Smurf's New Style of Rules

I think I have shifted the rules enough to make it feel fresh and also samey.

Enjoy the first draft if not many drafts and final rejections.

Ha

Merry Christmas.

I have already changed my mind for the sake of simplicity.

Instead of 10% etc cost modifiers I am going to change it to flat nominal numbers.

I'm going to try and find some time to collate Bug stuff.

As a preamble with unhooking the 1-10 scale for Novice, Standard, Experienced, and Veterans I am going to go out on a limb and decide the Bugs DV are:

All Bug ships have a base DV13 - superior screens.

A Gamma due to its size get a plus 1 to the their DV, increasing it to DV14
Betas have D13.
Alphas due to their larger size have a minus one to their DV, reducing it to DV12

Novice Pilots reduce their DV by 1.
Standard Pilots - no change
Experienced Pilots increase their DV by 1
Veteran Pilots increase their DV by 2
And the Legendary can increase their DV by 3

Bugs will Point Defence Torpedoes and will now succeed on a 10 on a d10.  There are bonuses:
Using a Jump Pod '2' will add +2 to the die roll
Using a Jump Pod '3' will add +3 to the die roll
Using a Jump Pod '4' will add +4 to the die roll
If multiple Jump Pods are used then these benefits are accumulative to a max of 2-10.

Note on dodging Torps in general.  Originally Suggested that a Drive 11+ ship can dodge by combining the dice rolls of the Pilot die and the Drift die.  This will be changed to the player decides which die they wish to use to dodge Torpedoes.  If they are targeted by Smart Torps the attacker chooses which die they use.

Bugs after using their special Point Defence can still dodge.
If the Bug is targeted by Smart Torps then half all results rounding down for their Point Defence.

Note bugs still do not have any defence against Missiles with the exception of their drift die.

Downside for Bug Jump Pods, apply the same modifiers as a penalty to their Weapons in the cannon fire phase.


Another thoughts have included unlocking the Gunboats.  It was surmised in the distant realms that the Betafortess had hyperdrive due to the lack of the tail gunner.  Hence Betafortress Alpha and Beta did not but had the extra gunner and that cost '5' slots.

Light Gunboats do not have a hyperdrive.  700t lGB has 3 crew, 1,000t has 4 crew or 5 crew.  To give a lGB a hyperdrive it most be the 1,000t variant that loses its 5th crewmember.

Medium Gunboats have 6 or 7 crew, if they remove a crewmember the mGB gains Hyperdrive, they may also remove an additional crewmember to gain an extra 5 slots.  A Medium Gunboat must have a minimum must have a minimum of 4 crew.

Heavy Gunboats always have Hyperdrive and can remove a crewmember for an additional 5 slot and a minimum of 7 crew.

Torps
In my attachment I have described Standard (VS) torps and Smart Torps.  I will add in Guided Torps.  Guided Torps cost the same as Smart Torps.

To fire Guided Torps the ship must have stopped - Drive 0.  The pilot is busy guiding torps.  Guided Torps move to their targets at the end of the Movement Phase.  Guided Torps cannot be Jammed (including the Bugs Jamming).  And resolve their hit like Smart Torps.  If the Torps have not reached their target they can either be let loose like a Standard Torp or continue to be Guided if the ship has stopped.  If they are let loose they behave like Standard Torps and loose the Guided ability (ie allocate targets in the Lock on phase).

Going to continue to write this up and have an for hopefully the New Year.

Right then the third update in as many days.  I know a bit too much.  It's thinking, writing it down and track the evolution of idea.

What I have done is removed the 1-10 with levels of ability represented by the dice.  In doing so I had to rework some rules to fit around it.

Given Torpedoes the basic VS 'standard' torp and added the Smart Torp and Guided Torp.

Improved Defence against Torps for the little guys.  Included some defence for missiles too.

More chances to use Damage Control.

Added an ability for Plasma Cannons.
Added buffs including: Hit it Hard, Hit it Harder, and Make it Count, also the Bugs Mood rating.

Line of Sight rule that impacts targeting.

Bug DV, Ink, Jump Pods.

The next instalment will include Warhounds and Bug Drones vs Torps.

Hope you like it, and I will let you know how they playtest will go next week.

Currently with these rules the Brood are out of control.

The next edit will include:

DV reduced to 12 (pre bonuses)
Cannon Fire: Beam Weapons will have a -1 to hit
Drones will do half damage ignoring armour.
Regeneration can only be used for damage slots and weapon ammo.  It cannot be used to regenerate Jump Pods or Drones.

The reason for the Drone not being regenerated is that the map quickly become littered in drones, over 20 with more turning up each turn.

Nice write up Smurf!

A few comments:

I understand you are reverting the crew die to points values rather than percentages, but the newer documentation doesn't list what those costs are in a handy table like the first iteration did. I had previously mentioned Novices getting the d4 at a discount of one point (because d4s suck lol), Standard crew at 5 pts., Experienced at a slight premium of 9 pts. (before this skill value cost 7-or-8), and Veteran a steeper premium of 14 points. I won't go into Legend because I believe that should be reserved for players that obtain the rank through experience points gained through a campaign setting play. These point values were extrapolated by averaging the Alternate Points costs column from the table on page 26 of More than Valor.

---

Speaking of which, can we use the naming conventions presented in More than Valor as well to keep as much of the new streamlined rules in line with the books? That would make Novice either Rookie or Green (More than Valor split 1 & 2 skills from 3 & 4 -I'd lump them together under Rookie), d6 skill level is Experienced, d8 is Veteran, d10 Ace, and d12 as Legendary Ace which you pretty much have.

---

I like that you chose to use the mechanic where the player can choose to scale up their die code with a penalty on the shot. I think Dungeon Crawl Classics uses something like this. I wonder if the penalty to hit is the best way to implement it though. a -3 to hit to go from a d6 to a d8 (a shift of 2 pips) is a bad bet. Luck points could be used for a limited pool of opportunities to try for a better chance to hit without a penalty, but it is limited. Luck should be encouraged to be used more, and if the rules get a bit streamlined, perhaps that will be easier to track during play.

---

This phrase under Lock On is confusing:

"Missile lock-on is resolved by d10 roll trying to get equal to or lower than the lock-on ability."

--Which is what target number now? It used to be your precise GNR stat, but by moving to an experience die system it needs to be a static target number. In my house rules document, I gave missile launchers cannon dice of 2d6 + ADB.  A lock-on required beating a flat score of 10, giving Standard crewmembers 3d6 (average roll sums to 10.5) a slightly better than 50/50 chance of a lock-on which lines up nicely with the intent of the core rules.

---

On torpedo firing Limits: 

"Possible method of updating the Torp phase is that a Novice can fire 5, Standard can fire 10, Experienced can fire 20, and Veterans+ can unload the entire bay."

IMHO this doesn't go far enough. I'd petition for the standard to be just 2 torps per phase. Novice -1, Standard +/- 0, Experienced +1, Vets +2, Legend +3

-or-

2 tubes/launches per magazine/torp-type (so a pilot could fire 2 Mk. 10's and 2 Mk. 30's, or Mk.## whatever if the ship has multiple magazines) full stop --no crew quality modifiers, with the addendum: "All launches in a turn by a ship must fire at the same target." -yeah, I'm that hard-nosed about it. I would nerf it to two from any single magazine were it my choice. I realize this hoses the big ship with 20 torpedoes vs 10 swarming nuisance fighters, so perhaps an optional emergency launch rule could be carved out for these corner cases? (...this is for Jim, miss ya buddy)

---

Movement rules are fine, I simplify it further by just going random activation all the time. If you would like to consider it, it can be done in several ways, some more elegant than others:

• chits in a bag- good for a 2-player game. We use red & blue glass beads, but you could roll a die and use even/odd numbers until all the ships have moved.
  
• cards- can be red/black, suits, or specific cards assigned to each fighter.
  

This system ditches skill and its effects on the initiative, which I think works out fine in play just as well as losing a dice roll. It speeds up play by not having to check the relative numbers of remaining activations and mathematically self-balances the odds automatically. Use the colored bead/card method to preserve choice in which ship a fleet moves and assign cards for true chaos of battle feel -though this move order method still feels overall less chaotic than drift dice. Don't forget to remove a bead/card/token for any destroyed ships, toss the remainder in the bag and GO! It really is a simple, snappy, time-saving improvement. Try it out.

---

New torp-dodge rules: yep, the formula should definitely go. I have no problems myself with it, heck, I still use descending AC & THACO, but maths is hard... Kill it with fire for the sake of the children.  All joking aside. A must-change IMO. I will try your new proposal.

---

Decoys and Jamming: A Personal Gripe: I hate the d4 with the fury of 1000 suns. The way they 'flop' roll, the caltrop-in-waiting for the ones that land on the floor and are missed, everything about them. I buy alternate-shaped foursies. I transpose the odds to the much more civilized d8. It's a personal thing. A modest proposal: since the d8 is at least as ubiquitous at the table as the heathen d4, can we amend these rules to one of the following?

• Decoy: "Torp is removed on 1-4 on a d8." Jamming: "No Decoys then use ‘Jammers’ but that only works on 1-2 on a roll of a d8."
  

Keeps the odds identical. The old standby. OR...

• Decoy: "Torp is removed on 1-4 on a d6." Jamming: "No Decoys then use ‘Jammers’ but that only works on 1-2 on a roll of a d6."
  

A deviation. Improves the odds of Decoys by 16.7% and Jamming by 8.3%. I'm okay in favor of buffed torp defenses esp. in the early game. This would be my pick, but anything to lessen the touching of those profaned pyramids.

---

Gunner Club medium damage code: I realized I've been doing this damage code incorrectly for years- I've been counting 3,3,4 as 6 points of damage. Oops.

---

 
Drift Phase: I commented on this one after playtesting it in a Red Star vs. Bugs game. I like it and dread it at the same time. Overall, a move in the right direction, but its effects could be lessened somewhat for my tastes. Pros: Adds battle arena chaos and uncertainty, a Fun factor. Cons: Adds time-consuming die roll step to every phase, saps a feeling of player agency in controlling where vessel goes, clunky (ship computers should be able to mitigate severe over-thrusting sporadic drift.

No issue with moving it to the end of the turn. Would still keep it optional. Would offer a time-saving static method for determining drift. Drift Value - Pilot Modifier as so:

This unfortunately eliminates the uncertainty which is sort of the whole point of the rule. I don't see this version adding much to the overall game making this the weakest suggestion. [edit: the more I think about this proposal the more I dislike it. Rolling is better. Ignore this table and conjecture. I just think drift is flawed and unfixable for miniatures tabletop. A video game could do it justice, but not the rules as written. A fighter with a drive of 17 wants to cut engines and cruise at low-speed 4 has to lurch forward 8 hexes? Ehhhhh. No. That's not gonna go over well with my gaming group. the alternative is keeping track of how many hexes were moved each phase to more accurately represent its true drift potential... too much record keeping. Like the torpedo variants, I'm gonna have to eject this one into deep space. Sorry.]

---

All the bug stuff. Will have to play with it. February at the soonest with my schedule.

 My group has been playing mostly Babalyon 5 Wars Kitchen Sink Edition. Most of the time lag in that game is taken up in the planning phase, and once the shooting starts in full swing. We also get into Star Fleet Battles. Drone races can be a real drag once more people get in the game. I think there is a lot of 2-player SFB where that isn't a problem, but as I said, it multiplies with more ships on the board belching out tracking weapons like plasmas, drones, suicide shuttles, etc. I think that can really bog down Silent Death with multiple players too. What to do about it...

That's my take on it so far Smurf. Hope it was good feedback. I hope you get some more feedback here and with your playgroup. I'm going to run with most of the changes minus smart/guided torps and drift for my upcoming game. If I can gather any opinions, I'll pass them on.

Keep us posted.


P.S. to the chief bottle washer: I had to copy/paste this over in Edge because I can't scroll to the Post Reply buttons in Firefox.  

This is the new set I am going to be play testing.

It would be nice if anyone would want to download this and give it ago and give some feedback.

---

I don't mind with the naming conventions.  I just couldn't remember them off the top of my head.  I ploughed on trying to square the rules rather than dotting i s and stroking t s.  

After viewing several other games there is an acceptance that some rules have to be flat, standard, it is what it is.

The missile lock on chart is on page 2.  I was slowly expanding the terms to include Pilot, Gunner and what needs to be shoe horned in.  My opponent said it kept it within the norms of the standard rules for locking on for novices.

I'm going to leave the Torp rules, as in firing them as is.  I found this to be SD's fun and forte.  We want Eggs armed with Hammers!  However, I think I have made dodging them easier.  Even had to shoe horn some Bug rules for doing it too.  Which I think worked.

I like the idea of D6s to decoy and Jam with using decoys double the chances.  1-2 Jam and 1-4 Decoy on a D6... that is more like it!

Can I please impress on you, that the Drift rule IMO is what sold SD to me as a game.  The problem with the original Drift rule is it was in the wrong part of the game.

We have played Drift rule as the last part of the phase after Missile resolutions.  The reason why was it gave all the Torp carriers, and Missile boats a tactical advantage of creeping up and slipping into lock on range, or getting in real close and as the two ship drift apart then the lock on ranges could be still there.  It was fantastic.  It was fun.

We even ruled that playing with Asteroids it was decided that the Asteroids drift first (usually one hex) and then the fastest to slowest ships.  Watching players get it wrong was so funny as the little ships impacted against a big rock. 

Apparently there will be a 'V5' to integrate the new Jam and Decoy rules.

Note I am using version 1.4 now

Reserved for further discussion on drift and stuff, but I gotta go run errands for now...

Yes yes yes version 1.4. I read each version and then deleted it before grabbing the next version. I grabbed 1.4 as soon as I saw you post it as I was still here tinkering with my above post.

This is opening up in WordPad for me so I don't see page numbers, just one long scroll. I don't see a missile lock table, just the Pilot die/Gun' die chart, the text on Imitiative Phase and stealing initiative, the paragraph detailing lock-on ending with the phrase "Let’s return to out Pilot and Gunnery chart and expand it." Note the typos in bold red. It looks like another chart should go here, but I'm not seeing it. Maybe I should download a dedicated .docx reader and see if that fixes the issue and displays the chart and page numbers. The torpedo chart and the bug spreadsheet shows up...

[font="Droid Sans", sans-serif]Can I please impress on you, that the Drift rule IMO is what sold SD to me as a game.[/font]

Yes! I get it. I've been here pretty much for the entire ride since I purchased the Metal Express box with the 18 metal starter ships. I helped run the Astro-smash games at our annual convention. The drift rules are very much in keeping with the spirit of the game. I forget that over time I've been molding the tone of Silent Death to fit the playstyle of my local group. Back then I heavily favored SD:TNM over the popular fleet scale games because it was far more action-oriented and fast-paced than SFB, B5, or later Battlefleet Gothic and the like. I got very bored with those games, but it's where all the players were at. "Impulse 26! 30's, 22, 16, 11..." All that mattered was the franchise. Not much has changed *cough* 40k *cough* 5E *cough* Do you carry any Necromunda? No, just 40k and Age of Sigmar, and Warcry...

Today, I find the player pool at the table I frequent --half of the grognards seated have been into these slower-paced tactical fleet-style games. Quite a bit of historical naval and some Check Your 6! too.  These players crave more precision and a more simulationist tone to their games, so while I personally would love to play at your table with all the funny moments the driting would add to the seat of your pants zany dogfights, I have a player that would flip his lid were he ever to drift into an asteroid or even out of formation for that matter on a "random die roll". It would always be the dice's fault you see.  It would be a planetary rim too far for some of them to want to play on a regular basis as it would be deemed too beer-and-pretzel-style for them. It is what it is and what I have to deal with here. There's plenty of levity at the table even if the fleet rules they prefer are rather dry by comparison to SD. That's the best I can explain it. Yes, they would play with the drift rules, then would vote to play another game next time and would remember SD as "that wacky game Bret's always been really into." I have to keep the fun but zany rules to a minimum to please a few players at this particular table. They honestly would choose conga lines over the solution.

Why isn't drift done after all movement is complete but before shooting to prevent the conga line problem? I see from your examples how you are using it to slip into missile range for the next turn, but isn't stacking up 1 hex behind the guy that moved the better fluke of SD play to discourage? Anyway, I like your modifications, I will use them at home for those lighter pick-up games, but eschew the drift for games I host at the Grognard Tactical Symposium.

I have been recently introduced to a new interested player, I'm not sure how much familiarity they have with the game or what style of SD suits them the most, so things may change soon.

I completely forgot  I posted 2020-2021 Season: Homebrew Rules to the shipyard section two years ago that details most of this stuff. Here I've just been repeating myself. Time goes by too fast with too few games.

[Edit: I went back and reread most of our rules discussions on brood fixes 3+ years ago to hopefully keep from retreading the same ground again.]

In looking at previous ideas posted, I stumbled on this one:

Lastly, I'd abstract the gammas from their miniatures in the rules stating that they are not to scale with the betas & alphas and note one miniature represents 3-5 and depict them as such in the artwork to push the swarm angle to the limit. In a perfect world, they would have redesigned tiny miniatures assembled on a tree or clear acrylic platform and truly take on a swarm form to the eye, but that's a topic for another day.

That day is now. I've been chasing this idea for a bit. Here's the gist:

Abandon mechanical incentives for swarming. They just complicate things when the zenith goal is to streamline complexity. You want a swarm-- make a swarm. We even have the ship. The Microraptor from Operation Drydock II. Originally specced for a grub supplement that never got produced, these tiny ships along with the Deinonychus were slotted to be Draconian ships thereby expanding our universe a bit and getting the ship in our hands. But the Microraptor just looks like a grub ship and is only slightly bigger than a plastic torpedo counter. Now for some heresy: rename them Larva, and give our old Larva ships the new retconned name of Flatworm. Here are some nice flatworm color schemes for the classic design

Here's the resulting swarm ship:

Slap a fair price point on the side,  and boom! Instant swarms. The Q-Beam is simply an X-Beam that degrades-- so Low x 3 at full strength, Low x 2 once Larva A is dead, and just Low when Larva C is all that remains. Mark unit strength with a mini 6-sider. Visually you have swarms. True gammas. Could probably use some Drive Hits on tracks A, B, and C, like [16], [14], [13], and lower the DV. If any +1 movement rules are in effect from Mood or drones below, drop the drive down a few pegs too. Buy the squadron peg toppers from Litco and you are in business. The price is a bit much for what they are, but bagged in 3's with the stand topper for a fiver or a bit more sounds like it could work.



I'd sell the effect with about 3 more stands and they were painted. Full disclosure: in no way affiliated with Litco bases --I just like their stands and pegs.

The Draconian ships would hardly be missed if this minor retcon took place, but they could use a more savage aesthetic for their ships IMO anyway. Something fitting of the Tranasaurus boarding parties. Angular & Thick AF. Release a dedicated book with both Primate and Drac ships in the next iteration of Silent Death.

---

Lastly, the drones are a mess and do clutter the board especially if there are a variety of types on the board,  it becomes a puzzle of invisible templates to sort out. Solution: scale them way back making them like temporary localized spore fields and other buffs vastly altering their effects (this encapsulates most of Smurf's mood concepts and regeneration abilities into the drones, rebalancing much of their offensive potential. Maybe this kills 2 birds with one drone, or maybe not,  I'm just pitching concepts for brainstorming purposes). Drone-type description,  lore & fluff is in green, rules are in black, and commentary is in blue. Ship types with these drones that are in both the original rules and playtest beta packet = Bolded, In original rules but not playtest beta = Bold w/Strikethrough, In the playtest beta only = Red Bold w/asterisk*:

1. Type I: Searcher Drones - Hatchling torp defense. They only do enough damage to knock out torpedos mainly (so 1? or -shudder- 1d4?). Same radius (1). Can be moved via Drone Movers. Ships with this Drone type: Most Designs.
   
2. Type II: Boost Spores - Used only by brood. When moving, a brood fighter that moves through a hex with this type is invigorated by it, sucking the spores into its receptor pores granting +1 to its move that turn. Remove the drone. Multiple drones can be used in a turn, but only one for every 5 full points of Drive, and during that segment of its move. A drive 15 ship could boost once in movements 1-5, another during moves 6-10, and another during its 11-15th moves. If boosts take a ship into another bracket (a drive 9 sucks up a type 1 drone and is moving 10 spaces this turn) then it may use a second drone to move up to 11 for that turn. Can not be moved with Drone Movers. Ships with this Drone type: Most Designs. (The Fleet mood type in drone implementation)
   
3. Type III: Frenzy Drones -  As the only official ship to carry this type, this makes the Lamprey the rabble-rousers/agitators of the hive. These pods rattle and squeal at frequencies that put nearby grubs in an excited and aggressive state. Upon activation, the type III drone will automatically lock on and fly to the closest brood ship within ten hexes that don't currently have a Frenzy Drone attached and bond to a special node each ship has on its outer hull. Once attached place the drone counter on the affected ship's display sheet. That ship is now subject to the rules for Frenzy. If a frenzied ship takes a critical hit, the drone dislodges from the hull and is lost similar to Terran decoy attrition on a critical hit. Can not be moved with Drone Movers. Ships with this Drone type: Lamprey, None*. (I left out the effects up to the definition of the Frenzy keyword. Probably a +1 to hit, must follow/attack the closest target, etc.  Optional if higher tier brood can attach more than one at a time -or maybe the smaller ships can attach up to three, making them the more expendable. Of note- no ships utilize this drone type in the Playtest rules.)
   
4. Type IV: Warp Drones - Entangled bio pods sharing similar technology with Jump pods. They pulse in a way that makes an area shimmer with gravitational vibrations, confusing targeting computers in the process. Radius 4. Within this range,  Brood ships' Defensive Value is increased by 1. Can be used in conjunction with Ink: ??? Ships with this Drone type: Dragonfly, Manta, Devilfish*.  (I contemplated making this a way to set up temporary short-range uni-directional wormholes but just keeping it simple for now. I stopped short and just left it as a stand-in for the Guile mood type. If the wormhole concept is explored, this drone would be the jump-in point, and the Type V drone of the Alphas would be the endpoint  anchor, creating zipline retreat/regrouping tunnels back to the Alpha.)
   
5. Type V: Hive Anchor - These large casings contain an unknown jumpdrive technology. Attempts to study them have resulted in their collapse into short-lived black holes that rapidly evaporate out of existence. Being near one of these active gravitational wave emitters causes damage to ships, and makes the hulls of Brood ships increase their density, hardening them. Range 5. Brood Damage reduction +1. Unstable. Roll to dissipate as Ink. Crushing- any non-brood object that starts its turn inside the radius must roll a d6: 1-2 = no effect, 3-4 = 1 damage ignoring DR, 5-6 = 3 damage ignoring DR, and automatically apply any critical hits that daze or stun crewmembers for this turn. Ships with this Drone type: Muskellunge, Eel*. (the secondary effect can be left off if it's deemed too strong or prone to abuse, I wanted mainly to get the +1 DR effect. I would change the eel to carry Type III drones instead of Type V if this was in use.)
   

So this deviation is an interesting departure from brood play with the picket line mine-quagmire abilities removed, offensive power is now squarely on the beam weapons. Most hull designs are heavily concentrated on Type I & II drones: torpedo removal and temporary mobility. I originally had a regeneration-type drone to replace regeneration completely but found it difficult to balance across the many ship types and situations. It either was too good or not worth the tradeoff. I had it be a bloodworm egg cocoon that rapidly alters the ship that absorbs it as if it had just absorbed a regeneration bomb, but the effects would continue to mutate it over the next few hours into a Wormpod (not to be used in the same battle, just the lore explanation for the regeneration and the origins of the hull-breaching behemoths). As a result, the player would forfeit the TPV or a good portion of the TPV of the affected ship, thus creating a sort of zombie hull. Too tricky to get right, but sounds like a killer idea for a scenario.

That leaves me with a final question for Smurf: Are you using the brood ship displays from the playtest, or just the ones found in Night Brood/Universal Night Watch/Hanger 51?

...And one question for Karelian Suomi: Are there development plans for an updated playtest beyond 2014's Version 0.9 that would be released in the future, or was there insufficient feedback support for an update