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Thread: Not a Starship Combat question

  1. #1

    Not a Starship Combat question

    I have a question that's not about starship combat...

    I (basically) understand starship combat. And there are a lot of rules supplements, house rules, etc, that cover starship combat. How to shoot, how to get hit, how to track damage, I think I got all that. But what seems to be badly overlooked is the Engineering section. What can an Engineer do during combat?

    The whole section on repairs (which seems to be tacked on the end of the combat section, as an afterthought) seems really confusing to me, and I'm having trouble wrapping my head around it. But as well as what's there, my problem is with the stuff that isn't there. So, can anybody help me with this stuff?

    How does shield strength get restored after a battle? You can repair structure, and you can repair systems, but I don't see any rules for restore shield strength, so I assume it just regenerates. What is the regeneration rate on it?

    What can an Engineer accomplish during combat? If I'm reading it properly, the best option available to him for emergency repairs will still take 10 rounds, if the ship is still in one piece by then (and the combat is still going on). So it seems that even the "emergency" repairs aren't very useful in a real emergency...

    Are there any rules for the standard "rerouting power" maneuver that we always see Geordi performing? I'm thinking it would voluntarily damage one system to restore some shield strength, or even temporarily "un-damage" another system (maybe with a 2/1 cost ratio). Has anybody used anything like that in their campaigns?

    Basically, I'm just looking for something that the Engineer can accomplish during a battle besides sitting and tracking ship damage he'll have to clean up later... any ideas would be appreciated!

  2. #2
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    The engineer can reroute power; you basically "swap" a block of damage, hopefully from where you can spare it to restore a block of damage elsewhere or regenerate shields.

    I don't have my books handy to see where those rules are specifically, but I believe its in the Narrator's Guide.
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    Check out p. 122 & 123 in the Narrator's guide. It's got rules there for Jury-rig repairs which take just 1 full-round action. There are varying results based on how quickly you do repairs, but they allow you to repair system damage during combat, at the cost of the system failing in a short time.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by iltharanos View Post
    Check out p. 122 & 123 in the Narrator's guide. It's got rules there for Jury-rig repairs which take just 1 full-round action. There are varying results based on how quickly you do repairs, but they allow you to repair system damage during combat, at the cost of the system failing in a short time.
    I don't have my NG handy right now, but I believe I looked at that and it was impossible to perform a Jury-rig repair during battle (there's some rule saying that an Engineer can only perform repairs with a max TN of 15, and Jury-rig is TN 20). Now if I mis-read that, fantastic (it wouldn't be the first time), but otherwise it seems that's out of bounds.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Maelwys View Post
    I don't have my NG handy right now, but I believe I looked at that and it was impossible to perform a Jury-rig repair during battle (there's some rule saying that an Engineer can only perform repairs with a max TN of 15, and Jury-rig is TN 20). Now if I mis-read that, fantastic (it wouldn't be the first time), but otherwise it seems that's out of bounds.
    Look over the second paragraph at the start of the whole Repair section on p. 121, it basically says you cannot use the repair skill to perform a repair of > TN 15, which would mean you cannot use Jury-rig, as it is TN 20, which as you said means the engineer is out of luck ...

    But ...

    if you keep reading you'll see that repairs with a TN higher than 15 can be done, but only with the appropriate engineering skill. So a starship that had its propulsion system completely damaged out, you'd need and can use the Engineering: Propulsion Engineering skill to repair it, even if the repair is a jury-rig with TN 20.

  6. #6
    Aha, that's the part I missed. Thanks, that certainly answers that question, at least!

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    Quote Originally Posted by iltharanos View Post
    Look over the second paragraph at the start of the whole Repair section on p. 121, it basically says you cannot use the repair skill to perform a repair of > TN 15, which would mean you cannot use Jury-rig, as it is TN 20, which as you said means the engineer is out of luck ...

    But ...

    if you keep reading you'll see that repairs with a TN higher than 15 can be done, but only with the appropriate engineering skill. So a starship that had its propulsion system completely damaged out, you'd need and can use the Engineering: Propulsion Engineering skill to repair it, even if the repair is a jury-rig with TN 20.
    But the power transfer, aka "damage swap" manuever is only a TN 15, right? I know my players have used that one in combat many moons ago when I was running Trek...
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    Quote Originally Posted by K.G. Carlson View Post
    But the power transfer, aka "damage swap" manuever is only a TN 15, right? I know my players have used that one in combat many moons ago when I was running Trek...
    Well, you wouldn't be using the repair skill for a power transfer, you'd be using the propulsion engineering skill. But the TN for the transfer depends on the reliability of the target system.

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    ok, thanks. I am a little Coda rusty
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  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by iltharanos View Post
    Well, you wouldn't be using the repair skill for a power transfer, you'd be using the propulsion engineering skill. But the TN for the transfer depends on the reliability of the target system.
    Where are the rules for this power transfer, I still can't find them?

    Also, I still haven't been able to find anything about restoring shield strength after a combat. Any hints?

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    Look in the ESO, Chris. Nice rules in there. But you'll find shield regeneration in the NG under the section of the same name.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Maelwys View Post
    Where are the rules for this power transfer, I still can't find them?

    Also, I still haven't been able to find anything about restoring shield strength after a combat. Any hints?
    The power transfer rules start on p. 99 of the NG, under the "Transferring Power" section.

    As far as shield strength restoration, I don't think it explicitly states so in the NG. The ESO pdf does have rules for it, which basically states to follow the rules in the "Reinforcing Shields" section on p. 106 of the NG, minus the application of one block of damage.

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    Those rules exist, and we actually used them in our first episode. You can find the relevent portions here; I actually begin the process at reply #371.

    There's probably more in this thread, but I'm kinda rushing through things right now and haven't had a chance to properly read all the messages, so this might be redundant.
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    Wow, it's been quiet here! Almost a month without a single post!

    I was going to post earlier today about the new iPad app that turns that device into a working Trek device (with LCARS readouts, Majel Barret's voice, etc.), but Trek Today beat me to it. The article where I read about it a few days ago can be found here.

    In the meantime, I just wanted to say that I've been reading through the link Patrick posted here, of the tales of the U.S.S. Drake, in preparation for my group playing again (and having some starship combat). I decided to read the whole thing, and am now on page 10! Good stuff, and really fun and well developed characters! Does Treyva have a drinking problem, though? He is often having to pause to drink water during his speeches. Seriously though, fantastic stuff, and it's really fun to read through!
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    Quote Originally Posted by Doug Taylor View Post
    Does Treyva have a drinking problem, though? He is often having to pause to drink water during his speeches.
    Reminds me of the movie, Airplane ! - where Robert Hayes has a drinking problem, literally - he cannot drink and always tosses his drink into his own face !

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