Shields

Krongurke · 11-18-2016, 02:45 AM

Hi folks,

i had some thoughts about force screens and i would like to benefit from your opinions and experiences.

In our campaign we are about to move from the planetary defense vs. the aliens (i'm DMing a campaign based on the 1994 game UFO: Enemy Unknown) to a more wide spread campaign, spanning the solar system and finally outer space within 200-400 light years.

In my campaign, force screens are rather unique and can only be build by using a very exotic crystalline matter, born in a tri-star system that holds a jump node access (in the middle) to subspace in which a dark matter asteroid was momentarily drawn into, resulting in an asteroid that was converted into crystalline subspace matter.

So shields cannot be created in abundance without this special material.

But to the point:

As very large ships will not be present in most battles I planned, I was thinking about how smaller craft like fighters and bombers can still be useful (without using nukes or things like that). By using normal rules, most fighters will not do any damage to SM+10 or larger craft protected by shields.

BUT I had the idea to create ion cannons that do little damage vs. armor but destabilizing damage to shields. A purely anti-shield weapon so to speak.

For that I had the idea of widening the shield specs from shield strength only to shield strength and shield capacity.

For example: a force screen of a larger vessel (SM+10 or more) will not easily collapse even if fired upon by 20 fighters because the damage is low and only 10% will stick while every round the screen will regenerate 10% of its max strength.

BUT if we introduce shield capacity that will be reduced by any kind of damage the shield has to absorb, maybe we could mirror the constant strain by weapons, fired from smaller craft.

I had the idea of setting the shield capacity to 10 times the shield strength but I have no reasonable idea how much of the damage the shield capacity should take (per hit), what recharge ratio the capacity should have etc.

So I would appreciate any ideas and suggestions you may have, also every other system that could be used to reflect what I had in mind.
(Also arguments why i should NOT use any additional rules are appreciated of course :) )

Thank you in advance!

Best regards
Krongurke

11-18-2016, 02:45 AM	#1
Krongurke Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Eschborn, Germany	Shields Hi folks, i had some thoughts about force screens and i would like to benefit from your opinions and experiences. In our campaign we are about to move from the planetary defense vs. the aliens (i'm DMing a campaign based on the 1994 game UFO: Enemy Unknown) to a more wide spread campaign, spanning the solar system and finally outer space within 200-400 light years. In my campaign, force screens are rather unique and can only be build by using a very exotic crystalline matter, born in a tri-star system that holds a jump node access (in the middle) to subspace in which a dark matter asteroid was momentarily drawn into, resulting in an asteroid that was converted into crystalline subspace matter. So shields cannot be created in abundance without this special material. But to the point: As very large ships will not be present in most battles I planned, I was thinking about how smaller craft like fighters and bombers can still be useful (without using nukes or things like that). By using normal rules, most fighters will not do any damage to SM+10 or larger craft protected by shields. BUT I had the idea to create ion cannons that do little damage vs. armor but destabilizing damage to shields. A purely anti-shield weapon so to speak. For that I had the idea of widening the shield specs from shield strength only to shield strength and shield capacity. For example: a force screen of a larger vessel (SM+10 or more) will not easily collapse even if fired upon by 20 fighters because the damage is low and only 10% will stick while every round the screen will regenerate 10% of its max strength. BUT if we introduce shield capacity that will be reduced by any kind of damage the shield has to absorb, maybe we could mirror the constant strain by weapons, fired from smaller craft. I had the idea of setting the shield capacity to 10 times the shield strength but I have no reasonable idea how much of the damage the shield capacity should take (per hit), what recharge ratio the capacity should have etc. So I would appreciate any ideas and suggestions you may have, also every other system that could be used to reflect what I had in mind. (Also arguments why i should NOT use any additional rules are appreciated of course :) ) Thank you in advance! Best regards Krongurke Last edited by Krongurke; 11-18-2016 at 02:51 AM.