Of Cloaking Devices and Weaknesses

[AslanC]

In Generations they force the BOP to cloak...how did they do it and what would be a good one trick pony way to force a Warbird to do the same thing?

[Roxby]

In Generations, the Klingon bird of prey (anyone care to help me out with the class? I'll have to dig my tape out...) was retired from service due to a faulty plasma coil. The coil was part of their cloaking device; when hit with an ionic pulse from the E-D, then coil triggered the cloaking device, causing the shields to drop.

I rather doubt that the tactic would work on a Romulan D'Deridex-class ship.

The best way that I can think of off the top of my head would be this:

if you have any clever players, have them program a computer virus to trigger the cloak, and piggy-back it on a hail signaling surrender.

[SIR SIG]

I concur!

It was a specific weakness in a old class of BoP, D-12 to be exact I believe.

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SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator

[Publius]

I also concur that this was a plot device used by the writers, but from your "one trick pony" comment, I get the feeling that you are looking for something along the same lines.

Roxby's suggestion about the Computer virus is a good one. Other suggestions include...

-- Option 1: A side-adventure with one-shot characters. --

The one-shot characters are either fresh from an Away mission or something but for some reason they are in a shuttlecraft and well away from the Crew's ship when they encounter the Romulans. This one-shot Crew gets picked up by the Romulans who intend to use them for information/Intelligence. The one-shot crew manages to get free and starts wreaking havok (slowly at first) inside of the Romulan vessel; make sure at least one of them is a Decryption Analyst who knows Romulan, another is a Computer expert (who also knows Romulan preferrably) and the last is a Security Officer. If one is a Vulcan, they should be able to pull a 'steal-the-uniform' ploy even if it is only possible at a distance.

Start the one-shots in media res, having just escaped from custody and jacking into the computer system for some 'news' or to mask their escape temporarily or whatever. Once they know that the Romulan ship is hunting down their ship, they'll know what they have to do... and probably die trying (one-shots are good for those suicide missions).

If your players are good, you can even give them little notes like "you broke under questioning and now feel hideously guilty about it." or "You were about to break, but did not. Of course that was only because the Interrogator was called away. The pain and guilt over what you *could* have done makes you sick inside."

-- Option 2: The Riker Manuever --

Federation scientists have long known that the field created by a cloaking device reacts with particles, like Magnesite Ore dust, in such a way that it reveals the presence of the cloaked vessel. The ship could use the Riker Manuver in order to collect some of this gas from a nearby nebula, and flush the ramscoops through an area where the Warbird is likely to pass (or behind itself if the Captain thinks he is being trailed). An asteroid belt might be a good place to perform this trick, particularly if your Crew is on a smaller vessel because it limits the manuver options of the vessels. Another option might be to use the gravitational well of a nearby object (planet, pulsar etc.) or the Quantum drive of the Romulan Vessel itself if the gaseous particles can be made by some Treknological invention hypersensitive to gravitation.

In short, figure out what you want and work backwards from there; that was what this 'defective coil' nonsense was in the movie anyway.

John D. Lees
Mad Political Scientist

[AslanC]

Good suggestions all around guys. I thik I will piece something together and see what we can do with it. I'll let you know how it turns out

[Aldaron]

Just on the subject of cloaking devices, what do others use as the benefit of a decloaking ship?

I looked everywhere thru Spacedock, and haven't found anything - only about trying to target a decloaking ship.

The house rule I've been using is as follows:

A decloaking ship automatically wins Initiative. However, an initiative roll is made, and if the non-cloaked ship wins, that ship's tactical officer can make a Shipboard Systems (Tactical) roll at Diff (7) to raise shields.

This way, the non-cloaked ship will always be surprised and will never get off the first shot, but they at least have a fighting chance to have their shields up when that first shot hits.

Thoughts? I'm interested in any other mechanics people have used for this...



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"May I find you with peace, and leave you with hope."

[jahn]

If the player's ship doesn't know that the cloaked ship is out there, and if the sensor officer doesn't detect the cloaked ship (I usually give the player a hint: "now would be a good time to get a 13"), then the cloaked ship can uncloak and unload on the player's ship with shields left as they were.

Note that with my player's ship (USS Discovery, size class 7) and the way I do combat (no multiple firings from a weapon, torpedoes are not as nimble as in the shows), a Warbird can't destroy their ship in one salvo, even with shields down.

Mostly though, the players strongly suspect there's a cloaked ship out there (from other clues) and will have shields up as a matter of course.

[kalamaro]

the romulan warbird can be detected on cloak mod if is speed is more warp 6

now, RUN

[SIR SIG]

What about what Data did with the torps in Redemption to detect the warbirds?
Did he just flood the area with tachyon particles and thus a poor man's tachyon detection grid?

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SIR SIG a Aussie TREK Narrator