Super-Powered Weapons

[Arnold Rimmer]

Here's the setup: a cardassian rogue is in combat with a Klingon warrior. He sets his phaser to setting 16 and fires. He hits.

Granted, a player can only do that 10 times before their phaser is out of energy, but what do you guys think? Do you do anything to keep this sort of overkill out of your campaigns?

[C5]

For one thing, the way I understand it, a phaser on setting 16 will not only vaporize the guy it was fired on, but also the whole room/bulkhead/wall behind him (based on the damages listed on the book and a remark from Riker in Frame of Mind).
Therefore, unless the characters are fighting on an empty plain, there will probably be a lot of collateral damage, including the guy handling the phaser in the first place.

[Erias]

ST weapons are deadly and I like them that way. PCs will tend to think twice before resorting to violence.

Just drawing your weapon and snap shooting at your foe, expecting you're faster than he is, is very dangerous. Especially when people set their weapon at deadly levels. There different ways to handle combat in ST, imo: when using phasers avoid face to face duels instead, try to surprise your enemy, or at least find a good cover (that will increase tremendously your defense score). These sort of combat should be more about tactics and less about who’s faster and who can dodge (which is a dangerous option).

Also, it is very possible to feature hand to hand or melee combat. For instance in one of my scenarios, my PCs will face three warriors using combat staff. I determined they were quite proficient and were able to disarm their foes (by succeeding an opposed armed weapon test). When my PCs face them they will most likely try to draw their phasers but the fighters will try to disarm them. Also ritual combats (duelist fights for instance) are often carried on with melee weapons. Another idea would be to set the fight in a dangerous environment (crates filled with explosives everywhere, a hydrogen atmosphere or whatever) preventing the use of phasers and firearms.

[GnarleyWoodsman]

Actually, I believe I remeber something about the beam bouncing back at higher levels. I think it was mentioned in the NG. That's how I got my phaser happy crew to think twice.

They were really surprised when they fired at the the big away team beastie and they got the beam right back in thier face. They managed to dodge the beam and get out of the way of the cave in. They haven't yet even requested to take a phaser rifle on thier subsequent away missions. Nor have they mentioned using higher settings.

On Pg. 91 on the NG. Table 6.18a

setting 9 Light disrupt C Vaporizes resilient alloys (Beam may ricochet)

setting 10 Medium disrupt A Vaporizes any substance (Energy rebound prior to vaporization common)

It is logical assume (although not noted) that higher settings have the same drawback.

Good gaming!

[ImperialOne]

I prefer the deadliness of the copmbat as well... it is quite canon to the Trek universe. The again, most StarFleet officers start at stun.
But at level 16, the target and a lot of other things will be disintegrated... BTW level 9 will also disintegrate with less likely collateral (thats Narraotr discretion anyway).

Charles

[Arnold Rimmer]

Well, this was a non-starfleet group. Yeah, next time I'll just remember to include the flying debris rule.

[Erias]

Originally posted by Arnold Rimmer
Well, this was a non-starfleet group. Yeah, next time I'll just remember to include the flying debris rule.

For a non StarFleet group you might assume phasers to be quite difficult to come by and consider instead less lethal weapons such as traditional blasters (set damage at 2D+5 or 3D+10 for heavier versions). Just an idea...

[Tobian]

Well, as I have pointed out to my players on a few occasions:

Most Starfleet equiptment comes fitted with a subspace tranciever assembly, including (according to several technical sources considered virtually canon) the Phaser. Standard proceedure is that the Chief tactical officer determines the power level which the phaser can be set to. I.e. on ship, in storage, it's 1-3. If you are going up against a well armed force you would be permitted up to 6-7, If you were going up against races with personal shielding then up to the 16 setting would be allowed. This is down to the discretion of the Chief Tactical officer at the time.

Fortunatelly, none of the PC's ARE the Chief tactical officer in my case, though if they can come up with convincing arguments to have enough power to vapourise a humanoid then he will let them

This of course does not stop them if they are using Non Starfleet weapons - though I can imagine the Romulans doing something similar, if not the Klingons.

It's also a handy 'kill switch' if NPC bad guys start nicking phasers, though of course they could override the security protocols like they could with anything else, though I think that the TN would be about 25 (as listed in the Narators guide - for officer rank encryptions on systems etc.)

I think the other point about weapons such as this is that the players should - if they are Starfleet officers - act like them! Unless they are going on a 'bug hunt' why the hell are they trying to vapourise the thing?! Especially in the TNG era and beyind there are more moral implications of just vapourising someone or something, and that in and of it's self could become an interesting episode - The bad guys legal system catches you up and your crime deserves a death penalty! i think that could make them think twice about being so free with the Phasers also! Many of the themes of that era are about the great power that they wield and the limited and judicious use of it. After all you could lay waste to several cities with your phasers and torpedoes, but even if you were at full scale war there are almost no circumstances that you would get away with that!

[GnarleyWoodsman]

You are right and wrong...but not too wrong

The subspace tranceiver assembly was mentioned in an episode of Star Trek TNG. The crew used it to disable the phaser that Burlinghoff Rasmussen had stolen after he had com foreward in time. On this point there is no debate.

However, it is the domain of the Operations Manager to distribute pahsers to the away team, and to designate what level of firepower they might need. Though I have no doubt that they (the Ops manager) would seek advice from tactical when a hostile situation is expected.

[Tobian]

Well I stand corrected on the note of Canon, though for practical purposes, since the Tactical officer is responsible for the security on board the ship, then he would have final say, as it's his expertise!

[QuantumRabbit]

Hey, I know that for some even 5 is a large setting...But when you roll ass lucky like I did and have a 10 Vitality, with a +1 that makes you health an 11...I don't die till I have taken 66 damage... We went up against a few Jem Hadars, I got hit twice, and was only at a -3, so sometimes lower settings really don't make sense.(I am not complaining tha I didn't die, merely saying that 2 shots froma Jem Hadar should probably in all likelyhood kill someone.

[JonA]

One of the ideas I've had on the subject of Phasers and rules is the following:

When Phasers are in storage Starfleet Protocol suggests that their power cells are kept separate. In the same way it's not a good idea to keep a gun in storage with a magazine inserted. This means that stealing a phaser is useless unless you can also steal a compatible power cell too. Which any intelligent person would keep in a separate place.

I know there are numerous times when you see some character grab a phaser from a drawer and fire it at some bad guy - TNG ep Aquiel springs to mind

Secondly - and my players are gonna hate me for this - all Phasers when powered up are set to default level 1. No problems there. Changing the setting to a higher level is an action. No problems there either. Now here comes the kicker. If you set your Phaser at level 16 (why say: before entering a situation where you know combat is going to occur but not when. Or if your going to try and ambush someone and lie in wait for the target) but don't fire the phaser for a set time (30 seconds) then the phaser automatically powers back down to level 1 as a safety precaution. TN: 15 Perception remember this in a stressful situation.

Might raise a few eyebrows in your party.

Finally - don't forget there are number of restrictions on a phaser. Firing pulse, wide beam etc has restrictions on the level of effect. Firing on standard beam is only good for taking out individual targets one at a time. If you're worried that your players will be doing automatic kill shots all the time then I suggest two things:

A: I'd question the players suitability for playing Starfleet/Federation types. Even Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians etc have a value on life and murder is murder. Remember - Starfleet officers kill only is self-defense and stun would be preferable in any situation. Admittedly this is an attitude/outlook issue I suppose. If your players want to act homicidal tendencies then there are more suitable RPGs out there. Star Trek isn't one of them given it's setting and what sort of people inhabit that universe. Star Trek does not suit the power player syndrome very well at all. For that you need something like Cyberpunk. BTW: This is not a comment on your players’ abilities as PCs. Some people like Roleplay because you can pretend to be a hardened, psychopath with copious amounts of lethal firepower. I myself enjoy Cyberpunk/SLA Industries which are very combat and action orientated. But sometimes I also like roleplaying where I have to use my brain and player a person rather than a killing machine. In that case I play Warhammer, Star Trek etc.

B: Have NPCs in superior numbers. Continuous beam is good for taking out individual targets. But if your players are faced down with eight bad guys with phasers then they have choice. Take then down all at once with a wide beam (thus stunning them all but not killing them) or taking them out one at a time at which point the bad guys not being shot at directly will fire back with equal amounts of lethality in their weapons. The group will soon learn that running into combat with your phaser on setting 16 against a strike team of 10 Cardassian soldiers may in theory sound like a sure way of dealing with the enemy effectively. But when there are only four players the odds are still heavily against them.

Just my take on it.

[CorpBoy]

Originally posted by JonA
When Phasers are in storage Starfleet Protocol suggests that their power cells are kept separate. In the same way it's not a good idea to keep a gun in storage with a magazine inserted. This means that stealing a phaser is useless unless you can also steal a compatible power cell too. Which any intelligent person would keep in a separate place.

I disagree. One purpose of a weapons armory is to be able to quickly arm security personnel or away teams if timing is critical. A good example might be to repel boarding parties (yes, its rare, but it does happen) that are loose on your ship. In those cases it just wouldn't make sense to keep the power cells in a separate physical location.

I do agree that the cells would not be inserted into the weapons, but they would probably be within easy reach. Also, I would tend to believe that a weapons armory would be staffed by security personnel to prevent pilfering of high powered toys, and that those same toys would require authorized security access to even get to.

[Balok]

Originally posted by JonA
This means that stealing a phaser is useless unless you can also steal a compatible power cell too. Which any intelligent person would keep in a separate place.

This, as CorpBoy has said, defeats the purpose of an armory. The armory would be well protected (with some sort of access control), and any entry would be logged by the ship's computer.

The weapons would be racked in chargers, most likely, to keep them ready. In order to get a weapon, you would need to enter an access code (possibly verbally). This would be logged. In emergencies, some personnel would be able to unlock all the weapons at once (those from tactical), but again, this would be logged. In addition, there will be internal sensors to detect and log whoever enters the area.

Sure, a clever thief might defeat some or all of this -- but it would take a number of rolls, and for some of them, he'd have no idea whether he succeeded or not...

Originally posted by JonA
Secondly - and my players are gonna hate me for this - all Phasers when powered up are set to default level 1. No problems there. Changing the setting to a higher level is an action. No problems there either.

These seem like reasonable precautions, although I would add that there's probably a code available to tactical officers that would allow them to preset racked weapons to higher values.

Originally posted by JonA
Now here comes the kicker. If you set your Phaser at level 16 (why say: before entering a situation where you know combat is going to occur but not when. Or if your going to try and ambush someone and lie in wait for the target) but don't fire the phaser for a set time (30 seconds) then the phaser automatically powers back down to level 1 as a safety precaution. TN: 15 Perception remember this in a stressful situation.

No military weapon would operate this way (please read on before commenting). The reason is that battle is stressful, and there's never a good reason for a weapon to function in any way other than how the owner has set it. Men would die of this, and once that got out, it would be changed. I can all but guarantee it.

However, a phaser is almost certainly controlled by something like a microprocessor, and it might be that some versions of the weapon would have safety features like this. You could break the "software" down into two basic parts: a core "operating system" that controls the weapon, and a series of programs that control the operating modes. You could, for example, deny folks on a starship access to the higher powered settings, unless a different mode program was downloaded first (again, under the control of operations or tactical).

Originally posted by JonA
A: I'd question the players suitability for playing Starfleet/Federation types. Even Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians etc have a value on life and murder is murder. Remember - Starfleet officers kill only is self-defense and stun would be preferable in any situation.

This is exactly my view. Just because someone *can* do something doesn't mean they *should* or *will*. And if they consistently exercise bad judgement, then call 'em on the carpet for it. One court martial (perhaps with a rigged acquittal if you're willing to forgive the character) might serve to demonstration how seriously Starfleet takes abuse of power.

When you hand someone a lot of power, you make them more capable. But, you also hold them to a higher standard of personal accountability for misusing that power. Make sure players know this.