I’m pretty sure our session last night bounced between the ridiculous and the obscene, so I won’t post a transcript. However, I did want to run one of our combats past the group.
The PCs discover a cargo container floating through a debris field. Visual assessment tells them a ship has been blown up; looks like the cargo container was ejected due to a lack of evidence of explosion on its exterior. They decide to grab it using a shuttle with a cargo hold but, having no tractor beam, I adjudicate the threat of destroying the container so Face Adversity+expertise of the shuttle pilot. Success with a hard choice; either the container is brought on board quickly, but the exterior ruptures and the goods seep out into space or it takes an extended period of time (like, all day) to maneuver into position. The choose the latter.
I advance a threat, the pirates that (maybe?) originally blew up the ship returning to grab their prize. One of our other players launches his shuttle; we now have two shuttles and the main (Class 2) ship vs. the single pirate (Class 2) ship. The pirates ask, for their container back, the PCs delay/sweet talk, and while they’re doing this they open the cargo container…illicit narcotics. The pirates offer a scant sum, well below what the PCs are told (by their Hutt passenger) the cargo is worth in the Hutt empire. The players ask full price, Face Adversity+Influence.
Success with (another) hard choice…sell it to them for below market value, or learn an unwelcome truth. They choose the latter, at which point the pirate ship launches 3 shuttles and powers up their ion cannon.
The PCs decide to load the shuttles into their main shp’s cargo bay and GTFO. My ruling is their ship must be a sitting duck while they dock the shuttles, taking hits from the now launched fighters and the ion cannon, or they can evade and risk not docking the shuttles in a timely manner. They choose the former.
Combat ends when they get the shuttles docked, then jump to light speed (AI, which has the voice of Harvey Fierstein, driving) with suppressing fire to ward off the fighters remaining shots, but the ship sustained critical hits to the helm, engineering and quarters, a major hit to engineering, the cockpit is completely destroyed (debility, fortunately they have an AI piloting for them), and the Life Support takes a debility (offline).
Questions:
1) As they were sitting ducks, I had them roll Shields Up for each of 5 hits (Ion Cannon, Fighter x 3, Missiles). They failed on shot 3, which should have disabled their shields, but I let them continue to roll Shields Up judging it was “all at the same time”. Is either the 5 hits/rolls or the continued Shields Up roll incorrect RAW? We weren’t sure.
2) Shots from fighters with weapons intended to breach hulls, when they hit, are Critical Injuries to one of the ships’ sections, correct?
3) Do critical hits always cause debilities?
4) What do most people do when you receive two critical hits to a single section of a ship? That should be a fatal hit, which I would rule as that section of the ship is incapable of performing any function, but have others just said “Hull breach, dead” or something along those lines?
5) Fixing this ship for next week; three criticals, a major, a system completely offline. That seems like too much for just an Acquisition role (or roles, if we roll for each bit of damage), but how would you folks do that? I don’t read anything that allows for reductions in rolls, but I feel like this is a time when I’d want to mechnically make them spend cargo/credits to get a ship repaired. Do you incorporate that into the fiction, or is there something RAW that would make it harder to get big stuff repaired that I’m missing?
Moved this to Discussion.
Neat encounter! Lemme see if I can’t answer your questions:
1) Personally I would have done 3 attacks, not 5. The wing of fighters would usually be considered a single threat to a Class 2 ship. Their danger to a starship lies in their massed small attacks and harassment. Also, I would suggest you do one hit – let one character respond to the damage – another hit – let another character respond – etc. That way there’s a back-and-forth rather than chain-rolling. So if on the second hit the shields go down, give a character the opportunity to try to bring them back online before the third big hit connects (with the implication that they will suffer personal injury for putting themselves in harm’s way)
2) Fighters are equipped with Heavy Weapons. If those heavy weapons are Breaching (which is usually reserved for Bomber-style attack vehicles) then they deal Heavy Weapon damage. Otherwise they get reduced like any other weapon.
3) Usually yes. The severity is up to the GM, but it’s a fun spot to prompt the players. “The engineering section just suffered a critical hit! Damage report! [Character], what essential system just got knocked out?”
4) Two critical hits on the same section, and the Shields Up didn’t downgrade either? Hull breach. That section has no air, no gravity, no power, all systems offline. Other sections can be sealed, so technically the ship could still function… assuming it’s not the Engineering, in which case you’ve got minimal life support, free-fall, no gravity at all, bare emergency power, and a reactor that’s likely about to go critical.
5) Personally, I’d say that each critically damaged section would be a separate Acquisition to fix. That will likely throw at least some wrenches into the work, unless they’ve got good cargo or good rapport with the people doing the repairs.
Sean Gomes I agree, three attacks would have made more sense. They were attacking as a group to harry the ship. As they were intended to harry Class 2 ships, I assumed they had Breaching weapons.
So is the intent that players get a Patch Up after each time the shields go down to try to bring the shields back up? I had figured they would need more time to work than that, maybe a period of down time or prolonged evasion maneuvers or somesuch.
In that case, they barely escaped a hull breach. My players have seriously had the worst rolls imaginable lately.
Agree on the separate acquisitions.
Oh, it entirely depends on what would be most exciting/dramatic at the given time. Did they pierce the shields with a barrage of lasers, and the missiles are coming in hot? Absolutely, give them the opportunity to patch up those shields.
Alternatively, give them a choice: knock out two systems (life support or shields) they can divert power to one without needing a Patch Up, but the other one will be permanently disabled in doing so.
I dig both those alternatives, thanks for the ideas!