Draft Rules For Review -- Repairs
All right, folks, I've got something here I'm interested in getting your opinions on.
A couple days ago, Legate Legion asked some questions about the repair rules. That, in turn, set me to thinking, and today I wrote up a revised section on repairs, both in and out of combat. I figured I'd post them here to see what people think.
I'm not sure the tables will come through very well, so that may make things difficult to read in places, but otherwise I think this should be easy to review. Let me know what you think!
Steve Long
<1> Repairs
Ships tend to take a pounding in combat. When the battle’s over, or sometimes while it’s still in progress, engineers work to repair the damage and keep the ship running efficiently and effectively. The following rules apply generally to starship repair. Any rules provided elsewhere in this book for damage to specific systems (whether from combat or Dramatic Failures) take precedence over these rules.
<2> Repairs In CombatSIDEBAR:
<3> The Dramatic Repair Rule
The “can he repair it in time?” question, fraught with drama and excitement, adds a lot of enjoyable tension to a starship combat (and sometimes a touch of bitter frustration as well). The Narrator should judge the scene carefully and gauge how his players are responding. Sometimes forcing the Crew to make every single repair Test or calculate exactly how much time a particular repair will take detracts from the story. Just like there comes a time to forget about numbers and blow a ship up, there are also occasions when it’s better to simply declare a system repaired and let the engineer characters move on to some other task.
Repairing damaged systems in combat is a difficult task, but sometimes a vital one; victory or defeat can hinge on whether the Engineering crew gets the shields back online in time, or fixes a phaser array at the right moment for one last, desperate shot.
<3> Making Combat Repairs
To repair a damaged system in combat, the Engineering crew must make an Extended Test. The characters have to achieve a cumulative Test Result equal to the number of SUs of damage the system has sustained. The Difficulty for the Test is usually Moderate (6). The Narrator can increase the Difficulty to increase the dramatic impact of the scene, or to reflect the circumstances (such as delicate, hard to reach, or badly damaged systems, or lack of proper tools).
When making repairs, an engineer uses the appropriate skill (usually Systems Engineering, Propulsion Engineering, Materials Engineering, or Computer, but sometimes another skill may be more applicable to some systems). If a player character involves himself in the repair process, he uses his skill rating. If an NPC engineer makes the repairs, the Narrator should use his skill rating (if known), or the ship’s Engineering Skill as a reflection of his general ability.
The character making repairs may roll once per round. There is no predefined Turn length, unless the circumstances or a commanding officer impose one (“Get the shields back online in fifteen seconds or the Jem’Hadar will vaporize us!”). When the character achieves the cumulative Test Result, he has made a quick, jury-rigged repair of the system.
These rules assume that a single character works on repairing a given system. If multiple characters work on a system, the Test becomes an Extended Combined Test. The Narrator may limit the number of characters who can participate (after all, only so many people can fit in a given Jefferies tube).
<3> The Effect of Combat Repairs
A repaired system has its “full” SUs restored. However, the repairs are fairly fragile—the character has made a quick patch-up, not a full-fledged fix. If a repaired system suffers more damage, the first point of damage destroys the entire repair (regardless of how many SUs it has); the rest of the damage then affects the remaining SUs of the system normally. At the Narrator’s option, a repaired system also may be unable to withstand its normal full Power feed or function at full effectiveness.
Unless the Narrator rules otherwise, a character cannot repair a destroyed system (one damaged to 0 SUs); he must totally replace it. Even assuming the ship has all the necessary parts on hand, this usually takes longer than a quick repair—one round per SU of damage, or longer (sometimes days or weeks, if the damage is extensive enough). If two characters work on the job, they can reduce this time by half; three characters cut it to one-third, and so forth (as above, the Narrator may limit the number of characters who can work on a given task). On the other hand, sometimes it only takes a round or two to replace a small piece of equipment for which Engineering has a readily available spare.
<3> Patching Around Damaged SystemsSIDEBAR:
<3> Alternate Repair Rule
Some Narrators may prefer these more abstract, but simpler and quicker, rules for making repairs.
The Narrator establishes a Difficulty for the repair, and the character(s) make Tests until they succeed (he may allow them to make Combined Tests). Using this rule, the base Difficulty to make any general repair is Moderate (6), though the Narrator may increase this as outlined in the text.
The Narrator can also establish a minimum time to make the repairs. This means the characters have to spend at least that much time on the job, then make their Test at the end of that period. If they fail, they can try again every round until they succeed; they don’t have to wait the entire period again. Most repairs should take a defined amount of time, such as one round per 2 SUs of damage or one minute per 10 SUs of damage. A character can perform the repairs more quickly by making the Test with a higher Difficulty. For every +1 to the base Difficulty, reduce the time needed to make repairs by 1 round (or other time unit, such as “minute” for repair times rated in minutes rather than rounds). Thus, an engineer who needs to make repairs quickly can do so—but it’s tough! Furthermore, he pays a heavy price for failure: if the Test fails, his efforts make things worse, causing another 1-3 SUs damage; if it Dramatically Fails, he causes 1+1d6 SUs in damage. In either case he can start his repairs over the next round.
Thanks to the multiple levels of redundancy built into many ship systems, sometimes a character can find a way to “patch around” the damage to a system to get it (or a backup system) to work. For example, if an enemy attack destroys or overloads the EPS relays to a bridge console, a character can try to patch around the damage to a working backup EPS system or some other source of power to keep the console operating.
Since characters can’t always figure out a way to patch around the damage to a system, the Narrator must decide if patching around is possible. If so, the character makes a Systems Engineering Test against a Difficulty established by the Narrator based on the system, circumstances, and damage suffered. The typical Difficulty is Moderate (7). If the character succeeds, the system is up and running again (though it gains no SUs; he has not repaired it). If he fails, he can try again; if he Dramatically Fails, he’s damaged the system further (+1 SU damage), preventing any hope of patching around the damage.
<2> Repairs Out Of Combat
Repairs out of combat are far more thorough, and thus take much more time. To calculate the time required, the Narrator must account for many factors.
<3> Base Repair Time
First, the Narrator should assign a base time of 27+1d6 man-hours per 1 SU. (Alternately, the Narrator can simply assume an average of 30 man-hours per SU, or any other number of hours he prefers.)
<3> Number of Workers
Next, the Narrator must consider the number of workers making repairs. Use the Crew Breakdowns table on page 23 to determine the size of the Engineering crew, and assume all of them are making repairs. If the captain assigns other crew members to help them, they will finish the repairs more quickly; if the Engineering crew has suffered significant casualties, or the captain pulls some of them off repair duty to do something else, repairs take longer.
Starfleet typically assigns Engineers to work together in crews of two or four. However, individual Chief Engineers may prefer other arrangements, or the nature of a given work assignment may dictate some other staffing method.
<3> The Effects of Skill
The base time of 27+1d6 man-hours per SU presumes an Engineering Skill of 3 for the ship. For every point of Engineering Skill above three, reduce the base time by 2 man-hours per SU.
Alternately, have the ship’s Chief Engineer, or the character with the highest Systems Engineering skill rating, make a Moderate (8) Test. For every point by which the Test succeeds, decrease the base time by 1 man-hour per SU (to a maximum of -5 man-hours); for every point by which it fails, increase the time by 1 man-hour per SU (to a maximum of +5 man-hours).
<3> Repair Facilities
Likewise, the base time of 27+1d6 man-hours per SU presumes the ship is on its own, with only its own Engineering crew and resources to effect repairs. If the ship has access to additional facilities, such as a shipyard or spacedock of some sort, reduce the base time (see accompanying table). “Base Time Reduction” represents the basic reduction in the base repair time that results from having a facility to assist with repairs. “Additional Crew” represents the fact that a repair facility has its own Engineering staff to help the crew make repairs. Additionally, the crew at a shipyard or spacedock automatically has an Engineering Skill of 5, which replaces a ship’s lower skill if necessary. The Narrator may reduce or increase the amount of additional crew a facility provides, based on other ships it has to work on, damage to its facilities, casualties among its staff, and other circumstances.
Example: The U.S.S. Soaring Eagle, a Galaxy-class Explorer (3,206 SUs) has an Engineering crew of 132 persons and an Engineering Skill of 5. It suffers 1,879 SUs of damage in a battle with the Dominion. If left to make repairs on its own, they will require a base time of 30 man-hours per SU, with a -4 for the ship’s high Engineering Skill, for a total of 26 man-hours per SU. That translates to 48,854 man-hours of work. Assuming its entire Engineering crew works on the repairs, they will take 370 hours, or 2.2 star-weeks. The captain isn’t willing to wait that long, so he assigns an additional 100 crewmen to help make repairs. Thus, the repairs only take 210 hours, or 1.25 star-weeks.SIDEBAR:
<3> Repair Facilities Table
Facility Base Time Reduction Additional Crew
Basic planetary repair facilities -1 man-hour 1d6
Space station
Basic repair facilities -2 man-hours (4+1d6) x 10
Advanced repair facilities -3 man-hours (10+3d6) x 10
Shipyard or spacedock -(3+1d6) man-hours (12+4d6) x 100
Alternately, suppose the Soaring Eagle makes it to the Antares Fleet Yards for repairs. The Narrator rolls 3+1d6 for a base time reduction, and gets 7. Therefore the base time for repairs is 30 - (-4 + -7) = 19 man-hours per SU. Thus, the Narrator determines the ship’s repairs require 35,701 man-hours of work. Fortunately for the Soaring Eagle, the Fleet Yards add another ((12 + (4d6 roll of 8)) x10) 2,000 Engineering crew to assist with the work. That means the repair work takes a mere 16.7 hours! For ease of reference, the Narrator decides to round that up to one full star-day.
<3> Rapid Repairs
Characters do not have to make Tests to repair a ship out of combat. Since there’s no significant pressure on the Engineering crew, Tests aren’t necessary; the rules assume the engineers make the repairs correctly in the stated amount of time.
However, sometimes pressure does exist. Maybe the captain wants the ship repaired quickly so it can get back to its mission, or maybe the crew has to complete the repairs before an impending attack occurs. In this case, after the Narrator determines how long the repairs will take using the rules above, he should make a Systems Engineering Test using the ship’s Engineering Skill (or have the Crew member with the highest rating in that skill make a Test). The Difficulty for the Test depends on how quickly the Crew wants to make repairs (see accompanying table). If the Test succeeds, the Narrator reduces the required time as appropriate. If it fails, the required time remains unaffected (the crew may attempt one, and only one, additional Test at +1 Difficulty); if it Dramatically Fails, increase the required repair time by ((2+1d6) x 3)%.
Example: The Narrator determines it will take the U.S.S. Soaring Eagle one star-day, or 24 star-hours, to make all necessary repairs at the Antares yards. Unfortunately, a major battle against the Dominion will take place in 15 hours in the Relkara system, which is 2 hours away at maximum warp. Therefore, the captain wants the repairs finished in 13 hours, or 54% of the needed time. The Chief Engineer (a Crew member) makes a Systems Engineering Test with a Difficult of Challenging (11), and fortunately gets a 6 on the Drama Die and a 3 on the next highest die. Combined with his skill rating of 4, that’s enough to get the job done in little more than half the time. The Chief Engineer preserves his reputation as a miracle-worker, and the Soaring Eagle makes it to the battle on time.SIDEBAR:
<3> Rapid Repairs Table
Time Difficulty
91-99% of base time Routine (5)
71-90% of base time Moderate (8)
51-70% of base time Challenging (11)
31-50% of base time Difficult (14)
20-30% of base time Nearly Impossible (17)
Crews cannot make repairs in less than 20% of the base time, no matter how high the Test Result.
<3> The Effect of Out of Combat Repairs
Typically, repairs made out of combat are complete repairs. They bring all damaged systems (and the ship as a whole) back to their full SUs and effect. However, if the crew has to make the repairs rapidly, using the rules above, the Narrator may rule they cut some corners and skimped on a few steps, which may mean some systems don’t work as well as they should or have less than their full SUs.
[This message has been edited by Steve Long (edited 12-16-2000).]
Reply With Quote
), are in the parts of the Voyager RPG core rulebook that I wrote. So are repair rules; what prompted me to write this stuff up was not just Legate's questions, but the fact that I'm going back over and editing my material and wanted to go ahead and get these issues straight, by gum. 
