Topic: Star Trek Starmada X

I'm working on Star Trek TOS ships for Starmada, based loosely on Star Fleet Battles designs. A few new bits of special eqwipment are neccessary though. Please let me know what you think about these;

Transporters; Kinda official already, although not in the rulebook. I'm using the rules from Dan listed on this message;
http://mj12games.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=499

Tractor Beams; I'm using the standard towing rules from the book with one exception; Drones and Shuttlecraft can be held in a tractor beam. To do so the tractoring ship must be at range 3 or less and must roll a to-hit of 4+. If successful the target is held in the beam, and moves with the tractoring ship. The to-hit roll must be re-rolled each turn to maintain the beam.

Shuttlecraft; small unarmed craft, they are launched/recovered and move like fighters except that their speed is 5. Two shuttlecraft can be carried in a 25SU Vehicle Bay. Each shuttlecraft can carry one Marine Squad/Security Team. Being unarmed, they do not modify OFF or DEF (Shuttlecraft are included for use in special scenarios).

Web Generators; a Tholian device, the Web Generator creates a strand of energy draining plasma. The strand is extruded from the rear of the ship as it moves (I plan on using orange yarn for the strand).  Any ship moving into contact with the strand immediately comes to a stop and becomes 'stuck' in the web. In subsequent movement phases, the stuck ship can attempt to break free by rolling a 5 or 6 on 1d6 (I don't know what the SU cost will be for this yet).

Any comments?

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

I think there a fairly nice.

I did play around a little with the idea once.

I like the idea for the Web generators, Should there be a note that the web needs an anchor point to be laid? (Proably a bit diffcult to do but..)
should it not also hinder weapons fire?

What where your thoughts on Lyran ESG?

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

You are quite right. Here's my updated version;

THOLIAN WEB GENERATOR
A Tholian device, the Web Generator creates a strand of energy draining plasma. The strand must initially be anchored to a solid object such as an asteroid or ship, and is then extruded from the rear of the ship as it moves. Two ships carrying the Web Generator can anchor to one another and spin a single strand between them. Operating the Web Generator requires a great deal of power, so the operating ship's MP's are HALVED for the entire turn that the device is in use.
Any ship moving into contact with the web strand immediately comes to a stop and becomes 'stuck' in the web. In subsequent movement phases, the stuck ship can attempt to break free by rolling a 5 or 6 on 1d6.
Weapons cannot penetrate through the web strand. A ship that is caught in the web MAY fire out however.

SU Cost: 5%
OFF Rating: N/A
DEF Rating: (MP's x 15) x 10%
HIT?: Yes
TL?: yes

(the point values are a guess right now. Perhaps Dan can come up with something better)

Currently I'm not planning on using Lyrans. I'm staying with the canon races; Federation, Klingon, Romulan, Gorn and Tholian.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Saedor wrote:

I'm working on Star Trek TOS ships for Starmada, based loosely on Star Fleet Battles designs.

sounds cool. btw, i think there are some SFB-based write ups in the yahoo! files section. just a few basic ships, iirc.

*snip*

Saedor wrote:

Any comments?

looks promising.

i have a suggestion for the Romulan plasma weapon (although i have no idea what the cost should be).  treat it as a Spinal Mount, with the following exceptions.
a) the DMG is reduced by one for each hex after the first; i.e., -2 at three hexes, -4 at five hexes, etc.
b) the weapon targets all ships in the firing arc.

do you think that would work?

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Hello everyone,

The  Star Trek Starmada X items:  Tractor Beams, Web Generators, etc sounds very creative.  Pointing them will be a challange, but I think this can be done.  Most other Combat-in-space games have Tractor beams.  Look at how Tractor Beams are handled in Starfire.  They are simple and don't have to be powered which  SFB-type tractor beams need to work...   Presser beams would be fun also... <LOL>

Steven Gilchrist
Jacksonville, Fla, USA

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Looks good, Will you post some of the ships when you are done?

For the Romulan Plasma Torps, how are you going to handle them?

My own thoughts would be to use a 1/2 Rate of fire, there was a thread on the Yahoo groups where the Idea was brought up.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

I thought about using the spinal mount  as plasma torpedoes, but decided against it.

I'll have to look for that 1/2 rate of fire post... That would fit well.

Currently my plasma torpedoes are increased PEN, range-based DMG weapons, as follows;

TYPE    ROF    PEN    DMG    Special Attributes
Type-R    1    1    3    Increased PEN, Range Based DMG
Type-G    1    1    2    Increased PEN, Range Based DMG
Type-F    1    1    1    Increased PEN, Range Based DMG

Yes, I'll post them when I get them done. smile

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

I've been experimenting with SFB ships for a while.  Here is my interpretion of some weapons:

Phaser 1: RNG 15, 3+, 1, 1, 1, Doubled Range Modifiers
Phaser 2: RNG 12, 3+, 1, 1, 1, Doubled Range Modifiers
Phaser 3: RNG 3, 3+, 1, 1, 1, Doubled Range Modifiers
Photon:  RNG 12, 4+, .5, 2, 1, Re-Rolls PEN
Disruptor (30) RNG 12, 3+, 1, 2, 2, No Range Modifiers.
Plasma F: RNG 6, 4+, .33, 2, 1, Range Based DMG
Plasma G: RNG 9, 4+, .33, 2, 2, Range Based DMG
Plasma S: RNG 12, 4+, .33, 2, 2, Rane Based DMG
Plasma R: RNG 15, 4+, .33, 2, 3, Range Based DMG

The other change I made was to use more that three weapons banks as necessary to accomodate all the weapons some ships have in SFB.  The Gorn DN for example has three different plasmas and two different phasers.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Hello everyone!

The Ranges on the Phasers, photonTorps, and Disruptors for Star Trek typ ships is excellent.  May I suggest that the heaviest ones shoot out to a range of 18?  In the series of games my friends and I play in Jacksonville, most weapons shooot to 18, a few to 15 or less, and most hit on 3+   Perhaps the weapons chart posted could look like this:
(I also changed some weapon hits to be 3+).   This will make the weapons more effective and decisive, but still have the flavor of Star Trek, and of StarFleetBattles. 

Phaser 1: RNG 18, 3+, 1, 1, 1, Doubled Range Modifiers
Phaser 2: RNG 15, 3+, 1, 1, 1, Doubled Range Modifiers
Phaser 3: RNG 6, 3+, 1, 1, 1, Doubled Range Modifiers
Photon: RNG 18, 3+, .5, 2, 1, Re-Rolls PEN, Extra Hull Damage (!)
Disruptor (30) RNG 18, 3+, 1, 2, 2, No Range Modifiers.
Plasma F: RNG 9, 3+, .33, 2, 1, Range Based DMG
Plasma G: RNG 12, 3+, .33, 2, 2, Range Based DMG
Plasma S: RNG 15, 3+, .33, 2, 2, Rane Based DMG
Plasma R: RNG 18, 3+, .33, 2, 3, Range Based DMG

Steven Gilchrist;  Jacksonville, Fla, USA.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

They look quite nice, but plasma's and Photons are fairly short ranged weapons in SFB.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Saedor wrote:

Currently my plasma torpedoes are increased PEN, range-based DMG weapons, as follows;

TYPE    ROF    PEN    DMG    Special Attributes
Type-R    1    1    3    Increased PEN, Range Based DMG
Type-G    1    1    2    Increased PEN, Range Based DMG
Type-F    1    1    1    Increased PEN, Range Based DMG

that's similar to what Rory did in his SFB conversions, although he also made them expenable. forex, the Warbird's:

Range...To-Hit...ROF...PEN...DMG........Special Attributes
18..........4+........1.......2.......2.............Range-Based DMG
Expendable? Yes...8

Saedor wrote:

Yes, I'll post them when I get them done. smile

looking forward to them.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

I like the idea of the .33 and .5 ROF weapons. I don't think it will be neccessary to make the plasma torpedoes expendable, since their ROF will be reduced.

I was reserving the 18 range band for heavy, starbase-based weaponry like the Type-4 Phaser from SFB.

I like having most weapons ranges rather short, as this conforms to what is seen on screen as ships make multiple high-speed passes at each other, firing as they pass (I'm talking TOS here, not TNG).

Speaking of which... I'm also tinkering with an alternate momentum-based movement system. The ship's Engine rating would represent thrust which can be used to accelerate or decelerate. I'm still working on the turning procedure (I'm playing Starmada as a miniatures game, not a hexboard game).

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Hello again,
Saedor wrote
"Speaking of which... I'm also tinkering with an alternate momentum-based movement system. The ship's Engine rating would represent thrust which can be used to accelerate or decelerate. I'm still working on the turning procedure (I'm playing Starmada as a miniatures game, not a hexboard game). "
If you checkout the rules for "FullThrust by gGroundZeroGames in the UK, you will find that the movement system in that is based on thrust just as you describe.  I have played it many times and its also a good movement system.  Although the FullThrust game allows players to make their own ships, the ammount of weapons the game has is limited compared to Starmada.  For the conversion, use the ships Starmada movement as its thrust ability.  It should work well.  When I go down to South Florida in June, we may try to use the FullThrust movement.  Its a bit more complex tho...

Steven Gilchrist; Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Saedor wrote:

Speaking of which... I'm also tinkering with an alternate momentum-based movement system.

what, no Turn Modes and HETs? smile 

the momentum rules from Renegade Legion: Interceptor are really good if you're using a hex map -- which you're not.

and in addition to Beowulf's suggestion, you might want to check out Mark Langsdorf's excellent Real Thrust rules.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Yeah, I'm familiar with Full Thrust (been playing it for years, actually smile). But I've recently converted to Starmada.

But now that I've been thinking about it I think I have a better idea. I'll keep the standard movement system, but each movement point will equal 3" on the table. Thus, a ship using 6mp's to move straight forward actually moves 18". This should allow for more flying around the table and high-speed passes without requiring any extra record keeping.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

"Speaking of which... I'm also tinkering with an alternate momentum-based movement system. The ship's Engine rating would represent thrust which can be used to accelerate or decelerate. I'm still working on the turning procedure (I'm playing Starmada as a miniatures game, not a hexboard game).

I was looking in doing the same thing for a Star Frontiers conversion since that games works with ADF and MF.  Not sure how it is going to translate yet, but something might work for this conversion.

-Bren

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Okay, here's the first draft of my Star Trek SFB conversion.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

They look really good, out of intrest where did you get the pictures of the ships from?

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

VERY good adaptations....

Now...where's the Lyrans? *chuckles*  :wink:

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Excellent work!

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

wow! fantstic job. and i appreciate that it's a pdf, because i use Open Office and it can get flaky with Excel files.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

*Begin useless bit*

Well since its mostly on topic this seems as good as place as any.
I am a fan of the SFB universe, but the game is kinda useless for large battles so hopeful I can bounce some ideas off people here and do some big battles using starmarda.

*End useless bit*

So Saedor has done the work for Feddies, Klinks, gorns, Romulans and Tholians.

Don't need any extras for the Kzinti.

Lyrans any thoughts by peeps for ESG? I was thinking a moded shockwave generator might be best. only works at the range you select 0,1,2,3

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Personally, I'd like to scratch build some of the Gorn ships from the game
Star Fleet Battles II, Empires at War. I really like the way they re-sculpted the ships for the computer game.

John

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

Yeah...the ESG crossed my mind as well...not to mention some of the Lyran ships had multiples.

Re: Star Trek Starmada X

I have to preface this with the note that I have never played SFB, so I may be completely off-base, but I seem to recall from discussions with people trying to convert Lyrans from SFB to B5W that the ESG is meant to both damage enemy craft and provide some sort of defense to the target, right?

If that is in fact true, then would it be possible to combine the effects of the Shockwave and Point-Defense System to generate its effect? You can then adjust the effects of this based on range as follows:

ESG Range 0: Shockwave Range 0, PDS intercepts on 1, 3, & 5 (Normal).
ESG Range 1: Shockwave Range 1 (Normal), PDS intercepts on 1 & 3.
ESG Range 2: Shockwave Range 2, PDS intercepts on a 1.

Effectively, it becomes a toss up between using the ESG to improve your defense, or extending its range to damage targets within a larger range.

Again, this idea may be totally off-base -- but it would make use of two established rules concepts with a little adjustment to add additional tactical options.

-Tyrel