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Does anyone have any idea how to best implement the ablative generator technology from the final episode of Voyager? It seemed to have several augmentations on screen. Game wise Im thinking Monotanium Plating (upgraded), enhanced hull resistance, doubled shield threshold, and perhaps the benefits of monorefractive plating. Thats alot of benefit for one system and may be difficult to implement in game.
We didn't really get a sense of what it meant other than that it was tougher than the Borg, both exploded and pre-exploded.
I guess you could figure out how much damage Voyager took, and work backwards from that.
I'm going to use them in may game. You can simulate it by using the components in the Starship guide (plus one edge I come up with "Hard Adaptation"). So I did the following:
-FSS-3 Shield (19 space)
-Prototype Edge "Defensive Systems": +1 protection and +1 threshold (+4 space or picks).
-Hard Adaptation: The Borg roll 3D6 instead of 2D6 to adapt to your weapon and Shield systems (5 space / Or 3 picks)
This seems a lot of space (or picks) but you can lower it by taking the Intricate Systems "Shields" from the "ESO" book, this flaw can represents the complecity of the Shield system.
The important thing to remember is that this shield Game technically works just like any other shield, even when it seems different on screen.
I should also add an edge that says the following thing.
You can not modulate a ships weapon frequency to bypass these shields.
I would add this because this shield generates ablative armor plates and that cannot be bypassed by modulating the frequency.
Really the Borg edge was a bit of a hack into the rules. What we could have done with his some hard and fast rules for technology level. They half covered it in Starships, but they needed something more...
For example a 22nd century ship launches it's full assault on a 29th century time-ship.. stats, penetration, all that aside, it's going to be a laughable attempt, like firing X-ray lasers at the Enterprise D. It's not about the size or energy of the weapon so much, but because things have moved on so far.
In the middle ages, they had castles, which were like impenetrable mountains of stone.. till they invented the canon, then they were flimsy and easily broken. The reason the Borg can melt through your shields like they are not there, is not just because they can adapt, but because they move so fast up the technology ladder, you are the castle wall, to their canon.
maybe some sort of simple rule which is like your weapon gains +/-1 penetration based on its technology level, or your shied gains +/- based on its tech level.
just a thought.
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Originally Posted by Tobian
Hmm. Some good replies so far. I toyed with the idea of simply advancing things over time but this eventally gets out of hand. The tech level idea is good but the Borg and the Federation are actually closely matched between level 8 & 9. Sadly, we obviously aren't going to see any 'future' tech' anytime soon.
The ablative generator obviously uses holodeck (or perhaps "particle synthesis") technology to create an extremely advanced alloy but it is still basically a shielding system.
Thanks for the responses so far!
Well I decided to implement the armor generators this way. It adds +5 to the ships structure just as regular Ablative Armor edge does, however this can be restored by 1 point at the end of every round unlike regular armor. TN 10 tactical systems test or even engineering test is made if extraordinary success then 1 extra point is restored. This added to the ships threshold can really make the difference in a battle! What do you guys think. Lastly I haven't played Star Trek in over 2 years, so this info is a little rusty, but basically thats the way we did it. I didn't want to over due it, but at the same time U.S.S. Voyager did stand up to the combined firepower of at least 2 borg cube vessels!!! So I thought that the generators should bring something to the table...