Originally Posted by
Captain Quirk
What is the rationale behind combining the reliability instead of having separate reliabilities and separate damage tracks? It would seem that one system could be knocked out, or off-line, and the other system still functions.
Tactical Officer: "Captain, we've sustained a hit to our photorp launcher! Photon torpedos are offline!"
Captain: "Dang the torpedos! Fire phasers!"
(OK, I know the expression didn't refer to not being able to use torpedoes but to incoming torpedos.)
The rationale is the abstract nature of the combat system. There is one damage track each for propulsion and weapons. I suppose you could separate the tracks, but most of the ship writeups (those done correctly) show the same reliability for warp/impulse and missile/beam weapons...
Former Decipher RPG Net Rep
"Doug, at the keyboard, his fingers bleeding" (with thanks to Moriarti)
In D&D3E, Abyssal is not the language of evil vacuum cleaners.