Okay, here's how to run the responses, since none of us want to roll once, wait a day or three, and repeat.
Work out a plan to bring everything on line. Note that you can get the ship moving first, and then bring more stuff on line afterwards, so that you can catch up to the Hussy and Mvot.
There are NPCs and coordination options that will help you, let's see some good writing and interaction.
Each round of combat is roughly one minute. The Farragut has phasers as long as it has power and targeting. The photon torpedoes can be fired as needed, from one torpedo to a full four torpedo salvo per "shot". Each individual torpedo causes the target's Shield system to roll Fragility. Thus, in a four torpedo salvo, a target's shield system must roll versus Fragility four times, and the Shields can fail during the salvo, allowing later hits in the salvo to strike home.
Successful Helm rolls can provide a negative DM for the enemy fire. Successful Engineering rolls can provide positive DM to one system per combat round, or repair one system damage level per success. Successful Tactics roll can provide positive DM for one (roll 8+) or more (each 2 over target number 8) actions. Alternately, a Leadership roll (8+) can re-engage one "team" that has failed or fallen. Thelin can choose Tactics or Leadership on a round by round basis.
Each side's Tactics and Helm rolls are contested, The winner of Tactics chooses ship positions, the winner of Helm controls the flow of battle and their ship fires first.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Last edited by Leitz on Thu Jan 27, 2022 11:50 am, edited 2 times in total.
As battle is engaged, let me chart what you might want to know about the mechanics.
There are six major systems in combat; Power, Phasers, Photon Torps, Shields, Maneuver, and Warp. Each system has two key qualities: Ability and Fragility. Those qualities are interpreted into the system itself. Any system that is damaged must roll with a Fragility DM before it can successfully be utilized. With Phasers, a failed Fragility roll prevents them from firingincreases the Fragility of the sysem. When the system becomes Off-line, it cannot be used. Phasers with Ability damage have targeting issues and suffer a negative DM. Any use of a damaged system requires a Fragility roll to use, and then the actual use with any Ability modifier. Thus a Critially Impaired system that fails a Fragility roll cannot be used until repaired.
Active Engineering efforts can be applied to resolve one (8+) or more (+1 per 2 points rolled over 8) system impairments. Each success can reduce the negative DM by one, and multiple successes can be applied to a single system.
There are five states of damage (least to worst): Degraded, Impaired, Significantly Impaired, Critically Impaired, and Off-line. A system that is Off-line cannot be used at all, except for emergency life-support drawn if Power is Off-line.
The Farragut's system status is (Ability/Fragility): Power (Degraded/Degraded), Phasers (Degraded/Degraded), Photon Torps (Degraded/Degraded), Shields (Impaired/Impaired).
Last edited by Leitz on Thu Jan 27, 2022 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
Fleet Tactics and Helm success rolls provide a +1 for each two points over 6. So a roll of 8 is +1, a roll of 10 is +2, etc. No real limit, except for the total modifiers and dice. I use those successes to modify rolls, either by the Farragut's NPCs, or by assessing a negative DM to the Klingons.
On a related question, I missed a week or two due to illness. The original plan was to end with January; and we're pretty close. Would everyone be okay with moving the end date to 7 Feb 2022, for the final in-game posts?
Leitz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 27, 2022 6:28 pm
On a related question, I missed a week or two due to illness. The original plan was to end with January; and we're pretty close. Would everyone be okay with moving the end date to 7 Feb 2022, for the final in-game posts?
gurusql wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 3:25 pm
With permission from Leitz, I edited my last post. K3 is no longer a target.
In this case, the issue was that I had something in my mind but hadn't conveyed it well at all. The PCs are professional enough to make up for the DM's lack of communication.
cybersavant wrote: ↑Fri Jan 28, 2022 10:54 am
sure, as long as we're able to resolve the scenario
If you all keep rolling like this...
Seriously, the Round 1 Klingon Ship Tactics roll was a 4, and Fearghal's planning and flying made them look like a charging bull going in the wrong direction. I've applied Andrhonal's Eng rolls to provide guidance to the other teams, since he's running Damage Control. While the Farragut will need to head back to port, the team is doing great things with what they have.
Starting Wednesday afternoon we are expecting snow, ice, and cold temperatures the state isn't prepared for. If you can have updates posted by 1600 GMT Wednesday, I'll have the results out by 2200 GMT Wednesday.
Target K2 is the last operational enemy in sight, but more ships are arriving.
There's still some wrap up, but the scenario is done and you all did an outstanding job. Feel free to detail any remaining actions, ideas, or questions. I hope you enjoyed playing this scenario as much as I did running it. I really enjoyed the way each of you stepped up to a command position in game, and a verbose playing style meta-game.
This might have been more interesting if the Klingons had rolled higher than a 4 in the first round. Thelin maintained control of the flow of battle while Andrhonal kept the ship running. Fearghal's flying will be legendary in Star Fleet.
One of my goals is to keep improving as a DM. If you know of something I could have done better, please let me know. Also, if you have any feedback for the author of the Star Trek supplement for Traveller, please either let me know and I'll pass it along, or send it to him.
To my fellow players - I hope that left enough room for you all to shine, that was a constant concern when I was playing as the "Acting captain".
Just to let you all in on an inside joke, there was an Animated Star Trek episode named "Yesteryear" where Spock goes into the Guardian of Forever and removes himself from the timeline. His replacement on the crew was an Andorian Science Officer named Thelin. Once Spock fixed the timeline, he was never seen again in the Star trek universe until now. . .
Thanks for running this Leitz, it was fun. If you run another, I'll be in.
I probably made a mistake in choosing to make Runyon so loquacious, the (self-imposed) requirement to compose dialogue inhibited me from posting as promptly as I should have.
To my fellow players - I hope that left enough room for you all to shine, that was a constant concern when I was playing as the "Acting captain".
I think you did very well with a tough role. You certainly left everyone with space for their character to act.
