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.