endurance dice, and re-roll all failures. On a subsequent Success roll, count the number of Failures and compare to the following chart:

One Failure = Minor fault that requires repair. Can use the damage charts or the mishap charts from Tramp Freighters to generate.

Two Consecutive Failures = Ship is running low on fuel, and must replenish at next stop.

Three Consecutive Failures = Ship suffers a major malfunction and is dead in space until it can be repaired.

So, the idea is that, the longer the ship goes without regular repair and maintenance, the more likely it is that the ship will be sidelined due to a malfunction or a fuel shortage, which in turn gives the GM the opportunity to plot hook the characters into the current game's mission, with the funds to refuel or repair as the reward.

I'm typing this up on the fly, so if you see something I missed, let me know. The Endurance dice numbers were converted fast and loose from an older version of this system, and really turn capital ship Endurance on its head, but the basic idea is maintained that capital ships are likely to have a lot more Endurance than anything the characters are ever likely to have access to.

Of course, there is also room for improving a ship's Endurance rating, or even reducing it (as a side effect of souping up the engine), but that's for down the road; I just wanted to get the idea out there.
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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

[Savar]

nice, I would put no maintenance penalty +?, regular maintenance like -3 your keeping the ship up so counters "normal flight" but not harsh flight. extra maintenance -1 per cp.

the regular maintenance would be restock/refuel.

tuneup/overhaul to remove total

or something like that

[Raven Redstar]

Those are great, but I noticed that you only did example endurance dice for military vessels.

Would you be able to come up with a quick listing of endurance ratings for common consumable, that way we can quickly cross reference between that and the standard ship stats we're looking at?
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RR
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[CRMcNeill]

Can you give me some requests for example ships?
_________________
"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

[Raven Redstar]

Maybe just some of the stock freighters.
YT-1300
Ghtroc 720


But originally I was thinking that doing monthly ranges might make sense.

Hours-1 day = 1D
2 days - 1 week = 2D
2+years = 18D
Etc...

Or giving us a quick formula so we can whip something up.

(Consumables rating in months) + (scale dice in D) = in pips or dice or whatever.
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RR
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[CRMcNeill]

The problem is that there isn't really an easy way to do it. The numbers from above were pretty much just SWAGs, and any sort of direct conversion results in ridiculously high numbers.
_________________
"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]

[Naaman]

At first, I thought this would be adding unnecesary complexity, but I really like it!

If I uad come up with it, I would have made the roll only if the ship played a crucial role in the adventure (or will in tue next adventure). In other words, if the ship was being used as a life support system for stranded characters (either in space or on a planet), make the role. If the ship fought in a battle, make the role.

But mere commuting, for example, is something I would not bother with including in the endurance difficulty (in our games, we always assumed that major docking yards provided a full service (fuel up check fluids, inflate the tires, etc)., so everywhere the ship stopped would have reset the enduro clock to zero in our case.

[Raven Redstar]

[CRMcNeill]

I'm actually more inclined to put malfunctions under a separate stat (Reliability, perhaps). Sometimes it takes putting something in writing to see its flaws...
_________________
"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

[Raven Redstar]

I could actually see the endurance rating able to be raised through modification, and diminished through performance type modifications: such as drive speed increases or hyperdrive performance, possibly even maneuverability dice modifications, each adding a +1 to endurance totals rolled. Which should make for fun instances like the Falcon, which has been modified to all hell, and always seems to be in need of some sort of repair overhaul, because she's so touchy.
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RR
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[CRMcNeill]

[CRMcNeill]

The more I think about this, the less I think Capital Ships need to convert to an Endurance rating. Unless I'm very much mistaken, most campaigns are going to take place with starfighters and space transports. Something with the size and endurance of a capital ship will always have better range than fighters and transports, so it's probably just simpler to just come up with a rule that works for the smaller ships.
_________________
"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]

It's crunchy, but I think it fills an important gap that may come up in campaigns. I prefer to let as much if this stuff as possible happen offscreen in between adventures and not deal with it much, but there still may be times I may need something like this so it's good to have this to fall back on. I'm sorry I don't have much to add but I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.
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[Savar]

in a resource poor or reduced campaign, where that is part of the story, the crunchy matters. in a more cinematic campaign it matters less.

good info to have regardless