User Tools

Site Tools


games:board:battlestations:battlestationsstardrive

Stardrive

Introduction

Again, this is inspired by other scifi tv shows - in this case Blake's 7 and Star Trek Next Generation.
Complexity: 2

Background

The civilian scientist Dr Plaxton has invented a new stardrive that is theoretically twice as efficient as a standard engine. It requires fine manipulation to maintain the quantum warp entanglement fields necessary and there may be slight electrical cascades as the resonance fields synchronise. In order for Plaxton to maintain the engine's integrity during the trial run, he has a cyberlink with the engineering Bots in the engine modules. Previous trials on small ships were completely successful. This time they wish to trial the stardrive on the largest ship and see what happens on a Leviathan.

As you can guess - things happen.

Setup

Place a planet in the middle of the map and put the UREF Scorpio dreadnaught (size 9) ship in orbit. The players are the [expendable] crew plus there is one Bot per engine module and MD other Bots of various sorts wandering around the ship performing routine maintenance. As you do. Nothing suspicious about there being MD of them at all. Trust me.

The Engines

Each engine module produces 2 units of power instead of 1. They also enable a ship to exceed speed 11. Theoretically there is no limit to the acceleration that is achievable. Although at higher speeds there tends to be electrical feedback of a nasty sort - especially on larger ships. If this mission succeeds or fails, the performance of the new stardrive ensures that it will be withdrawn from service pending safety investigations.

The Mission Briefing

Just once round the block, chaps. Take the ship up to speed MD/2, leaving orbit. Circle the planet at a distance of MD hexes and then land the ship.

The Complications

Once the speed of MD/2 is reached, the engines generate an electrical surge which slags the Helm and travels up the Bot cyberlink into the brain of Dr Plaxton - putting him in a coma. This is not good. As a civilian, Dr Plaxton does not have a clone backup. All the Bots on the ship now follow their last orders from Dr Plaxton - which is to keep the engines going no matter what. This includes repairing them if damaged and attacking people if they try to damage the engines.

The Helm

The Helm is locked on accelerate and the ship increases speed by 1 point every phase in which there is Helm power (ie on a leviathan with 4 engines, that means 8 power, of which 3 points are put into Helm each round, so it will accellerate for the first 3 phases). Ideally the ship should reach speeds above what is capable to correct with the character with the highest piloting skill before the Helm is fully repaired and can be used. (ie if the highest Pilot is 4, then a speed of 12 (max roll) - 10 (size of ship) + 4 (skill) = 6 should be reached)

The Sun

The UREF Scorpio is also, unfortunately headed towards the sun and will hit it within 12-MD Rounds based on current speed estimates (the Science Bay can determine where they are headed as the Helm is slagged).

The Dangers of High Speeds

Once the ship exceeds speed 12, it starts falling apart. Every round above speed 12, the ship takes D6 hull damage. For every 6-(MD/2) points over speed 12, the ship takes a cummulative extra D6 damage (ie with an MD of 5, the ship takes 1D6 at speeds 12-14, 2D6 at 15-17, 3D6 at 18-20). The ship judders when this damage is taken and the OOC for the next round starts at the number of damage dice (ie MD 5 ship speed of 20 will start each round with 3 OOC).

Dr Plaxton

If Dr Plaxton is killed, the Bots will stop defending the engines and behave normally. If all the Bots are destroyed, the feedback to Dr Plaxton will cease and he will come out of his coma. Again the Science Bay can be used to determine this.

- Dr Plaxton is a Human Scientist with 4 HP and has the skills of Science 6 and Engineering 6, the rest are at 1. He has a Medkit and a Toolkit.

Mission Success

The mission is successful if the UREF Scorpio survives.

Overwhelming Success

If Dr Plaxton survives and isn't in a coma.

Solution

After determining they are heading towards the sun, the players should immediately attempt to enter hyperspace. In hyperspace they should then disable the bots, damage the engines so they start slowing down, then repair the helm.

Notes

Again, this is a completely un-playtested mission (like Alien Bushwack), so use at your own discretion 🙂

games/board/battlestations/battlestationsstardrive.txt · Last modified: 2013/03/17 20:38 by 127.0.0.1