Anti-Ion Hardening

[CRMcNeill]

So, shielding against electromagnetic fields has been a thing for nearly 200 years (the Faraday cage was first invented in 1836). Any thoughts on applying this to devices to protect against ion weaponry?
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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.

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[MrNexx]

I'd say the big thing would be mass and redundancies.

Mass, of course, somewhat comes in the Hull Rating (and scale modifier)... a big ship can absorb and dissipate a lot more energy. If they've got some sort of energy sinks (filling capacitators, probably), that would also buffer an ion surge.

For the rest? I imagine hardening comes from redundancies... while the ship usually uses AB, CD is a viable secondary route.
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[CRMcNeill]

That's the thing, though. A Faraday Cage allows for electromagnetic energy (which is essentially what an ion blast is) to be redirected around whatever is contained within it. It's not just mass and redundancy; it's physically possible, with the tech we have today, to protect electronics from this effect.
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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.

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[garhkal]

Mybe in SW, ion energy, is not the same as EMP like energy... So they can't shield against it.?
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[MrNexx]

[pakman]

The Tech
As someone who has actually worked with them - (I used to work as an electronics tech and radio signals - we had to shield an entire building against very low power interference) they are usually designed around specific applications.

Now, I would say - and maybe this is not the best answer;

I have found, with most tech in sci-fi and gaming - to not try and define it in too much detail - as things get complicated and a ton of real world "what if" scenarios pop up (kind of like the old days of infravision in dnd).

I would just say if you want something like that - it just works.


Ion Weapons in Star Wars
Space combat in general, and Ion weapons in particular have been around a long time, and are really really dangerous.

if there was a way to easily protect against them - it would have been done in the last several thousand years and every ship would have them.

But since ion weapons do work, clearly this was not easily done.

Note - I said "easily".

The reason could just be cost - or other harmful side effects to explain why they are not prevalent.


Potential Solutions
In one of my games years ago (either a d6 or d20....don't recall, been like 15 years) we came up with "ion dampeners".
Basically, these were devices that could be installed on a ship - and could absorb so much ion damage before overloading. (like - ion shields).

The crew would have to "turn them off" before they absorbed too much, or they would explode. I made them heavy any expensive, so they would not be widely used.

It was something like 10 tons per D of ion damage absorbed or something like that .... but you get the idea. Then had even more advanced versions where they could draw power from them later, etc. etc. etc.

This enabled the tinker'ers, outlaw techs and smugglers and folks who did not mind crazy or experimental devices to have them, but gave a reason why they were not standard issue on military ships and droids.

(too risky, too much maintenance, etc.).

Anyway - more importantly than the science behind the tech - is why they are not in common use. But I think that is a great way to balance them out.
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[garhkal]

HOw much did they explode for?
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[pakman]

[CRMcNeill]

The idea I was leaning toward for starships is Static Discharge Vanes, which are mentioned in The Far Orbit Project (pg. 28) but only get a basic description:

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 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.

The way I see it, the big obstacle to ionization hardening is what to do with the excess. Something that's in contact with the ground has a simple solution because the electromagnetic effect will do just that: ground. In space, it gets a lot stickier; it's in a vacuum, so there's nowhere for the ionization to go.
_________________
"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]

[CRMcNeill]

[pakman]

[CRMcNeill]

[garhkal]

[MrNexx]